Jonah is always around on Thursdays to assist you and he sometimes joins in as well (he's a pretty cool electric ukelele bassist, btw)

The Westwood Music Center is a professional friendly experienced place (they’ve done all my set-ups f’instance) not to mention it’s a wonderland of guitars.

I get there every Thursday that I can for an acoustic jam.
“Our favorite event is our Thursday Night Sofa Jam. Every Thursday of every month from 6:00 to 8:00 PM we host a casual, unplugged (mostly) jam in our showroom on the big comfy leather sofas.
We are joined by players of all levels and the repertoire is dictated by the players each evening. From Neil Young to the Beatles to jazz standards to Django to Bill Monroe, you never can tell what song someone will start. Guitars, mandolins, dobros, lap steels, banjos and basses from the store are all available to play so there’s no need to bring an axe unless you want to. (And some do!)”
WESTWOOD MUSIC CENTER
Tue – Fri  10:00 to 8:00
Sat – Mon  10:00 to 6:00
Sofa Jam – Every Wed 6:00 to 8:00
1627 Westwood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Tel: 310 478-4251

Jam time

Talking with some friends outside we started discussing Competition vs Co-operation among local musicians. We all fell on the side of  camaraderie, because it’s hard enough being a performer without the added b.s. of working to edge out someone else who’s  just trying to get their thing up and running and successful.
Little story here: The first time I went to the long-gone Hollywood Coffee House HIGHLAND GROUNDS on a Wednesday night and signed up for the super-popular open mic I walked into a wonderland. I watched the stage for a few sets but the real show was out on the patio where circles of pickers were jamming and trading songs, many of us meeting each other for the first time. Sharing the playing of music for the pure joy of playing the music. I’m thinking: ” I am HOME! I’m gonna love LA! This is how it’s s’posed to be”. Well that never happened again. In all the times I went back the room was packed with anxious, jealous wannabes all waiting for their ten precious minutes onstage like they’re about to get “discovered”… and glaring daggers at one another. Yecch!

I grew up raised by and around folk musicians on the east coast and that meant frequent gatherings of players and singers to eat, drink and sing & play music till they were spent. I remember jams in houses, churches, before and after shows, in festival parking lots, campgrounds, wherever 2 or more pickers met. Man, I thought that was what life really was ’till I got out into the alleged  “real world”. Those of you who know me already have no doubt heard me ramble on about how I cannot understand why groups of talented musicians get together to party and nobody plays a note. I like getting folks over to my place to party and make music (cuz after a couple beers all I wanna do is jam, baby!).

Mom and Dad

The idea that I might ever become “rich & famous” as a musician is a long-dead barely-desired fantasy. The possibility that I might ever even earn my living with music often seems a distant near-unattainable goal. Music is what I do because I have to do it to remain sane. What do y’all think about that? Who’s with me?

- WES D

Happy Dad Kelly with lil Josephine

Seriously, folks, happiness is wonderful but it apparently still doesn’t fill the void that only rocking out can satisfy. We’ve been taking most of the last year off, and it’s been grand without the band  in a lotta ways.  I’ve been in a very fine place since Chelsea walked through my door and stayed… and Kelly’s been basking in the glow of marriage and fatherhood since the arrival of his adorable daughter last summer.

Chelsea

Jana (guitarist from the Monthlies) & daughter Josephine Wininger

But let’s face it… happiness just ain’t enuff for those of us who just  gotta rockNroll. After a while something irresistable builds up – until it’s clear the big noise is either gonna break out …or yer gonna explode.

So this summer Mister Nervous is back out there. And I’ll be checking in here much more frequently.

It’s not like I even have a choice… clearly I’m addicted to big guitar for life.

-WES

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).

The show opens at 9pm with Amanda Jones & The Sugartits 3
then it’s
JINSAI @ 10:00!
The Sundowners @ 11:00!
Mister Nervous @ 12:00!

Amanda Jones & The Sugartits 3

JINSAI

The Diamond Light have the blues with the Devil on their trail

THE DIAMOND LIGHT: If you don’t know you better check it out.

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!

O’Brien’s Pub
2941 Main St
Santa Monica, CA 90405

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

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!!!)