Weekly Release Spotlight: Nurses
Posted on 8/31/2009
Nurses
Apple's Acre
[Dead Oceans]
In Sixteen Candles, Samantha Baker laments both the end of summer and the disappointment of her much-anticipated 16th birthday. "I look exactly the same as I have since summer," she says listlessly in the mirror. "All that shows is that I don't have any sort of a tan left." Rather than waking up wiser, cooler and somehow less invisible than the day before, she's the same old Samantha. Just with new, grown-up problems to face and an identity to reinvent. Whether we go to the beach with friends one last time, take a roadtrip because we still can, or insist on still wearing summer clothing when it's 55 degrees (I'm talking to you, ladies in miniskirts and Ugg boots), we all resist the inevitable pull of autumn – of responsibility and change. But there's a moment every September where we finally let go, like Samantha eventually does. We let nature take its course. We decide to reinvent ourselves, to try something new, to be grown-ups.
Aaron Chapman and John Bowers have reinvented themselves dozens of times but have managed to still maintain a connection to the past. Not only have they been friends since middle school, but they've wandered together for five years, trekking from Idaho to drastically different places such as California and Chicago, taking their Nurses project (and their friendship) with them on every adventure. After years of drifting they've finally grown up and put down roots in Portland, where they recorded Apple's Acre in the attic of a Victorian house. The opening track, "Technicolor," is just that – sad piano ties in beautifully with simple percussion and gives way to eerie synth sounds and vocal harmonies right on par with Grizzly Bear's earlier songs. "Man at Arms" employs those same sad piano melodies but forays into ethereal territory and "Caterpillar Playground," one of the more upbeat, youthful sounding songs on the record, is incredibly catchy, complete with whistling and counting.
Apple's Acre is youthful psych-folk-pop, but it has a grown-up edge to it. Nurses' psych-pop brethren The Apples in Stereo can be a little too happy sounding (no offense, Elephant 6) and Black Moth Super Rainbow sometimes venture too far off the deep end. But Chapman and Bowers have captured that looking back-yet-looking forward feeling, and Apple's Acre is the perfect soundtrack to the Samantha Baker crisis you're probably having right now.
Stream: Nurses - Caterpillar Playground
Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.
Nurses and Le Loup are playing on October 17th at the 7th Street Entry