Fredericksburg - I always assumed marching band was designed to foster sullen and docile neofascist youths.  I still have anxiety problems and nightmares from disciplinary actions taken in high school.  One more two-foot tall piccolo player screeching at me about Christ knows what because I wouldn’t stop mocking her during drill, and I was going to go AWOL and squat in Berlin.  Instead of Berlin, I chose to seek opportunity this side of the pond.  I sent my resume to Cuba in response to a posting I saw on craigslist.  I applied for digital hardcore/noise DJ for Gitmo yoga and aerobics hour but it didn’t pan out.  I’m starting to understand satire and dadaist attitude have no place in democracy.  Democracy has been a stalwart against the red scare, the axis of evil, and many other primary colored geometric aberrations.  I’m waiting for the sea to shining sea to shine as a periwinkle rhomboid of civility and secular humanism, but I suppose it’s a pipe dream.  But then again, it’s never a good idea to force sanity and good manners upon people.  Before I steer farther off course, I want to get back to the task at hand.  Reminiscing over my marching band days is relevant.

Marching band is usually the starting place if you background check the brass bands.  That’s where I first encountered some of the evening’s performers.  Steve Whitesides, one of Elby Brass’s percussionists, verifies this as I chatted with him as a representative for Magazine33:

33: How did the whole Elby thing start?  I’m not too familiar with it.
Steve Whitesides: It started with Seth Casana and the Lake Braddock High School.  They were getting rid of their marching band uniforms, which was a couple hundred of them.  And you had to take, I think the minimum ticket, was 50 to 100.  So Seth pulled up and grabbed us all the ones he could fit in a van.  It was him and a couple friends from JMU.  They started jamming at Read All Over Books - just a loose concept of what they wanted to put together.  Jonny Burkett got recruited, and he pulled me in the band.  We’d been hiking around together.  He told me about it, and I was like, “Fuck yeah, I want to get in on this project.”  It’s been a funny cycle.  Most of the original people that helped found the band aren’t in the band now because life pulled them in different directions.  So Seth and Jonny and I have been in it since the get-go.  And a lot of the other charter members - Lars was a key player and Chris Parker recently left, he was a co-founder - they’ve all taken a hike for the time being.

As much as we bitched about it back them, who knew marching band would mutate into brass band and become a legit musical outlet for half of Fredericksburg and 3/25th’s of Richmond?  It’s interesting to watch people come and go through the ages.  I usually have a contemptuous and judgmental interpretation as people come and go and make serious life decisions.  The most plausible explanation is probably because I lack grounding.  Steve considers the evening in a larger context:

SW: It was an interesting turning point for Elby.  The remarkable thing about that gig other than being a packed, fun, high-energy gig, was that it was our last gig with Chris.  We just lost Kenny, he just had a baby.  We lost a lot of key founding members, but we’re kinda like in version 2.0.  The band is kicking off in a much more hip-hop, dance-oriented direction.  It seems to fit a renegade party.  Less of the pre-planned "Where are you going on a Friday night?  I’m going to go see a band at a bar and sit still while I drink."  We’re trying to kill that mojo, because that’s what killed rock ‘n’ roll. 

The musicians see the cycling of people as part of the zen of things and more often than not simply play nice with each other regardless of who they’re playing for, what band they’re playing with, or what they’re moving towards as part of their personal "life performance."  But along the way, bands aren’t afraid to evolve.

DJ Skruff started the evening and set the vibe.  For a moment, let's see what he had to say about the show, opening, and setting the mood for the evening...

33: What did you expect going into the show?
DJ Skruff: I didn’t know what to expect.  I’ve seen Elby before.  I’ve seen No BS before.  I think both of them are really dope bands, and they have just a ton of energy, and I expected it to be a lot of fun.

33: Feeding off their energy and with your expectations, do you think you had the opportunity to get away with a little more creative freedom? 
DJS: Absolutely.  I talked with a couple of the guys in Elby - Ryan and Ben.  I basically was told "do what you want" was the idea behind the show.  I played off their style, and I had my setlist together well before  I went into the show.  I had found certain songs I knew I wanted to play and other things to work with it and vibe with the same format they were going for.  I think every record I played had brass in it.  Whether it was sampled or played live, I tried to make it fit.

No BS took the stage.  They have an intimidating presence.  I’m not going to lie.  After hearing the first couple compositions performed by No BS and witnessing their genius utilization of dynamics and low tones, I was worried for Elby, the hometown heroes.  When they play softer in the mix only to stun you with an unexpected forte crescendo, No BS’s low brass hits as if Vader has turned the Death Star into a giant orgiastic boom box.  I thought I lost my bowels, but it was just Captain Barsanti’s hairy sweaty arm wobbling in my face as we pressed closer to the stage.  No BS’s set was a theatrical performance.  The way the band sequenced and paced songs was like listening to an album from start to finish.  They cleverly juggled volumes and frequencies.  The pedal tones penetrated deep, and the shocking and overwhelming waves of horn crescendos stunned you to full attention.  Their cover of Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” was a serious, taught, and thoroughly considered arrangement with keen textural layering across all instrumental voices.

Elby remained nonplussed as they had their turn.  They brought the dirty funk.  They finished out the night letting everyone know that this was their stomping ground.  For some unknown reason, they dressed as Mark Twain & the Purple French Foreign Legion; that one guy’s Crocodile Dundee hat and those uniforms.  I don’t know if they incorrectly assumed the Otter House as a Holiday Inn lounge from the 70s, but I swear they may have stitched their coats together from the Inn’s old couches.  What, did you expect me to be kind the whole article?  Talking with Steve, we were able to iron what seemed the be the difference between No BS and Elby’s respective approaches...

33: How’s Elby’s relation with No BS?
SW:  Pretty Good.  We respect them for being performance oriented.  They are a lot of skilled musicians that are there to give a solid performance and provide the crowd with really good tunes and good music.  Our band is just a different thing.  It’s hard to compare apples to oranges.  We play wild tunes - a lot of covers - and our originals are relying on that they are unique and weird and fun to dance to than that they are musically challenging to play or technical.  If anything, they pair really well together.  It’s pretty difficult to call it a competition.  I think some of the crowd was looking for that, and they were surprised to see it was two good brass bands trying to play together and get everybody to go wild.  I thought it was a good order though.  While the crowd was still sober they got good quality music, and once they had a little drink in them and they were ready to dance and express themselves and interact...Elby’s thing is we bring something the crowd can do something with.

I had been looking for my usual opportunity to stir the pot and have an influx of angry emails sent to my editor about the importance of quelling my too-big-for-my-britches attitude.  I’d heard the evening was just marketed as a battle, and there really wasn’t going to be a competition.  I was determined to make it a competition.  It irked me that this was all staged and essentially a lie.  I wanted blood, and I wanted a victor.  I lost my cool for a moment like Charlie Sheen and Glenn Beck after they run out of markers to sniff and the strippers are no longer amused by the boys drawing Houdini moustaches on each other.  I thought planting seeds of competitive discontent would be my method to draw the ire I so masochistically relish.  I assumed most members of these bands have been at odds in the past with fellow band members and members of the other bands because of rivalries during the high school days.  The attitude toward competition back then was fiercely serious.  If you think my sense of self-importance is inflated and unchecked, have you ever met anyone from a drumline?  If you rub coarse salt hard enough on the healed wounds of past competitive losses, even a scar becomes inflamed as the ego becomes agitated.  Jocks huff and puff about their rivals, but certain band kids, and specifically percussionists, are insane.  They’ll stuff you and lock you in a drum case for three days to bond with you and boost morale within the unit.  However, my usual tricks weren’t going to work because, for what I was witnessing, it was in no way worth causing drama.  It’s truly impossible to sensationalize this one and it would be useless to attempt as much.  The bands and attendees had the best attitude the whole night.  Camaraderie manifested itself across the board.  This was duly noted when members of No BS stayed and were there to the end genuinely jumping and swaying during the home stretch of Elby’s set.  Ultimately, I’m much more impressed by the air of cooperation.  Between No BS’ theater and Elby’s dirty dance party, each side deserves due respect and both sides graciously gave credit where it was due.

These were authentic performances.  Brass and percussion can’t be faked like tacky punk bands can fake it.  Going back to Steve, he has an opinion on brass bands, rock bands, and the value of the performance.

33: Do you think the brass band has done a good thing - that is, taking the music scene in Fredericksburg in a better direction?  Rock doesn’t have the weight it used to.  Is something unique like brass band a step in a different direction?
SW: I think the direction is "real sound."  Acoustic instruments that can show up and start playing anywhere anytime for the right occasion.  Rock bands started dying for two reasons.  The big reason for the players is it takes two hours to set up a show, two hours to break it down.  You’re only getting paid for the time you’re playing.  It isn’t economically viable anymore.  For the crowd, no interaction.  You used to have rock ‘n’ rollers get the crowd excited - dancing, spinning, whatever - and a bunch of half-naked chicks to add spice to the crowd.  Nowadays, rock ‘n’ roll is like some people sitting sipping beer at a bar and half paying attention while trying to pick up a date.

Forage through all the mutton chops, mullets, mustaches, and trucker caps, and therein lies some superbly talented musicians.  Both bands’ trumpet solo performers sounded off with the exuberance of the best from prohibition-era jazz artists.  Attention deficit energy was manifest in Elby’s trombone solo performer; his brain was composing faster than the solo could be embodied.  But the freneticism was what made the solo charming and contributed to the real-time swing.  I was most impressed with No BS’s trombone solo performer and his experiments with timbre during performance.  He was humming tones and flexing his embouchure to warp what was emanating from his horn.  His style reflected the acoustic representation of what effects processing can do to a signal.  It was really interesting to hear live.

The whole evening paralleled the vibe and performance at an Idlewild, Depression-era juke joint.  The evening served as a boozy escape from the still prevalent economic hardships.  The funky, jazzy, soulful, and bouncing style of the music, along with some of the shared hardships expressed on the periphery from patrons that evening makes space for the historical metaphor.  Special thanks to the powers that be who have decided it is sensible to axe civil servants working in public schools for the sake of the state budget.  At the Battle of the Brass, I had a conversation with a couple of those who are in "career transition."  You’re ruining the future, you bottom-line-focused dregs of society.  After cutting positions for people who can actually enhance the lives of a few members of probably the most screwed up generation in modern history, the next logical step will be to start cancelling arts and humanities programs.  The final step will be to start shutting the doors.  Herding students to other already overcrowded schools will have no positive effect.  Axing a school means axing a kid’s access to arts education, which means fewer talented and charismatic horn players and percussionists that can make a successful career out of music or a related creative industry.  Over 11 percent of the GDP in the U.S. comes from creative industries.  If there were no arts programs in the public schools, I find it implausible to imagine that this show could have happened, because a lot of the instrumentation, musical arrangement, fashion, and attitude expressed in performance specifically comes from high school marching band and jazz programs.  We salute your blatant stupidity and incorrigible disrespect for young minds, you oh-so-fiscally fastidiousness rascals who are the delegate.  Elby’s cover of Rage Against the Machine’s “Guerilla Radio” was the perfect choice for boiling the piss and vinegar coursing through the veins of an increasingly directionless lot of people.  Those politicians who are in charge of tampering with the education system for the worse, I’ll see you in 2012 on the campaign circuit when I run for office.  Someone has to clean up the dirty diapers you leave in the parking lot.

As Elby charged on, I started to realize this night was a strange reunion.  There were many faces from the past for several of us in attendance.  More than one person I know was dodging multiple conjugal acquaintances in the venue.  Hilarity ensues when a triangle of the drunk lovers scatter about on the dancefloor during dance numbers.  Faces turn as to hopefully avoiding recognition.  I saw some faces from the past, too.  Some people I recognized for certain, and for others I wasn’t sure.  It’s fine, the last time these people saw me I was pantless with burns on my legs in a parking lot at 4 A.M., smashing a VCR in between bottle shots of tequila screaming about the cultural significance of concept art.  I wish them well as they don the masks of serious young adults.  Perhaps having an association with me is a rust stain on an otherwise untarnished past, and it’s part of something these people wish to hide from their spouses.  But don’t forget, you people were in that parking lot at 4 A.M., too, and you were there more than once.  Elby’s dirty boogies brought a lot of those masked tendencies out on the dance floor, and for that I applaud them for getting people back in touch with their primal nature.  Things will be fine, though.  The divorce rate is approximately 50 percent for marriage in the twenties.  Here’s a quarter - heads you make it, tails you don’t.  Call it in the air.  You’ll be fine, this won’t hurt.  Good luck, flip the coin!  Skruff can spin "Just a Friend" as your swan song.  Everyone loved it when he played it at the end of the night.

But beyond the politics and social statistics, we’re really trying to iron out something good and unique for Fredericksburg.  We’re looking for a home to do it.  The architecture of the Otter House is prime, as we’ll hear from Steve, and the scene is in desperate need, as we’ll hear from Skruff.  There’s no reason why we can’t have more shows like this, and there’s no reason Otter House shouldn’t be the place...

33: Considering the vibe and the location, do you find the Otter House a good place to do forward thinking music nights like Battle of the Brass?
SW: It seems to be, and unfortunately for downtown Fredericksburg where there used to be a lot of spaces that could facilitate that.  It’s one of the only places large enough to get a crowd that has a room size that's in the right proportion to the shape and number of people there.  You go to K.C.'s Music Alley, 50 people might be a good pull for a small band, but it looks like the room’s dead because it’s so huge, and it’s laid out badly.  You go to Sammy T’s, we crammed like 40 or 50 people in there for some of our early gigs.  People would be standing on the bar dancing because there’s nowhere else to be.  It was a cool vibe, but we couldn’t get all of friends and fans in there.  I think you can get 150 in Otter House?  It’s the right size and the right shape for a band that’s got a strong pull in Fredericksburg.  I think the vibe is what the bands make of it.  It happens to have a lot of that there, but I think it’s part because they’re the only spatially and economically viable place in Fredericksburg.  Everyone else is closing down.

Skruff on the state of the scene:

33: You mentioned the promoters were saying go ahead and do whatever you want.  Do you find that lacking in Fredericksburg DJ culture?  And if so, what can be done to change this?    
DJS: Well, Fredericksburg DJ culture has taken a serious decline since I moved to the area.  Some of the old school heads got out of it or moved away, and more of the new kids coming up that are so called DJs are just strictly digital and strictly Top 40, and it’s all mainstream and watered down.

33: It’s very boring?
DJS: Boring!  Oh, it’s horrific.  It’s horrific.

33: Do you think, branching off what Elby and No BS accomplished, the Otter House is a place to revive dance culture and pull it away from Top 40?
DJS: That would be outstanding.  I was hoping for a long time this town would get that idea and want to be part of something different.  It’s really difficult to find venues willing to support anything but Top 40.  Even with places like the Otter House their focus is live bands.  It seems like, and rightfully so, they only see DJs as Top 40.  They necessarily don’t see the other side of it, and that other things can happen.

33: Well, as the rising genius music journalist from the area, I’ll see what I can do to make this happen.
DJS: That’s awesome.  Yes, please do.  Please do.

The highlight of the night was the ten minute brass and drum/turntable rendition of M.O.P.’s “Ante Up.”  The song was performed much later toward the end of the event.  As Elby pushed into an extended take on the track, Skruff sampled the “Ante Up” vocal hook and time warped, punched, stuttered, and turned the sample to texture.  He turned it to rhythm and triggered a call and response.  A talented DJ is a metamusician and defies the limitations of traditional musical parameters.  He can make a single sample all the parameters and none.  I had to ask him how this idea came about:

33: When did you decide to jump on the turntables and do “Ante Up” with Elby - scratching the hook alongside them?  What inspired you?  It went over great, and everyone’s been talking about it.
DJS: That’s great.  I’m not 100 percent sure about that.  It’s a little unclear.  Because I was a little um...I was a little bit um...had a little bit of alcohol that night, and I’m not sure if they asked me to come up or if I just decided to go and do it.  Both scenarios are certainly possible.

33: Either way it was a great idea, and everyone loved it.
DJS: Cool. Yeah, I had fun with it.  I definitely had fun with it.  I love cutting with a band.  It’s one of my favorite things to do, and I get to do it so rarely, and there’s so few bands that know how to play with a DJ whether I was invited, or I just crashed it.

33: Do you think the DJ got equal treatment as the musicians?  Do you think there was an appreciation for different artistic styles?
DJS: From the bands, absolutely.  Everyone was super cool.  It was just a great family atmosphere.  I had a blast.  It was awesome.

After talking with Skruff about the delights of playing music free from the restraints of top 40 and tacky requests, he’s excited for the opportunity to be resident DJ for the Blackmore 2012 campaign.  He and I desire to set up campaign disco parties at the Otter House.  In this stream of consciousness tract, this momentary sidestep is an official political announcement.  I, Mike Blackmore, will be running for Congress in 2012 on the District 1 Dada Bourbon Party platform.  There will be no shelter in 2012 for the policy jackals who have chewed the flesh from the ribs of informed decision making.  If my competition thinks I’m full of shit, let me ask them, do you have a campaign DJ?  Ante up.

Summed up, the night wove improvisation, experimental collaboration between the musician and metamusician, political realism, theater, the zen flow of people growing and making real life decisions, and the dirty-dirty funk into the most impressive display I’ve seen in Fredericksburg.  Captain Barsanti showed his talents as impresario in organizing this one, and I certainly hope we can continue to look to Otter House for these finer Magazine33 showcases.  The groove was relentless and infectious.  Every talented musician I talked with and congratulated on either side was humble in accepting the adulation.  It’s impressive to see that level of talent and proficiency eschew arrogance as such behavior seems increasingly rare.  This show needs to happen again, this time No BS chooses the venue.  It’s right that we all get to do it once more.

As a coda to the whole evening, we ended the evening close to 4 A.M. at a house party dancing to Peter Gabriel, Sex Pistols, Prince, and Jefferson Starship 45s.  Those in attendance were members of No BS and Elby.  We unfortunately lost Skruff somewhere, but the most memorable late night straggler was someone thrilled to have been recently released from jail.  He didn’t smile very much.  There was a girl riding a bike that had a strange wheel with bright neon lights all over it, and it resembled a glow in the dark roulette wheel that would consume your drugged and drunk soul as it rolled down the street.  This was nothing more than one of the curious surreal episodes you’d expect in Fredericksburg.  I can finally say things are starting to seem just right.

NoBSBrass.com

ElbyBrass.com

By Correspondent: Mike Blackmore

Mike Blackmore, a Fredericksburg native and D.C. dadaist, is a graduate of the University of Virginia and is cultivating a career based upon Audio Culture.  He is specifically focusing on arts administration, writing, DJing, production, and photography.  When Mike Blackmore is not globe trotting or offending church elders, he is working on his campaigns for 2012 that are a tandem gonzo blitz for both House of Representatives Elect for District 1 and Miss Virginia (a very pretty girl from UVA ran for Miss Virginia and it made Mike jealous).  Mike Blackmore is allergic to church, children and commitment, but likes strong coffee and vodka.

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