Bob Nanna (born June 14, 1975) is an American musician best known as the singer and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

for the bands

Braid A braid (also referred to as a plait; ) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing three or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-strand ...

and Hey Mercedes. Nanna also currently performs as part of the band Lifted Bells, as well as solo releases under the handle The City on Film as well as his own name.

Biography

Robert Thomas Nanna was born in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. In 1993, Nanna moved to

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents i ...

to attend the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

. Inspired by

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term " post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad conste ...

bands such as

Jawbox Jawbox is an American post-hardcore band from Washington, D.C., formed in 1989. The band currently consists of J. Robbins (vocals/guitar), Kim Coletta (bass), Zach Barocas (drums), and Brooks Harlan (guitars/vocals). The original lineup consis ...

and Hoover, Nanna founded the band

soon after. During their initial run, Braid played a total of 537 shows, and toured with such bands as

Jimmy Eat World Jimmy Eat World is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Mesa, Arizona, in 1993. The band is composed of lead vocalist and lead guitarist Jim Adkins, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Tom Linton, bassist Rick Burch, and drummer Zach ...

and

The Get Up Kids The Get Up Kids are an American emo band from Kansas City. Formed in 1995, the band was a major act in the mid-1990s Midwest emo scene, otherwise known as the " second wave" of emo music. Their second album '' Something to Write Home About'' r ...

. Braid released three full-lengths, 1995's ''Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five'', 1996's ''

The Age of Octeen ''The Age of Octeen'' is the second studio album by American emo band Braid A braid (also referred to as a plait; ) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing three or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wi ...

'' and 1998's ''

Frame & Canvas ''Frame & Canvas'' is the third studio album by American rock band Braid. It was released on April 7, 1998, through Polyvinyl Record Co. After the release of the band's second studio album, '' The Age of Octeen'' (1996), drummer Damon Atkinso ...

'', before breaking up in 1999. Nanna subsequently began his solo project The City on Film and formed Hey Mercedes with his Braid bandmates Todd Bell and Damon Atkinson and guitarist Mark Dawursk. From 2000 to 2005, Hey Mercedes released two full-lengths, 2001's '' Everynight Fire Works'' and 2003's '' Loses Control'', and shared stages with such bands as

the Early November The Early November is an American rock band from New Jersey. The group formed in 2001 and signed with Drive-Thru Records in 2002. , they have released two EPs '' For All of This'' (2002) and '' The Acoustic EP'' (2002) and seven full-length a ...

, Armor for Sleep,

Piebald A piebald or pied animal is one that has a pattern of unpigmented spots (white) on a pigmented background of hair, feathers or scales. Thus a piebald black and white dog is a black dog with white spots. The animal's skin under the white backg ...

, and

Hopesfall Hopesfall is an American post-hardcore band from Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina, formed in 1998. They are currently signed to Equal Vision Records. The band dissolved in 2008 after all members, with the exception of singer ...

. Braid reformed for a reunion tour in 2004. After Hey Mercedes broke up, Nanna played in Certain People I Know, before joining Lifted Bells. In 2013 he co-founded Downwrite, a website for commissioning custom songs, with Mark Rose of the band Spitalfield. Braid reunited in 2011, releasing the EP ''Closer to Close'' soon after, followed by their first full-length since 1998, '' No Coast'' in 2014. Hey Mercedes has also played occasional shows, including a 2016 reunion tour. In 2020, Nanna released his first album under his own name, ''Celebration States'', a largely acoustic album recorded in one day.

Discography

with Orwell

*''1995'' (Expert Work, 2020) - LP 2020

with Friction

*''Blurred In Six'' (Allied, 1993) - LP 1993 *''Hours of Operation'' (Polyvinyl, 2002) - 2xCD 2002

with Braid

*'' Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five'' *''

'' *'' Frame and Canvas'' *'' Movie Music, Vol. 1'' *'' Movie Music, Vol. 2'' *'' Lucky to Be Alive'' *''Closer to Closed'' *'' No Coast''

with Hey Mercedes

*'' Everynight Fire Works'' (

Vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...

) *'' Loses Control'' (Vagrant)

with The City On Film

*''In Formal Introduction'' (Grand Theft Autumn) *''La Vella'' (Topshelf, 2014)

with The Sky Corvair

*The Sky Corvair - ''Unsafe At Any Speed'' (Actionboy Records, 2005) CD

with Certain People I Know

*Certain People I Know - ''Certain People I Know'' (Count Your Lucky Stars, 2012)

with Lifted Bells

*Lifted Bells - ''Minor Tantrums'' (Run For Cover, 2018)

Singles and EPs

* Friction / Cap'n Jazz - Nothing Dies with Blue Skies'' (Shadefork Records, 1994) - single * Friction - ''Makeshift'' (Shadefork Records, 1993) - 3 song 7" * Braid - ''Rainsnowmatch'' (Enclave /

Polyvinyl In polymer chemistry, vinyl polymers are a group of polymers derived from substituted vinyl () monomers. Their backbone is an extended alkane chain . In popular usage, "vinyl" refers only to polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Examples Vinyl polymers are ...

1993) - EP * Braid - ''I'm Afraid of Everything / Radish White Icicle / Now I'm Exhausted'' (Grand Theft Autumn, 1994) - single * Braid - ''Niagara / That Car Came Out Of Nowhere'' (Grand Theft Autumn, 1994) - single * Braid - ''First Day Back / Hugs From Boys'' (Polyvinyl, 1995) - single * The City On Film / Kind Of Like Spitting / Sterling Silver - ''Slowdance Tour'' (Slowdance, 1998) - EP * Braid - ''Please Drive Faster'' Polyvinyl (1998) - EP * The City On Film - ''Two Hour Anniversary'' (About Midnight, 1997) - 7" * The City On Film / Kind Of Like Spitting - ''Split'' (Sport, 1998) - 7" * Braid / Eversor / The Lovemen / 3minutemovie - ''Japan Tour CD'' (1999) - 3" CD * Hey Mercedes - ''Hey Mercedes'' Polyvinyl, (2000) - EP * Bob Nanna / Elizabeth Elmore - '' Bob Nanna/Elizabeth Elmore EP'' (Troubleman Unlimited, 1999) - EP * Hey Mercedes - ''The Weekend'' (Vagrant, 2003) - single, EP * Hey Mercedes / Favez - ''Split'' (Sound Fiction, 2003) - 7" * The City On Film - ''I'd Rather Be Wine Drunk'' (Post 436, 2004) - EP * The City On Film / The Novi Split - ''The Sea Was Angry That Day My Friends'' (Eat The Fly, 2004) - EP * Hey Mercedes - ''Unorchestrated'' (Grand Theft Autumn, 2005) - EP, compilation * The City On Film - ''Little Informal'' (Grand Theft Autumn, 2005) - EP * The City On Film - ''American Diary'' (Redder, 2005) - EP * The City on Film / Minus the Bear - ''Split'' (Polyvinyl, 2006) - 7" * The City on Film / Owen - ''Split'' (Red Cars Go Faster, 2007) - 7" * Bob Nanna & Lauren Lo / Into It Over It - "Split" (Evil Weevil, 2010) - 7" * Braid / Balance and Composure - "Split" (No Sleep, 2013) - 7" * Lifted Bells - s/t EP (Naked Ally, 2013) - 12" EP * Lifted Bells - "Lights Out" (Naked Ally, 2014) - 7" * Braid "Kids Get Grids" (Topshelf, 2015) - Record Store Day Exclusive 7" * Lifted Bells - "Overreactor" (Run For Cover, 2016) - 12" EP

Compilations

*Various - ''Direction'' (

) - Braid - "I'm Glowing and You're The Reason" *Various - ''Direction'' (Polyvinyl) - Orwell - "Angular Momentum" (guest artist) *Various - ''My Pal God Holiday Record'' (My Pal God, 1997) - The City On Film - "Fairytale Of New York" *Various - ''World Domination in Thirteen Easy Steps'' (Stratagem, 1998) - Braid - "Collect From Clark Kent" *Various - ''Where Is My Mind? A Tribute To The Pixies'' (Glue Factory, 1998) - Braid - "Trompe Le Monde" *Various - ''Another Year On The Streets Vol. 2'' (Vagrant, 2001) - Hey Mercedes - " Our Weekend Starts On Wednesday" *Friction - ''Hours of Operation: Discography, 1991-1993'' Polyvinyl (2004) - compilation *Various - ''THICK: Oil'' (Thick, 2003) - The City On Film - "Lost My Lights (acoustic)" *Various - ''In The Film They Made Us A Little More Articulate'' (Escape Goat, 2003) - The City On Film - "Bad Liver And A Broken Heart" *Various - ''My Favorite Songwriters'' (Five One Inc., 2004) - The City On Film - "I'd Rather Be Wine Drunk (demo)" *Various - ''Polyvinyl Does Polyvinyl'' (Polyvinyl, 2016) - Braid- "Next of Kin" *Various - ''Planet Home Series Vol 2.'' (Arctic Rodeo, 2017) - Bob Nanna - "Valparaiso / Smallpox Champion"

Miscellaneous

*Various - ''Exquisite Corpse'' (

) - "So Much To See" *Various - ''The Actuality Of Thought'' (Bifocal Media, 2001) -- live footage of Braid's "What A Wonderful Puddle" - VHS *Hubcap - ''Those Kids Are Weirder'' LP/CD (Actionboy, 1996 54'40 Or Fight!, reissue 2001) *Bob Nanna - ''Threadless Songs'' LP (Self-released, 2014)

References

External links

Official WebsiteBob's Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nanna, Bob 1975 births Living people American rock singers Singers from Chicago 21st-century American singers 21st-century American male singers