Belying the West Coast slacker vibe of its name, Nada Surf formed in 1992 after singer/guitarist Matthew Caws and bassist Daniel Lorca met at a bilingual French school in New York City. The band’s sly, understated alt-rock found an early champion in The Cars’ Ric Ocasek, who produced its 1996 debut, High/Low. That album yielded the summer radio hit “Popular”, on which Caws delivered cliched social advice to teens in deadpan spoken word before distorted guitar heralded an equally sarcastic chorus. But wider success proved elusive at the time, and the band broke its major-label contract to forge its own creative path. That risky decision paid off with Nada Surf’s breakthrough third album, 2002’s Let Go, which perfected the hooky yet vulnerable indie rock soon to soundtrack The OC. Caws’ crisp romantic portraits have continued to shine ever since, including on 2020’s Never Not Together.