The thing that I really love about Drunken Sailor Records is that Juice is introducing me to new bands and artists on a monthly basis (if not more frequently). And it’s almost always good stuff. Juice trawls the depths and dredges up the goods so that lazy people like me don’t have to. Obviously, this is a long winded way of telling you I haven’t heard of Erik Nervous before, but also mad props to Juice…
Basically, the internet doesn’t have a whole lot of info on Erik either, asides that he is “workin’ on a proper album with the band”. I get the feeling there’s probably a bit more info out there in issues of Maximum Rock n’ Roll or some shit. I dunno, I don’t have time for reading it – I find it dry as fuck. To be honest, I have no time for attention seekers bleating on about how obscure and niche their lives are. Nobody gives a fuck, mate.
So, Erik Nervous, then. I’m not sure whether to class this as a debut full length or a compilation LP, but I guess both would apply. Assorted Anxieties basically collects a bunch of Erik’s previous output: Shipshewana Swimming demo (including an outtake that didn’t make it on to that 7in), the Winter cassingle, the Teen Distortion Junk Music EP, the Ice Cream 7in, the Discontinuous Innovation tape, and his track from the Killed By Meth 2 comp.
So, what can you expect? Well, there’s 24 cuts on this LP (note to proper record nerds: the Drunken Sailor pressing and the forthcoming US pressing on Neck Chop both feature a song that isn’t on the other version). I suppose the best way to describe these songs would be to say that these must be Erik’s musings on the mundane and weird aspects of day to day life set to a soundtrack that veers between garage punk, post punk and indie rock. Each short, snappy track seems to remind me of something different: Booji Boys, Pavement, The Cure, Wire, Reggie & The Full Effect, The Fall, Devo, The Coneheads, Circle Jerks, The Velvet Underground amongst others.
It’s definitely something that would suit people with short attention spans. It’s pleasingly daft without falling foul of being overly zany. There’s even a tranche of songs on there that I swear are parodies of Black Flag classics, and a joyously inept cover of Iron Maiden’s The Trooper. I really like that this feels like a ‘various artists’ kind of comp, whilst obviously being the one act.
Tony of Nurgle rating: 8/10
You can buy this LP in the UK from Drunken Sailor here the first 100 are on red vinyl, the other 200 are on black. The US pressing will be available from Neck Chop’s webstore soon
