Not Blood Paint might be The Beatles of glam rock. Seth, Mark, George and Joe can each claim equal credit when it comes to the toothy electricity of their cultish and creepy dance rock. See them live and you feel your eyes pulled from one member’s blood-soaked choreography to the next, never quite deciding who the leader is… which is exactly how some of the best cults function. This kind of representative democracy, a liability in local acts with less personality, is a major asset on NBP’s self-released debut full-length.
Taken together, the sum of their parts means full-throttle vocals, dueling guitar lines, and inspirational one-liners like ‘I want your daughter’ from opener ‘Maxwell’s Daughter.’ But that’s not all they want.’ ‘La Normalidad’ is about as epic as you could reasonably expect a record to climb. ‘Watch Your Mouth’ propels you headfirst into their demented little world, before leaving you to wander alone in its wilderness. ‘The Shape of a Brain’ and the 9 minute ‘Triple bypass’ similarly compete for interesting ways to trick metalheads into dancing.
Most of these are songs forged in the fire of their tremendous live performances, so you’ll be sure to hear previously released crowd favorites ‘Tommy’ and ‘Army’ on here as well. The album has a very live sound in fact. Guitarist Joe Stratton kept the focus on the band with his production, and things don’t depart much from what this band usually brings directly from their amps, with certain exceptions. ‘Birdstrike,’ somewhat a departure from the rest of the record, takes the listener to a space between Strawberry Fields and Marc Bolan with it’s swirling echoes and cross-talk banter, and the anthemic ‘Shooter’ gets re-made to sound like you’re overhearing a private conversation from the band while attending some late night dance party in hell (trust me).
This is a band that firmly occupies their own space, and apparently they have the money to stay there. Evidenced by their Spanish-speaking billionaire philanthropist Poncio Vicario, who alone funded their album premiere show last weekend. Apparently, ‘La Normalidad’ is named for a research center of the same name that is investigating the power of orgones as a means to fuel clean energy. So ummm….. try thinking about all that next time you trip out to ‘Solar Body.’
See them when you can (next show at The Studio on April 11th) and check out their record here. – Mike Levine (@goldnuggets)