Their music has been likened to "James Brown fronting Talking Heads and singing Fall songs" by the NME and they are renowned for their extremely energetic live performances.
[1] The Blood Arm's music has been featured in the television programs Gossip Girl, The OC, Nip/Tuck, Chuck, Ravenswood and the US version of Shameless, the video game series "MLB: The Show", as well as the hit movie Cloverfield[2] and the 2006 documentary Radiant City.
[3] The band is led by singer Nathaniel Fregoso (born November 29, 1979),[4] who has a reputation for highly energetic live shows, including singing from the tops of speaker stacks, hanging off water pipes, waltzing with members of the audience, or stealing off to the bar to swipe drinks.
Fregoso met guitarist Zebastian Carlisle at a karaoke bar in Koreatown and keyboardist / co-vocalist Dyan Valdés at UCLA, which they both attended.
They self-released the EP Four Song Demo in 2004 and their debut album Bomb Romantics in 2005, generating buzz overseas with positive reviews.
[7] The Blood Arm used to travel with a Master of Ceremonies named Ben Lee Handler, who warmed up the crowd with semi-fictional accounts of how the band arrived at the venue.
In their 8/10 review, Punk Rock ist nicht tot described the album as "bubbly, infectious, inventive pop" and "fun with a capital 'F'.
"[12] Q Magazine called Turn and Face Me "playfully knowing indie rock that could almost be a collision between The Scots and The Boomtown Rats",[13] though the album also drew comparisons with Roxy Music, Kevin Rowland and the Doors.
Fregoso and Valdés spent their first winter in Berlin penning the songs that would become the band's fourth studio album, Infinite Nights.
"[18] The Blood Arm were selected to participate in a citywide musical project called Lokalhymnen Berlin, in which Berlin-based bands were asked to write an original song about the city.
In 2014, the band was joined by drummer Sebastian Völkers and bassist Ferdinand Kumpfmüller, who together form the music production company Mimic.