Saturday, July 6, 2013

You Only Fix The Things That Need To Be Broke



Nevertheless were one of the Connecticut bands that I started this blog for, so I guess it make sense that it took me five years to get around to posting this stuff. Nevertheless were from the Waterbury area and existed roughly from '88-'97 or thereabouts -- I'm not exactly sure, and Damien moved to Brooklyn at least a dozen years ago so he's not around for me to ask. They made a handful of demos, released a handful of cassettes, broke up around '93 for a year and then got back together (with a different bassplayer) a year later, making one more demo which wasn't nearly as good as their earlier stuff, before breaking up for good after that. In the meantime, they moved into a townhouse on Meadow St in Waterbury-- right next to Brass City Records-- and started hosting shows in their living room as "Local 491", before the landlord kicked them out for allowing Canadians to use the bathroom. (That's a joke, grow the fuck up) I saw a bunch of bands there myself, including Chixdiggit, Farmertan, the Differents, Explodee, Farewood, Static Press 19, and I forget who else... the Chixdiggit show was mic'ed up for broadcast on the Trinity College radio station, and I still have the tape of it, which I might get around to posting eventually (it's pretty good) although probably not, judging by the way things go around here.

In any case, despite their on-again/off-again status, Nevertheless still left a measurable scar on the '90s Connecticut indie rock scene, not only as a band but also with the venue (Local 491) that they started, which was literally the first time I'd ever been to a punk show that was held at someone's house (Al Pist's old place on Wolcott St, "Panic House", was the second). After doing a music blog for five years, I've figured out along the way that the audience for this type of stuff is sorta limited-- local band, cassette-only releases, never really toured (as far as I know)-- but you can do me a favor once and check these songs out anyway, because they're all pretty good and would fit in well alongside "While You Were Out"/"Hang Time"-era Soul Asylum and "Let It Be"/"Pleased To Meet Me" Replacements. "There You Are" and "Hell Toupee" are my own tape rips, while "Braille" (from their "Out of The Nowhere" cassette, recorded at Trod Nossel and released in '93) and "Turnip Truck" are tape rips that Walt at Brass City Records made onto a full-length Nevertheless anthology CD-R many many years ago. (Let the record show that Nevertheless made one appearance on vinyl, which was the split single with Explodee that I pressed up in '96, and still downloadable elsewhere on this blog if you're willing to look.)

As for post-Nevertheless activity which you'd probably care even less about: frontman Damien Pratt released an amazingly great solo CD in 1998, "From The Tapes of Lenny Bruce"-- which was even better than any of his Nevertheless stuff-- and then moved to Brooklyn where he started The Squeaky Fromme with Nina Kyle (from Bad Dream House and Creature Did). I have a couple of Squeaky Fromme CDs and they're pretty good also, including a 3" CD single of "Lighthouse" which I'm pretty sure Damien released partly as a joke because even by then there were hardly any spindle-type CD players left to play it on.

All of these old scans and photos are from the Nevertheless interview that ran in the fifth issue of Brushback, which I managed to sell twenty copies of. Anyway, here's pretty much the best '90s Connecticut indie rock band that still no one outside of this blog has ever heard of. Dig in.


The Nevertheless -

"Braille"

"There You Are"

"Hell Toupee"

"Turnip Truck"
























7 comments:

Vegas said...

one of the great CT bands from the early 90's scene that don't get mentioned enough. i remember getting a tape in the mail when i was booking TK's and i quickly got them on some shows. and they were always reliable for an excellent gig. thanks for the post.

Brushback said...

Hopefully some people are gonna check these songs out, since I don't think there's been any Nevertheless stuff in ready circulation for a long long time now....

Jere said...

Incredibly, a Yelp review of TKs Punk Rock Cafe from 20 years ago has made it to the Internet, wink wink....

Brushback said...

TK's had a set-up inside Yale Field for a couple of years -- you could go to a Ravens game and there were bar stools and TV's out in the open, in the reserved section next to the third base bleachers... that was kind of neat.

Jere said...

Somewhere I have a Steve Balboni glossy that I got there. I think he must have coached for the Ravens.

Brushback said...

Steve Balboni - now there's a yutz.

CT ROX said...

yeah, I've played Damien Pratt, Nevertheless, and so much more on CT ROCKS! on WPKN.

Nevertheless ... great band. Saw them a few times including at Tune Inn in New Haven, and at Brass City Records.

Thanks to you, I can now play more Nevertheless on CT ROCKS!