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The Nerves — 299.

A live album from 1977 by power popsters The Nerves.

ALBUM: The Nerves Live! (Recorded 1977; Released 2009)

MVC Rating: 2.5/$$$$

It’s apropos that I throw this in after describing Northern PIkes, the Canadian band, as sounding like some of the power pop music coming out of So-Cal. Specifically I mentioned the Plimsouls, the Beat and The Nerves. All of whom had some shared members such as Paul Collins and Peter Case.

I rarely buy new vinyl, I’m a bargain hunting sort of collector and I have a hard time paying $25 for a a record. Especially after getting some amazing records in the $1-5 range. It’s a little more work, sure, but that’s part of the fun.

So I splurged when I saw this Nerves record, a record of lost live tapes on violet vinyl I had the Plimsouls; I had the Beat. I enjoyed that music.

So this seemed a natural Christmas gift to myself two years ago, I believe it was WUXTRY in Athens, Ga. I don’t regret the purchase but and there is a but. This record sounds like hell. Like they only had one microphone hanging from the ceiling in a loud juke joint. You know why it sounds like that? Because it was recorded with one microphone hanging from the ceiling in a loud juke joint.

This is for archivists and completists, which on this one I took one step closer to becoming. I know many of the songs on this record already so I could pick them out and it was fun to see them in a setting in the wild like this. But for those interested in this genre, should probably start with some other albums by Peter Case or the Plimsouls or Paul Collins.

However when the inclination is just right, and you turn this up to about 9, you will be transported to this noisy bar called the Pirate’s Cove in Cleveland Ohio, May 26, 1977 with a noisy and melodic band power pop band called The Nerves.

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Peter Case — 600, 599

ALBUMS: Peter Case (1986);  Peter Case EP ‘Selections from Peter Case’ (Promotional 1986)

MVC Ratings: 4.0/$$$

 Peter Case is an artist I bought most likely in Birmingham at Chuck’s WUXTRY. It was Case’s self-entitled debut and a great record. I thought he was going places, and he did, I suppose. I just lost track of him after a CD called Six Pack of Love, which I should go back and give a listen to see  why he kind of fell from my listening purview.

He started young in a power  pop New Wave band, the Nerves, and followed with a pretty successful run in a band called the Plimsouls (which I will review later).

promo ep

For his debut he turned into a Woody Guthrie/Dylan styled singer-songwriter. His hat (fedora?) is on his noggin on both the album cover and back picture. And it’s on in his slightly different cover shot of his five-song EP promotional edition, which gets you an accoustic version  of Steel Strings.  Back photo shot is of Case walking  away down the road, in slightly oversized suit (w/hat) and carrying a case that looks too small for a guitar.

His music sounds like that. Lots of strumming, lots of melodious story-telling. Best one is ‘Small Town Spree’ about a friend’s burglary splurge.  The Van Dyke Parks’ arrangement, with strings accenting the steel strum goes like this:

It all started at Gate’s liquor store,  you helped yourself to a bottle of  scotch; Strolled down to Miller’s Drugs, forged a check and borrowed a watch

I do like his version of the Pogue’s song “A Pair of Brown Eyes’ — good pub song. If you think you would like a more seriousTodd Snider or a more bluesy Shawn Mullins, Case may be worth checking out.

In the liner notes Case writes: ‘My sister told me on the phone she heard someone on the radio singing about small towns in America.’

Case continues. ‘I said I didn’t know any songs about America – these songs are all about sin and salvation.’

NOTE: Case was in the Nerves with Paul Collins, later of the Beat, a power pop juggernaut.  A who’s who of artists assisted on this Case debut, including T Bone Burnett, Van Dyke Parks, John Hiatt, Jim Keltner, Mike Campbell, Roger McGuinn and Victoria Williams, among others.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.