Saturday, April 13, 2013

The Nerves - "One Way Ticket" (CD, Alive - 2008)

Name your favorite power pop band quickly. Come on, you don't need to think about it, just drop the name your mind's database finds first.
Flamin' Groovies? OK, an obvious choice, but what I need is something less obvious, so drop another...
Badfinger? Mmmm, I'm sure you can do better, too boogie to fit in don't you think?
Cheap Trick? Way cool, but those hard rock twists they got sometimes... don't know.
The Raspberries? Wimpy and campy, you know...
Big Star? Now, you're talking man, but... a bit dark for a springtime post... Remind me about them when the winter is setting in, OK?
Dwight Twilley? Oh great! Wait a minute... I'm not in the mood to make a vinyl rip now man. I know I'm a lazy bastard but since Jean Philippe came to pic, my mind's have cool down about it so...
The Nerves? BINGO! I thought you never gonna tell it man! You know, I must admit I'm cheating a little here cause that's what I had in my mind from the first moment but I thought it was easily for someone knowing my taste which is probably my fave powerpop group, man! The words 'seminal', 'trademark', 'irresistible', 'ultimate' are synonymous with the Nerves short lived existence. What you get here's everything! The beyond any critic classic 7'' EP, the embryonic Paul Collin's Beat diamonds ("Walking Out on Love", "Working Too Hard", "You Won't Be Happy"), bonus studio material, live and demos. More or less the varia Nerves output. I adore Paul Collins Beat's first two and all Plimsouls works equally but let this be the subject of another time's case. After this, you have really no excuse to cite "Hangin' on the Telephone" as a Blondie tune...


6 comments:

  1. http://netkups.com/?d=d609e1a661159

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  2. I bought that first Nerves EP at the Record Factory in Walnut Creek, CA, back in ...'77? Was it that early, or was it '78? Either way, it was weird to find it out in the suburbs. Usually we had to drive all the way into Berkeley to find records like that.

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  3. Great post! You've inspired me to try to make my own list of favorite power pop bands. This is proving to be a hard task!

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  4. I agree, The Nerves were about as good as it gets in the Power Pop genre!!

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  5. hi
    wonderful blog
    i start my blog too, your blog is great....
    yes the Nerves,but also the first lp of Paul collins Beat that i bought many years ago, but i love also nick lowe, "jesus of cool" is wonderful and i think is one of the best powerpop album.
    but your right the nerves are with Big Star are the best
    regards
    greetings form italy

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