There are up to 30 of us at any given time.
If you're that interested in the parts that make up the whole, check out http://hmbnyc.com/members/
Influences
City streets in the summer; red wine, whiskey and beer; old-time jazz and the sound of jazz to come. We are good and bad influences on each other in equal measure, and all 20+ of us are always bringing things to the table: Ellington, Mingus, a nice paté, SunRa, Pig Bag, the Clash, some spiced rum, Black Sabbath, Prince Buster, Goran Bregovic, or what grew out of our own individual gardens or collective heads.
Sounds Like
Some other well known brass and street music projects that get our bloomers all knotted are the Boban Markovic Brass Band (Serbia), Fanfare Ciocarlia (Romania), Kocani Orkestar (Macedonia), Emir Kusturica's No Smoking Orchestra (Serbia), Shyam Brass Band (New Dehli), Vassourinhas de Olinda (Pernambuco), Rebirth Brass Band, Hot 8's, Treme Brass Band, New Birth Brass Band and a million others from New Orleans, the whole Frozen Brass/Brass Unbound series of global field recordings that a bunch of folks from the Netherlands recorded, and which you can surely find somewhere online.....And some of the card-carrying members of the clandestine brass/street band underground, our sister bands all (even if some of them don't know it yet) are Titubanda (Rome), Ottoni a Scoppio (Milan), Fiati Sprecati (Florence), Fanfare des Kadors (Montpellier), le Pustule (Lyon), Fanfarniente (Paris), Les Plaies Mobiles (Paris), Fanfare van de Eeerste Leifdesnacht (Amsterdam), Blech & Schwefel (Kassel), Express Brass Band (Munich), Infernal Noise Brigade (Seattle), March Fourth (Portland), Environmental Encroachment (Chicago), Black Bear Combo (Chicago), Iron City Gum Bandits (Pittsburgh), Panorama Brass Band (NOLA), Extra Action Marching Band (Oakland/SF), Brass Liberation Orchestra (San Fran), Cakalak (NC), Carnival Band (Vancouver), Slavic Soul Party! (NYC), Rude Mechanical Orchestra (NYC), Himalayas (NYC), What Cheer? Brigade (Providence), Stick and Rag Village Orchestra (Boston) and more and more everyday...
HMB at the MOMA's one millionth visitor to free fridays event!
When the war finally ended (surely you remember those times) there were 20 of us left at the orphanage. Or maybe 30. It's hard to remember exactly. Anyway, the adults who survived had all fled and there was nothing left to do but work it out for ourselves. The obvious thing was to fix up the truck and head out, so that's what we did. None of us had any real skills to speak of - we all knew just how much starch the superintendent (called "the warden" more often) had wanted in his laundry, but beyond that we were pretty amateur at everything. The truck broke down a lot (it still does), the food often came up short, and sometimes the rides were long and tedious, but the one thing we all knew for certain was that the only real sin is to stop moving. So we moved, and by now we've been moving for eight years or more (not that anyone's counting).
We got by on scavenging and petty larceny for those first few months, though no one seemed to think anything of it. Living was wholly day-to-day, hand-to-mouth, rootless. Not for too long, though. After a few months of aimless wandering, we pulled up alongside a river. It wasn't on any of the maps we had found (honestly, apart from a few pastis-logged patches and some crusted-on bits of human cud, we're still not sure what's on those maps, though they do look nice), but it finally seemed like the right place. We followed the river for a few more days as though it was an old friend who knew the area, and sometimes we stopped to fish or pick berries and mushrooms nearby. Life was almost starting to seem routine when we blew a tire one day near a steep, overgrown embankment. After a lot of pissing, hooting, and gnashing of teeth (there was no spare), we moved on to the reality of our situation. After scoping out the area, we walked toward the only building in sight: a dilapidated hotel on the other side of a small hill with the words ''Miss Floyd's Bar and Grill - All You Can Eat Mondays and Thursdays'' on a sandwich board next to the front door. There was nobody inside; it looked like they took off in a hurry. A few shots were left out waiting for some dry throats. After a few hours of looking around, we found a stash of instruments that, looking back, must've belonged to the house marching band. We didn't really know what to do with them at first - they seemed to work better as objects of our rude jokes than anything that might've sounded like music. It wasn't a conscious thing yet, but their shapes and their potential gradually began to root in our collective imagination and, almost as an afterthought, we loaded them all into the truck before we shipped out.
Sometimes it occurs to us that we should look for that hotel again, but it's been a long time now, and even if it still exists, it's not likely that we'd ever be able to find it.
Hey people,
I hope life is treating you well. PAS will play Live in New York, Thursday July 3rd at Niagara Bar for the Antagonist Art Movement showcase. Please come and show your support.
For more info:
The Antagonist Movement presents: At 112 Ave A and the corner of 7th street. NYC. Downstairs past the tikki bar. In the VIP room. Thursday. 9pm till 2am. FREE. Cheap beer. You must be 21 or older to get in. bar number. 212-420-9517
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Drum n’ Sax will be playing some really kool trippy, ambient, electronica sounding music at Stain Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Sunday, July 6 at 8pm.
Any Hungry Marchers goin to Burning Man?,if so come march with EE,. PS, we want to party with yall in NYC after HONK!~ yeah, I know, 2009 plans even happenin. Global tour?!
Hello !!! Et voilà, pour clôturer une superbe saison, Kumpania Tzigane présente une soirée exceptionnelle en partenariat avec le festival RIO LOCO. On vous invite tous à venir nombreux danser une bonne partie de la nuit avec une programmation unique et pleins de surprises !