Tom Lyngcoln of The Nation Blue really does piss raw steel. He bleeds it too. He writes and records exclusively in raw steel. Matt Weston, like Robocop has had much of his body replaced with alloys, his bones unable to keep up with the physical demands placed on them. His scream all steel wool and metal splinters. Dan McKay sounds like the dawning of the industrial revolution. You know the part in “Power and the Passion” where Rob Hirst loses his shit?...Dan plays like that all the time…..The Nation Blue have come to be known as the band that truly scare grown men. It’s not necessarily the loudest ones to watch out for... It’s the quiet ones....the ones that just appear. I am behind you. The Nation Blue mount the horses of the apocalypse with their third album, Protest Songs, and march forth to destroy themselves and at some point, music as we know it. The Nation Blue have left a string of towns and cities across our land in disarray. Burnt to the ground, locked doors blown off hinges and splinters as big as your fist thrown through solid brick walls of desperate little holding grounds - backwoods secrets and dark tales tucked away in dimly lit hallways of the far outer suburbs. Their rolling tours always start off mildly civilized but descend into Darwinian terror as casualties are racked up and technology falls apart. Their territory marked by holes in roofs, blood on the stage and a horrible smell. An ambitious plan to find a place to retreat to and formulate a plan of attack was thrown into the air and came tumbling back to earth with an invite to use the mountain side fortress of Michael Gudinski to record throughout July of 2006. Done with the car yard philosophy of recording studios, the band sought to disappear into the hills to do nothing but drink and record, pulling as much of the surrounding environment into the mix as possible. Producer and engineer, Matt Voigt (Cat Power, KISS), was scooped up and dragged to the retreat to refine and harness the raw and powerful elements and rebuild the remnants of instruments. Voigt’s assimilation into the fold was flawless and soon they collectively possessed a singular stoned brain - the first paragraph above contains the mix notes for the entire album and Voigt replicated his instructions perfectly despite their cryptic nature. The result is a message to the dark corners of the population. The Nation Blue’s third album, Protest Songs, is a warning and testimonial to the anger and desperation held onto by the under belly. Obsessed with pollution and bored with conservative politics, their collective anxieties fester on the surface like disease. Isolated for much of the term of their luxurious imprisonment, Paul Dempsey earned rare visitation rights to lay down some covert maneuvers on a couple of tracks, Copper and first taste We Lost Everything. This album makes you scared because some of you know what it feels like to piss raw steel, and you’ve tried pulling those splinters out of the wall…The Nation Blue are proud to make you feel anxious. I am behind you. The Nation Blue’s new album, ‘Protest Songs’, is out now thru Casadeldisco/Shock.