Erik Nervous’s first release of 2017, following a stunning first season which ended with him being crowned rookie of the year, and let me be the first to inform you there is no sophomore slump happening here. This is Erik’s third vinyl release and in my humble opinion his best yet. “Ice Cream Cone” finds Erik at his most frantic. A fast paced bouncy minute and a half ode to stabbing someone in the face with an ice cream cone. Erik keeps the stabby theme up on the b side with the jerky neck injury inducing hit “Children Stabbing Things.”  Two songs, both about stabbing, both 100% TOTAL PUNK!

Our take: Latest single from this Northwest Indiana punk phenom. These tracks have actually been on his bandcamp for months now, so I feel like I’ve already heard “Ice Cream” a zillion times. However, it’s one of those songs that can feel like you’ve heard a zillion times even if you’ve only listened to it a few times, because it has such a broad, almost obnoxiously catchy melody (which actually sounds like a song that would come out of an ice cream truck). It’s definitely a love it or hate it thing… if you like that kind of broad, children’s music-style melody you’ll flip out for this track, but if that’s not your thing I’m pretty sure you will absolutely hate this song. As for the b-side, the awesomely-titled “Children Stabbing Things,” it’s more of a straightforward punk song with a super catchy (but not obnoxiously catchy) bass line and furious downstroke guitar that kind of reminds me of another great solo project, Rikk Agnew’s All by Myself LP. While these two tracks are quite different from one another, I think they definitely add up to the best Erik Nervous material so far.