NERVE CITY: “HELL” c17 (Amateur Depression)

I gotta admit, I was kind of disappointed when I actually looked this up online and realized that the BAND is called Nerve City and the TAPE is called “Hell”, because at first I was like “Damn, this dude has serious balls! How audacious is that to call your band ‘Hell’?” With that misconception in mind, I didn’t know what to expect, but this is a really great, albeit brief, listen. Somewhere between the lonesome drifting of Mammal and the jangly semi-surf pop that’s currently taking New York by storm (i.e. Crystal Stilts, Blank Dogs, etc.) lies Nerve City, where a distant voice from a swinging telephone sings to you from the end of a tunnel over steady gusts of guitar and the occasional drum or organ. With three songs per side, this Richmond, Virginia loner vibe merchant Jason Boyer (who also indentifies himself with the omega symbol, sort of like Prince and his funky ankh) drifts by quickly enough to knock your hat off, but slowly enough to get a good whiff of what’s in the air.

Spraypainted, orange-foil tapes with xeroxed inserts.

http://www.myspace.com/nervecity
http://www.myspace.com/amateurdepression