Upcoming: Bonerama @ Rocks Off Concert Cruise

Upcoming: Bonerama / Lost Bayou Ramblers @ Brooklyn Bowl

Upcoming: Bonerama @ Sullivan Hall

In Pictures: Kermit Ruffins & Bonerama @ Hiro Ballroom

photos taken by Dino Perrucci

Bonerama w/Kermit Ruffins - Hiro Ballroom, NYC 2/19/12



Bonerama - Hiro Ballroom, NYC 2/19/12


Bonerama - Hiro Ballroom, NYC 2/19/12


Kermit Ruffins & The BBQ Swingers w/Bonerama - Hiro Ballroom, NYC 2/19/12


Kermit Ruffins & The BBQ Swingers w/Bonerama - Hiro Ballroom, NYC 2/19/12



Kermit Ruffins - Hiro Ballroom, NYC 2/18/12


Derrick Freeman - Hiro Ballroom, NYC 2/18/12


Kermit Ruffins & Dirty Red - Hiro Ballroom, NYC 2/18/12

Next Saturday & Sunday: Kermit Ruffins & Bonerama @ Hiro Ballroom

Upcoming: Mardi Gras Ball feat. Kermit & Bonerama (discount below)

w/ special guests

Mardi Gras. The mere mention of these two words convey thoughts of wild celebrations, beads flying through the air, feathered hats, free-spirited dancing and a lot of booze and smiles. Nolafunk.com will help create this scene with your help. We’ll provide you with masks, hats, white cloths and beads. Lots and lots of BEADS! So bring your Mardi Gras outfits and your will to dance. The 6th Annual Mardi Gras Ball might be the best yet.

BONERAMA
Even in a city that doesn’t play by the rules, New Orleans’ Bonerama is something different. They can evoke vintage funk, classic rock and free improvisation in the same set; maybe even the same song. Bonerama has been repeatedly recognized by Rolling Stone, hailed as “the ultimate in brass balls” and praised for their “…crushing ensemble riffing, human-feedback shrieks and wah-wah growls.”
 
KERMIT RUFFINS
New Orleans is the only place on the planet that could have produced native son Kermit Ruffins. Whether he's blowing trumpet on a Louis Armstrong classic or one of his own hot numbers, Ruffins embraces the tune with the true spirit of the city. Ruffins' music, like New Orleans itself, swings hard with a big heart as it remembers tradition and the importance of good-timin” fun.

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As our holiday gift to you for being a wonderful Nolafunk.com supporter, we're offering tickets for the 2/19 Mardi Gras Ball for 50% off!
Just enter NolaHoliday into the "Access Code" box on TicketWeb
This offer will be good through January 1st
We hope you and yours have a great holiday!

In Pictures: Bonerama @ Sullivan Hall

By Dino Perrucci Photography

Bonerama - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/19/10


Mark Mullins & Jon Batiste - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/19/10


Bonerama w/Steve Kimock - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/19/10


Bonerama w/Maurice Brown - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/19/10

Video: Bonerama feat. Jonathan Batiste @ Sullivan Hall

In Pictures: Bonerama @ Sullivan Hall

By Dino Perrucci Photography

Bonerama - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/5/10

Bonerama - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/5/10


Terence Higgins - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/5/10

Upcoming: Bonerama 2nd Annual Residency @ Sullivan Hall

After a whirlwind month-long Northeast residency last October, Bonerama is at it again this year. The venerable trombone-based powerhouse will return to some familiar markets, while expanding the parameters to visit a few new cities and venues as well. The good ship Bonerama is prepared for blast-off with several high profile guests aboard, stowed away for deployment.


Friday nights, Bonerama will hold court once again at Sullivan Hall in the Village in New York City.

Bonerama is pleased to welcome Adam "Shmeeans" Smirnoff (Lettuce, Robert Randolph) to the stage on the first weekend residency stops. Members of Morphine and Jeremy Lyons aka (Ever Expanding) Elastic Waste Band will open the New York City show on November 5th, as an added attraction.

Kyle Hollingsworth Steve Kimock and Mark MullinsThe band also deploys some secret weapons in the form of two jam band superstars. Keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth (String Cheese Incident) and guitarist Steve Kimock (Crazy Engine, Zero, PRAANG, Steve Kimock Band and KVHW) lend their talents to Bonerama's wall of sound. Steve and Kyle are good friends after touring together in 2008 with the Mickey Hart Band, and Everyone Orchestra and Holy Kimoto in 2010. Anticipate fireworks when they unite again to take everyone in Bonerama-land into the stratosphere.

To open the final four dates of the tour, Bonerama welcomes their Boston-based friends and co-conspirators Nate Wilson Group. This up and coming super-group features members of Assembly of Dust and Percy Hill.


Fans are encouraged to "Bone Up" and pick up their tickets in advance for this special run of shows. For those that don't know, the Boner Donor program is designed to provide the ultimate Bonerama fan experience.


November 5
Friday
Sullivan Hall
w/ Adam Smirnoff & Members of Morphine and Jeremy Lyons
New York, NY


November 12
Friday
Sullivan Hall
w/ Jonathan Batiste
New York, NY


Sullivan Hall
w/ Nate Wilson Group, Kyle Hollingsworth & Steve Kimock
New York, NY

Vote for the next Threadhead Records project

Fan-funded New Orleans-based Threadhead Records is hosting a poll to help determine their next project. You do not have to register to vote. You just click on the link and can vote once per IP address per day through 10/18.


My favorites include: Midnite Disturbers (the all-star brass band, which has included Stanton Moore, Kevin O'Day, Skerik, Ben Ellman, Big Sam, Mark Mullins, Shamarr Allen, Troy Andrews, Kirk Joseph, Matt Perrine)

Tin Men feat. Alex McMurray, Matt Perrine (again) & Washboard Chaz

Injun Orchestra


Feel free to vote for your favorite.

Vote Here! Poll Closes at 12am est 10/18

One vote per IP address, per day. At the end of the week, the top 10 suggestions will be put up for a final vote. Final poll will be open for another week and at the end of that time, THR will choose a project from the top 3 most popular suggestions to pursue. Note: There is no guarantee that any project suggested will materialize into a THR project but THR will seriously investigate the possibility.

Who should we pursue for our next project?
	AfricanZydeco Revue
	RamaFest: Twangorama and Bonerama collaboration
	David Torkanowsky
	Kora Konnection
	Anders Osborne (?), Johnny Sansone and John Fohl
	VOW
	Germaine Bazzle
	groovesect and the soul project (soulsect)
	Threadhead Records All-Stars
	A childrens CD recording the music clinic kids
	All That
	Midnite Disturbers
	Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show
	Threadhead Records artists do the History of New Orleans music
	Wendell Brunious
	Christmas funk compilation
	Junko Pardners
	The Injun Orchestra
	Creole String Beans
	Brint Anderson
	Helen Gillet
	Joe Krown trio
	Bob Andrews
	(Big Fine) Ellen Smith
	John Gros
	Sasha Masakowski
	Tin Men
	Johnny Sansone
	Beatin Path

http://www.threadheadrecords.com

NPR's Bonerama: A Brass-Band Force Of Nature

by Claire Blaustein

'When the Levee Breaks' by Bonerama

The New Orleans brass band Bonerama updates "When the Levee Breaks" for a post-Katrina world.

"When the Levee Breaks" was first recorded by Memphis Minnie in 1929. The song originally referred to the great Mississippi Flood of 1927 — a natural disaster that destroyed communities up and down the banks of the river, but mostly spared the city of New Orleans. Of course, Hurricane Katrina created a whole different image of what can happen when the barriers between humans and the elements come down, so it makes sense that the New Orleans band Bonerama would bring the song forcefully into the present.

Mark Mullins and Craig Klein met while playing in the trombone section of Harry Connick Jr.'s Big Band, and together they created the core sound of Bonerama — reminiscent of street-tromping brass bands, avenues of jazz clubs and heavy-pulsing rock. Naturally, "When the Levee Breaks" pulls from the famous version on Led Zeppelin IV, complete with sly re-renderings of harmonica solos on swaying trombone. It moves with a heavy groove, dominated by the pounding wave of sound created by the slides of the trombone. The effect is edgier and more mournful than Led Zeppelin's lightly bluesy version — not only for its rich brass and darker, harder strung arrangement, but also because every bit of the performance comes from deep in the chest cavity, from a time and place when "Cryin' won't help you, and prayin' won't do no good." It feels like a force of nature, and as such, it threatens to sweep away everything in its path.

Upcoming: Mardi Gras Ball feat. Big Sam's Funky Nation, Bonerama & Tab Benoit @ Le Poisson Rouge

This year's party returns to Le Poisson Rouge (on Bleecker & Thompson), and the lineup features three classic New Orleans heavy hitters: Bonerama, the brass rock band described by Rolling Stone as “the ultimate in brass balls” (Big Sam's Funky Nation, the powerhouse funk machine led by Big Sam Williams, formerly of the world-famous Dirty Dozen; and Tab Benoit, one of the top blues and roots musicians to emerge from Cajun country in generations.


All signs point to this year's Ball being the best one yet. Tickets have been going quickly, & we sold out early last year, so don't wait around to pick yours up. Wear your Mardi Gras costumes, too—we will be.


The Mardi Gras Ball is Saturday, February 13^th at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Doors open at 8. Advance tickets are $30, and you can get 'em here. Tix at the door will be $35 (if they haven't already sold out!).

NolaFunky Album Reviews c/o Offbeat Magazine

Bonerama, Hard Times (High Steppin’) By Alex Rawls Hard Times is Bonerama’s first studio recording after three live albums, and moving the band to the studio poses a number of challenges beyond maintaining the groove and vibe that comes with performing live. In concert, Bonerama’s as loud and physical as many guitar-based rock bands, partially because of similarities between the range of the trombone and the electric guitar, and because Bonerama plays loud. At Jazz Fest, the band’s music frequently bleeds over to adjoining stages, particularly when it’s windy. How do you capture something that intense in the studio? To their credit, they don’t try. Instead, the five-song EP is an introduction of the things Bonerama does—a Mark Mullins song, a Craig Klein song, a funky instrumental, and two covers. One represents the sort of thing they’re known for—”When the Levee Breaks”—and one’s a broadening of their repertoire— Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Turn on Your Love Light.” They only roll out their piledriver weight for the Led Zep cover; otherwise, they’re content to be a solid funk band and are exactly that. Mullins’ title cut is a bit poppier, Klein’s “Lost My House” has a bit of a Neville groove, but those tracks move more nimbly than you’d expect after one of their classic rock covers. Lyrically, Hard Times catches what seems like a transitional moment. Because of Klein’s association with the Arabi Wrecking Krewe and his own loss in the post-Katrina flood, the band has been heavily associated with the hurricane, and “When the Levee Breaks” certainly reinforces that connection. Mullins and Klein’s songs both reference hard times and loss, but both seem to be looking for where to go from here. Both lyrics get a little hazy, either in their vagueness or privacy, but Bonerama is one band that really has remained in development since conception, even though it found its sound fairly early. Hard Times hints at where a band in constant transition might go next.

Garage a Trois, Power Patriot (Royal Potato Family) By Alex Rawls Part of what has set Garage a Trois apart from other jam/jazz/ funk aggregations is its intelligence and ability to follow through on a concept. 2005’s Outre Mer presented itself as a soundtrack to a French movie that didn’t exist, but it was done well enough to make the charade seem possible. On the new Power Patriot, the sound has changed a bit—Marco Benevento’s keyboards have replaced Charlie Hunter’s guitar—but the same governing intelligence remains. Enough attention is paid to the sound of each instrument in each song that each remains discrete, unified by a musical sensibility, not by the sameness of the instrumentation. As the title implies, Power Patriot is often a muscular record. “Fragile” is anything but, and “Rescue Spreaders” is as disorientingly distorted as anything on the Flaming Lips’ Embryonic. It’s also often a very melodic album thanks to Mike Dillon’s vibes-based compositions. The highlight is “Dory’s Day Out,” a rather sweet piece that recalls the work of a number of Brian Wilson- influenced bands (the High Llamas come to mind). On occasion, the album toes the waters of prog rock and Zappa-esque jazz, minus the Zappa, but its beauty is that the compositions rarely sound like set-ups for solos. Even at six minutes on the album, there’s a clear purpose for each piece that rarely includes lengthy solos. If anything, a few of these tracks could use someone to step out and burn for a bit.

Paul Sanchez, Farewell to Storyville (Threadhead) By John Swenson The Threadhead Records phenomenon has reshaped the profile of the local recording industry, allowing veteran musicians to make albums that might otherwise not have happened, giving deserving new artists a jump start on their careers and even producing such delightful one shots as this year’s Christmas release. No musician has benefited from this breakthrough more than Paul Sanchez, who has established himself as an important solo artist since leaving Cowboy Mouth with no small help from the label. This is the third Threadhead-financed album Sanchez has made, and each has been remarkably different. Sanchez has been preparing to make Farewell to Storyville his whole career. It’s an impromptu, mostly solo session in which Sanchez tells stories about each song before singing it, a standard folk music format that he’s perfectly suited to. When Sanchez left his New Orleans home for New York City in the 1980s to make his mark as a songwriter at the height of the fast folk and anti-folk movements that emerged out of the city’s post-punk club ethos, he played numerous gigs that resembled this session. In fact, one of the songs here, “Breaking My Back Up Front for You Baby” was written during that period. Toward the end of his run with Cowboy Mouth, he began playing acoustic house parties that also mirrored the shape of these performances. Folk music of this type is often autobiographical and there’s no shortage of such material here. “Gonna play you some songs and tell you some stories,” he begins by way of introducing “Knives to Grind,” a reminiscence from his childhood in the Irish Channel. “I Dreamed I Saw My Father,” a song with the feel of a Fred Neil ballad, is a bittersweet rumination on a man Sanchez says he really didn’t know. He explains how Lillian Boutté introduced him to “Farewell to Storyville,” a song about days gone by that Sanchez gives a languid reading with vocal support from Debbie Davis. The song is poignant in New Orleans today, a point Sanchez brings home by following it with “Falling with Nowhere to Land,” a post- Katrina lament. “It’s my story,” he says. “It’s our story, it’s anybody’s story that’s lived here in the last few years.” Sanchez brightens the mood with the merry Spanish language tune “Mota Mota Mota,” a reflection of his time spent in Central America after the storm. Themes of displacement, grief and plain old mental maladjustment continue to float through the album, taking different shapes. He lightens the mood, though, with the comic “Walked in the Club with Twenties” and sends everyone home smiling with the dark humor of “Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think.” When a record like this works, you leave it feeling you’ve learned something intimate about the singer’s life, like a good conversation with a friend. Sanchez will have a lot of new friends after they listen to Farewell to Storyville.

In Pictures: Bonerama @ Sullivan Hall

By Dino Perrucci Photography

Bonerama - Sullivan Hall, NYC 10/23/09



Bonerama - Sullivan Hall, NYC 10/23/09

By greg aiello

Robin Eubanks & Criag Klein - Sullivan Hall, NYC - 10/24/09




Bonerama w/ Robin Eubanks @ Sullivan Hall

In Pictures Bonerama feat. George Porter Jr. @ Sullivan Hall

By Dino Perrucci Photography

Bonerama w/George Porter Jr. - Sullivan Hall, NYC 10/16/09

Craig Klein - Sullivan Hall, NYC 10/16/09

George Porter Jr. - Sullivan Hall, NYC 10/16/09



Bonerama w/George Porter Jr. - Sullivan Hall, NYC 10/16/09



Bonerama w/George Porter Jr. - Sullivan Hall, NYC 10/16/09



CHECK OUT A FULL SET OF SCOTT BERNSTEIN'S PICTURES FROM THE FIRST WEEK HERE.

Upcoming: Bonerama residency / Fridays @ Sullivan Hall

w/ many special guests

BONERAMA Friday Oct 2, 9, 16, 23 *Bonerama will start at 11pm each night and perform two sets

Bonerama Official Website Myspace Youtube When Bonerama struts onstage with its four-trombone frontline, you can guess it's not quite like any rock 'n' roll band you’ve seen. When they tear into some vintage New Orleans funk, there's no questioning from which city these guys hail. And when those ’bones start ripping into Hendrix and Led Zeppelin licks, all stylistic bets are off. Even in a city that doesn't play by the rules, New Orleans’ Bonerama is something different. They're not a traditional brass band, but they've got brass to spare-even with no trumpets or saxes in sight. They can evoke vintage funk, classic rock and free improvisation in the same set; maybe even the same song. Bonerama has been repeatedly recognized by Rolling Stone, hailed as “the ultimate in brass balls” (2005) and praised for their "…crushing ensemble riffing, human-feedback shrieks and wah-wah growls" (2007). Bonerama carries the brass-band concept to places unknown; what other brass band could snag an honor for "Best Rock Band" (Big Easy Awards 2007)? As cofounder Mark Mullins puts it, "We thought we could expand what a New Orleans brass band could do. Bands like Dirty Dozen started the ’anything goes' concept, bringing in the guitars and the drumkit and using the sousaphone like a bass guitar. We thought we could push things a little further." (10/9) Special Guests: The Colin Brown Band featuring Colin Brown (Monophonics), Kenny Brooks (Ratdog), Will Bernard (Stanton Moore Trio, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress), Johnny Durkin (Deep Banana Blackout), Myles O’Mahony (Monophonics) Stephanie Rooker, Killing The Messenger (10/16) Special Guest: George Porter Jr. (of The Meters) George Porter of the Meters will perform with Bonerama all night long! (10/23) Special Guests: SociaLybrium feat. Bernie Worrell, Blackbyrd McKnight, Melvin Gibbs & J.T. Lewis

In Pictures: Bonerama @ Sullivan Hall

By Dino Perrucci Photography

Bonerama - Sullivan Hall, NYC 10/2/09


Bonerama - Sullivan Hall, NYC 10/2/09


Bonerama - Sullivan Hall, NYC 10/2/09

In Pictures: Bonerama @ Sullivan Hall

c/o Greg Aiello

Bonerama @ Sullivan


Mark Mullins & Craig Klein @ Sullivan




Greg Hicks, Mullins & Klein




Bonerama @ Friends @ Sullivan


Frenchy's Live Painting of Bonerama @ Sullivan

Upcoming: Bonerama @ Sullivan Hall Tonight

BONERAMA w/ Brother Joscephus & The Love Revival Revolution Orchestra

Friday June 19th

Bonerama 10:30pm Official Website Myspace Youtube When Bonerama struts onstage with its four-trombone frontline, you can guess it's not quite like any rock 'n' roll band you’ve seen. When they tear into some vintage New Orleans funk, there's no questioning from which city these guys hail. And when those ’bones start ripping into Hendrix and Led Zeppelin licks, all stylistic bets are off. Even in a city that doesn't play by the rules, New Orleans’ Bonerama is something different. They're not a traditional brass band, but they've got brass to spare-even with no trumpets or saxes in sight. They can evoke vintage funk, classic rock and free improvisation in the same set; maybe even the same song. Bonerama has been repeatedly recognized by Rolling Stone, hailed as “the ultimate in brass balls” (2005) and praised for their "…crushing ensemble riffing, human-feedback shrieks and wah-wah growls" (2007). Bonerama carries the brass-band concept to places unknown; what other brass band could snag an honor for "Best Rock Band" (Big Easy Awards 2007)? As cofounder Mark Mullins puts it, "We thought we could expand what a New Orleans brass band could do. Bands like Dirty Dozen started the ’anything goes' concept, bringing in the guitars and the drumkit and using the sousaphone like a bass guitar. We thought we could push things a little further." Brother Joscephus & The Love Revival Revolution Orchestra 8:30pm Brother Joscephus offers the best gospel-style music without the bothersome "subservience to Jesus" part. Throw in a liberal amount of Ray Charles/Al Green/Otis Redding soul and some good ol' roots rock and you've got a perfect stew simmered to porchswing perfection.

Bonerama brings Big Easy brass to Big Apple this Friday (from AM NY)

If it weren’t for the movie “Hope Floats,” the New Orleans brass band Bonerama might never have existed.

Eleven years ago, trombonists Mark Mullins and Craig Klein were members of Harry Connick Jr.’s band. But when the New Orleans jazz crooner began to star in TV shows and films — including the aforementioned 1998 romance with Sandra Bullock — Mullins and Klein found themselves with a lot of spare time.

So the longtime friends formed a trombone-centric funk and rock group, which plays Friday night at Sullivan Hall in Greenwich Village.

Today, Bonerama, which includes three front-line trombonists, is not only one of the most popular brass bands in New Orleans, it is also usually greeted with packed houses in New York, where the band recorded a 2004 live album.

“There’s a New Orleans to New York connection, I don’t know exactly what it is, especially with music,” Mullins said. “There’s a lot of music fans up there that are really tune in with what’s going on with New Orleans, and they really support it.”

Meanwhile, Bonerama seeks to break the stereotype that New Orleans trombonists should be playing jazz. Aside from their lively originals and New Orleans standards, the band has been known to perform covers such as Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” and Led Zeppelin’s “Ocean.”

“I just think it’s an evolution of brass music,” Mullins said. “I would love to take credit for it, but in reality, we’re just playing music we love.”

To help bolster its rock sound, the band has altered its lineup in recent months, adding an organ player and replacing its sousaphonist with a bassist.

“There’s definitely still a brass element, but it’s got a stronger foot in the rock stuff,” Mullins said. “We can lean in that area and dig in that area more than we ever have before.”