There are some darn good reasons why Nashville, TN is called Music City. From our ongoing infatuation with Diarrhea Planet to the Grand Ole Opry, history and modern day living artifacts have proved time and time again that a well spring jubilee of creative ingenuity continues to flourish off the shores of the Cumberland River. Which brings us to NUDITY's Michelle, Duane, and Peace, heralding from the garages of West Nashville with a sound that is as electric as it is au naturel. Our introduction to the group was on their 2012 AMDISCS cassette release Heavy Petting, and today courtesy of Happenin Records they release their super fresh “Supernatty” 7″ that continues their earnest electronic hybrid enhancement that emphasizes the organic. In our premiere of the A-Side, NUDITY packs a message that is both earthy and honest, where the scuzz thrashes against the beat machines, distortion is used to reinforce the infectious pop hooks, as the sound remains more supernatural than ever.
At the song's start with the crunchy guitar atmosphere, Michelle sends out and deciphers the late night signals that pertain to someone's self-involved, self-absorbed perceptions. “Cryptic messages in the night, make you feel all right,” sung like responses read from half-awakened evening texts, “you are the only one inside your astral plane, you are the king of your castle.” The cult of self syndrome evolves to an island stranded cult of personality view, where blinders to the small town surrounding world are worn to shield away the squares and opinions of others. “Don't walk around with your eyes closed, filter out all the people, you're not listening to their opinion, you're on your own.”
As the sound continues to ride the indiepop dramatist songbook, the second verse continues the cryptic poetry that gets even more personal. From the vague ephemera of promises forgotten and lost in sleep, the plot thickens as the waters deepen like the emotional paralysis hi-dive in the shallow end. “Who bought your one way ticket out, said I would be okay, in so many ways, hoped you believed it, I used to be so brave,” throwing the past in the face of the present, the tone gets accusatory as feelings get strung out and wound tight against the irresponsible and unresponsive frustrations reacting from a history of dysfunctions. “I can't find a reason, to conjure up feelings, you're just as good to me as a broken machine.” As the chorus rises with the key tones and blistering programmed beats, Michelle, Duane, and Peace push to break out of the circular cycles of the day's endless hours for something new, a new night of promises kept, and plans that are perhaps followed through.
The Nashville trio NUDITY wrote us the following that cuts through the local scene worship to the tributaries of influence that feed and influence Music City that run fast, and wild.
“Nashville's just a fun music town. We all grew up here and have seen it change and stay the same. It's still a small town; still a kind of square town. We're sort of allergic to that reflexive boosterism scene-worship shit, so just on a level of 'do we like Nashville?' Yes. 'Do we like some of the music out of Nashville?' Definitely. So much is made of Nashville as a 'scene' right now. Yeah, ok. It's alive. That's it; no secret. But it's impossible to fake. There are a lot of tributaries feeding Music City. Some are deep and historic. The new ones run fast and wild. Sometimes one accidentally bleeds into another. That's where it is now; kind of segregated but always threatening spill over and make something new. It's an exciting place.”
NUDITY's 7″ Supernatty is available now from Happenin Records.
