Pretty sure they were from New York and, considering the 2013 recording date on this self titled slammer, that kinda helps explain why they seem to have flown mostly under the radar. To us left coasters, the early ’10s were awash with nuke york and toxic states and an avalanche of bands whose sound and aura kicked DIY punk in the fukkn teeth. A lot of that shit had (has) some real staying and some of those bands and labels truly left a mark….now that the dust has settled, the new has worn off and those kids who upset the system are now institutions, you can see some of those marks, even if they are faint. But what of GREY NURSE? Was NYC fucking with their interesting, passionate DIY hardcore in their world filled with fashion, cocaine and misanthropy? Maybe they were, but on this left coast I had no idea….until now. You can hear where they are coming from, but the great ones can put something familiar in front of you and still leave you floored, which is what their sole release does to me. Take the second track “Born Into This” as a prime example – in just 80 seconds GREY NURSE encapsulate all of the sonic protein that I need in my musical diet, and every second tastes delicious. The foundation is early ’00s hardcore, leaning as much on the emotional tinges as the blasts and breakdowns – take the quiet middle section of “Excuses” or the gentle landing in “Born Into This” as evidence that, quite simply, these cats knew exactly what they were doing. The vocals on “Asleep.” The nod to Kirsch with the guitars that open “Stolen Language.” The sheer intensity of the closer “Old.” Each subsequent listen reveals more moments…and that’s an indicator that the recording you’re listening to is, in fact, truly great. So maybe GREY NURSE weren’t with the in-crowd at the time, or maybe they just were just a blip and didn’t have time to jump in the water…I’m not here to analyze sub-scenes or do a post mortem on trends that dominated past decades, today I’m just here to suggest that you listen to this GREY NURSE tape, because it’s really good and it sounds like they really fucking meant it.
