round here, there’s this kid called “Fish”, whom everybody describes as one of the coolest guys they’ve ever known. His reputation, however, seems to be limited to an odd nickname and a vague notion of “coolness.” Ask anything more about him, save where your source remembers him from, and you’ll get the type of response that makes you doubt anyone actually knows him.

I went to a Need New Body concert a little more than a month ago with about as much knowledge of the band as I had of Fish – NNB had a curious name and (in)famously awesome live shows. Imagine my surprise when, standing in front of Need New Body as the stage filled with instruments, many of which I had never seen before, a slightly awkward guy introduced himself to my friend as “Fish.” I asked him the couple things I knew about him as verification, and sure enough, it was the Fish I didn’t know. So I made small talk with him, and discovered that he’d seen NNB four times.

As Need New Body lashed out its first number, a vicious rendition of “Dirty Bitch,” Fish completely revealed himself. Throwing his body to the music with absolutely no concern for his surroundings, Fish occupied a frenzied circle with a radius of about five feet, threatening to knock me over several times during the show. But only in this way could I fully appreciate “Show Me Your Heart”’s ferocious death stomp or “Pen”’s hilarious paranoia.

I can honestly tell you that I have never experienced anything like a Need New Body concert, and have had few moments in my life that have approached the exhilaration of joining the band in chanting along to “Hotshot” or joining Fish in dancing to “Beach.” I don’t know how to find the right compliments for NNB’s shows; the band exhibits brilliance that is mind-blowing in the closest we have to a literal sense of the word.

On NNB’s second offering, UFO, the pure sublimity of the band’s live sound translates surprisingly well into studio format, making for an album far more listenable and rewarding than Need New Body. NNB’s debut hardly captured any of the band’s impact, but UFO manages to resonate with power that nearly equals that of the band’s shows. Furthermore, NNB had extreme difficulty in focusing its creative purposes on actual songs for its first album, but on UFO, the group manages to fashion its ingenious ideas into truly accessible material, often with very catchy (yet characteristically absurd) choruses.

Following a brief and slightly irritating opener, “Hotshot” reveals itself as the first of UFO’s highlights. Pounding drums dominate for a while, until a nefarious piano line enters, reinforced by a banjo and the group’s wild chants (and if you can believe it, this is only the second best song on the album to feature such a structure). The track never remains satisfied, jumping around savagely until “Moondear”’s calming folk interrupts it with unexpected humility and sincerity.

“Show Me Your Heart” is the next standout and the group’s best to date, taking much of “Hotshot”’s concepts, but offering denser instrumentation and a piano/banjo-accompanied chant that’s even more evil than its peer. The lyrics are wonderful for NNB-style sing-along, perfectly accompanying the music – “Take us to your heart/Cause we want your heart…Put it back inside/Let it beat again/’Cause this time we want your brain” – and placing the song in classic territory.

“Beach” repeats a brief, urgently ascending piano line as NNB commands you to join them at the beach, tells you what you should bring, and proceeds to name everything its members love about the beach before exploding once again into the “To Bring” list. Soon “Beach” plunges headlong into “Magic Finger” which glides by until the album’s second best song, “Ox.” A simple drum loop and keyboard melody carry the song for three minutes, but the band accents it perfectly with horns and other ornaments to create something simply transcendental.

There are still more highlights, but more than can be mentioned given the album’s 23-track (but 42-minute) length, and ludicrous chaos like “Pen” is best left without description. And to be fair, there are a few clunkers, although most of them are less than a minute long. “Red as a Bone” is the only song that detracts from the album significantly, as it’s no more than an abstract series of words and phrases over unmelodic piano and static for four minutes. Semi-excusing themselves with characteristic humor, though, a couple of the band members discuss whether or not their obscure list was “too long” or “too perfect” at the end of the track.

The album’s only other fault lies in its occasional lapses in sequencing. “Apple Snake” and “Turn Pillars Into Trees”, two unmemorable instrumentals that last a total of a minute and a half, have no place closing the album. “Red as a Bone” and “Turken Hogan” are almost certainly the two weakest tracks, but are unfortunately placed as consecutive tracks.

But qualms like these are easily put aside when the album is such a coherent, realized whole. Listening to Need New Body, it is almost inconceivable that something as accomplished, enjoyable, and altogether exceptional as UFO comes from the same band only two years later. But it’s happened, and what’s more, the band has achieved the even greater feat of distilling the ingenuity of its live show into something powerful on record.

I’ve been dancing to UFO for most of today, and until I see Need New Body again, this’ll be a regular activity. Because, like Fish, I’ve discovered NNB and I know how to dance without the slightest care about anything else. This next one’s for you, Fish.