Hes interviewed every pop music icon since pop went the world in 1987, many of them at North Vancouvers legendary Tomahawk Restaurant.
Sometimes for national television, sometimes campus radio, and sometimes just for fun, Nardwuar the Human Serviette has bellied up to the tables at the T-hawk alongside music industry heavies for what he estimates at somewhere north of 100 interviews and as many Skookum Chief burgers.
But today, the lifetime Vancouverite and national treasure trove of pop music trivia has come to talk up his own band, The Evaporators.
Formed at his high school back in the mid-1980s, the band has always collaborated with its friends and punk rock contemporaries.
But as the groups star rose alongside the extracurricular notoriety of its founder and singer, those contemporaries have increasingly come from the brighter and broader reaches of the pop music constellation.
Thats not to say, though, that Nardwuar and the band have lost their way in the light of all that star power. On the eve of his first full-length release since 2007, Nardwuar who American filmmaker Michael Moore once famously accused of being on crack for his over-the-top interview antics is sipping Numi herbal tea and talking quietly about his music and his mother.
Nardwuar the Human Serviette and The Evaporators Present... Busy Doing Nothing! is the name of the new disc in stores March 6 and it features the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Kate Nash, Jill Barber and Andrew W.K.
Its classic Evaporators sound and fury, but the singer insists that this record above all others including 2004s Ripple Rock and 2007s Gassy Jack and Other Tales is his truest tribute to the former GVRD.
Id go anywhere if the opportunity came, Nardwuar says from under his customary Scotch tartan cap and a maple-leaf crested jacket. But I always come back to Vancouver because theres always a Vancouver connection to everything.
As a man who admittedly enjoys an albums liner notes almost as much as he does its music, Nardwuar goes above and beyond to lay down those connections on Busy Doing Nothing. In fact, the album includes not only Nardwuars trademark six degrees of separation explaining how each artist landed on the record, but interview transcripts as well and a full-size photo calendar of monumental Vancouver concerts, all inside the record sleeve.
Its a meticulous duty to detail that apparently runs in the Human Serviette family.
Nardwuar the Human Serviette and The Evaporators will host a free all-ages record release party at 2 p.m. on March 3 at Neptoon Records (3561 Main St., Vancouver), followed by a 19+ show that evening at Venue Nightclub (881 Granville St., Vancouver).
For more information, visit Nardwuar.com.
twitter.com/toddcoyne
