The Nude Party raises the barn roof for ‘Rides On’
“Change is always happening,” says singer Patton Magee of the band’s third full-length album
The seven-piece New York-based band The Nude Party returned with their much-anticipated third full-length album Friday. With “Rides On,” it no longer feels like they’re balancing influences, but have instead arrived at a sound that is more fully their own. This is the group’s most cohesive release yet.
After forming at Appalachian State University and gaining a following in the town of Boon, North Carolina, the band relocated after their debut album to the Catskills, where they’re largely based to this day. Previous releases include a 2016 EP “Hot Tub,” followed by their self-titled debut “The Nude Party,” and their 2020 sophomore album “Midnight Manor.” Through it all, their sound has melded garage rock, psychedelic blues, rock ‘n’ roll, and Americana.
“Rides On” benefits immensely from the fact that the band was able to self-produce it. After building their own studio out of a barn in the Catskills over the pandemic, The Nude Party was no longer tied to the restraints of renting a studio space. For the first time, they were able to get into the studio with just the “raw material,” rather than record a more-or-less live version of what they’d been writing and performing while on the road, as with previous albums. Here, the band deploys synthesizers, percussive elements, and vocal arrangements in ways they hadn’t before, a result of both more confidence as well as the freedom.
“Everyone’s gotten a lot better at what they do in the band, and outside of the band,” says frontman Patton Magee. “From the place of just starting with zero experience and zero knowledge of music to now, it’s a pretty massive leap.”
The album opens up hitting hard with “Word Gets Around” and “Hard Times (All Around).” The latter unites listeners in the face of pandemic adversity: “Everybody packing up their dreams / To beat a flood to higher ground,” and ends a bit tongue-in-cheek with, “Hard times says the headline news / And we’ll see ya underground.”
The album takes an emotional turn with the somber-but-sweet “Midnight on Lafayette Park,” before progressing into some new sounds, like the swampy “Polly Anne” and a cover of “Somebody Tryin’ to Hoodoo Me” by New Orleans legend Dr. John.
Halfway through the record, you’ll hear one of The Nude Party’s most impressive songs to date. Lyrically, ”Ride On” uses storytelling devices that are reminiscent of Townes Van Zandt over chugging Velvet Underground-like rhythms and lead guitar licks.
The record ends with the emotional climax of “Sold Out of Love,” sung by lead guitarist Shaun Couture, that then leads into a last breath-like epilogue for the album with “Red Rocket Ride,” a favorite of Magee’s. As a whole, the album leaves the listener full and satisfied.
Brooklyn Magazine caught up with The Nude Party’s Magee, who currently live in Bushwick, to discuss the new album, what it’s like having a song placed in a TV show, and what makes New York Home. You can catch The Nude Party at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday, May 19.
Excerpts:
How does it feel to be back in New York City with the album coming out and getting ready to tour?
Good! It’s been busy, super busy. It’s hard to find a minute to yourself. There’s so much little press and events and rehearsals and music videos and promos and shows and stuff. And then trying to work at the bar [Jones Bar in Ridgewood] in between all that. It’s hard to even think or feel too much about it.
Is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to or is it all business and getting it all done?
I like when I know that we’re going to play a show somewhere and I think about the food they have there. I think about the taco trucks in Austin. I think about the warm weather down there.
When you were first starting out writing this new record, what was it like breaking into it creatively?
There’s just this huge ever-growing backlog of riffs and song ideas and song parts that the longer you go without digging into it and recording, the more stressed out I become. So everytime we get to go into the studio and just empty out that catalog of ideas and make something out of it, it’s a huge relief to me and it always makes me feel like I’m back in-sync.
This is your third full-length album. What do you think you’ve learned with this experience after already having made two albums and an EP?
We used a totally different method where previously we would just be playing a lot of shows and touring. We would write new songs during rehearsals and then we would put them into the setlist. So we were touring new songs in our set and then by the time we would go to record, we had all these songs we had already been playing and had sort of figured out a live version of it. We would just set up all the mics and record it live. But for this record, since we didn’t tour “Midnight Manor” at all because of the pandemic and all, we got to the studio with just the raw material rather than having all these songs we’d already been performing. So the method was very different.
What is something you feel like you do in your performances that might be different from listening to the album?
I think I’m moving towards treating records like records, and shows like shows.
What do you mean by that?
Well a show doesn’t have to be just a performed copy of the record that you made. And similarly, a record that you make doesn’t have to be made up of the exact instrumentation you’re gonna do it on stage with.
Your music was placed on the Netflix show “Outer Banks.” Did you feel like you got any extra sense of recognition with getting your music on-screen?
Automatically when you get music in TV or movies or commercials or something like that it tends to have that effect. This one in particular seems like a pretty good sync. I really like the people [Josh and Jonas Pate] that make the show. North Carolina dudes, a lot in common, and just like good, working writers. There’s a good overlap between the people that like “Outer Banks” and the people that like rock ‘n’ roll.
At this point in your career, what does New York mean to you now that you’re going on substantial tours and aren’t relying on the small clubs of the city?
It’s home to me, now. I’ve never really had too strong of a home anywhere. My family just moved around a lot from Texas to California to North Carolina to Utah to North Carolina again … and as far as I can tell, no matter how I feel in the world, it just feels like home to me.
