In this current era of toxic animosity, leave it to the Nude Party to provide a lesson on how to get along. Since forming in 2012, the NYC-by-way-of–Boone, North Carolina, garage rockers have managed to keep the same original six members, a rare level of consistency. (The group added a seventh member in 2020.) “The key is, don’t trust any negative feelings for too long, because they’re going to change again,” says singer-guitarist Patton Magee. “We’ve had a strong enough bond to make it this far.” And, he adds with a laugh, “Somebody has to hold up the tenets of democracy in this country.”
That chemistry is readily apparent in the Nude Party’s incendiary live shows, as well as in the freewheeling, desert vibes of Look Who’s Back, the band’s irresistible fourth album. Most of the members share songwriting duties on the record and gathered at the outset for a pair of intensive workshopping sessions. “It was basically: Show me what you got,” Magee says. “Find the beat, find the groove, how many parts do you have? We got out a whiteboard, put down the arrangement, and then cut a demo of it. We did as many of those in a day as we could.”
Expedience came to the fore again during recording. They set up shop at a friend’s compound in Joshua Tree, California, eating takeout and quaffing beers while cutting the album’s nine songs over five days. While the sly “Carolyn” recalls the band’s trademark Rolling Stones-style rave-ups, Look Who’s Back ultimately finds them dipping deeper into the country sounds they experimented with on 2023’s Rides On. “Not That Bad” and “Sweetheart of the Radio” are mid-tempo Western grooves with a dusting of cosmic country, while the cantina vibes of “Love Is Electric” lead into the sparkling gallop of “Taking Hangers Off the Line.”
Most of the Nude Party’s members met when they were freshmen at Appalachian State. During a summer break, they holed up at percussionist Austin Brose’s family lake house and taught themselves how to play in the basement. “The first song we learned was ‘Green Onions’ by Booker T. & the M.G.’s,” recalls lead guitarist Shaun Couture, “because it’s literally the same riff the whole time.” They were soon playing fraternity and house parties, which escalated into clothing-optional affairs (hence the name). “We just weren’t very good,” Magee says, laughing. “It was a nice way to get a reaction from a crowd while still playing one chord for ten minutes.”
They kept at it, and in 2014, the band met Black Lips drummer Oakley Munson at a show in Charlotte. Intrigued, Munson eventually recorded the Nude Party’s 2016 EP, Hot Tub, and as word of the group’s good-time spirit spread, they relocated to Munson’s base in the New York Catskills and began to perform regularly in Brooklyn and the surrounding region. They went on to release three full-length albums with New West Records while touring with the likes of Jack White and Arctic Monkeys.
The band will launch a two-month tour in early March, which should provide plenty of fully clothed fireworks. Magee is coming into his own as a showman, slinking around the stage, blaring his harmonica, as the band cooks up swirling grooves, often resplendent with five-part harmonies. “Our origins were so primal that we just hashed it out together, and I think that element never leaves whenever we’re performing,” Couture says. “We take it very seriously and we practice, but when we’re onstage, it just feels like we’re in a giant hang.”
Plus: A Must-Hear Debut From a Rising Star
Kashus Culpepper’s Act I
Alabama native Kashus Culpepper spent five years as a firefighter and EMT before enlisting in the navy. He taught himself to play guitar while stationed overseas, and after returning home, he began playing gigs up and down the Gulf Coast. He channeled all that life experience into his winsome debut, Act I. Culpepper recorded the album in Muscle Shoals, and the sonic pastiche of the legendary music town seeps into every corner of the record. Guest Marcus King rips a fiery guitar part in the anthemic “Southern Man,” while Sierra Ferrell sings on the folky duet “Broken Wing Bird.” Elsewhere, Culpepper slinks into buttery soul on “Break Me Like” and “Alabama Beauty Queen.” It’s an eclectic, engaging effort from one of Nashville’s most exciting new voices.
Matt Hendrickson has been a contributing editor for Garden & Gun since 2008. A former staff writer at Rolling Stone, he’s also written for Fast Company and the New York Times and currently moonlights as a content producer for Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service in Athens, Ohio.
