The Nude Party: Turning Limitations into Virtues

Taking their name from a series of house concerts in Boone, N.C., in which the band members performed sans clothing, The Nude Party draw inspiration from ‘60s garage rock to ‘70s glam to twangy country rock. The band comes up with an original sound in the process. The band is currently  on tour in support of their fourth studio album Look Who’s Back.

The band got its start in 2012 when all members were students at Appalachian State University. What they weren’t, admits guitarist-singer Patton Magee, was a group of seasoned musicians. “I had played [guitar] in my bedroom, but I had never sang,” he says. Nearly all of the band members learned how to play only after they started the group. “We pretty much started when we bought instruments off Craigslist in 2013,” Magee says.

The Nude Party turned its early limitations into a virtue, though. “When you only know how to do one thing, you just do one thing,” Magee observes. For him and his band mates, that one thing was “Loud, then quiet.” That dynamic informed the music on the group’s first record, the Hot Tub EP, recorded in Asheville and released in 2016.

Magee says that Shine Brothers drummer Oakley Munson and his band mates were “like big brothers” to The Nude Party. “Those guys had all been around, and seen different degrees of success,” he says. “It was mind-blowing to meet guys who had been on tour; for us, that seemed like a far-fetched dream.” Dates opening for Shine Brothers led to Oakley inviting the band to record in his basement studio.

“Maybe Oakley liked [the idea of producing] some younger kids who were excited about rock ‘n’ roll,” Magee says. “He was happy to take us under his wing for a while.” The studio was in the basement of Munson’s home on Hanover Street in West Asheville, mere yards from I-240 and the Haywood Road exit. “109 Hangover,” quips Magee, laughing at the memory.

Produced by Munson (later drummer in Atlanta garage-punk band Black Lips), Hot Tub introduced The Nude Party’s musical vision to a wider audience. Meanwhile, continued incessant touring raised the band’s profile. The group gained the attention of Nashville-and-Athens-based label New West Records. The label signed the band to a recording contract in 2018, and released a self-titled album that same year.

Magee notes that over time, the band members sharpened their instrumental skills simply by playing as a band. “I think you learn more playing one month with people than in an entire year by yourself,” he says. “Immersion creates fluency. And we’ve been immersed in doing this full-time, for a long time.”

In 2024, The Nude Party released Live at Sam’s Town Point, a 2LP set documenting a raucous show – with plenty of in-between-songs stage banter – at a popular club in Austin, Texas. The band’s set list that night drew from across their career, with a few numbers reaching all the way back to the Hot Tub EP. “I like doing the old songs,” Magee says. “I’m reciting the words when I don’t really remember what I meant. Sometimes it feels like reciting out of a book, figuring it out as I’m singing it.”

The band’s current lineup – Magee plus guitarist Shaun Couture, drummer Austin Brose, Alexander Castillo on bass, pianist Don Merrill and John “Catish” Delorme on pedal steel – features six of the original seven members. Asked about what has kept the band together for nearly 15 years, Magee shrugs. “We don’t know how to do anything else,” he says. “Necessity. Self-preservation. Even if I imagine other industries to go into, it doesn’t seem realistic.”

Prior to releasing the live album, the band initiated a very significant change. The Nude Party left New West, continuing as an independent act. Like the live album, their latest studio album Look Who’s Back is an independent release as well. “Our lawyer told us: The best way to get out of a contract is to fulfill all terms of it,” Magee says. Magee says that he and his band mates did just that, and then “did the radical thing. We didn’t ask for a renewal. Gladly, it’s done.” He doesn’t comment further on the subject.

Look Who’s Back serves up the shaggy, good-timing music that earned The Nude Party its dedicated following. Some listeners may detect the influence of bands like the Flying Burrito Brothers and Loaded-era Velvet Underground. But Magee emphasizes that his band uses the vibe of those acts – and others like Mott the Hoople – only as a basis. “When we have song ideas, we might say, ‘This one should feel like ‘All the young Dudes,’ or like Neil Young. You find some reference for putting the song together.”

But as The Nude Party head toward their 15^th anniversary, the core musical values that got them started remain at the center of their approach. “When you learn how to do two things, you can have not just a loud and quiet part; you can have an A and a B section,” Magee says. He goes on to suggest that too much skill might not be in keeping with the rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic. “But when you know three things,” he warns, “you start getting classical.”