Nuh Uh

You may remember that in recent weeks I have featured both Takka Takka and Wood Is Good on this blog. Well it seems that there is certainly something musical in the New York drinking water, as today we have Nuh Uh, a band that contains members from both of those bands.

Nuh Uh is Damion Jurrens and Conrad Doucette. Both of them are members of Takka Takka, and Conrad also plays in Wood Is Good. I don’t know about you, but playing in up to three bands seems like a lot of work to me, but these guys seem to have it down pretty well. The uniqueness of Nuh Uh comes from their song structures. They are a duo that are trying to see how far they can push the traditional pop song structure. This means their album, while being 28 minutes in length, only contains three songs.

Now I’ll admit that when I read that, I was pretty scared to listen to their music. I’m not a fan of long songs on the most part, mostly because they usually seem like they have been padded out for the sake of it. Give me a well crafted three minute pop song, and I’m satisfied enough. Listening to Nuh Uh revealed something quite different though. Even though the song below clocks in at over ten minutes, it still retains the sound of an indie pop song. Driving guitars, direct lyrics, and hell, they even manage to throw in a little harmonising. - Another Form Of Relief

Nuh Uh consists of Damion Jurrens and Conrad Doucette, both of Takka Takka. As Damion told me, “Nuh Uh is Takka Takka minus two plus my voice in terms of its lineup,” with him playing guitar and Conrad on the kit. Nuh Uh’s website dares you to call them an “indie-prog” band. One listen and you can clearly see why. Hell, you don’t even need to listen (but I advise you do), just look at their recently released debut – three songs, thirty minutes long.

While they are obviously influenced by prog, with songs that epic and feature a ton of solos, they (much like the rest of the collective), owe a whole lot to the early 90s lo-fi scene. “The songs owe greater debt to Guided by Voices than Yes” they say, and they’re completely right. You may like it if you like Yes, but you’re bound to like it if you like GbV. I, personally, like both, so it’s quite a treat for me.

The vocals work out excellently, just as I mentioned about Wood Is Good. Damion can’t croon like Scott Walker (like those guys from Hoboken), but his voice just works out very well in the song. A large departure from the other types in the this collective is that this stuff really rocks. Like Wood Is Good may be more rockin’ than Takka Takka, but they really aren’t genuinely rockin’. Nuh Uh could be officially described as rockin’. - Our Last Quarterstance