Bonnaroo 2019 Artist Spotlight: The Nude Party

As we’ve been doing for the past several years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorites acts from from Bonnaroo‘s impressive 2019 lineup. As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages (including the campground Plazas), big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, or most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. Though we’ll be jumping around, we’re loosely working our way through by day, and we’ll also be bringing you some special features and longer guides along the way, to help you plan your weekend before the fest. While these previews won’t span every performer, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend on the farm!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and keep reading to learn more in our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight…

LEARN

Though they formally came together at their start of their time at Appalachian State in Boone, NC, the six members of retro psych and garage rock outfit The Nude Party have been friends (and a few step siblings) since childhood, taking up their instruments together in their teens, and forming an inseparable kinship that has made them one of the most cohesive, tight-knit new bands we’ve ever come across. Forming in their freshman dorms, before moving into a lake house together the following summer, the group forged their sound through daily jam sessions, and eventually became known for throwing wild parties, where inebriation and a pursuit of lowering their inhibitions to perform live caused the band (and, as legend goes, occasionally their audience) to literally play concerts in the nude, being dubbed “the naked party” band before they’d officially taken on a moniker, eventually adopted as The Nude Party just in time to put on some clothes and began playing more formal shows around the region.

A chance meeting with Black Lips drummer Oakley Munson, who took an interest and became something of a mentor and manger, in 2014 proved to be a huge catalyst for the group, and after Munson produced their first EP, Hot Tub, in 2016, they eventually relocated to his home base in the Catskill Mountains of New York, paying rent and helping out with manual labor while he served as producer for their subsequent eponymous debut, released last year through New West Records. Adopting a soulful, folky, garage forged ’60s psychedelia like a twangier Velvet Underground meets The Rolling Stones, the group definitely give a strong nod to the past, but still keep enough modern sensibilities to feel timeless, landing them widespread acclaim and shows with the likes of legendary performers Arctic Monkeys and Jack White, as well as acts like The Growlers, Ron Gallo, and Sunflower Bean. Their live show has been one of the band’s strongest assets from the start, and we have no doubt their prime Thursday billing will make for one of the coolest rock sets of the weekend.

LISTEN | “Chevrolet Van”