The BrAss BeD is an expanding/contracting musical organism. Members are free to leave or return at will. And they do. It's a long-term revolving door of talent. The lineup is infinitely variable & these are some of the players:
Miles Davis, The Birthday Party, Beefheart, The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Harry Partch, curiosity shops, Morricone, Astor Piazzola, Funkadelic, The Fall, Kurt Weill, Raymond Scott, 50's Crime Music, The Cramps, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Robert Fripp, Link Wray, Arabic Music, John Barry, Breather Hole, Eno, New Orleans Line Bands, found objects, Neal Hefti, Kerouac, Max Ernst, Monk, The Blues, Moondog, circus music, Mancini, Carl Stalling, Sun Ra, Dr. Alimontado, Fink Finster
The BrAss BeD formed in 1997 as a reaction against the stranglehold that overdriven guitar music had (& still has..) on the Melbourne (& global) music scene. Their sound brought to centre stage the sounds which are usually relegated to the back of the band : brass, bass & drums. They wanted originality in sound & presentation; elements that they thought were missing from music of the day. Musically, it started as a mix of 50's Crime Scene, Trash-Jazz with filthy Lead Bass a'la early 80's Australian post-punk groups. Later on, Gypsy, Surf, Tango & New Orleans funeral line-band influences crept into the cocktail.
EARLY HISTORY:
Stu Thomas got the band rolling after he joined Kim Salmon & The Surrealists in '95 on bass, returning from lengthy touring in Europe & USA in '96. He brought songs & arrangements to the table as singer/bassis/trumpeter, & with Kiwi drummer/flamenco guitarist/artist Delaney Davidson, did a hell of a lot of 4-track recording & experiments in sound, art & performance...These two had met & played as the rhythm section of Doghouse in Melbourne 1992-4 (which began as a Tom Waits/chain-gang worship band, ending as a Stones/Bad Seeds criss-cross, fronted by Nique Needles), then formed a spaced-out guitar trio called Crumpet.
BRASS BED MK I:
Some 4-tracks were mixed in Atlantis Studios & ready for release as an extremely limited edition 8-inch clear vinyl EP (20 copies only!), known as "The Gold Record". It was encased in a shiny gold sleeve and included a Braille lyric sheet.
The CD version appeared soon after, called the "low key" EP in 1997 (on Blah Blah Blah Records).
To galvanise The Brass Bed live show, they had to track down some brass players. The first one was Tatiana Pajo on trombone, another Kiwi living in Australia. She had been spotted in a street band, wearing a giant tea-cup for a hat. They had to have her....
Stu & Del used to go & watch Breather Hole in the mid-90's & when that band folded, they nabbed Brian May, the trumpet player. This was the first lineup of the band. They played big gigs with some respected undergrounders : Rowland S Howard, Kim Salmon, Spencer P Jones, Dumb Earth....
The notorious "No Single" was released in '98 on their own Bar Humbug label, as white vinyl & picture disc , getting a lot of attention for the band. It featured the songs "No Rest For The Wicked" and "No Say".
When Brian left, the trio of Stu, Del & TP soldiered on, including bass loops on a delay machine, so Stu could layer trumpet or valve trombone. Thus began a continuing trend for lineup variations in The Brass Bed's live show...
BRASS BED MK II:
Soon, another Kiwi came into the picture. Rhys Braddock, a relation of Tatiana, was always yelling out stuff at The Brass Bed's gigs. He became the obvious replacement for Delaney when he went overseas, but when Del returned the band really freed up. Rhys & Del swapped on bass & drums at this point, with the cherry on top being Tim Hilton who joined on 2nd trombone. Cam McAllister added another trumpet to the expanding sound. All players were by this stage multi-instrumentalists, & there was no band that was even close to their sound in Melbourne even though (of course) brass started to appear in bands all over the city...A split picture disc single with Luxedo appeared, "Combination" being The Brass Bed's contribution.
The Brass Bed released their debut LP "Save Your Breath"in 2001 on Corduroy Records. It was a rollercoaster of all their influences to date, & then some, eschewing musical borders & embracing complexity.
BEYOND THE ROCK:
The band had graduated to better gigs around Melbourne, toured New Zealand & had taken to recruiting extra members as guests, many of whom were visitors from overseas. Lemmi Schwarz was one who fell from Berlin twice over a space of 5 years, to play guest clarinet or sax. Others were Tom Carlyon (Devastations) & Dan Kelly.
The Brass Bed also began to hold gigs in non-rock venues, such as art galleries & cinemas, and were invited to play at art & film events. Stu re-arranged the music so performances were less song-based. Included now was a lot of improvisation & sound effects, with songs being strung together as instrumental stretch-outs. Many shows were live in front of projections, provided by Stu or a number of underground filmmakers. He became deeply involved with the Moving Image Coalition (then known as Melbourne Super 8 Film Group), and a mutual support network grew between the groups. A live album resulted from this time called "The Brass Bed Plays Film Music : Resonances", released independently online only.
METAMORPHOSES:
More lineup changes took place when Rhys left for an extended Japanese visitation. Then Delaney went to live in Switzerland (joining Dead Brothers) & Cam left for a long-term cruise-ship gig. Replacement drummers appeared, in the form of Sonke Rickertsen, then Adam Nash & Phil Collings.
Due to public demand, the "No Single" Picture Disc was re-issued, this time with an extra song "No Vacancy", and re-named "No Single 2002".
The 2-trombone/bass/drums lineup consolidated, yet live appearances became rarer : life intervened, other projects took precedent, the group simmered underground for a time, sponge-like, soaking in inspiration, still recording sporadically.
BEYOND INFINITY:
2004 saw new life enter The Brass Bed, as Sherab Holley, an amazing violinist, came on board. Drum duties were filled by Mike Noga, & Rhys returned, on bass. Newly inspired by gyspy/tango music, the group entered a phase of gigs & recording which roped in even more sounds to compliment the brass : Tim picked up clarinet, Stu the melodica & electric guitar, providing new colour. The songs were all the more elaborate, harmonic & musical, or at turns trashier still. Rhys got the call of the wild once more, this time leaving for New Zealand-via-Europe. Mike Noga left to see the world with The Drones. Phil Collings returned to warm the drumstool.
NOW:
Jan 2007, "The Super 8 Video LP" DVD has been released on Bar Humbug. It features 15 underground Australian film-makers visually interpreting songs from the "Save Your Breath" album.
With an all star line up:
Eddie Perfect
Paul Capsis
The Conglomerate
Abbie Cardwell
Sophie Brous
Tommy Spender
Casey Benetto
Video Day
Steve Sedergreen
Jan Skubiszewski
Marc Testart
Xani Kolac
Peter 'The Dog' Burgess
Ben Hendry
Brother Grim
Jelly Tub Rollers
and
Clairy Baby Brown & The Bangin Rackettes
Hello friends! We released our debut album from & records in Japan! And we will release it from Mush records in U.S.A on July! Check it out! You can get it here
The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund finally has merch (click what’s left of our piano). NOmrf pays no office rent and stays grass roots to help each dollar go further. Hundreds of displaced musicians have received grants since 8/29/5.
Here's our manifesto on bringing musicians home and keeping them all safe.
