This Saturday June 11 beginning at 9am at FARNSWORTH PARKthere is an American Cancer Society event, the local RELAY FOR LIFE. Wes has been asked to participate and will be doing a solo acoustic set at 7pm at this event.
Relay began in 1985 when Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon in Tacoma, Washington, ran and walked around a track for 24 hours to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Since then, Relay has grown from a single man’s passion to fight cancer into the world’s largest movement to end the disease. Teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Relays are 24 hours in length; representing the reality that cancer never sleeps.
Event Schedule
Opening Ceremony: 9:00 AM Sat
Survivors Lap: 9:00 AM Sat
Luminaria Ceremony: 9:00 PM
Fight Back / Closing Ceremony: 8:45 AM Sun
Mister Nervous returns from hiatus to launch Memorial Day weekend at the Old Town Pub in Pasadena
Yeah, it is a bit hard to believe that our last Mister Nervous show was back in January.
We’re back this month and it is time to party like mad: We’re playing the Old Town Pub in Pasadena Friday May 27th.
We’re closing out the show preceded by The Sundowners and Jinsai... and I’m headin’ to the weddin’ of the head-banging bassist for both those bands Michael Harpel to his gal Tanya the very next day. Yep: Michael is doing double duty on stage the night before he’s to be hitched (so you gotta know this’ll be a raging party).
I can be intensely shamelessly cynical about a great many things, but never never about love. No doubt this will make many of you squirmy and uncomfortable. I know that seeing someone expressing a belief in the power of love, even the existence of such a primal and subjective emotion, gives a lot of folks a swift pain. “We’re too cool for love, we cannot accept it as a concept, we believe it is the epitome of self-delusion…” I cannot and will never agree. Those of you who find the very idea of love hopelessly un-hip may feel free to look elsewhere for some detached entertainment.
Min Siegel d. 2007
I’ve lost more than a few people and things over the years for which I held a nearly indescribable affection. The first truly epic love of my life ended four years ago when I lost my Min, the one woman I thought I would always have in my life. That loss didn’t dim my belief in love, but it shook my faith in my ability to survive this world and what I held to be true about life. I have written many songs about this experience during these last few years. I sincerely hope I have written all that I need to on that subject.
Today I find I wanna talk about a more joyous perception of existence. This year I feel myself coming back to life, and after 4 years of unrelenting darkness of the soul that’s one hell of a jolt.
WES & CHELSEA in the breakfast nook of "The Fifi" at the Hicksville Trailer Palace
You see: a few months back a young woman walked through my door and stole my heart right out of my chest in a matter of hours. I am not at all sure she’s gonna appreciate my shining this spotlight upon her because she doesn’t share my obsession with spilling my guts in public as a form of art. But as a writer of songs it’s my primary goal… to be as honest and true as my limited abilities will allow. I believe that it’s instantly possible to separate the bullshit artifice from the genuine article when you listen to a song. If it doesn’t ring true it belongs in the circular file. Well, the truth is I have been smitten by this girl in a way I never expected to feel again.
For my recent birthday this adorable creature took me out to the desert to a destination called the Hicksville Trailer Palace, a wacky motel comprised of vintage auto-trailers all tricked-out in hilarious/bizarre themes. We stayed in a purple and gold trailer with chandeliers, a bar, a femme vanity, three glowing wig mannequins (their disembodied plastic heads floating above the bed) and a glorious silence beneath a star-studded desert sky. I can barely remember the last time I was this… happy. So thank you Chelsea, for waking me back up, for renewing my faith in my own worth, for giving me something other than grief to cling to, for reminding me what it’s like to feel that need to cherish and protect another human, for being the new great love in my life.
Mister Nervous' God of drum thunder KELLY and Monthlies.' guitar gal JANA were recently wed.
As I look around me I see many other examples of love’s power to triumph over the daily grind of life on earth. Our awesome drummer Kelly was just recently wed to his lovely and talented lady Jana at a small ceremony, they have moved into a new home and look how joyous they appear. In the coming days our friend Michael (from The Sundowners, a band already near & dear to the heart of Mister Nervous) will be wed to his betrothed Tanya…
It's wedding bells this month for Sundowner MICHAEL and his gal TANYA!
and bandmate Dennis will officiate. More on that awesome weekend kicked off by a public pre-wedding party in Pasadena with The Sundowners, Jinsai and Mister Nervous later on.
I’ve been mostly absent from this space, this blog, for several months now. I was busy being happy and reacquainting myself with that sensation privately. Mister Nervous has not hadda night on the boards since our show back in January with The Monthlies. That’s all about to change Memorial Day Weekend.
Sadly in the midst of this love-fest I must absorb the passing of one of my favorite bands in Los Angeles. The aforementioned Monthlies. appear to be no more. This saddens me because I loved that band beyond expression. The bandmates themselves appear to be doing well: Wes O’Lee and Chris Hall have lovely girlfriends, Jana married Kell, and Nick’s already found another band to apply his sweat and savage beatmaking to. I will miss the Monthlies as a band not only because they are my friends, but because the intensity of emotion called up by some of their songs was/is overwhelming (how many nights did I spend where at some point or another during the set I actually felt I had to keep it together as one or another of the band’s songs brought on a lump in my throat or a moistness to my eyes(?)… whatta sap I can be!). So if The Monthlies rise again I will be standing stage front once more. And that is how I judge what music, to which performers I unashamedly pledge my fandom… you gotta kick my butt with your ability or break my heart with the heartfelt truth of your songs. Nothing else will do.
Yeah, I’m actually a huge cornball: “I wear my heart on my sleeve”… but what the hell’s the use of keeping it in a lockbox? I am still too cynical to believe that songs, or love, will change the world. But they can change your little corner of the world, or – at least – love can change mine.
On their second blazing cd SEEDS IN THE STREET the band seem to have blasted far past their first record’s ruminations on a relationship with the Divine and fallen feet first into a roiling caldron of Devils Brew.
Blazing out of the gate with OH YEAH some digital percussion and bracing guitar lurch into a melodic blues groove of wailing vocals with a 70s reminiscent quality: but in a conversational cadence sung flat out… while the band rocks like a motherfucker through some raging playing punctuated by smashing stops and starts. COLD MOON opens with a half-tone descending blues riff stomp and morphs into a riff-rocking monster with some stinging slide guitar stabs. THUNDERHORSE has some acoustic strumming and a confessional vocal before segueing into a pounding soundscape that feels like a sun-baked desert nightmare.
The band is a full-out rocking monster, the ensemble playing reeks of sweat and commitment, but just try to keep your eyes off of Griffin Young as he stabs at his guitar, long locks flailing, roaring like the top of his head’s gonna blow off. And dig some of the awesome wordplay coming out of his full-throated vox in JUNGLE:
“I bought a hammer just to see where it would go”, he hollers while talking about paying off the Devil and states,
“They drew a rope, I spoke in tongues for them,
still they said: you must play dead”
The six song album closes with DUSTY WALLS where vocals and gutbucket slide start the ride… by the time the full band blows in you just know you’re standing at the legendary crossroads.
OK: these guys are playing TONIGHT at O’Briens Pub in Venice with THE DOWNTOWN TRAIN and PAN AMERICA…
You’re goin’… RIGHT??? 3/12 @ 10 pm
Griffin Young rocks like the top of his head's gonna blow off!
We’re gonna enjoy this one – so will you. THE MONTHLIES. are one of our favorite bands (& it’s kinda a family affair, if you will, as Kelly’s brother is the lead singer – but we love ‘em cause the songs are soooo good and the band’s a joy to experience).
Also it’s a celebration of a birthday among The Monthlies: the lovely and talented lead guitarist Jana.
Mister Nervous is up first at 6pm, yup REALLY SERIOUSLY 6pm. The Ross Sea Party is up at 7 and The Monthlies. at 8. It’s all over by 9pm allowing you to continue the party elsewhere nourished by good songs and great people. The new Mister Nervous song CRYSTAL GIRL has been a hit with audiences every time we play it – we’ll be recording this one soon. Naturally we’ll have copies of the DRAMA cd available… we’re gonna give some stuff away too.
MONTHLIES. lead singer and songwriter Wes O’Lee has also embarked on a very ambitious project: writing, recording and posting a new song every day in 2011. It’s almost disturbing how prolific he can be – writing so many good songs. It’s enuff to make Mister Nervous full of jealous envy…(well, Wes D anyway).
…and so in the venerable (haha) misternervous.com tradition of supporting stuff that is totally awesome (even if WE didn’t MAKE it ourselves) we present here the first two posts in the WES O’LEE – A SONG A DAY 2011 project:
OK: this first one here is also a family affair: Kelly plays drums and sings back-up along with his gorgeous gal Jana… and Monthlies. bassist Chris Hall notes:”I need to tag my bass from 8th grade in this sucka!”.
and heeeere’s song #2
(‘scuse me for a minnit… I think I got sumpin’ in my eye…)
MISTER NERVOUS – THE ROSS SEA PARTY – THE MONTHLIES. SATURDAY JANUARY 8th @ 6pm SILVERLAKE LOUNGE 2906 West Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(323) 663-9636
Maybe you missed her shows in San Diego, Anaheim, NoHo and Santa Ana (I caught an intimate performance in Hollywood at Room 5 last Friday) but you still have one last chance to see her on the Sunset Strip at The Cat Club TONIGHT!
I suspect you either “get” what Miss Izzy Cox is doin’ or ya don’t.
I think it’s pretty damn cool the way this gal from Austin TX manages to channel everything from hillbilly to jazz into a stripped down almost frighteningly naked performance.
You’ll have to make up your own mind but I strongly suggest you go see her in person and give yourself the chance to experience this woman’s toughness and vulnerability up close.
“Often referred to as the Murder Ballad Queen, Izzy Cox is definitely a songstress like no other. Her extensive repertoire of songs include such titles as “Bad Bad Woman,” “Electric Chair,” “Devil in Me,” “F*cking n’ Fighting,” “Hoodoo Voodoo Gal,” “Thorazine,” and “Devil, Devil,” among many others, implying that she has dedicated herself to doing wrong the right way. Even more than the sound she has developed, though, it’s her voice that is truly and utterly exceptional. It’s a voice that seems to flow forward through the times, beginning in post-war Jazz Age America and moving onward through the Depression-era Blues of the deep south, and then the ’50s Rockabilly set, all the way up to the here and now.” - James Carlson / Philadelphia Indie Music Examiner
Miss Izzy Cox last Saturday at the Galaxy Theater... and you probably missed it!
I’m not gonna say any more. Go.
TONIGHT!
NOVEMBER 24
9:30 pm,
THE CAT CLUB
8911 W Sunset Blvd
Hollywood CA 90069
The Sundowners and Mister Nervous at the Old Towne Pub
Old Californio: music that could have only been created in Southern California? (photo by Roman Cho)
Is it currently OK to mention New Riders of the Purple Sage, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Spirit or The Grateful Dead in polite conversations about WestCoast music and still seem reasonably cool? Like I care. These OLD CALIFORNIO guys have that 1970 thing going, fer sure, but with their own updates and personal flavor. The band rocks with the mild mannered authority and breezy casualness that can turn a stage into a back porch. I defy you to listen to some of the tunes on their playlist there (Mother Road f’rinstance) without getting that desert vista/top down/cruisin’ in the sunshine feeling.
"Indignant playing and spirited drinking" (photo by Didier Chevalier)
What we’re talking about here are really great songs (remember those?). There’s no real dross or dead weight on this ambitious work. It’s a melodically complex and accomplished effort, hard set with a blast-furnace production that reveals the considerable talents of the band’s membership.
What we’re talking about here is bright guitar-driven melodies with complicated and earthy arrangements, mixed in with a little down-home country twang and dovetailing instrumental jams, providing ample evidence that they also have a tacit understanding of what made those great classic rock outfits of yore so exhilarating and memorable in the first place. -Bryan Thomas, February 2009
OK THEN: So by now it’s pretty clear we’re lookin’ forward to sharing the Old Towne Tavern stage with these fellas and our good friends THE SUNDOWNERS (about whom I’ve often expressed my admiration: HERE for example)
We had a great time introducing new song CRYSTAL GIRL at the Airliner show so we’re natch-er-ly gonna be doin that again along with some selections from DRAMA an all… we’re up first @ 9pm followed by the prides of Pasadena N Alta Dena and summa the nicer folks you’ll ever meet. You should probably come…
Strike that if yer NOT comin what’s WRONG with you?
Nah, just kiddin…
Come anyway.
FRIDAY NOV 26th
Mr. Nervous 9:00
Old Californio 10:30
The Sundowners 12:00
Old Towne Pub
66 N. Fair Oaks
Pasadena, CA 91103
Enter through the alley on Holly Street
21+ - $5.00
Saw MINI MANSIONS for the first time last night. Nice.
Hypnogogia, is a term coined by Alfred Maury for the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep (i.e. the onset of sleep). The equivalent transition to wakefulness is termed the hypnopompic state. Mental phenomena that occur during this “threshold consciousness” phase include lucid dreaming, hallucinations, out of body experiences and sleep paralysis.
(apparently I don’t know everything – AHHH-HA-hahahahahahaaaaaaaaa!!!)
The Damn Sons bring it hard and heavy with a respect for history and a demand for immediacy. It’s like someone put Reverend Horton Heat, AC/DC, Nirvana and T-Rex in a blender and ran it till the lid blew off. This stuff rocks with a crunchy brutality and twisted melodicism that “sounds like a long sleeved shirt with horses on the front, some gum, a lighter, a knife, and a new deck of cards with girls on the back” (according to their facebook page).
The Damn Sons ep 01
Their ep 01 is available on iTunes and it shows what a big beautiful noise can be produced by three guys who know what they’re about. Who Want’s More stomps with a vengence, with reverb drenched testifyin’ and roiling guitars. Funky chording opens up Movin’ On sliding into a rolling groove surrounding a careening melody. Riffy mood-rocker Crawl of the Wild is just swimming in swampy juju leading up to a sublime chorus. Lead em to the Shore closes out with a staggered funky beat and chanted refrain. Cool stops/starts and unexpected twists abound throughout the set.
Jens Kuross is one of LA’s more awesome percussionists, at home in multiple genre’s of music and his playing is spare, supple, subtle and savage all at once. Travis Schneider’s got some pretty powerful pipes, (his vox are at times soaring and others times just in-yer-face) and his gutsy guitar lines guide the action with big chord blasts and indelible riffs. Grant Lovelace appears to have joined up on bass after the cd was tracked: he’ll be there with the guys tonight at their Bootleg Theater show. I’m goin, so far I’ve only seen 2 out of the 3 guys at an Unknown Theater show and I’ve been tryin to catch another gig for a while.
With Electro/Indie/Psychedelic band AMERICAN ROYALTY (who are releasing their debut ep tonight) and MINI MANSIONS.
Bootleg Theater
2220 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90057
there is an American Cancer Society event, the local RELAY FOR LIFE. Wes has been asked to participate and will be doing a solo acoustic set at 7pm at this event.
I can be intensely shamelessly cynical about a great many things, but never never about love. No doubt this will make many of you squirmy and uncomfortable. I know that seeing someone expressing a belief in the power of love, even the existence of such a primal and subjective emotion, gives a lot of folks a swift pain. “We’re too cool for love, we cannot accept it as a concept, we believe it is the epitome of self-delusion…” I cannot and will never agree. Those of you who find the very idea of love hopelessly un-hip may feel free to look elsewhere for some detached entertainment.
We’re gonna enjoy this one – so will you. 
the lovely and talented lead guitarist Jana.
