Mystery Girls “Incontinopia” 2008. In the Red Records. Garagey blues-punk from Green Bay, Wisconsin (and we purchased it in Green Bay, too!). Their third LP (plus one earlier cassette release which I’m not sure counts?), and their last release. Mystery Girls’ guitarist Jordan Davis currently lives in our neighborhood (and because it’s Smallwaukee, I’m friends and longtime colleagues with his partner, Michelle); we caught a few songs of his current country twang project, Long Line Riders, at the Wiggle Room this past Friday.

Long Line Riders February 14, 2025 at Wiggle Room; Jordan on the far right

They were pretty good but Mystery Girls much more my speed. Incontinopia is gritty, hard-rocking and a bit messy, just as punk blues is meant to be. My top picks are the garage rocker “I Took the Poison,” the noise-psych of “Quit Your Flyin Around” (great guitar work on this one!), the wild punk blues of “Cool It in Control” and the Bo Diddley maraca beat meets psychedelic freakout on “Cold Feet.”

The Nerves “One Way Ticket” 2008. Alive Records. Jangly, garagey, power pop. A collection of tracks recorded for their first EP The Nerves (1976), demos and live recordings. I was exactly today years old when it clicked that The Nerves wrote and first performed “Hanging on the Telephone,” a UK hit for Blondie in 1978. The original is great, as is the rest of the collection. The title track “One Way Ticket” and “Paper Dolls” pretty much set the bar for the power pop sound that continues to evolve 50 years on. “Walking Out on Love” veers hard into a punk pop sound – this song was recorded by The Breakaways, formed by Peter Case and Paul Collins after The Nerves dissolved and before Case left that band and helped found the more well-known The Plimsouls in 1978 (just one Plimsouls song on this comp, “Thing of the Past” recorded live in 1979). The other Nerves member, Jack Lee, also has a track on One Way Ticket: a straightup rocker “It’s Hot Outside.” The live tracks on Side 2 are a bit raw, a lot messy – and quite muddy – but full of snotty energy;  these are from July, 1977 on the Magical Blistering Tour tour with The Ramones, recorded in Schoenberg, Illinois (Chicago-area). The most exciting of these is “Come Back and Stay” which, again, I was today years old when I realized this is an original Nerves song – I have only ever heard Paul Young’s new wave/blue-eyed soul interpretation from 1983 (which I loved then and still do today) which went to #22 in the US and to #4 in the UK. And since there are zero videos of The Nerves that I could find, will include Paul Young in 80’s acid wash jeans here:

Plague Vendor “By Night” 2019. Epitaph Records. Noisy, hard-rocking post-punk that is, as the band’s name and LP title suggest, super dark. By Night is the California-based band’s third full-length record. This is one of those albums I literally know nothing about- same with the band, it just appeared on my to-do stack, without context. That said, I had zero expectations throwing it on the platter and am pleased to find out that it’s pretty great. Relentless beats, some real ass-shakers, some malevolent psychedelic swirls: think Black Rebel Motorcycle Club meets the big-dick energy of Queens of the Stone Age and then add a dash of Black Angels’ smoke-tinged neo-psychedelia space rock. The opener “New Comedown” grabs you by the throat and pretty much never lets go. “Let Me Get High/Low” and “Night Sweats” are both high-energy stoner rock (an oxymoron but it works) and “Prism” is an all-out butt-shaking banger. “Pain in My Heart” is reminiscent of the chaotic noise-rock of Sonic Youth with extra alt-metal screaming and then the grungy “Snakeskin Boots” goes off the rails, combining rap, thrash and funk. The album closes with another buzzy, fuzzy ass-shaker, “In My Pocket.” It looks like Plague Vendor is on tour this spring with another band I don’t know (L.S. Dunes) and will be playing in Madison in April. Might have to check these guys out live.