Nightwood: heavy magic is coming

“Heavy, dark, but totally fun” is the way Montreal trio Nightwood describe themselves, and that’s pretty apropos after listening to a few of the tracks on offer over at their Myspace page.  The band originally caught my attention when they sent me an email letting me know about their most recent video “Bright Girls of Summer” off their October 2009 release, Carta Marina.  The video is a time-lapsed document of the entire recording process for the record.  When accompanied by the song’s march-like beat, the images are somewhat intoxicating, in a voyeuristic kind of way.  Far from revealing the magic behind the recording process, it peaks your curiously about what they may have been talking about while sitting around the studio, or what the mood may have been like after endless takes of a particular drum track.

That’s indicative of Nightwood’s music, too.  The first few times through, I didn’t have the benefit of track names, but once I did some digging around I could put a name to the songs that drew me in, like “Johnny” (track 3), that reminded me of a scrappier, punkier Throwing Muses.  Their songs are airtight and, like the sweetly swaggering “Sunken Mountains” (track 4) proves, they’re no one-trick pony.  You’d do yourself a great injustice be just listening to one or two tracks before making up your mind about Nightwood, because just when you think you have them figured out, the next song comes on and it’s not what you expected to hear.  The influences may be of a DIY punk stripe, but these influences cross and intersect like lines in a madras shirt rather than a woolly checkered plaid.

I’m sorry to say I’m late in getting to this post, as the band has just wrapped up a series of dates across Ontario and Quebec, but I’m sure they’ll be further ventures out on the road in support of Carta Marina, and I’m sure this won’t be the last you hear of them here.

MP3: Nightwood “Bright Girls of Summer”
Video: Nightwood “Bright Girls of Summer”
Mysapce: Nightwood

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