For Your Information

Music style:
Experimental, Post-Rock/Pop, Folk Alternative with a touch of noir.

Influences (musical and intellectual):
Radiohead, Jean-Luc Godard, Karl Marx, folk, post-punk, post-rock, experimental, rave, goth, guitar pop, hardcore, 'classic' rock, Gang of Four, Tori Amos, Bob Mould, Walter Benjamin, Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, U2, Sunny Day Real Estate, Sibelius, Shiner, the Buddyrevelles, Pavement, Cursive, Brahms, Engine 88, Herbert Marcuse, the Velvet Underground, Portishead, Good Riddance, Jawbreaker, Dvorak, Tanner, Beck, Elliott Smith, Bach, Miles Davis, Silver Scooter, Salt, Thelonius Monk, psychoanalysis, Bruch, Crayonblack, Bloch, David Gray, Moby, Chopin, the Cure, the Cranes, Stravinsky, John Coltrane, Fugazi, the Smiths, Tchaikovsky, Bob Dylan, Dj Shadow, the Beatles, Tricky, David Lynch, Simon & Garfunkel, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Sarah Dougher, bad electronic, Karl Marx, Bartok, Henri Dutilleux, Ingmar Bergman

Similar Artists:
Radiohead, Sarah Dougher, Joan of Arc, Neil Young, the Cure, R.E.M., the Smiths, Bob Dylan, David Gray, John Lennon, Pj Harvey, the Magnetic Fields, Belle & Sebastian, Elliott Smith, Moby.

Artist history:
Formed in the shadows of a Midwestern university in the mid nineties, the Nabokov Project has no set membership or contributors. Its most recent incarnation has included the membership of Dave Pollock (spoken-word vocals), Ted Leslie (percussion), Thea Morton (cello, guitar, and keys), and M. W. Gargo (vocals, guitar, computer, and keys). Many of the songs on/in these pages were part of this collaboration (even though they were all written by M. W. Gargo). Ted Leslie, however, after the start of this collaboration developed brain cancer and has since died. His illness and death put this version of the band on hold permanently. With the graduation of M. W. Gargo, it has moved East and, as Finnegan, begins again in Pittsburgh, Pa. Our demo effort, "Effete Coquette," was dreamed and recorded over the past three years in the living room and closet of an upstairs apartment in Eau Claire, WI and in a one room hole in the north part of the Oakland neighborhood in Pittsburgh, PA. M. W. Gargo is currently working on material for an eight song EP "This is not a CD," which covers a softer and more acoustic side of the project heavy in alt-folk influences.

 

Artist description:
The Nabokov Project is M. W. Gargo's solo project. It was born of an eclectic heart and spirit, blending classical music and garage guitar, and molded by contempt for “pop” and all things contrived and commodified for mass market consumption and the production of surplus value for the few.  The goal of these songs is not to move the listener to a vocal or lyrical “hook” as is standard in the "pop" formula of our time. (This "hook" is then stuck in our heads in an obsessive/compulsive repetition of notes and words, which then demands that we either buy the song to release the "tension" of turn on the radio or MTV until we are lucky enough to experience the song again.) Just because we eschew formula does not signify that you won’t be moved to enjoyment and pleasure through hearing these songs, and hopefully, you'll walk around with the whispers of these pieces in your head…

We believe that there is a deeper pleasure just beyond the accessibility of “pop,” which doesn’t abandon pop but doesn’t relegate an attempt at musical “art” to the background in the name of reaching the largest mainstream audience possible.  We believe that music should "grow" on you and if you can "consume" a song in one listen then the song probably isn't much more than a piece of corporately wrapped and intellectually useless "candy" created for immediate accessibility and profit. Music should always be communal and not corporate, something of the “people” and for the “people,” and when it is marketed (which is inevitable at this stage of capitalism), often we loose more than we gain. the Nabokov Project is about returning to that bareness, the essential that is lost in our progress into the post-al world where music matters only in that it can be sold and profited on.  Our music is 'lofi' not by choice but by necessity.  Being less than economically "privileged" prevents us from blowing large amounts of capital on recording and production even though we do not necessarily doubt the limitations of 'lofi' homemade music in this day of the big five. 

Contributors (past and present):
M. W. Gargo: voice, guitar, bass, drum stuff, keys, violin, computer, recording, post-production, artwork, distribution
Thea Morton: cello on "Japanese Pop"
Ted Leslie: drums
Dave Pollock: vocals, lyrics 
Josh Land: laughter
B. Marcks: vocals, lyrics on "great paintings of the western world"

Instruments:
electric guitar, acoustic guitar, weird guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, cello, violin, vocals, drum machine, mandolin

Albums
"Effete Coquette" [LP DD001] released April 15, 2001 on Dead Dog Records in North America and Hoboken Records in Europe.  
"This is not a CD" [EP DD002] to be released summer of 2002

Reviews:
"This band blows my mind. Musical influences: radiohead, built to spill, and social theory to name only three from their extensive list. Have I said that their music is lovely? Currently out of Pittsburg, the Nabokov project 'is about returning to bareness' and '[aims for] a deeper pleasure just beyond the accessibility of "pop," which doesn't abandon pop [and] doesn't relegate ... musical "art" to the background in the name of reaching the largest mainstream audience possible.' Yea! Obviously, this band-- their haunting sound, honesty, and artistic integrity -- kick some serious socio-musico-logical ass."

 

          -- Jenny Post (PostGal) from the New *Indie* Features Station.

 

"Lovely acoustic backdrop covered lightly by beautifully ethereal vocals, this song is well worth the recommendation. Also worth noting is that, since they compare themselves to radiohead (an apt comparison, I must say), they are therefore not afraid to have a great acoustic song run past the six minute mark. Bravo! I listen to a lot of music on mp3.com, because I write reviews as a hobby, and I can safely say that this is one of the best. (4.95/5.0)"

 

     --Jonathan Sanders of Bent Twig Productions on the song "Lost & Found."

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