Raw Nerve-Midnight EP (2011)

He took another drag of his cigarette.
"Sounds familiar. Just the same old routine...it's like Sally Timms said, in that Mekons tune, back in the '80s...what was it? Oh, yeah. This. 'But if I never see you again, I'll die....
Whatever you want, you'll never find the beginning of it. That's why you'll always be too late...Whatever happens, it'll be the thing you didn't want to have happen. Whatever doesn't happen will be the thing you want. Take your choosing. As you like. You always get what you don't want. Now you're talking just like me. It's an eye for an eye, as we move over the darkness...."
"Yup, cycle of shit. What are we doin' tonight?"
"dunno. Ain't shit to do."

....oh, yeah, Raw Nerve's Midnight EP. It's good. It's loud. It's noisy.

"These things happen. Mistakes are made." This is out of print. Buy other shit on Youth Attack!, support the cause. Whatever that is.

Triptides-Tropical Dreams LP (2011)

There's virtually nothing I can say about this band that the album cover doesn't say for me. Triptides is probably the most talented band yet in this beach-garage-nostalgia wave we're still going through.

All seven of these songs are mindblowingly pleasant. I hate the beach, personally, but then again, this band's from Bloomington, Indiana: "landlocked sandrock." The hooks are catchy, the vocals dissolve in a coastal shimmer, and this thing really makes me just wanna surf. Even though I don't skateboard, let alone surf. Whatever. I think this is the sort of stuff everyone in California was listening to circa 1965.

SANDROCK! Check out the band's website, and buy their albums! YES!

Raw Nerve-Nervous Habits Cassingle (2011)

Northwest Indiana, aka the (other) Mistake by the Lake, is a wretched post-industrial sinkhole full of trash, industrial refuse, and decaying factories. No wonder, then, that it's produced some of the most interesting and/or psychotic bands in the Chicago area-Duress and Raw Nerve, especially.

The boys haven't lost a step since last I heard them on the 2010 Youth Attack! LP. The first track is the usual blur of squealing rage, but the other two slow things down a bit and frankly, this is my favorite RN material to date. The guitar lead on "Strychnine" is in lockstep with a relentless drumbeat-dare I say it, Raw Nerve is venturing off into the realm of droning drugpunk first charted by the Stooges on that song about dogs.
    When there's no future, how can there be sin? Raw Nerve tour dates include the NYC gig on the flyer, TOMORROW JULY 24th. GO! They'll be selling copies of the new "Midnight" 7" on tour and, given that it's a YA! release, it'll be gone before they get to your town.