New York collective Brass Against will embark on their first east coast tour later this month. Expect a show full of politically charged rock anthems with horns-aplenty.
Guitarist Brad Hammonds founded Brass Against in response to the politically challenging era we’re living through. The nine-strong collective includes some of New York City’s top musicians. Together they seek to fight greed, injustice and corruption with a repertoire rock and edgy hip-hop songs that stand up against the machine.
They add trombones, trumpets, saxophones and sousaphone to songs by the likes of Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, Living Colour, Gil Scott Heron, Janes Addiction and A Tribe Called Quest. Live drums, guitar and Sophia Urista’s lead vocals complete the mix, injecting revitalised energy into the songs’ original messages of empowerment and rebellion.
Watch: Brass Against – Guerrilla Radio (Rage Against the Machine cover)
The band’s YouTube page demonstrates their versatility, ranging from Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ to Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Humble’. But ’90s hard rock is definitely the Brass Against specialty – there are covers of songs by Alice in Chains, Tool, Jane’s Addiction and Deftones. Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’ gets a run too.
They devote most of their attention to Rage Against the Machine, though. The Brass Against version of ‘Killing in the Name’ has racked up 3m views. ‘Guerrilla Radio’ has 1m views and ‘Cochise’ by Rage offshoot Audioslave has attracted 808k viewers. These are trumped only by a version of ‘The Pot’ from Tool’s 10,000 Days, which has scored a handy 4m YouTube streams.
Watch: Brass Against – The Pot (Tool cover)
Brass Against Australian Tour, 2020
Sunday, February 23
Metro Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday, February 26
The Triffid, Brisbane
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Thursday, February 27
Corner Hotel, Melbourne
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