Nausea (Jeff Rosenstock song)
Nausea is a punk rock song by Jeff Rosenstock from his debut album We Cool? (2015). It was the lead single, released January 29, 2015, on SideOneDummy and Quote Unquote Records. The song actually came to Rosenstock years earlier after his wife bought him a Wurlitzer piano. He came up with the opening piano riff the day before a job interview while working as a truck driver in New York, and the chorus came to him at a train station. It first appeared as a demo on the 2013 seven-inch Summer +. We Cool? was recorded in five days, with Nausea tracked live and piano overdubs added later.
The lyrics tell a memory from Rosenstock’s solo tour. In Minneapolis he bought wine, rented a hotel room with a hot tub, and had a party for himself. The next day he learned a mutual friend, Mitchell Dubey, was killed in an apartment break-in. The line “I got so tired of discussing my future / I’ve started avoiding the people I love” reflects his regret about not spending time with Dubey. He has described the song as about letting self-doubt keep you from reaching out.
The bridge was meant to evoke Phil Spector and mid-20th-century rock. The music video premiered January 29, 2015, showing Rosenstock getting stabbed to death at a concert. He performed Nausea on NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly in 2016. AllMusic’s Timothy Monger described the song as having a wistful piano melody with Rosenstock’s loud, strained voice and heavy ska horns.
Credits: written by Jeff Rosenstock; produced by Jack Shirley; length 2:44; genre punk rock; from the We Cool? liner notes.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:45 (CET).