R.I.P LUX

HANGIN' ON THE TELEPHONE

The Nerves were a mid-'70s power pop trio based in Los Angeles, California, featuring guitarist Jack Lee, bassist Peter Case, and drummer Paul Collins. All three members composed songs and sang. They managed a national tour, including a few dates with The Ramones, but they lasted just a short time and self-released only one self-titled four-song EP in 1976, featuring the songs "Hanging on the Telephone" (Lee), "When You Find Out" (Case), "Give Me Some Time" (Lee), and "Working Too Hard" (Collins). The EP was distributed by independent Bomp! Records. Peter Case, Paul Collins and Jack Lee are re-releasing The Nerves on vinyl and compact disc through Alive Records in the fall of 2008.Despite their limited lifespan and discography, The Nerves remain notable for many reasons. They were the founding vanguard of the LA pop scene that eventually produced The Knack and The Plimsouls. After The Nerves' break-up, Case and Collins formed The Breakaways with Pat Stengl, a group that would have an even shorter lifespan than The Nerves. Thereafter, however, Case and Collins went on to front more famous groups, The Plimsouls (who had a Billboard Top 100 hit with "A Million Miles Away") and The Beat, respectively. But perhaps the most notable legacy of the group is the song "Hanging on the Telephone": popular group Blondie later covered the song on their smash album Parallel Lines and turned it into a UK top 5 hit, and thanks to Blondie's success, the song has become something of a standard, later re-done by groups as diverse as L7, Def Leppard, Cat Power (whose version was featured in Cingular commercials in 2006), and the band that the character Lane drummed for on the sitcom The Gilmore Girls. While it is likely some of these artists are unaware of the original Nerves version, others were also from Los Angeles and what was, at the time, its terribly small underground music scene and would most certainly be able to reference the original. (According to some sources, Blondie decided to cover the song after a trip to Japan. Someone slipped in a tape of The Nerves in their car's cassette deck and their Japanese driver, who didn't speak a word of English, started tapping along to the song on the steering wheel.) Blondie included a second Lee composition on Parallel Lines, "Will Anything Happen?" Lee also went on to write a hit for Paul Young, "Come Back and Stay"."Hanging on the Telephone" and "When You Find Out" were later released on a 1993 Rhino Records power-pop compilation, DIY: Come Out and Play - American Power Pop I (1975-1978), which Allmusic gave the full five stars (review). The Nerves also had the honor of appearing on the album's cover. More recently, Rhino included an unreleased Nerves track, Case's "One-Way Ticket", on the 2005 compilation Children of Nuggets (AllMusic Review), a sequel to their popular Nuggets compilations. Today, Paul Collins performs songs from both The Nerves and The Beat in his band Paul Collins' Beat, and continues to tour and record new material.In 2008, Alive Records released One Way Ticket, a CD compilation of the remastered tracks of the Nerves' original EP, along with demos and other previously unreleased material.

DEBROUX

"During a show with hardcore punks Hatefuck, DeBroux and company traveled to Winona, Minnesota. After a five-hour drive to the town, wasted locals, angry punks and gnarled three-legged dogs greeted them by leading them into a commandeered park. Inside the park, DeBroux found 'the ultimate punk rock experience' with townies huffing rubber glue and mohawk-brandishing kids starting fights with crusties. The show ended and the locals gave the band three dollars for their troubles. A few kids asked DeBroux and company to chip in the three dollars on a keg. Soon, the crowd dispersed and left the band with no money or place to stay. The band wound up sleeping on an island between Minnesota and Wisconsin and breaking up soon thereafter. He wrote the first Pink Reason song, 'Winona,' about this experience.'" --Steve Kobak from Blastitude #25

MY BABY WANTS ME DEAD

The Vivian Girls started in Brooklyn in 2007 as the trio of Cassie Ramone (guitar/vocals), Kickball Katy (bass/drums/vocals) and Frankie Rose (drums/bass/vocals).[1] While only a band for a short while, they recorded a demo cassette / CD-R which included five original songs, and began to play locally in their home town of Brooklyn.Within the first couple of months they had already developed a strong local following, supporting acts like Jay Reatard, Japanther and the King Khan & BBQ Show as well as finding kindred spirits in other locals like caUSE co-MOTION!, Crystal Stilts, and Woods, with whom they’ve shared many bills and helped develop a local scene. In March 2008 they released the "Wild Eyes" single on the Plays With Dolls label.With very little promotion and distribution the single became an underground indie hit as it charted on many college radio playlists and garnered positive reviews on the internet.Recorded in the same session, their debut self-titled LP was released by the Mauled by Tigers label, whose initial pressing of the LP sold out in ten days.During this time, the group signed with In The Red Records who released a new single in August 2008.In The Red re-released the Mauled by Tigers record on LP and CD formats in October 2008.In July 2008 the band underwent a lineup change with new drummer Ali Koehler replacing Frankie Rose.