Blood Brothers easy to love or hate

The Blood Brothers have added a more melodious sound to their trademark discord and rebellion.

You expect Cody Votolato to be a little bit nasty. He's in a band called Blood Brothers and keeps some fearsome company - among them bands such as noise metallers the Locust, and the very cool in attitude New York band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Put it this way, if he got his mates together for a soccer game it would pay to wear shin-guards.

But when the Blood Brothers' guitarist and multi-instrumentalist opens his mouth to talk it's as if his voice hasn't broken yet. He has a crackly innocence when he declares "we like listening to mellow music, too".

Although Blood Brothers, who play the Kings Arms on Tuesday night, bear only small similarities to the Locust and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Votolato still thinks of those bands as their contemporaries.

"I feel that those bands are all friends of ours and they're kind of our peers and we respect what they do. I feel like we're all part of the same team. Our fan bases might be different, we might sound different, but I really sort of feel like there's no particular genre that I would ever want Blood Brothers to be part of. It's more like a community of friends who are making music that is interesting and we inspire each other."

Blood Brothers formed in Seattle in 1997 when they were all around the ages of 15 and 16. The musical limelight had shifted away from Seattle by the late 90s, after it's early 90s grunge heyday, but it was still a diverse and vibrant scene.

"It was really cool," says Votolato. "We were really young and into all this really weird obscure music and it was all there for us to experience. It was a supportive environment because being in a band, we were able to play at all those local clubs that we liked going to. Seeing that there weren't many kids our age doing the kind of stuff we were, the people who were in charge of running the clubs supported us and the other bands from around town that we liked let us play with them.

"When we started the band I think our main motivation was to play loud music, go nuts, and play shows. We stayed together and as time went on we got more interested in playing different kinds of music and it continued to grow - I don't think we ever changed what we do, but the envelope just got bigger and bigger of what we could do, what we could play, and what boundaries we could push."

With the duel vocals of toxic screamers Johnny Whitney and Jordan Blilie, their squally guitar breaks, and some abrasive instrumentation that includes everything from wurlitzer to brass, Blood Brothers are demanding. And similar to New Zealand's Mint Chicks, Blood Brothers have a tendency to be divisive. There's a love/hate vibe to their music because there are poppy elements but the more obnoxious noise will, for some, come across as art-rock pretentiousness.

But that's fine by Votolato: "It's cool because there seems to be a diverse group of people who come to our shows. There's people who like the spazzy part, or the pop part, or the indie part. It's pretty broad, and I feel like what we do has a lot of diversity and so it's easier to find something they like about it. Or I think it's just as easy to find things you really hate about our band as well."

The band's earlier three albums, including the 2002 debut The Adultery Is Ripe, were like post-hardcore band At the Drive-In, but even more berserk. However, on Crimes, their latest album from last year, the usual discord and rebelliousness comes face-to-face with a more melodious sound which is inspired by the Brothers' love of the Beatles. "They were just really inspirational people ... but," Votolato laughs, "you don't want to get too Beatles influenced."

"Writing Crimes was different for us in a sense that we just wrote songs as opposed to trying to write the most amazing songs, every song. We just wrote songs and some mellowish stuff came out of that, especially since we incorporated the piano and the wurlitzer a bit more.

"And also, for Crimes, we wanted to have songs that were dancier, and more open and less technical, so it's just sort of what happened. For us it's just about wanting to always build on what we have." 

*  Blood Brothers, The Mint Chicks and This Night Creeps at The Kings Arms, Auckland on July 19
*Albums: The Adultery Is Ripe (2002); March On Electric Children (2002); Burn Piano Island, Burn (2003); Crimes (2004)