New Bloods Scrapbook

New Bloods

Portland, Oregon 

2006-2008

Osa Atoe : violin vocals

Cassia Gamill : bass vocals

Adee Roberson : drums vocals

Listen to our music on Bandcamp

The two group photos of us sitting on the porch steps was taken by a woman named Ingrid who worked at Kill Rock Stars. They put out our LP. The other color photos were taken by our friend Jesse Riggins. The black and white photo is by Mary Christmas. It may have been taken at Sloan's, Radio Sloan's bar in Portland at the time.

WHAT THESE PHOTOS DON'T SHOW

is that we played more basements and DIY spaces than venues with stages. We played on the floor with people dancing around us and we played with our friends' bands.

New Bloods Live Video Playlist

the only photo we have from our european tour in 2008 - behind the merch table at ladyfest madrid!

Beautiful review of our 2008 LP "The Secret Life" from Jason Heller (AV Club)

Tension and abrasion are two of the building blocks of post-punk, but few of this decade's post-punk revivalists have constructed anything durable out of them. The Portland trio New Bloods is an exception, the rare outfit able to translate unease and malaise into delicate, even gorgeous forms. Much of that has to do with the band's setup: violins, bass, and drums. It's a sad statement that, circa 2008, it's still a revolutionary move for an indie-rock band to ditch the guitar, but New Bloods use that ostensible handicap as their greatest strength: Throughout their debut, The Secret Life, songs are compressed, accelerated, whispered, and howled in giddy fits of pressure and resolution—and from such friction, links to post-punk forebears like The Raincoats and Dog Faced Hermans are forged with familial strength and respectful distance simultaneously in mind. But there's a fourth instrument at play: the twined voices of all three New Bloods, a symbiotic hydra of harmony that writhes and wails in soulful cohesion, most notably on the a cappella "Day After Day" and the haiku-like "Behind Mountains." More post-folk than post-punk, The Secret Life is a soaring yet sturdy assemblage of passion, intelligence, and the worship of inherent opposition—not to mention one of the few records of its age and kind that bears promise for the future.