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

Mister Nervous plays the GOOD HURT on Wednesday October 6th @ 11pm. We don’t play the westside very often so here’s your chance (especially if you’re one of those “never east of Bundy” type of people). Our shows at the Viper Room, Bordello and Cranes Tavern rocked pretty damn hard and confidence is high for a kickass set over at the Good Hurt. Contact us to get on the FREE list and save yourself the door-charge   (   misternervous@gmail.com or over at FACEBOOK) !!!!

We’ll be playing the DRAMA cd in full so if you haven’t seen us do it live here’s your chance (we may be pulling out a surprise or 2… we’ll see… ). Pick up the cd from us (if you haven’t already done that) or get a cool Mister Nervous t-shirt at the show.
We’ll be adding more new stuff to our shows this fall: Wes has new songs that he’s anxious to get up on the boards.
THE GOOD HURT
12249 Venice Blvd.
West Los Angeles, CA 90066
WEDNESDAY
OCTOBER 6 2010
11pm 21+
FREE
(if you contact us to get on the list)

Hard to believe: but last September we were working on the DRAMA cd and played those songs for the first time in public over at Cranes Tavern. Now the cd is out there and the set sounds better every time we play it. Ask anyone who was at the Viper Room or Bordello shows if you don’t believe me.

Tonight we’re heading back over to Cranes to blow the doggone doors off. Yeah, confidence is high. You should probably come on out and see, pick up the CD or a really cool T (yeah, the Mister Nervous t-shirt is the fashion element to be seen in this fall).

It’s the ongoing event HOMEWORK MONDAYS! DJ Ned Casual will be doing his usual thing: spinning roots rock, vintage RnB and blues with impeccable taste (seriously, the guy never plays anything that is not awesome and essential)… and THREE bands:
10pm – Bad Apples Blues Band
11pm – MISTER NERVOUS
12:00 – The Downtown Train

FREE!    21+

CRANES TAVERN
1611 North El Centro Ave
Los Angeles CA
90028

Amanda Jo Williams at the Unknown Theater

“Country girl from outer space” Amanda Jo Williams has been winning over Angelinos with her uncanny ability to project an unfiltered open heart through her cartoonishly vulnerable voice and her spare elemental compositions. She also comes across as disarmingly endearing in many of the bizarre videos on her myspace page. You can see her for free tonight, Thursday Aug 26th at the Mountain Bar. Live shows feature her freaky tribal hilbilly folk band careening through her simple rollicking  country grooves with wild unfettered abandon while Amanda sits centerstage with her tiny guitar and big drum unselfconciously doing her thing. Paper Magazine describes a show saying,”Williams strummed A-minor for fifteen minutes straight while her band stomped rhythmically around her backwoods muppet ballideering.”

It’s the emotional whallop her music delivers that makes her more than just another freak in the freak kingdom.”Listening to Amanda Jo Williams’ rough-shod country-folk is like eating a squirrel stew supper before falling into bed,  her primal music is an open maw to the mysteries and fears of the world. With a twang-heavy voice that sometimes breaks into manic gibberish, she sounds like an unruly, sometimes lonely little girl left to her own devices.”says the L.A. Times

“My music is basic and simple”, Williams says in her interview with  Daiana Feuer on Tumblr, “I do stuff that’s more from space, channeling how aliens would tell us to be when we’re more evolved. Anything is possible. You can see what you want to see when you want to see it, when you are ready to see. When your will is aligned with the universe and what you are born to do, when those things are aligned, you can find the place where you belong.”

"People need music where the artist is honest and themselves."- Amanda Jo Williams

Jeffertitti’s Nile will also bring their “hypnotic river of sound” to Chinatown on the same bill, providing some riffy Beatlesque melodicism and heavily effected sonic extrapolations.

also a live set by Latin Meds (josh charney of le switch is in latin meds)

and DJ  Hey Okay!

The Mountain Bar

it’s a DRAMATURGY production

Jeffertitti's Nile

Spirit Vine (photo by Karri Bowman)

SPIRIT VINE conjures a retro-future where folks still read The Doors of Perception, seek enlightenment in shaman directed spiritual sweat-lodges and go Bathing at Baxters.

They’re bringing their reverb drenched tribal love rock to Spaceland Thursday May 6 along with Roughed Up Folk – My Pet Saddle – and members of Dios performing as Special K & Flying J (who will be performing songs from an upcoming Beck covers album).

Spirit Vine’s GOLDEN ep has been getting some well-reviewed attention, and the band is working on a full length album while weathering some changes. I had a chance to interview their dynamic lead vocalist Jacquelinne and here without furthur comment  is our conversation:

WES (Mister Nervous):

You guys have come a long way as a band since I first saw you at 14 Below, but right away I was impressed with the message you were trying to get across in the music and words. Could you try to describe the intention, the message that drives your music?

Jacquelinne (Spirit Vine)

Anything that inspires, helps people grow, transforms, pulsates, makes people imagine…I am really into cycles right now…death and rebirth, moving out of the past and keeping your intentions as honest as possible.

WES:

Your recent GOLDEN ep has been getting some very positive write-ups online lately and you’re still recording new stuff. Are you planning to release a full cd in the future?

Jacquelinne:

Hell yeah! We are in the midst of writing it right now….so amazing to see how the sound evolves…like watching a baby grow in front of your eyes….the process will be a little different too….we used to record in a back house/Wooden Ship in Echo Park…now we have graduated to Kelly’s farm in Silverlake…we will also be in good hands with Anthony Caruso who will be recording this record…everything else is a secret

WES:

Three of you were in Wake Up Incinerate (I still play that cd sometimes) and Spirit Vine is a very different thing. What prompted you to form Spirit Vine?
Jacquelinne:

Honestly, Gabe and I started smoking a lot of weed…we were definitely opening doors of perception…we got really into old Pink Floyd, Syd Barett, Bob Dylan ( I know, I know I started my Bob Dylan phase later…at least I admit it) Memphis Jug Band, and a bunch of old blues. We started writing in a style that felt really honest and coming from the soul and knew we were flying in the right direction.

WES:

How do you compose your songs? Is it individuals bringing complete songs to the band or is it more of a democratic group effort?

Jacquelinne:

There is no format…it started as Gabe and I writing a lot and then became whatever feels good…whatever is good for the tune

WES:

Do you think the “album” era is really over (full cd’s over 30 minutes often produced to be consistent in theme and sound) or is there still interest in longer works by artists?

Jacquelinne:

Oh no…I hope not! I love collecting records and if money served me right I would collect a lot more….one of my favorite things is the smell of old vinyl and geeking out to all of the cool artwork, lyrics, thank yous, who played what on this record, blah blah blahs

WES:

People have tried to describe your sound but is there a way you like to characterize it?

Jacquelinne:

Maybe if Mazzy Star had a drug problem and had a love child with Keith Richards who was also sleeping with Stevie Nicks who then injected Howlin’ Wolf and Sun House into the veins of Lennon’s imagination, Lou Reed’s swagger and Iggy Pop’s fist….phew!

WES:

Do you guys do a lot of reading? What is it you’re reading recently?

Jacquelinne:

Uh yeah! My mom always jokes that I am exactly like my dad…enjoying myself in a room full of books…it is so weird it is hysterical….right now I am reading Crime and Punishment, Jazz, The Sorcerer’s Way and well How To Read the Tarot….Gabe is currently working on Cash by Johnny Cash and onto Joseph Campbell…again and again and again and again

WES:

You have been playing some more high profile venues lately like the Hotel Cafe, what do you think has been the most responsible for the band’s rise in visibility?

Jacquelinne:

Weed

WES:

The band is going through some changes recently and it looks like you’re going to have a new bass player. Is there anything you’d like to say about that?

Jacquelinne:

Yeah anyone wanna join us? No, really, we are pretty sad about it…we are loosing an OG member and the backbone to the sound….he always has a place with us.

WES:

What’s your favorite food (or if you prefer what is your favorite color)?

Jacquelinne:

Pizza and salsa and tacos and avocados and… wine… I don’t care that it is not a food!

WES:

Is there anything you want to add, or something you’re just aching to say?

Jacquelinne:

We ain’t dead…yet

Every Tuesday at the Airliner is a different theme, like the 60s night here

This Tuesday’s event at the Airliner is GO FOLK YOURSELF and features Pierre de Reeder (of Rilo Kiley), Pete Covington (from New South Wales, Australia), Homesick Elephant and Mister Nervous (hey that’s us, we’re opening up this weeks show at 8pm with a bang… well we can get kinda loud…) and 6 other musical artists. With 2 (or more) stages running at the same time wandering through the large funky building allows you to check out many different artists in a single evening.

I had a chance to interview Vince Munoz, he’s the guy who puts these Tuesday things together, so instead of me raving away let’s see what the man who makes it all happen has to say.

“Every Tuesday I do is a different monthly event”, says Munoz,” For example the first Tuesday of every month I do an indie-electronic event (Tektonik LA). Every 4th Tuesday we’ve just started doing a ’60s night. We normally have DJs spinning ’60s soul, mod, motown, etc. downstairs, while upstairs we’ve been getting some really good local acts covering different bands from the ’60s.”

“The fact that my job is getting to listen to good bands is very cool.  With Go Folk Yourself what we want to do is turn the venue into more of an experience. We want the event to be a place where artists, musicians and vendors can network and get their name out. The goal is to get really good acts that not only make the show strong and fun but also we want to give them an opportunity to come back every month and build their fans. We’ve been  getting vendors and artists to setup their products, paintings, sculptures etc. in our back patio.”

“The plan for all of our events is to branch out to a bigger community”, Vince stresses,” we want to do more than just be another show with a bunch of bands.”

GO FOLK YOURSELF

APRIL 13th 2010 – 8pm

THE AIRLINER

2419 N. Broadway

Los Angeles CA 90031

- WES D

(hit the  link below and read my complete interview with Vince!)

HERE’S THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW

The Sundowners do what they please

There’s nothing quite like a SUNDOWNERS show. The songs this band plays are completely their own and influenced (as lead singer and guitarist Dennis Stahl says) by,”…all the good shit from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. This is not a contrived sound for the masses, it’s a heavy psychedelic, spiritual blues sound:100% organic and designed to open the mind. There are a lot of acts out there, yes, but only a few bands. What this means is three guys and a lady who play together and off of each other. We don’t cater to any particular audience, just those interested in good rock and roll from every era.”

From the hills of Alta Dena where the air is justa little clearer and the altitude justa little higher their music will probably remind you of a lot of things but it’ll never sound even slightly derivative. And live the band projects an atmosphere of affection and whimsy that makes it feel like you’ve been invited into a happy house-party with your new favorite slightly bent friends.

Michael Harpel and Dennis Stahl

On  SKELETONIZE , their second album,  the songs pull from an even wider landscape of sounds and moods than on their sprawling two disc debut cd. Just when you think you know where the journey is headed the band’ll switch it up and take you to some new unexpectedly wonderful place…as Dennis recently remarked “we’ll do uptempo and downtempo in the same song”. This flies in the face of the current trend of easily pigeonholed cookie-cutter compositions many groups use to try to zero-in on their currently chosen demographic target, which naturally makes this unaffected take-us-as-we-are crew very near and dear to Mister Nervous’ heart.

And so we are pleased beyond words to say the Sundowners are opening up our Mister Nervous record release party this Thursday!

The Sundowners love you and they're your new best friends!

THURSDAY MARCH 18th

THE UNKNOWN THEATER
1110 Seward St.
Los Angeles CA 90038

(with MY IMAGINARY FRIENDS and MISTER NERVOUS)

Doors open at 10pm
$10 at the door (however: drinks are very reasonable!)

OLIN & the MOON (photo by Ninelle Efremova)

One of the hardest working bands in LA OLIN and the MOON are either performing, recording, rehearsing, partying or unconscious. I’m not even sure why I’m writing about them because if you hang anywhere near the east side of Los Angeles you probably already know them. Well just in case ya don’t:

Possibly the best most honest heartfelt authentic band you’ll find playing folk flavored rock music right now began in Sun Valley Idaho with Singer/Songwriter David LaBrel, his brother and lead guitarist Travis and drummer Marshall Vore. In Los Angeles they met up with Brian McGinnis (pedal steel, banjo, guitar) and Kyle Vicioso (bass) and started drinkin’, starvin’ and workin’ their butts off. You can see that  the effort paid off in every show. They make a sound that’s  intimate and gigantic all at once. David’s voice delivers the goods communicating quiet strength and intimacy and the boys play with a precision that somehow always looks like reckless abandon. The group’s  camaraderie is  obvious and infectious: wherever Olin and the Moon goes the party’s fine.

I was blown away the first time I saw the GYPSY RIVER HAUNTS play at Cranes Tavern, the brutal blast of rockabilly raunch these boys churn out at-the-drop-of-a-hat damn near knocked me on my ass.

Gypsy River Haunts (photo by Danielle Levitt)

Even more impressive is the fact that they just get more awesome every time I see ‘em, improving the quality and tightness of their performances without taking  the energy level down a single notch. If you like your rockNroll honest, raw and raucous these are the men for you to watch. Andrew Sheppard stands frontNcenter roaring out the words to their tunes with a power  that belies his somewhat diminutive frame while Dustin Hollenbeck attacks that cool maroon tele like a shredder whose discovered that well executed  hot country fused rockabilly licks can blow most metal players into the next county. Johnny and Salvatore man the engine room and keep this monster slammin’.

Are you gettin’ my meaning here (?) … these guys are hot.

OK: here’s the deal-

You can catch both these must see bands this week at the weekly HOMEWORK MONDAYS event ongoing over at CRANES TAVERN ( as well as the Downtown Train – a band exuberantly tackling classic roots, r&b and blues tunes – and Ned Casual’s spot-on DJ sets of authentic the-real-shit rockin roots music). Admission is free – Attendance is mandatory (or it oughta be)

OLIN & THE MOON – GYPSY RIVER HAUNTS – DOWNTOWN TRAIN
MONDAY MARCH 1st
CRANES TAVERN
1611 North El Centro Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90028