video: Marissa Nadler "Dying Breed"

"Summer of Love is Over"

By now its apparent how much I love the songs of Marissa Nadler. Little Hells, her latest record on Kemado, seems criminally overlooked this year, despite great reviews, extensive touring and a masterful step forward in both her songwriting and production. Sort of makes me wonder, What if P4K had bundled that 8.1 with a BNM? Either way, like most of Nadler's output, its a daunting affair, one that resonates strongly with grey skies and dead leaves. There aren't too many records this year that I'd say are must owns, but this is one of them. Grab her entire back catalog, if you can, it's well worth it.

Anyway, a few weekends ago, on a cold dreary night in Brooklyn, Ray Concepcion headed down to the haunting Union Hall to capture Nadler in all her haunting beauty. The audio from this intimate set is extraordinary, as Concepcion bottles the essence of the Union Hall basement, filled with flora and fauna, taxidermy, and the piercing eyes of Grandmothers long since gone, through soft focus and a peephole perspective, sort of the visual equivalent of the way Willa Cather paints her novella A Lost Lady.