I'm not sure who Tommy is, but he's been having a rough time recently. He hasn't been picking up the phone, he's bleeding everywhere, and that bitch called Destiny has broken his heart. Poor guy. But then, with this amazing an anthem to tell his story, how bad can things possibly be?
Theatrical arena rock (think Meatloaf, Queen, Muse) has never been the easiest thing to pull off. You go too far into theater and things get ridiculous, too far rock and it isn't fun anymore... with Not Blood Paint, they got all your bases covered. Their new single clocks in at over 6 minutes, but that's nothing compared to how many times you'll be listening. It goes from bluesy confessional, to Brian May guitar theatrics, to a singalong of brotherly concern and back again. Recorded at their McKibbin loft home studios, this is a band that lives, breathes and eats their music as much as their own madness. Listening through to Tommy is as close as I've come to witnessing this band's insanity, next to seeing them live. So enjoy, but don't get too comfortable... they have a debut LP coming out soon, you may want to be careful walking alone late at night in Bushwick. - Mike Levine
Not Blood, Paint will play The Deli's Northside show at Spike Hill on Saturday June 18 with Country Mice, The Ambassadors and Raccoon Fighter - more info here.
We've always been big fans of Luke Temple, and it's good to see that, together with the Here We Go Magic crew, the man is keeping at it with increasingly beautiful records and videos. The band's new album "A Different Ship" (stream it here) will be out on May 8, and betrays at least a partial return to Luke Temple's more intimate and melodic sound from his solo repertoire - in this regard, lend a ear to "Hard to Be Close," "Alone but Moving" and "Over the Ocean". This is welcome news for fans like us who always thought that in most HWGM material Luke's noteworthy songwriting skills seemed a little sacrificed on the altar of textural experimentation. This doesn't mean that the band's signature hypnotic, impressionistic sound is lost - it's just that these two elements work together better than they did in past records, and this is what makes this album one of the NYC highlights of the year so far. Indeed, this collection also features songs more in line with the band's past releases ("Make Up your Mind", "I Believe in Action"), which follow on the steps of brainy-pop icons like Brian Eno and The Feelies, but there's definitely a balance here, also betrayed by the almost perfect alternation of melodic songs and less traditional ones.The just released video of "How Do I Know," telling the story of a rejected dancing robot that ends up revitalizing an older man's appreciation for life, seems to reflect on this brain/heart, mechanic/organic dichotomies and somehow bring them to unity. - PDG
