Pinched Nerve

Music:

Member Since: 8/24/2005
Band Website: youtube.com/pnerve
Band Members: KVieira- Keys Vox
MEdelman - Drums Vox
AChao - Bass Vox
Influences:
Influences: The corner of Mission and Highland, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, The Minutemen, Wu Tang Clan, The Dead Milkmen, The White Stripes, Curtis Mayfield, Otis Redding, Stax Records, Booker T. and the MGs, Public Enemy, Iggy Pop, The Slits, Beck, The Butthole Surfers, Erase Errata, Sun Ra, Les Savy Fav, Prince, Devo, Kraftwerk, Public Enemy, Kurt Vonnegut, Charles Bukowski, Funkadelic, Lee Scratch Perry, King Tubby, Noise, Sound, Gang of Four, Herbie Hancock, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Psychedelic Cumbias, Calle 13, Bollywood, Mr. Bungle, Bill Withers, Sugarhill Records, Gil Scott Heron, Sesame Street, The Dead Kennedys, DJ Shadow, Johnny Cash, Fuzz, Distortion, Wah Wah, Feedback.

Sounds Like:

"Blackout is my favorite song when im nervous with a guy. i know its lame but its true." - Creeperella Thuggalette

"I wanna black out with you," goes the chorus of the opening track: a love song for the jilted generation. The name Pinched Nerve is a reference to the back injury that kept Kris Vieira bed-ridden during the recording of his first EP. For someone who wears his demons on his sleeve, Vieira's music - a synthesized stew of post-punk and hip-hop - is surprisingly playful.

Review of "Mission and Highland" from Independent Clauses /p?
Bad vocals can totally thrash a release. It’s a sad fact, but it’s also a very true one. You have to either make the vocals work for you or make your music absolutely brilliant to cover for the bad vocals. In Mission and Highland by Pinched Nerve, neither happen, and an album full of enjoyable beats is nearly run into the ground by odd vocals.

Pinched Nerve plays Beck-ian hip-hop with beats that are vaguely reminiscent of many bands: Aphex Twin, Beck, Nine Inch Nails, Black Eyed Peas. Those widespread influences do result in beats that are creative and interesting. Synths play in a lot of the beats, and although they occasionally devolve into meaningless noodling (“Trashstorm”), Pinched Nerve usually knows what he’s doing with the synths. “In the Street” melds a heavy bass synth with cowbell, tambourine, handclaps and NIN-style creepy melodies to great effect. Accordion-esque synths and a good drum groove anchor “Pigeons,” while the various pieces of shaken percussion fill out the beat well.

Where the beats are mostly good with an occasional error, the vocals are the opposite. Pinched Nerve frustratingly employs a variety of vocal tones, never establishing one home tone. On top of that, the lyrics are strange. Chronicling “life in the ghetto,” Pinched Nerve creates raps that occasionally don’t rhyme or have rhythm. It gets really confusing when there’s no rhythm or rhyme at the same time (“In the Street”). The lyrics are observational and bizarre -“Scabs and Mice” is a dialogue about scabs and mice, while “Vicodin, Act V: Judge Judy” is a song about Judge Judy. I would laugh, but I’m not sure if I’m supposed to. Right now I’m just kind’ve confused.

I really don’t know what to make of this release. I really like the beats, but I can’t stand the vocals or the lyrics. Liner notes might help my confusion, but there are none, really. Myspace is minimal, as well. The only thing to do is go to this page and listen for yourself.

Stephen Carradini September 2007