Nada Surf - the Rediscovery of Emo

I went and saw Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist tonight - aside from being a very cute movie, it really reminded me of my own (less hip) high school experience and what a part indie rock played in it.
When I left the movie, a crisp fall wind blew leaves into my face, and it was so like every other fall in Los Angeles, I was suddenly overcome with a wave of memories of this time of year. Fall has come to mean concerts, Jewish holidays, concerts missed because of Jewish holidays, and wondering if everyone else's feet were as cold in Converse as mine were. Colder weather is also the perfect time to get back into knit sweaters and weepy music, which go together like beer and pretzels.
Just today, I got sent a Nada Surf CD, which I liked enough to add it to the growing pile in my car; their charmingly poppy lo-fi croonings were the perfect soundtrack to my cold weather memories reverie. It also got me thinking about Nada Surf and wondering why my first encounter with such a 90's band was in 2007.
So I started thinking back to what I was listening to in the mid 90's - the Offspring, Bush, Greenday, Alanis Morrissette (everybody was doing it then - it was like smoking in the 50s). In music, I had discovered yelling before I discovered crying. And then high school happened. Or rather, sophomore year happened - I made a friend who was worlds cooler than me, and who I have to wholeheartedly thank for introducing me to the gentle whine of indie rock and emo. Once I got halfway through college and discovered dance music, I turned my back on indie rock and emo, thinking that I had "graduated". Two years out of college and several music industry jobs later I find myself willing to admit that despite a newfound love of other genres, I still crave that perfect balance of emotion and pop in an indie rock song and now use all my resources to seek it out.
And along comes Nada Surf, giving me a second chance at my youth, or at least my 90's era youth (though they have consistently been putting out albums for the past decade or so). With over 100,000 friends, these guys are definitely in the famous realm, but I like to pretend that they're some little band teetering between obscurity and tastemaking. And they sort of are. Being a distinctly 90's band, their style has the eras earnestness that came about about partially as a result of grunge and partially as an apology for the pretentiousness of the 80's. While the mark of an era may keep them from being the fresh sound of now, the emotion is timeless, the lyrics intelligent, and the jangling melodies hover somewhere between weepy pop and cheery indie for music that makes you fall in love with plaid and emo all over again.

Soundtrack for your snap bracelet.