Listening Group week 11: Brass Against by Brass Against

[The Beer Monster]

Brass Against.

"I think a large portion of the mainstream bands that we see are more concerned about Instagram followers, product sales and keeping the networks happy. I do think bands have a great opportunity to reach many people and help educate and inspire through their songs. When an artist is truly honest with their art, political or not, I think the result has the power to resonate with people and bring them to a higher level." - Brad Hammonds.

Wanky concept.

Formed by band leader Brad Hammonds, you remember him from the above quote, in the wake of the election of Trump, he thought now was a time when protest music was needed more than ever. Whatever. The result is a covers album of mostly Rage Against the Machine, but a few others thrown in to the mix as well. This album is just fun to listen to, a little less angry than the originals, but they have done what you need to do to make a decent cover and that is to put an original spin on an old song.

I quite like the live album Metallica did: S+M with the San Francisco Symphany Orchestra and the album from the Prom that Pete Tong did with the Heritage Orchestra. Taking songs you know and adding unexpected stuff, this album does the same.

If you’re not a fan of the originals I’d be interested to see if these versions can sway you.

If you are a fan, it’s interesting to see what you think of what they have done.

Big noise, fun, great songs, bold as Brass, enjoy.

Or don’t, if your anything like me.

[Grimario]

A covers band with a tuba doing Rage Against The Machine? Okay then.

[Nash Diesel]

This is so crazy. I was going down the rabbit hole on Youtube just 2-3 weeks ago and stumbled across their cover of "Wake Up" which was pretty fuckin dope. I'm not a big fan of really any RATM covers, most people just can't pull off what Tom can do on the guitar and Zach's vocals are so unique it just never sounds right. Music wise the Wake Up cover was dope, could do without the chick on vocals but it was cool. I'll definitely give the entire thing a listen, I love Rage, they're easily one of my favorite acts and one of the more influential acts in my life both musically and in general.

[wardy]

I'm looking forward to this.

[LOCONUT]

Listened to it twice. Thought it was pretty terrible.

[The Beer Monster]

Could you possibly give less feedback? Perhaps mime at the keyboard?

[MMH]

I should like this one.

I like Rage Against the Machine, I like brass orchestras, I like bands doing slightly weird covers, lets see what this album does for me.

Looking at the playlist I am kind of disappointed that the album falls between two stools, it's not all RATM songs (just mainly) and it doesnt have a lot of the ones I saw on Yotube whilst doing a bit of research (Sabotage by The Beastie Boys for example)

Albums starts with Wake Up and it's pretty impressive. Sophia Urista sounds more like Zack De La Rocha than De La Rocha does himself. It's a very impressive cover but doesn't deviant far from the original (I like covers that do). I think this is hard for me because it's a song I love but in some kind of musical uncanny valley....

Cochise is Audioslave right? I don't actually know this song as far as I am aware so I can enjoy it for what it is. Urista has got a cracking voice by the way. Good song, I would probably like the original.

It's only a bit brassy though. For me so far its just good covers of the original songs with some horns blaring over it. It's certainly not bad though, was just expecting more brass and less metal.

For Guerilla Radio see Wake Up. I am finding this to be a hard review only because I don't know what to say about the songs as they are covers. There are only so many times I can say I like it too....

Cult of Personality brings the extra brassiness I was looking for! Nice. Love this song anyway (and yes, before CM Punk started using it)

Christmas Number One time next with Killing in the Name Of. I'm not sure this one really works compared to the rest of them. I get they need to do it as its probably RATM's best known song. It lacks a bit of anger for some reason.

Sleep Now in the Fire is another great cover, again I don't think it gains massively from the brass aspect, it's just a good song anyway.

Two of my faves are coming up in the final 3. I wish they did Township Rebellion as I think that would sound great with the brass stuff.

Bulls on Parade is one of said favorites. Bit sad that it's a live version though, I hate when bands throw live songs into studio albums, just makes it feel unfinished. Not bad at all but I will always love the original more.

Another live one with Know Your Enemy. Sounds pretty good, just waiting for the big scream half way through.....yeah she kind of nails it.

And Freedom is the other favourite. Wait, what on earth is this? Is this a merging of two songs called Freedom? It sounds good but I don't get the references!

And that's your lot....

As I said earlier this was a tough one to write about purely because I don't know what to say about songs that are not theirs. I definitely enjoyed it though and would check out more of their work. Obviously very talented people with good taste in music and protest songs.

A solid entry for week 11 and just what I needed to fix my JT blues.

[LOCONUT]

The source material is only good in its original form. It's like trying to replicate a Dali. The original art is objectively bad if not presented exactly as it was.

[The Rosk]

We'll have another week for people to catch up.

[Peter Griffin]

This was great and a nice surprise given my lack of knowledge of Brass Against or Rage Against. Anyway I really liked Wake Up, Guerrilla Radio, Cult of Personality (obvs), Freedom, Nobody Speak/Bullet In The Head and Know Your Enemy. All in all great album 8/10.

[The Rosk]

Listening over lunch. Wish ME LUCK

[Grimario]

It's okay. I don't really dig cover songs that don't add their own flavour to something. It's basically the original songs with some brass thrown in. If I heard it, I wouldn't turn it off but I won't be chasing it down.

[The Rosk]

Given this is basically a wet wipe of an album as it's just covers and therefore they have no creative input into their efforts whatsoever and are just session musicians at best

This was a fun listen. Definitely gonna give this another go - was questioning it after a couple of tracks, but ended up swaying along and doing the most gentle of headbangs by the end.

[The Beer Monster]

I will admit that not all their covers are successful, the TOOL one is fairly shit, and luckily isn’t on this album. I think perhaps they really benefit from seeing them perform, so watching on YouTube is good for this lot.
Basically what I’ve done here is chose an excellent band for a wedding reception.

[wardy]

In the past if I'd wanted to hear RATM songs performed badly I'd have had to go round to my mate Big Sweaty Andy's house and listen to him in the shower. Now I can just stick this album on.

Best song was Cult of Personality.

Cheers, Beer Monster.

[The Beer Monster]

Remember you can also watch the songs being performed badly on YouTube.
Multimedia.