RANTS OF AN UNRECONSTRUCTED MUSIC GEEK
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2022
https://stashdauber.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-nervebreakers-face-up-to-reality.html
The Nervebreakersâ âFace Up to Realityâ
[This time itâs personal. My second most anticipated release of the millennium (after the Peter Laughner box) is here. Iâm not going to review it, because I wrote the liner notes, which are reproduced in full below, including the part that wouldnât fit on the jacket. To say these guys are important to me would be an understatement. If my drummer from college hadnât seen them open for the Sex Pistols, I might not have moved from New York to Texas. Between 1978 and 1981, I saw them more times than any other band besides the Juke Jumpers. Mike Haskins remains my guitar hero, and Barry Kooda my human being hero. Bob Childress once surprised me with a message on the RadioShack corporate net after Iâd written something about them online. My wife and I once made a pilgrimage to Austin to see Tex Edwards play a bar gig. And Iâm proud to say that Carl Giesecke once played sleighbells on âI Wanna Be Your Dogâ with Stoogeaphilia. But enough about me. Iâve got to go listen to this again.
]Think of this record as a follow-up that took a while to emerge.
It was 1980, 40 years ago as I write this, when the Nervebreakers â whoâd bossed the nascent Dallas punk scene from its inception, opened for every punk/ânew waveâ touring act that passed through Big D (Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash, Police, Boomtown Rats), and made the pages of Rolling Stone via the image of guitarist Barry Kooda with a fish in his mouth onstage at the Pistols show â recorded their sole long player, We Want Everything!, which then took 14 years to make it onto vinyl.
The Nervebreakers coalesced in 1975 when Kooda, a junior college theater major back from Army service in Korea, managed to insinuate himself into the âarty rock bandâ Mr. Nervous Breakdown, formed by his high school best friend, guitarist Mike Haskins, with fellow record store employee Thom âTexâ Edwards. Haskins and Edwards bonded over their mutual appreciation for the Raspberriesâ combination of tuneful songcraft and rock crunch. Drummer Carl Giesecke was a moonlighting symphony percussionist, while bassist Bob Childress, whoâd joined after the Ramones show, held the distinction of having seen both the Stooges and the New York Dolls every night for a week at Richardâs in Atlanta while attending Georgia Tech.
Onstage, they had a formidable presence, honed over years of four-set gigs, with frontman Edwards draped rakishly over the mic stand, Kooda in his Army helmet and pistol belt, Haskins looking like Donnie Osmondâs axe-slinging twin, Childress bouncing around like the Uberfan who got to join his favorite band, and Giesecke pounding out a solid pulse. Their repertoire included covers as diverse as We Fiveâs âYou Were On My Mind,â George Jonesâ âThe Race Is On,â and the Troggsâ âStrange Movies.â More to the point, they penned potent originals: âHijack the Radio,â âGirls Girls Girls Girls Girls,â âMy Girlfriend Is a Rock.â Haskins and Edwards were the main writers, with occasional contributions from Kooda, but drummer Giesecke claims credit for their best known song.
When the sessions for We Want Everything! were complete, Haskins and Childress left to form Bag Oâ Wire, while the Nervebreakers recruited replacements for an East Coast tour, after which the band folded. Edwards and Kooda followed different musical directions, while Giesecke toured with Roky Erickson (whom the Nervebreakers had backed in 1979).
Fast forward to 2008, when the Nervebreakers reconvened in Haskinsâ home studio to record some songs theyâd never gotten around to documenting back when. The energy and excitement of the band in its heyday were still in ample supply, along with tunefulness, crunch, and sardonic wit. Highlights include the title trackâs snaky rifferama, the leg-twitching rockabilly of âJust Yawn,â the splenetic snarl of âDonât Wanna Be Used,â and the sprightly punk-country of âI Donât Wanna Hold Your Hand.â Kooda penned the ennui anthem âWake Me Up,â and co-wrote the dance-craze theme âThey Were Doing the Pogo.â The closing triptych of âItâs Obvious,â âBreaking Down,â and âIâd Rather Dieâ provides a rousing conclusion to a rockinâ set of tunes thatâs long overdue, but right on time.
POSTED BY STASHDAUBER AT 1:30 PM
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