February 18, 2009

Mod-A-Day: Nirvana Devils

Don't you think of me no more/I'm going to some foreign shore

This is a fantastic blend of power pop, garage rock, and pop vocals. The jangling guitars peg it as mid-80s right off the bat, and the song has a sixties sensibility that also plants it firmly in the garage revival of the era. You'd think it was produced as part of the Paisley Underground in the US right? Wrong underground. Nirvana Devils were part of the Berlin Underground in the 80s -- West Berlin -- which spawned lots of garage punk bands. I picked up the Devil's second release in 1985, a 7" single on Exile Records that featured this track "Some Foregin Shore" (which later sadly warped into a piece of art in the back window of my Chevy Impala sometime around 1990). At the same time I also picked up the Exile release of a 4 song EP by The Legendary Golden Vampires who had several other singles released in the mid-to-late 80s. By all accounts the bands either shared some personnel or might in fact have been completely one and the same. Either way this is a great piece of sixties styled garage rock. (If anyone knows anything more about either of these bands I'd love to hear from you.)

Nirvana Devils -- Some Foreign Shore (Exile Records 1985)