I think I was easily inclined to gravitate towards North Carolina outfit Nude Party's eponymous debut, (released a few weeks back), from it's very opening notes. It lays down its pitch straight away with those parping Farfisa organ drones deeply familiar to anyone who ever loved Wooly Bully, 96 Tears, or any of that whole, wondrous American Sixties Nuggets / Garage scene.
I certainly count myself among that number. While never inclined to grow a Brian Jones fringe, even when I had hair, I've been drawn towards this whole sensibility since I was seventeen. That scene threw up any number of the greatest Rock and Roll records ever made and frankly without them, where would we be. And where would Nude Party be? Well, probably not playing music anyhow.
Because all in all this record has been cooked up pure and simple from that specific youthful moment in Rock and Roll. The Standells, ? and the Mysterions, Sir Douglas Quintet, Flamin' Groovies, Rolling Stones, Three Dog Night, early Creedence are the absolute essence of the record. That's all you need to know to get a clear sense of this records vibe without even hearing a note. And respect to Nude Party. They do it all very well!
So where do we go from here? 'Is it down to the lake I fear?' as Nick Heywood sung once, with no sense of shame whatsoever. There's probably little else to say about this record. If you like that stuff you'll surely like this stuff.
It's upfront good time music and they'd surely be a great band to catch live . It's just fun. It adds pretty much nothing at all to the canon but not every record that's released is obliged to do that. The album very rarely deviates from it's set course. There's one song where the singer comes on all Mick Jagger circa Sticky Fingers. For the last few tracks they start to flirt with the idea of opening up Doors-wise but never quite go all the way. They know what they like as well as their limitations.
It makes sense that they're working with Black Lips drummer Oakley Munson. They're very much in line of the Lips way of doing things without ever quite touching on that band's glory. Still, this is a neat little album and I applaud it!
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