Artist description Fiery, colorful, melodic, dissonant.

Music Style indie

Musical Influences Fugazi, Blondie, Pixies

Artist History the Nervous return’s music and live shows are threatening and electrifying, making you laugh, turning you on and pissing you off, sometimes all within one song. This music is the sound of defiled Hollywood hallucinations, channeling the feral aggression of Iggy’s Detroit, the romantic melancholy of post-punk London, and Bowie’s darkest glam fantasies. Formed in the spring of 2000 by Jason Muller (guitar/vocals), Anthony Crouse (bass/vocals) and Greg Gordon (drums), the Nervous return (then known as twig) quickly recorded their eponymous five-song EP on their own Psychic Noise Records. Establishing a reputation for their high energy shows, the Nervous return put on their matching-color outfits and sounded the sonic alarm across the West Coast. In the summer of 2002, the Nervous return released their full length follow-up “HEADSHOTS” on Mootron Records, the indie rock/pop brainchild of Courtney Holt (Interscope Geffen A&M Records) and Mikey P (famed producer and remixer for such acts as Beck, The Cult, Eels, Rage Against the Machine, and Luscious Jackson). Mootron’s other artists include big Sir, Old Hickory, Sissy Bar and the recent success of Campfire Girls. “HEADSHOTS” is a brutally stunning musical journey into the Los Angeles abyss. With 10 songs packed into a little over 30 minutes, “HEADSHOTS” delivers rock with absolutely no filler. The controversial cover art of the Headshots album, coupled with the lyrics and intense music was conceived to comment on the illusion of Hollywood excess, the search for fame and fortune, and the depression that often occurs when those fantasies go unrealized. The cover is an actress’ headshot, the liner notes resemble her resume and the back represents her distorted vision of the Hollywood illusion. The reaction of the public to the cover art has ranged from hatred, to love, to feeling offended and violated. Many record stores refused to stock the record due to the “graphic, violent and sexual subject matter of the cover”. An advertisement for the album was even censored by the LA Weekly, who ran the photo with a big black box over the bottom half with the word “CENSORED." Nonetheless, the Nervous return is about music and performance. In the spring of 2002 Travis Barker (of Blink 182) got a hold of an old demo of the band and after seeing them at only one rehearsal decided to take them on the road to open for his new side project Box Car Racer. Though stylistically the Nervous return is closer to fugazi than Blink 182, the catchy melody of the music and the energy of the Nervous return’s show translated into some amazing, sold-out shows and a debut on the CMJ top 200 with consistent play on commercial radio shows such as KROQ's “Rodney on the ROQ”, San Diego’s “the Lab” on 91X and a live performance on Los Angeles' college station KXLU. Mark Gracious of HITS Magazine describes them as one of his favorite Los Angeles Bands, “donned in red outfits, they put on an air-tight, mesmerizing set with their signature quirk-pop jams (“Dramahead" is a ready-made gem), huge fake lashes, spastic stage antics and even a gaggle of cute lady-friends singing and dancing in the front row for good measure.” With the recent edition of guitarist Alison Ables to the band’s roster the Nervous return has solidified into one of the fastest moving bands in the independent music scene today, playing a slew of packed shows with such divirse bands such as Shiner (Desoto), Fatso Jetson, Smile, Black Dice (DFA), Biblical Proof of UFOs, Get Hustle (three one G), Midsummer, Hella (5RC), Dressy Bessy, The Flash Express, Clone Revolt, TAPE, the Start, Houston (sbr), Mother Tounge, The Rattlesnakes, Free Moral Agents, The Rolling Blackouts, The Movie Life, The Peak Show, Squab, Janis Figure, The Prids, 400 Blows, and the afore mentioned Box Car Racer.

Group Members Alison Ables (guitar) Anthony Crouse (bass,vocals) Greg Gordon (drums) Jason Muller (guitar,vocals)

Albums HEADSHOTS

Location Los Angeles, California - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).