New Orleans brass, rock, funk, blues, avant garde. Often categorized as 'only in New Orleans'. Pure smart-ass musical fun.

16 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: New Orleans Brass Band, ROCK: Garage Rock

Details:
Gambit Weekly
4/15/08

Egg Yolk Jubilee
Labor of Lunch
(self-released)
If only grown-up brass (or brass-ish) bands had throwdowns like high-school marching bands. A battle between the decade-old underground favorites Egg Yolk Jubilee and its fellow horn-heavy genre-bustering Bonerama would be something to hear.

On Labor of Lunch, the winking tricksters of Jubilee combine awesome chops with a goofball sense of humor that gets utter free rein. The gang (which includes several New Orleans marching-band alums) lures in the listener with hot and ebullient â mostly by-the-book â brass band swing with an energy level cranked off the charts. The playing is tight and barely restrained, and the humor is of the wacky-uncle variety: a speedy tango about waiting for an espresso drink, a love song to the emergency room nurse, and an over-the-top double-entendre brass blues with lines like 'drain my grease into your can." Then, the weirdness truly begins. The band tears into a breathlessly begun 'Lazy River," which has a bizarre and hilarious growling funk-metal break in the middle, complete with guttural Cookie Monster vocals. Plus a shredding electric guitar solo that cuts into a frenetic Dixieland interlude. It'd make Spike Jones proud. And from there, the rules are suspended: speeding-train jazz, thrashing guitar and battering drums that deserve coverage in Kerrang!

Somehow, it all makes sense: plenty of brass bands blend in hip-hop and funk. Why have we waited so long for marching-band grads who freely trumpet (pun intended) their love of Zeppelin, glam rock and hair metal? It's a lunatic romp that'll make you want to dance like a spaz.

People who are interested in Frank Zappa Sun Ra Spike Jones should consider this download.