Gil Mantera’s Party Dream releases debut album

Gil Mantera’s Party Dream will dress up at the Lime Spider Saturday night. PHOTO COURTESY OF MAGNUM PR

Credit: Carl Schierhorn

Ultimate Donny and Gil Mantera, the two brothers who comprise Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, don’t strive to be unique or as different as possible, Ultimate Donny said – it just happens naturally.

“We don’t really strive to be anything except for cool,” he said. “I don’t know if it comes off that way, but that’s what we’re striving for.”

The Youngstown-based, electronic-pop duo is going to release its new album, Bloodsongs, Feb. 21 on Audio Eagle Records. Patrick Carney, drummer of the Black Keys, is head of Audio Eagle.

“They decided a lot more people needed to know about us,” Ultimate Donny said.

Bloodsongs is being distributed through the Black Keys’ record label, Fat Possum Records.

Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, which can be compared to bands such as Kraftwerk and the Postal Service, started a month long tour Jan. 24 that passes through Ohio, Florida and New York – as well as other states in the Midwest, the East and the South. Then, after a two-week break, the duo will head west.

“We are confirmed to play South by Southwest,” he said.

After the South by Southwest Festival, an outdoor, independent music and film festival in Austin, Texas, none of the rest of the tour is confirmed yet.

“The rest of the tour is coming together as we speak – I hope,” Ultimate Donny said.

The duo is known to wear costumes during its performances.

“Right now we’ve been going through a Native American, Western phase with the outfits,” he said. “It just makes the experience more complete. The music and outfits just go together.”

When they make a lot of money, Ultimate Donny said, Gil wants to wear a werewolf costume on stage for every show.

A typical Gil Mantera’s Party Dream show, he said, contains a lot of dancing, big beats and smack talking.

“We try to provide a nice, fun party atmosphere,” he said.

The two have become better at playing their instruments since the band first started in 2000, Ultimate Donny said. They have also become better at writing songs; the songs in the past were a lot more bizarre than the songs on Bloodsongs.

“It was more about the show back then,” he said. “Acting like idiots on stage.”

Gil Mantera’s Party Dream’s goal is to make a lot of money so they can concentrate more on the band and to keep writing.

“Like any band, (we want) to get as huge as possible,” he said. “We don’t know if it will happen, but that’s our goal.”

Contact ALL reporter Gabe Gott [email protected].