Review: Nude Beach’s ‘II’ – Angry Young Men Navel-Gaze from the American Heartland

The headline kinda says it all, but if you’d like to read an 803-word version of it, may we suggest the full-length SPIN review of the new album II by the new band Nude Beach? You can read that yon, and an excerpt right here:

Brooklyn doesn’t always breed bands like Nude Beach — bands without DJ nights or vintage synth gear or famous friends or food blogs. But though this power trio(!) calls the big borough home, BK didn’t breed them. No, Chuck, Ryan, and Jimmy are Long Island boys, children of a village called Northport, the kind of place that only winds up on the news when enough of its manhole covers are jacked for scrap to make it a national concern. And the kind of place that held onto its Reagan-era heartland rock well into the Clinton age. Which is to say, through the formative years of Misters Betz, Naideau, and Shelto, respectively. The three played Rancid-inspired punk together as teens, but after recording a fun but messy self-titled tape in 2008, they’ve returned with II, an album that excises the oi! in favor of those other influences, of songs with easy-rolling guitar solos and keywords like “baby,” “radio,” and “dreams.”

BONNAROO 2010: Reporting from Day Two

The Lips unleash a tickertape explosion (Ian Witlen)

Day Two of Bonnaroo was my personal favorite, mostly thanks to the Flaming Lips who not only performed a full set of their own songs (with all the expected fanfare — see above), but covered Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in full with help from Stardeath and White Dwarfs. Read about that cosmic experience here.

And as on Day One, I contributed to Spin‘s “Best and Worse” coverage alongside some very sharp, funny scribes, this time covering Tenacious D, Damian Marley and Nas, the Gaslight Anthem and LCD Soundsystem.

Also: some serious reporting on McLovin and barf in “In Brief.”