Media

Marissa Nadler: "River Of Dirt" (MP3)

5:24 p.m. · January 21, 2009 · by Kyle Lemmon

Marissa Nadler's fourth album Little Hells is out March 3 on Kemado. At first blush, it seems Hells may be pretty upbeat. "River Of Dirt" has a road-worthy percussion section via Blond Redhead drummer Simone Pace. Multi-instrumentalist Myles Baer (Black Hole Infinity), and Farmer Dave Scher on lapsteel, synths, and piano fill out Nadler's new band. You can get an idea of the new sound she's cranking up in her El Camino on "River Of Dirt," which debuted in this week's Stereogum Drop. Gum also interviewed Ms. Nadler about the new musical approach on "Dirt" and other songs from Little Hells. Here's an excerpt from their lengthy conversation:

How did you come up with a "River Of Dirt" as the central image in this song?
The imagery for the song was written stream of consciousness. It was the first song that I wrote when beginning to write Little Hells. To be honest, I wrote the song with a bottle of wine, sitting on my floor, and I had the melody that just wouldn't go away. I had the picking going and this droning guitar piece, and then the words arrived. I tried to just let them flow, without being intentional and without censoring any of the thoughts that were coming into my head. The meaning did not clearly present itself until months later. I knew it was more autobiographical, which was a goal for the record. It grew spinning like a wagon wheel, because of the jumping around of time and place. El Camino is a car I always dreamt of having, because I think they are sexy cars. But "el camino" also means the road, or the path...

Nadler's path into spring will naturally involve concert dates with The Handsome Family, Deer Tick and Allysen Callery. Here are some places to drive that sexy coupe utility vehicle:

• February 6th, 2009: University of Connecticut- Storrs Campus, Storrs, CT. With full band!
• February 14th, 2009 : The Iron Horse, Northampton, MA: w/ Deer Tick
• February 15th, 2009: Cafe 9- New Haven, CT - with Deer Tick
• February 21st, 2009: Club Passim, Cambridge Massachusetts. With Allysen Callery
• February 27th, 2009: Church of the Messiah in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
• April 16th, 2009: 400 Bar, Minneapolis, MN - with the Handsome Family
• April 17th, 2009: High Noon - Madison, WI., with the Handsome Family
• April 18th, 2009: Schuba's: Chicago, IL - with the Handsome Family
• April 19th, 2009 : Schuba's: Chicago, IL- with the Handsome Family
• April 21st, 2009: El Mocambo- Toronto, Ontario - with the Handsome Family
• April 22nd, 2009: The Black Sheep Inn - Wakefield, Canada - with the Handsome Family
• April 24th, 2009: The Lizard Lounge - Cambridge, MA - with the Handsome Family
• April 25th, 2009: The Highline Ballroom - NY, NY - with the Handsome Family
• April 26th, 2009: Iota- Arlington, VA. with the Handsome Family