At the tail-end of 2008, Bomp! subsidiary Alive Records released the One Way Ticket LP by the legendary Los Angeles powerpop trio known as The Nerves. This is the band where drummer Paul Collins kept the beat before he started his own Beat. The bass duties were handled by Peter Case, years before he was fronting the Plimsouls and singing "A Million Miles Away" to Randy and Julie in a smoky nightclub in the Valley. And the lion's share of the group's songs were written by guitarist Jack Lee, including a little number called "Hanging On The Telephone," which Blondie soon covered on their Parallel Lines album.
The Nerves' self-released 1976 7" EP opened with the aforementioned "Hanging On The Telephone" and also included "When You Find Out," "Give Me Some Time," and "Working Too Hard." All four tracks are included on this collection, as well as some demo recordings and even some live stuff recorded in Chicago suburb Schaumburg, Illinois on their U.S. tour in 1977. (Mistakenly spelled "Schoenberg" in the liner notes. Nitpick, nitpick, nitpick.) Apparently, they did some of those dates with the Ramones, and even played with The Diodes! Too much!
I'm sure some of you remember the Nerves 10" release on the Spanish label Penniman from several years back. The One Way Ticket LP is vastly superior to that one, for a couple of obvious reasons. For starters, this collection features more than triple(!) the songs than that one, and it's cheaper! Also, the ten-inch format, by and large, sucks. Don't believe me? Go look at your own records. How many good 10" records do you have, compared to how many good albums and singles you have? Exactly. Case closed. So get up, go out, do it, and get to it!
Check out Paul Collins' BEAT along with Gentleman Jesse and His Men live Friday at The Beat Kitchen in Chicago, and pick up The new LP/CD collection from The Nerves on Alive, right HERE.
