photo by Daniel Muller

by Chance Solem-Pfeifer

On the opening track of Adult Film, Tim Kasher sings, “When … great, great grandkids are doing acid, they’ll give two shits about all this insipid brilliance.”

When I turn the prism of his biting lyric about the Great American Novel back on Kasher’s new record, the Omaha songwriter and bandleader is modestly clear. Those acid-dropping grandkids won’t care about his insipid brilliance either.

“Yeah, no, I don’t think so. I really don’t,” he laughs, imagining what people in four generations might say of his 2013 release.

Poking fun about the pretentions of storytelling is one of the few themes running through Adult Film, one of Kasher’s rare non-concept albums across his work with Cursive, The Good Life and his solo material.

Adult Film, out today on Saddle Creek Records, demonstrates a version of Kasher’s music with renewed rock ‘n’ roll clarity and lyrics that run the gauntlet of the dark drama and incisive wit that have come to define his career as a songwriter.

For this, the seventh installment of Sessions, I spoke to Kasher offstage at The Waiting Room Lounge prior to his performance on Saturday, October 5. Before performing many of Adult Film tracks for the first time, Kasher sat down to discuss the new album’s place in his discography, why Woody Allen is could be helpful reference point for his writing and whether or not there’s such a thing as the Great Nigerian Novel.

Listen here for the full Sessions interview with Tim Kasher:

Chance Solem-Pfeifer is a Hear Nebraska’s staff writer. We should start a new non-profit to petition Tim to do stand-up. Ian Douglas Terry would support that. Reach Chance at chancesp@hearnebraska.org.