“I cannot believe the future’s happening to me,” Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws sings on the closing track of The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy, and it’s a fair perspective. It’s been two decades since the band launched, and 16 years since its one-hit-wonder days as the purveyors of "Popular." The alternative era feels long gone: With hip-hop and electronic dance music established as dominant paradigms, both pop radio stations and the online underground have largely jettisoned the no-frills power-pop the band has spent its career whittling down to a fine point. Frankly, The Audience Is Indifferent To Guitar Rock might be a more honest title.
