Search - Nerves :: World of Gold

With the onset of retro-punk mania, where the White Stripes and the Strokes are twin messiahs of rock, it's a shame that Chicago's fiercest trio, Nerves, isn't basking in the same spotlight. Theirs is a thicker sound on World of Gold than on 1999's New Animal; it's part garage-punk psychedelia and part shocked wonderment at whatever Rob Datum's voice wails around and bellows about. His is a more insistent, heaving shout in 2001, and his guitar is happy to hint at being an extended claw and even happier to lash out sharply. The bass and drums of Seth Skundrick and Elliot Dicks are stouter and less angular in their intensity--rich in a blues-drenched tone as seen through the lens of 1970s Cleveland punk. "Behind the Trees," "Rhineway," and "More You're Scared" suggest a spooked possession by some spirit that pounds and bellows and finally bursts in a fit of hard-smacked drums, ringing, torrential guitar, and snarling bass. All hail the return of primal punk, but by all means have some Nerves. --Andrew Bartlett