(HOBOKEN, NJ) -- Brooklyn-based quartet, Not Blood Paint will perform at Maxwell's Tavern in Hoboken on Saturday, June 25. The prog/art/glam rockers are touring in support of their latest release, Believing is Believing, which comes out June 17. To call Not Blood Paint unique would be an understatement. Conventionally, the band is theatrically vivid and sonically intense. Musically, it's a group impossible to pigeonhole, far removed from traditional verse-chorus-verse structures.
The songs on Believing Is Believing manifest as detailed stories that worm into the minds of always-shifting narrators. At different times, you'll think Zappa, Ween, Primus, Gang of Four, Devo, early Genesis, Tool, Dirty Projectors. (The band itself would proffer Of Montreal. "That group inspired us in the beginning. We'd go dress up and dance our asses off when we saw them live.")
The four-piece from Bushwick formed in 2008 by guitarists George Frye and Joe Stratton, bassist Mark Jaynes and drummer Seth Miller. Given their influences, it's little surprise the band members -- who all hail from the same school in Michigan -- share a passion for the theatrical. From early on, Not Blood Paint shows have been purposely and aggressively different, often constructed for the venue and audience on hand.
Costumes abound. Beguiling rituals and themes take hold -- one night you may witness, say, the Renaissance-type flair of "The Aristocrats." Another, "hypnotic owls," or "glam rock scientists" or maybe something akin to an alien prison break. This cornucopia of on-stage choreography, dialog and make-up -- connected to some fantastically elaborate songs -- often extends off-stage, where whole belief systems spring up and evolve, while characters take on lives of their own -- often over years of time.
Instead of being about a band, a record and a show, Not Blood Paint becomes a fusing of mythology and the real world. Ever shifting, ever changing.
"Brooklyn's head-turning Not Blood Paint plays a kind of ecstatic, progged-out glam rock," says Time Out New York, "like the Mars Volta scoring an expressionistic musical." "Band most likely to start a cult," said FreeWilliamsburg. "Not Blood Paint defies lineage... they are as much a strategy as they are a band," chimed Brooklyn Based.
Five albums in, Not Blood Paint has now evolved again. The band's new record Believing is Believing is the culmination, as they say, "of eight years working toward the marriage of our recorded songs with the exultant energy of our live show."
It's an experience unto itself. As well as a lyrical, musical and spiritual exploration, as the title suggests (you'll hear the word "believe" in a lot of the tracks). Harmonies abound, most noticeably in "I Am An Angel" and sprawling album closer "Imbalance". A track like "Play Nice" can somehow feel both grimy and lounge-y, while psych rave-up "Neighbor" fits comfortably next to the moodier, almost Queen-like "Borderline" and the slow groove of "The French Song".
"Our shows are about bringing together people in a space and breaking it down," says the band. "Creating an environment where multiple people in a lawless state are in a positive and creative space with no hierarchy. Where rules are created on the spot, unspoken. A temporary tiny society where anything is possible. And that's our goal: to facilitate that dynamic."
Maxwell's Tavern is located at 1039 Washington Street in Hoboken, NJ.
Not Blood Paint Tour Dates
May 07 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Shea Stadium
June 02 -- New York, NY -- McKittrick Hotel
June 16 -- Cleveland, OH -- Happy Dog
June 17 -- Detroit, MI -- PJ's Lager House
June 18 -- Kalamazoo, MI -- Shakespeare's Pub
June 19 -- Chicago, IL -- Double Door
June 20 -- Muncie, IN -- Be Here Now
June 22 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Spirit
June 23 -- Annapolis, MD -- Metropolitan
June 24 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Kung Fu Necktie
June 25 -- Hoboken, NJ -- Maxwell's
July 07 -- Brooklyn, NY -- House of Yes
Photo by John Burton McGarity and Tiffany Walling Mcgarity
