This is fucking awesome

April 10, 2013 6:37 PM

Let's say you're a drummer, and you have seven mates who play brass instruments. What do you do? Cover Thrift Shop (by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis). Broken Brass Ensemble have three more demo tracks on Soundcloud, if you dig their mix of traditional New Orleans brass with hiphop, balkan, funk, fanfare, and more. Or you could just listen to a ton of brass band cover songs on YouTube, if that's you're thing.
posted by filthy light thief (31 comments total)

Yes. :-D
posted by Broseph at 6:44 PM on April 10, 2013

I would show this to my euphonium-playing brother but he probably already knows about them.
posted by missriss89 at 6:57 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm an enormous sucker for this stuff. Like a Prayer is... powerful when rendered in brass.
posted by BungaDunga at 7:21 PM on April 10, 2013

The saxophone is a woodwind, unless something has changed since I played (poorly) in my high school band.
posted by craven_morhead at 7:28 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

The brass section turned out to be bigger and meaner than the woodwinds, and claimed the sax for their own.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:30 PM on April 10, 2013 [6 favorites]

I guess I don't know how old you are, but Sidney Bechet made the saxophone a brass instrument. Which is to say – he pissed off the trumpet players because he played louder than them.
posted by koeselitz at 7:39 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I love how that guy looks totally like a dorky high school sax player, as if he hasn't aged a day.
posted by 7segment at 7:40 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Sousaphone represent!

I was a tuba/sousaphone player in school. One year, I got to march in the Mardi Gras parade in NOLA, which was very impressive as a sheltered 14 year old in military school. People threw beads and coins into the bell, which was (yes) fucking awesome.

The bell was a huge target -- got egged at another, less civilized parade.

Saxophones are made of brass, don't mean they are Brass. ;)
posted by Celsius1414 at 7:57 PM on April 10, 2013

You should always buy a round of drinks for the *entire* band. Make sure the underage players get sodas, of course.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:19 PM on April 10, 2013

Saxophones are reed instruments that are made of brass.
posted by carter at 8:24 PM on April 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

There's a legendary piano teacher who's rumored to have repeated often her dictum:

"The piano is a wind instrument."
posted by koeselitz at 8:57 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I was just thinking today-- why am I not sick of this song yet? And this arrangement provides the answer, it's not just a novelty song with a great subject matter, it is a funky, bombastic number. And they picked the right line to sing.

I wear your grandad's clothes
I look incredible
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:10 PM on April 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

I think it's because it's not so much a novelty song as it's just unabashedly cheerful and fun about something hilariously mundane but also kinda exciting. It's like writing a song with hip-hop swagger about going to the grocery store.

I looked them up and apparently they're Dutch guys playing New Orleans-style brass band music, which feels very 21st century and amazing.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 9:16 PM on April 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

I was just thinking today-- why am I not sick of this song yet? And this arrangement provides the answer, it's not just a novelty song with a great subject matter, it is a funky, bombastic number. And they picked the right line to sing.

YES. Elder Monster's girlfriend introduced me to this song about a month ago, and I fell in love. It's catchy and earworm-y.

(Tangentially, what the hell do you call the young woman who is the daughter of your college friend and Beloved of your eldest Monster? They are taking marriage. "Elder Monster's girlfriend" is clunky, but "future daughter in-law" seems presumptuous!)
posted by MissySedai at 9:58 PM on April 10, 2013

I've had this and the original on repeat for about four days now. So good except I can't stop halp.
posted by mhoye at 9:59 PM on April 10, 2013

This thread won't be complete without a major tip of the cap to Broken Brass's forebears (who they are almost certainly aware of and inspired by), namely Frank London's Les Miserables Brass Band. Frank was just forming the band at the tail end of my residence in Boston, Massachusetts back in the early 80s, so I only did a brief stint as a member of the unit (it was big, big fun) but the group has had a long life and are still performing from time to time. Anyway, check 'em out:

Here's their absolutely wonderful cover of Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite. And their cover of Hendrix's Manic Depression shows not only their musical brilliance, but the video demonstrates the terrifically manic stage presence the band could muster effortlessly.

Also, David Byrne used them as accompanists in his Knee Plays in the late 80s. (That's leader and main arranger Frank London on trumpet at the left hand side of the stage). The membership is of a stellar musical level, and includes the utterly amazing Marcus Rojas on tuba, who is a law of tuba nature unto himself.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:08 PM on April 10, 2013 [5 favorites]

A drummer and 7 brassmen walk into a junkyard bar...
posted by mannequito at 10:29 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

The saxophone is a woodwind, unless something has changed since I played (poorly) in my high school band.

If a band has a majority of brass instruments in it, it's very standard, longstanding practice to call it a "brass band". Consider as well that there are also almost always percussionists in New Orleans (and other) brass bands, but marching bass drums and snare drums ain't brass instruments either.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:37 PM on April 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Youtube continues not to disappoint. The comments consist of people explaining how this sounds awful and they have no music skills, and many more people talking about how great it is.

This is fucking awesome.
posted by jscott at 12:19 AM on April 11, 2013

More of why I cant stop dancin!
posted by SteelDancin at 1:22 AM on April 11, 2013

These guys are pretty good as well.
posted by preparat at 3:56 AM on April 11, 2013

So happy-making!!
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:12 AM on April 11, 2013

These are some cold-brass honkys!
posted by DU at 4:39 AM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

It is an unbreakable law of nature that when the number of saxophonists present >1, one of them will be wearing shades and probably a long coat.
posted by Shepherd at 6:05 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I think it's because it's not so much a novelty song as it's just unabashedly cheerful and fun about something hilariously mundane but also kinda exciting. It's like writing a song with hip-hop swagger about going to the grocery store.

I mean, why else was "Lazy Sunday" popular?
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:12 AM on April 11, 2013

Just wait 'til us hipsters get our hands on this one. You won't be able to throw a stone without hitting a beshaded sax player with the clap.
posted by nowhere man at 6:12 AM on April 11, 2013

Richmond, VA's No BS! Brass.
posted by emelenjr at 7:15 AM on April 11, 2013

Is not tuning their instruments part of their deal? I loved the arrangement but they are so out of tune it's PAINFUL. Maybe that's the "broken" part?
posted by sonika at 1:17 PM on April 11, 2013

Flapjax, I was jabbing at "you have seven mates who play brass instruments."

...because this drummer apparently does not have seven mates who play brass instruments. Or if he does, the seventh isn't in the video. Some guy playing a saxophone is.
posted by craven_morhead at 10:15 AM on April 12, 2013

I wonder if these guys need a euphonium player.
posted by Brian Puccio at 8:56 AM on April 13, 2013

I wonder if these guys need a euphonium player.

You get their phone number and euphonium up and you phind out!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:13 AM on April 13, 2013 [3 favorites]