Thursday, November 20, 2008

Just got in from Tokyo...

The Nip Drivers. If the name offends you, you might want to skip this post, but you'll be missing out on some fine, fine music. I've never been able to find much info about these guys. The web has a few fan pages, but it seems like they are asking as much as they are telling. A couple blogs even posted albums, but I didn't see anything recent, and it looks like a lot of the links are down. So, because I love you, I am posting their complete discography. Almost. I've got the "Destroy Whitey/ Oh Blessed Freakshow" CD, and the "Pretty Face" 7" here, but if anyone has the "Dirt My Hole" 7", they aren't sharing it. [Update: Aesop's got it on Cosmic Hearse.] All I've really been able to find out about them, is that they were from the South Bay/Southern California, and that... well actually that's pretty much all I've found out. No Wikipedia page, no Youtube videos, and no T-shirts at the mall anytime soon. Maybe you have a Nip Drivers story? Hmmm? It seems that the Holy Grail for most fans would be a videotaped show, but I've been checking the web for years, and none have turned up.

How does one hear of a band of such intrigue and mystery? Cover songs. The only reason I ever got let in on their spastic glory, was a cover of "Cindy" on Apocalypse Hoboken's, "Easy Instructions For Complex Machinery" LP. And since I did a post on them, it got me thinking about these cats again. Well, actually, I listen to The Nip Drivers on a pretty regular basis, but that's all semantics, isn't it? Speaking of Covers, you'll find a few of them here. Olivia Newton John's, "Have You Never Been Mellow?"; Duran Duran's, "Rio"; and the Rolling Stone's, "Under My Thumb" all get sped up and thrashed about. Keith Moon on Aderall drumming, and vocals that can't be bothered to stay in time, or be enunciated, the Nip Drivers.

Unfortunately, I did find one more piece of info: Mike Webber passed away in Nov. of 2006. To his friends and family, I offer my condolences. I'll always remember and respect his contributions to the world of music.



Nips Get Pissed (DL)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw these guys in the bay area in the nineties. Don't remember where/ when exactly. A quick check of the List archive at http://jon.luini.com/thelist/ says they played July 31, 1998 at the Cocodrie with Battalion of Saints and the Brandon Cruz band. That doesn't seem right, but maybe. They were already an old/ mysterious/ legendary LA band at that time.
Anyway, the great thing about that show was that the singer was kinda loony and was getting mad at the guitarist. He kept unplugging or turning off the guitarist's amp and glaring at him through the whole show. A truly unpredictable, actual punk band.

RyGar said...

Nice. You are probably the first person that I've heard that can realte a story about a show. It sounds like the picture I had painted in my head.

Nid said...

I liked the singles that Aesop posted on Cosmic Hearse so much that I followed your comment over here to get the album. You said you re-upped the file? I still can't get it for some reason. Mediafire said it's not a valid link.

RyGar said...

I just re-pasted the link. I tried it and it seems to be working. Try again, maybe. Please let me know if it doesn't work again.

Nid said...

I forgot about this for a while, but I came back and tried it again...and it worked! Thanks!