X formed in 1977, but it wasn’t until April 26, 1980 that the seminal punk masterpiece, Los Angeles, was released to the world. The album, produced by the keyboardist for The Doors (and likely a reason why the album contains a cover of “Soul Kitchen”), captures the band’s version of LA punk, tainted with their rockabilly edge. The album has since earned its place in plenty reputable lists of best albums of the 80’s, and even of all time!
“Nausea,” written by signer Exence Cervenka, appears on the A-side of the album. The track starts out like a pounding headache and quickly Exene exclaims…
Today, you’re gonna be sick, so sick –
You’ll prop your forehead on the sink,
Say, “Oh Christ, oh Jesus Christ,
My head’s gonna crack like a bank.”
Feeling shitty, sick, and hungover in the bathroom is an all too familiar experience, and this song certainly captures that feeling and even ends with passing out to sleep it off. The track was also used for the opening to the 1981’s amazing punk-doc, The Decline of Western Civilization.
About a decade later, from the same Bay Area scene that brought us bands like Operation Ivy, Filth, Neurosis, Rancid, and Green Day came… Blatz! Blatz truly embodied the drunk punk spirit with their raw, catchy, snotty, sloppy, 40oz-fuled party jams (and an occasional lullaby). Similar to X, Blatz would often trade off between male and female vocals – and on “Nausea” they stick to that format, with each of their multiple singers taking a verse. The Blatz version of “Nausea” appeared on their 1992 split 7” with Tribe 8, but was later included on CD versions of The Shit Split LP – a split album with Filth originally release in 1991.
There’s no winner here – just a great fucking song that you def need to hear :p
Covered: Cool vs. Tite is our way of sharing and comparing with y’all some amazing songs that got some fantastic cover treatment!