German Measles and The Nymphettes at Death by Audio 3-25-10

I ended up hanging out with Tim and Aaron Condon from Herizon Thursday night, they were passing through working on their massive documentary, and we ended up going to good old Death By Audio to catch The German Measles and Nymphettes. I noticed this single from The Measles at a merch table and picked it up before the set. I wasn't sure what to expect, but Tim said he had actually picked up one of their cassettes in New Hampshire or Vermont the previous week and they had been listening to it in the van the whole way to NY. As they got onstage they reminded me of Nodzzz, that unassuming style all their own, and proceeded to seemingly throw together this kid of geek punk that wasn't interested in faster louder, but melodies held together with scotch tape and staples. Chords hanging around a second too long, the drummer straining to hear changes, bass playing barely along. It works in that unfiltered pop culture way. It's a mess, like the back of the sleeve: xerox cutout Charlie Brown, monsters, high school yearbook pictures. All of those things that are a little off in their own way, or maybe it's putting them all together that you end up with the weirdo punk monster with tourettes of German Measles. The A-Side track from the single 'Color Vibration' is a perfect example, it's no surprise he's actually singing about colors: frequency of light / is making me feel stoned / neuroscience can you tell me / what these colors are doing to me in a off beat delivery, he lyrics are the most important, jam it into weird phrasing say color vibrations as fast as possible and the rest has this lazy drunk stumbling around quality. Forget love, it's all been done before...well not a song about color vibration, I guarantee. They are just a crazy mystery..the next song live is about how it's 'party time', or how he's 'totally wild'. They're messing with contradictions (and this NY Press reporter).

from their myspace

Afterwords Aaron said 'that was like seeing a punk joy division'. The lead singer is awkward, and maybe it's just because being with those guys made me think about the city in a little different way...but that's what makes New York so great, it's not put on, it's just his thing. He's got a job, orders pizza, books a show at DBA, but also has a collection of black light velvet paintings that would blow your mind. Perfectly normal. I can relate to this outsider do your own thing freak direction they have going completely. So uncool, they are cool again.
Looks like it's sold out from Wild World, so check the usual distro's or April 17th at Glasslands you might be able to pick up a copy.

The Nymphettes up after GM were insane energy, the lanky lead singer/guitarist practically had the shakes smashing into the mic, the drummer kept it high tempo and was an all around ridiculous drummer. Solid, fun blasting songs I want to hear again. They have a single as well from Signed by force records that I'm going to look into.