Longtime Tranny Dream

“I’ve always wanted to put a transsexual on the cover of one of my albums,” confesses Brian Karscig of the Nervous Wreckords, whose record-release party for sophomore full-length Let Them All Talk happens June 30 at the Casbah. “It was an interesting casting call, looking for transsexuals who would be into what we were doing. We lucked out with Amanda, who truly is and lives life as a woman, but who was born a man.”

Does San Diego lack quality trannys? “We got a bunch of freaky John Smiths who were businessmen by day and would dress up as a woman by night. They were not what we were looking for.” He says he found himself relating to Amanda, who posed barefoot in lingerie for the cover photo. “I’ve always been mistaken for a female when I sing. It was a bit hard to accept at first, but then I just started embracing it. My good friend Amanda must feel the same way in life, the way she feels like a woman trapped in a man’s body.”

Having spent several high-profile years with Louis XIV, including a run with Atlantic Records, Karscig cofounded the Nervous Wreckords in 2009. After their first dozen shows (opening for the Killers), they recorded their debut full-length, Valuminium, the following year. “We make all of our music ourselves in my home studio,” he says. “Let Them All Talk will be self-released on CD and digital download to begin with. We’re going to be putting out vinyl as well, also self-released, but probably not in the first run. We’ve had some label interest to put the record out, but the deals we’ve been offered didn’t seem like they were in the best interest of the band.”

Being DIY, the new cover will finally fulfill Karscig’s longtime tranny dream. “I was shot down by my last record company in my last band. It’s one of the perks of being a self-made, self-financed, independent band, I guess.”