City Life Magazine : November 2004

LIVE FROM NEW YORK.... IT'S BONERAMA

New Orleans is an incubator for unusual musical ideas based on traditional concepts that move in unexpected directions. Such is the case with Bonerama, a brass band conglomeration with a front line of four trombones and a funky rhythm section of sousaphone, wah-wah guitar and rump-shaking drum beats.
The band's new release, "Live From New York", in stores Nov. 9, shatters any preconceived notions listeners may have about the role of the trombone in a musical ensemble. There are passages psychedelically mind melting, hauntingly beautiful, furiousluy syncopated and filled with scorching virtuosity.

Jimmy Hendrix was once quoted during a recording session requesting the engineer make his guitar sound as if it was underwater, and Bonerama's take on "Crosstown Traffic" ups the ante, creating a sonic swimming pool with swirling distortion-laden trombone riffs and a rhythmic undertow that threatens to drown the ears in a churning wake.

Then there is Fred Wesley, a master of funk trombone, who met the band two years ago at Jazz Fest and has been a fan and supporter ever since. He sat in with Bonerama during this recording and particularly shines on the Mark Mullins tune "Less is Moore" The title's play on words is a nod to drummer Stanton Moore of Galactic, another special guest livening up the record.

One of the infectious Bonerama originals is the Craig Klein-penned "Shake Your Rugalator." A rugalator is a percussion instrument invented by Ray Lambert of the Storyville Stompers, a New Orleans brass band. It's a hollowed out coconut filled with ball bearings and then whimsically painted; Klein likes to refer to the instruments as "Chalmettian folk art" This ode to the rugalator captures the sound and intensity of a raw, raucous New Orleans evening in a sweaty club and serves as Bonerama's public service to those who may not have had the privilege of experiencing such a thing first hand.

Bonerama certainly is pushing the limits of what a New Orleans brass band can be, moving farther from traditionalism and fusing funk and rock music into one. On their previous release, "Live at the Old Point," it was the cover of "Frankenstein" that set tongues wagging. This go-round, the hard-rocking cover of "War Pigs" will fill that role-a dark, densely layered atomic meltdown of snarling ferocity that is frankly scary. If ever there was a jam compilation that signaled the apocolypse with rhythmic integrity, this cut would have to be on it.

by Billy Thinnes : City Life Magazine Nov. 2004