The Nude Party is what we wistfully imagine all rock bands were like 50 years ago. They live together in a house in the Catskills. There are six of them, including a percussionist. Their excellent sophomore LP, Midnight Manor (New West), comes with rolling papers. They got their name from their propensity to play early shows while naked. They sing about Chevrolet vans and hot tubs. They have a touring pedal-steel player named Catfish. And they’ve been known to cover Neil Young’s “Out On The Weekend” and the Stones’ “Sweet Virginia,” both recorded in 1971, incidentally. (We can’t, however, confirm whether one of the Nude Partiers once jumped off a roof and into a pool screaming, “I am a golden god!”) But for a band that shines a bright light on the past, the Nude Party—vocalist/guitarist Patton Magee, guitarist Shaun Couture, bassist Alec Castillo, drummer Connor Mikita, keyboardist Don Merrill and percussionist Austin Brose—is all about the right now, which bodes well for a future that feels all right.
