BUILD YOUR OWN SCENE!

20 years of Nervhous Records

Who would have guessed, the record label that I started in 2000 is still productive releasing music until today, the year that seems so far and so futuristic back then, 2000. In 1999, my friends and I formed a band called Jellybelly and recorded a demo in 1999. In order to release the cassette Shah (the bassist) and I formed Nervous Entertaiment.

Before we released that tape we released another demo tape from our friends' band, The Mojos. Shah just brought his mini tape recorder to one of their jam sessions and recorded it live and rare. Later on, we joined to release a compilation tape, Bollok Wok vol. 2 –featuring bands from our hometown.

We were inspired by local labels such as Alternative Garage Entertainment, Crashover Records, Dull Entertainment Programme as well as foreign labels such as Straits Records, Dischord Records and Epitaph Records. I am always more inclined towards melodic punk music style and intrigued by local bands while the local scene was blooming with crustcore, grindcore and hardcore during those days in late 90’s. I am also into old school hardcore and indie pop and released various styles of music including grindcore.

The initial plan was to help releasing our hometown and friends' bands then changed. We expand with bands from all over the country as well as releasing foreign bands too when I moved to Kuala Lumpur for good in 2005. This includes Greenwell from Japan who have chosen us to release their album ‘Break The Wall’ in 2013.

In 2006, we had to change the spelling of Nervous Records to Nervhous Records when a long-running UK rockabilly with the same name emailed us in anger and a threat.

In 2008, Nervhous had strong supports from people like Rizie (Dum Dum Tak), Amert (Stick No Bill) Fael (Skunkfix), Tobek (Always Last), Shah (The Mindless Show), Andax (The Liberals) and the others. We started to organize shows in Kuala Lumpur, plan our releases together with regular meetings at mamak stalls and do launching shows. I also organize some shows with the title ‘Nasik Dagang Raya Jam’ and ‘Tengkujuh Fest’ in my hometown Kuala Terengganu. Nervhous Records also had the chance to help in organizing shows for big bands such as No Use For A Name, Anti-Flag and also The Casualties.

On 27 May 2014, I announced that I was going to end Nervhous Records. I even wrote a press statement about it. Go here to read it http://nervhousrecords.blogspot.com/2013/05/nervhous-records-1999-2013.html. At that time all of my friends in the scene were getting married, I was getting really sick and caught up with family and work commitments. I felt it was hard to sell CDs at that time, it was the era when physical music format was falling apart. But somehow, we made a comeback in November 2015 by co-releasing a local compilation ‘Penentangan Berterusan’ that was initiated by Youthcrime Records to raise fund for local gig venues.

Living in Malaysia, it seems impossible to make Punk Rock as a full time job. But with the recent rise of physical music format, I started to release CDs and cassettes again. Many indie and punk record stores opened too, this phenomenon is a big help for me. With my unemployment status since last year after being constructively dismissed from my lecturer job that I did for 11 years, I am more determined to make the Nervhous Records a serious record label once again. Just like how it begins. After all, I’ve been doing it for 20 years.

Bands and creative people, do get in touch.

Releases that are still available: Give & Take Vol. 2 CD, Dum Dum Tak ‘Dinoda’ CD, RTJ ‘Rumah’ CD, TIM ‘2008 EP’ cassette, Membarai Lebaran CD, Duckhead ‘Always Late’ CD, Inikah Hidup ‘Soundtracks of War and Destruction’ CD.

Upcoming releases: Dirty Deeds ‘Demo 2020’, Bollok Wok vol. 5 and more.

To view all of our releases: http://nervhousrecords.blogspot.com/p/releases.html

Thanks to Shah of The Mindless Show / Always Last for doing a Nervhous Records special for his Who Cares What You Like soundcloud program. Listen to it here

https://m.mixcloud.com/whocareswhatyoulike/wcwyl-6-a-nervhous-records-special-20th-anniversary/

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1) PELIGROSOS - Media Sosial
taken from Brainwash, 2017

2) DIRTY DIVIDER - Not My Baby
taken from Bollok Wok Vol. 3, 2006

3) TIM - Benci
taken from EP, 2019 (reissue)

4) ALWAYS LAST - Jom Layan Punk
taken from Antidotes, 2009

5) TOXICTOY - The Blind Pianist
taken from Amazingly Realistic Puke!, 2009

6) DUM DUM TAK - Api 13 Mei
taken from Dinoda, 2019

7) SOUL SAVIOR - Sifar Rasisma
taken from Give & Take Vol. 1, 2012

8) 50K PROMISES - Doris
taken from 2 Hours and Still Waiting, 2006

9) GREENWELL - Roofie
taken from Break Your Shell, 2013

10) SKUNKFIX - Hey There! (AKA Jamban)
taken from The First Two Demos, 2008 (reissue)

11) BRAYOK - Lagu Rakyat
taken from Let's Go!, 2014

12) STRAIGHT ANSWER - Hentam Prasangka Buruk
taken from The Complete Discography (1996-2007), 2008

13) MARJINAL - B.E.B.A.S.K.A.N.
taken from Predator, 2007 (reissue)

14) STICK NO BILL - Nobody
taken from Nobody, 2010

15) THE OBVIOUS - The Last Letter
taken from The Twosome Takeover, 2006

16) JELLYBELLY - Holiday
taken from The Twosome Takeover, 2006

17) CHANNEL X - Makhlok Perosak
taken from Come Again, 2009

18) FAILING FORWARD - Grizzly Grimms
taken from Does This Look Like a Punk Rock Compilation?, 2009

19) CARBON 4'TEEN - Up
taken from Give & Take Vol. 1, 2012

20) NOT THINGS! - Dear Letter
taken from Wounded Dignity, 2016

21) INIKAH HIDUP - Inilah Hidup
taken from Soundtracks of War and Destruction, 2005

22) THE MOJOS - Letterday
taken from Cappucino Sold Here, 2000

The Story behind Give & Take vol. 2

Give & Take vol.2 is out now is out on sale since 15^th November 2019. It all started when Zahid (of The Elm Kids fame) offered us to make a compilation and record all songs at his studio Lifeboat Studio in Sri Kembangan Selangor. We told the bands around our circle to go and record a song at the studio. Some more bands that played at the Punk Rock Freakers show in November 2018 were invited.

The first band that recorded their song was The Needles which was in December 2018 and the last band was Toxictoy. Most of the bands also appeared in the Give & Take compilation vol. 1 released in 2012 which are TIM, Dum Dum Tak, Skunkfix, The Needles and Toxictoy.

GUWF! Is a new band consisting of Tobek (Always Last), Munet (Stick No Bill), Napi (The Korok), Arip (Never Found) and also Solih (Brayok). They play powerpop like Weezer and Pup. Parklane made up of Jim and Saiful (Bugstar) which originated from Batu Gajah Perak. Absolute Paradox consists of two members from Tadpoles with the help of Akmal from TIM. Multiverse G.D. is a new band formed by Emy and Min from Skunkfix and also Shah from The Mindless Show. Nywa is Zahid's new band.

Other bands that made the compilation complete are quite big names in the local scene; The Fridays, In A Sense, Priceless Stupid Box (from Pasir Gudang Johor) and Trophy Knives (which recently launched their new album ‘Glass Ceiling’).

The Needles announced that the song they contributed ‘Bulan Ke Riba’ is gonna be their last song they record together. So to their fans and supporter. Do get this CD!

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Nervhous Records 1999-2013

Yesterday I announced on facebook that Nervhous Records is dead. To make it official, this is the press statement. There are a few factors;

1. I no longer have interest in releasing bands nor organizing music events. Some people think that I still organize gigs but the true fact is gigs like The Casualties, Anti-Flag that happened recently here were organized by friends especially Apis Red Ink Ent, Amert and Sanchez. I didn't even go to The Casualties gig nor took part in organizing it. The same goes with Anti-Flag, I didn't help anything besides posting the poster to the web. Then I went the show. I rarely go to gigs after marriage (exactly 2 years ago!). I only go to gigs that my band play and gigs held nearby my place. The eagerness of checking out new bands also faded. Maybe jaded. I only listen to the bands and music I've known and liked. Some bands are still hoping to get to be under the label and some still asked when are we going to organize a gig, so it's better to make an official announcement.

2. CDs don't sell well these days. Releasing CDs meaning you have to run from your job to go and print and press the CDs at the plants. It's tiring, furthermore it doesn't sell like it used to be. Certain titles sold very well and sold-out such as Dum Dum Tak's 'Hentikan Penindasan', Always Last's 'Antidotes' and Toxictoy's 'Amazingly Realistic Puke!'. One of the reasons is because I rarely go to gigs, maybe. We still have a lot of stock for other titles.

3. I'm sick. Yes, literally. Both my kidneys are failing since 2006 and it's getting worse every year. I'm constantly seeking for alternative treatments and it costs a lot. So, if running a record label consume time and money plus not enough in return, it's better to stop and have more rest and pray to God for recovery.

4. Family. Need to spend more time with the young family especially on weekends. Plus need to commit with day job since you don't wanna get fired because you're always away printing and pressing CDs. Distro still running though because I can run to the post office for awhile during office hours.

Somehow, we still have two releases coming out soon. Green Well's 'Break Your Shell' CD and Brayok's 'Let's Go!' CD. Both CDs will be pressed limited to 500 pcs only. Green Well is from Japan and playing ska punk. They're playing a show in KL this Monday. Check them out.

I still stock zines, and do CD trades and sell them online and at some events. I still love reading zines and read about punk rock and manage a blog about zines http://bedroompublishers.blogspot.com

Thanks to everyone who helped me out a lot especially Shah (Jellybelly), Amert, Sanchez, Tobek, Shahrizal, Apis, Shaun, Fazri, Tim, Napi, Salman, Fara, Joe Kidd, Aniq, Khabir and there are hundreds more name to thank. It was a good roller coaster ride, making a lots of friends and learning things (and masam-masam muka, puak-puak too!).

Nizang
28/5/2013 

Year End Note/Newsletter

Assalamualaikum/Peace be upon you. 

Thanks to all our friends who have been supporting us by purchasing the stuffs, coming to the gigs, join or invite us in any projects/events, or just by saying hello on FB or face to face. You guys rock. It has been a good and VERY BUSY year for us at Nervhous Records/Family.

Quite a few of us tied the knot this year; Nizang, Shah&Norly, Tobek, Ajai, Munet, Napi, Angah and Red. Napi (The Korok), Eman (Toxictoy), Jijoe (The Korok) and Bulat (Always Last) got cute babies this year. Good luck for them in becoming punk rock fathers. We also got into other activities; religious classes, book writing and publishing, bike polo, new jobs, new study places, new life tasks, moving to new houses/places. Sorry if I left any names out. 

Thanks and congratulations to Sanchez, Apis and Amert for organizing the Casualties gig in KL recently.

InsyaAllah, in 2012, we will resume our half-way done projects that were stopped because of other commitments; Dum Dum Tak/Always Last split CD and Give & Take compilation.

Thank You. We will see you around.

Nizang

Nervhous Records/Distro.

PUASA

Eye-hurting bright colors (the analysis of color in Nervhous)

The other day at the Paka gig, my friend Kudin of Rebel For X asked, “is yellow Nervhous Records’ theme color?”

Shah also said the calendar design reminded him of the Bollok Wok comp. because of the same color, yellow.

It made me realized about all the color themes for Nervhous releases/projects. I admit my favorite colors are Red, Orange and Yellow, as the title suggests. Okay, let’s take a look.

Yellow:

Bollok Wok Vol. 3: I tried using either orange or yellow, and finalized with yellow.

Struck A Nerve Tour campaign: I just wanted to add color, I think I accidentally again, chosen yellow for the campaign.

Senandung Pawer-Kord: We worked as a team to design this one. I think I suggested yellow (again!), and the others agreed.

Always Last ‘Antidotes’: Also yellowish color for the cover, but I wasn’t involve at all in the design part.

Toxictoy ‘Amazingly Realistic Puke!’: Again, it’s yellow colored, but I’m not involved at all in the design part, it was Eman.

Skunkfix ‘The First Two Demos’: It’s bright yellow again. If I’m not mistaken, Emy (the frontman) did the front cover design. I only did the band font design for that release.

Red:

The Twosome Takeover: Red, Black, White. I like these colors combination when I was in high school. Black and Red was always a good color combination in my eyes, since I got Metallica’s black album.

Time Is Monkey: Red. No, I’m not involved in the designing at all.

Punkrock Paradox: The color was red-ish brown. But it was designed by Rizie.

Dum Dum Tak ‘Hentikan Penindasan’: The CD color was red, yeah purely for my love of red!

Last Strive ‘Kuasa Kita’: Not my work at all.

Orange:

Nervhous blog header: I love orange!

Nizang

plagiarism is punk rock, NOT!

Today we got an email from one of the punk labels we looked up upon, BYO (Better Youth Organization) records. We did some mistakes and they notify us. This is our email of apology and also the email from them. We expose these emails for the sole purpose of lesson learned for us and our friends to take notes.

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Nervhous Records!

Came across this while looking online: http://www.myspace.com/punkrockbowlingtournament

We are BYO records, you may know us because you stole our event, including our artwork, to stage your own copycat bowling tournament!?! Do you think this is ok? It is not ok to steal other people's idea's, art, music or anything else. PLEASE STOP IT NOW! DO NOT USE ANYTHING FROM BYO without express written permission. That permission, now that you have stolen from us, will not be granted easily. We have been doing this for many, many years and while things may be different in your community, culture, country, in the punk rock world that we come from, we do not steal or use other people's work without asking.

Do not take this lightly. I see you are doing a show with NO USE FOR A NAME. They are friends of ours, as are most of the punk bands around the world. Do you think they would like to know that you steal other people's work? Do you think this would help them decide if they want to travel to your country to work with people who cannot be trusted!? You can be sure they will not.

Take some advice from someone that has been doing this for over 30 years, if you want to run a punk rock label/band/zine/promoter, whatever, you better learn to be honest and trustworthy in this community or no one will work with you.

I hope you have some sort of explanation for this theft!

I'm waiting to hear it!

Shawn Stern

shawn@byorecords.com

President

BYO Records

(310) 295-4656

http://www.byorecords.com/

http://www.letthemknowthemovie.com/

Let Them Know:

The Story Of Youth Brigade and BYO Records

BYO 25 Year Anniversary Box Set

Out Sept. 2009 (Finally)

Full Length Documentary Dvd

2 LP's Featuring Exclusive Tracks From All Your Favorite Punk Bands

100 Page Hardcover Coffee Table Book

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Hi Shawn, it's a shock to get an email from BYO! Unfortunately it's a negative one. Anyway, we would like to apologize for using the name and the artwork from BYO's annual punk rock bowling. Actually what we did was just a very small gathering of friends who are active in the label and honestly, it was less than 20 persons just went for bowling. It was really nothing big as what you guys did.

So we just simply took the name, obviously because there's no other name we think is suitable, and we thought it was a general name for an event, plus the fact that we are all punks too :) And to tell you the truth, the event was just a one-off thing, not annually or as frequently as BYO did. RM20 fee for each participants were to pay the rental of bowling alleys for each person to bowl.

About the flyers, the intention was just to make the bowling/gathering more exciting and just for fun, nothing more than that. We have to let you know that we DID NOT make any single money out of that, it was just an unofficial gathering. Our friend who did the design who used your artwork is just a beginner in photoshop and image editing and we actually didn't know that the artwork was stolen from BYO. We should have checked first.

We all have very much respects for BYO for the struggles you people went through, the effort you guys did for the hc/punk scene worldwide, the always awesome records you guys put out and not to forget your band YOUTH BRIGADE. You all are very inspiring to us and we hope you won't stop being awesome.

Please accept our sincere apologies, and we promise and guarantee you that this sorts of thing will never happen again, at least not from us.

Nizang
founder
nervhous records
http://nervhousrecords.blogspot.com

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Hi Nizang,

Ok, don't sweat it, everyone makes mistakes. Just, in the future, even for something that's just for friends, if you wanna use someone else's idea and then you're gonna put it up on the web, always best to drop an e-mail and ask if it's ok. That way you avoid something like this happening. Anyhow, good luck with everything you are doing. Maybe we'll make it over there next year. We are probably taking a surf trip end of May to Indonesia, so who knows, we may do some shows in Asia.

Thanks,

Shawn

NOT A RACIST ISSUE AT ALL

last night some of us had a “healthy” discussion after Wan Hazril confronted some of the guys in Dum Dum Tak stances in certain issues. Well I think i’m also involved now in these issues since they’re in the band that i’m also in.

i shouldn’t speak on behalf of them. but from what i understand, the issue started with a small (to me it’s small) MISUNDERSTANDING. and you guys conformists just spreading and shit-talking about this guy without confronting him like what Wan did last night. you guys are the coward here. you just listen to one party, one side of story. me, i think i already listened to both parties. eventhough Amert is close to me, heck i met him every week, 2-3 times a week now but still it’s hard for me to determine which ones are saying the truth. i’m close to him doesnt mean i have to believe him since i know him not more than 3 years (?).

IF really he used to be racist, i think he already learned the mistakes. and that’s the purpose of living (to me). TO FUCKING LEARN.

i think this is same old bullshit repeating itself. if your friend/some influential party boycotts a person, you will boycott too, spread the thing when you don’t go and speak and get the explanation from that person yourself.

i know hc/punk and the world don’t have space for all these racists, homophobes, sexists blah blah you know. BUT there are always space to learn from mistake, change, be a better person…

i personally would love if the people who involved in those incidents themselves write here/somewhere explaining. or better meet and discuss. but last night, when we were discussing this, confronting each others,… some of the persons who spread the story were there and i’m sure they know we’re talking about this, why you just go away?? why you guys don’t come and listen and say what you heard, what you know and clear things up and stuffs? why? running from problem will never solve any issues.

and the saddest part of the story to me is all these happened because of a misunderstanding incident that he already cleared with those involved (from what i know). not a real racist case at all. NOT A RACIST CASE AT ALL.

now i have a question since i heard the rumors so I want the answer, i heard some of the guys in Gangbuster new line-up used to beat the hell out of foreign workers and throw them in the longkang and stuffs to pow money for beer. if that’s true, i hope they already changed. i heard that the OLD line-ups were really good and succeed in getting rid all of the nazis in Penang awhile ago. that’s why they are invited to play at Cherating’s anti-racist gig this 30th May.

“if this is hardcore, hey i’m staying with punk rock”