Nervosas “Nervosas” 2015. Dirtnap Records. Three piece dark noise punk from Ohio. I’m fairly certain this LP has been out of print for awhile but I got the sweet hookup from Dirtnap Ken himself after this past summer’s Dirtnap Fest where we caught a Nervosas set. The band hasn’t been together for awhile now (not sure, maybe around 10 years?) so this was our first, and likely last, chance to see them. Their set was definitely one of my highlights from that weekend. Buzzy, menacing, melodic in a good way with a driving beat. Goth punk on speed.

Nervosas was the band’s second and final LP. I have no idea which tracks they may have performed back in August but my top tracks include the album opener “Moral Panic” plus the excellent rockers “The Well,” “Parallels,” “Industry” and the stomping noise rock chaos of “Nothing.” Though when interviewed they say the songwriting was a three equal parts process, to my ears the bass is front and center, which makes sense as the vocalist and de facto frontman Jeffrey Kleinman plays bass. About the album he said, “Specifically for myself, trying to write more moving bass lines, and trying to break away from some of the more typical chord progressions that we had used in the past. Lyrically, I really pushed to make the content much more personal and honest than I had in the past. Viewing lyrics as some kind of fucked up therapy session is something I’m sure a lot of writers do, but it was the first time I had ever viewed it that way, and it turned out to be as much terrifying as it was worthwhile.” (New Noise Magazine) That said, the guitar – played by Mickey Mocnik – is great too, metallic edged (like actual metal, not the genre) and the drums get their fair share, too; drummer Nick Schuld engineered the album. (Sidenote: Schuld is a decent amount older than Kleinman and Mocnik and it looks like he’s been in a ton of bands over the years, including a possible stint in Guided by Voices).

Here they are, all significantly younger, from a show 12 years ago: