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Review Brian McClelland

Gil Mantera’s Party Dream is indisputably a “you gotta see ’em live” kind of band. An exhibitionist duo consisting of vintage-keyboardist/sequencer Gil Mantera and singer/unitard-lover Ultimate Donny, the Party Dream live smacks of a new wave Har Mar Superstar: all crazy outfits, absurd banter, and inevitable drunken nakedness. While their previous live album, Once Triangular, was a ragged, semi-successful attempt at capturing the lightning of their live show in a bottle, it’s their new studio effort, Bloodsongs, that truly showcases the band’s quirky personality—ten songs overflowing with analog synth hooks, hilariously dry non sequiturs, and remixed ’80s dance flava. From opener “Buffalo Tears”’ jittery space-pop melodies and earnest refrain of “I only want justice/I only want equality/Can you dig that?” to “Bunz Therapy”’s vocoded verse “I’m having fun on a water slide” (my personal fave 2006 hook thus far), this is the music you should be dancing to, if only you knew how.