Gothic Theatre
Nagel
Although the name “Nagel” may conjure up images of soft-core 1980s airbrushed portraits of women in Playboy and Duran Duran album covers, Austin band Nagel plays with the new wave sound of Blondie, The Go-Go’s and Squeeze and takes it to new places with ironic lyrics, intricate melodies, and surf-esque guitar hooks. Pop Culture Press describes the band as “perfectly-pickled power pop” and wrote of their debut CD Barely Nagel, produced by Grand Champeen’s Michael Crow: “Nagel wishes it were still 1982, but not in the presently-overdone doom-n-gloom Joy Division sense. Nagel loves the happy hook.” Paisley Umbrella magazine said Barely Nagel is “a collection of smart, bright sounding pop songs that celebrate heartbreak and disappointment in appealing terms.” If The Magnetic Fields were fronted by Josie Cotton, you’d have a close approximation of Nagel’s sound—bittersweet pop.
