When I initiated this blog many eons ago, my intention was to dispense with the James Joyce-ian prosal flourishes and the Obscure References and just say, “Here’s a good song. Listen to it.” Of course that did not transpire since the entire purpose of writing a music blog is to A) Display your Encyclopedic Knowledge of Popular Music and B) Let the world know how well you can write. Those who can’t play a guitar or sing write about those who can. It somehow justifies all those hours spent air-guitaring in my bedroom. Now if I had only replaced that badminton racquet with an actual guitar, I might not be sitting here trying to figure out the embed code for a Facebook video. Which brings us to “Stay Awake” by Minor Nelson…

If any track deserves to be described by Hemingway rather than Joyce it’s this one. It’s two-minutes-eight-seconds of pure energy. Four smacks on the cymbal and the wall of sound smacks you in the face. What sets “Stay Awake” apart from every other song in the Punk genre is the undercurrent of Pop, just enough melody in the vocal and guitar lines to make the whole mess stick in your head. And at the end of the day (God I hate it when people say “At the end of the day”) the Ramones were a pop band with a short life expectancy that had to hurry up and get all the notes in before they croaked.

Minor Nelson self-identifies as “Punk Rock from New Jersey” which is a better description than I could ever provide. “Stay Awake” is from their new four-song EP, 2018. The band members are Shawn (vocals, guitar), Tom (vocals, lead guitar), Connor (vocals, bass), and Lucas (drums). Maybe they all have the last name of Nelson. No word on whether their mother lives in a bottle and is named Jeannie.

Minor Nelson’s Facebook page features a video of a live performance of “Stay Awake.” Looks like we have a Fender bass, an SG, and a Les Paul with P-90 pickups maybe? That pretty much tells you everything you need to know. You can leave the sound on mute and still know what this band sounds like. I love that the drummer is positioned behind the amps (Marshall’s, of course).

And because I never could figure out that Facebook embed code, you’re probably seeing a big gap of empty space below the video. Eat me, Mark Zuckerberg.

You can support deserving independent musicians like Minor Nelson by visiting their Bandcamp page, listening to their songs, and downloading your favorite tracks. And be sure to follow Minor Nelson on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.