Hot Tub Sessions Vol. I

Last week, Brass Queens released our newest album, Hot Tub Sessions Vol. I, a collection of all-original music. We recorded it over two sessions at Atlantic Records with engineer Joseph Pomarico with mixing by Ian Kagey at Renaissance Recording.

Stream the record below or wherever you get your music. If you like what you hear, please consider buying the album, available on CD and vinyl here (it takes 230 streams for an artist to make $1 on Spotify).

Here are some pics and a video from the Atlantic Sessions:

arriving at atlantc

the dw house kit

me with the greatest to ever do it, mr. john bonham

The Midwest

The Grand theater in wasssau, wi

Brass Queens just returned from our first ever trip to the Midwest. We had the best time. Man, Midwesterners are just so dang nice!

on david byrne’s reasons to be cheerful at town hall

We sort of kicked off the tour here in NYC at Town Hall, where we played David Byrne’s Reason’s to Be Cheerful live show. It’s been an entire week and I still don’t have the words to say how much this show meant to me. I was starting to get in to the Talking Heads in high school, but when I saw Byrne perform at Bonnaroo in 2004 I sort of became obsessed. The man is the embodiment of ART and to be on his radar is simply a dream. Here’s the link to the video of every artist at the show (including Byrne, Thao, and Fred Armisen) performing our arrangement of Just the Two of Us.

I booked it home after the show because we had 7am flight to Chciago. We went directly from O’Hare to WGN9 to play their Midday Show. It was so cool to be in the studio of a major news network! Check out our performance here.

The house kit at wgn, home of bozo the clown

After a little nap, we loaded in at the Hideaway to play what was probably my favorite show of the tour. We had a great turn out and the crowd was into it. I haven’t played in Chicago in almost 15 years and I hope we can get back ASAP.

At the hideout | credit: janet M. Takayama

From Chicago, we traveled up to Wausau, WI to play a sold out concert at the Grand Theater’s 10 x 10 series. The show was a blast and afterwards we traveled a few miles out of the city to get a look at the aurora.

The aurora borealis from Wasusa, wi

From Wausau, we traveled down to Madison for a radio spot at WSUM before we co-billed the High Noon Saloon with one of our absolute favorite brass bands, Mama Digdown’s! We got to play their song Mojito with them at the end of their set. Here’s what that was like from my view:

Next up was Ludington, MI for a performance at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts, another lovely show. We stayed right on Lake Michigan and I got to spend a little bit of time by the water in the morning before heading off to Detroit.

lake Michigan

And finally, we arrived in Detroit for a sold out show at the legendary Cliff Bell’s. Prior to the show, we checked out the Motown Museum. Simply put, I was verklempt. Here’s a picture from Studio A. All of this gear was used on those original Motown Records.

motown’s studio A

The next day, we played at Detroit’s Fox 2 (here’s the vid) before having brunch and heading home exhausted but grateful. Tomorrow we play an album release show at Brooklyn Bowl. We hope to see you there for a hometown show!

The Western Slope

I had an amazing time in Colorado this past weekend with @brassqueensnyc. We played shows in Durango and Mancos, enjoyed the hot springs, and explored the towns. I’d never been this far west in CO, “where the west lives.” Special thanks to @allyinmusic’s parents, Mark and Jody, for hosting us on their absolutely stunning property. I hope we get to go back soon!

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Out Now: Black & Gold by Brass Queens

The first full length album from Brass Queens is officially here! We recorded Black & Gold back in May at the Bunker in Brooklyn with engineers Alex Conroy and Megan Mishkin. The album contains 5 BQ originals, 10 covers, and features the following personnel:

Trumpet: Alex Joseph, Stephanie King, Minerva Johnson
Alto Sax: Ally Chapel
Tenor Sax: Jenna Murdoch
Trombone: Elizabeth Arce, Stephanie Young
Sousaphone: Nora Nalepka, Heather Ewer
Percussion: Caitlin Cawley
Drum set: Yours Truly

The Bunker has a lot of great vintage kits but I wanted the drums on this to sound as modern as BQ does so I brought in my Yamaha Tour Custom. To say I’m thrilled about the way the drums sound would be an understatement. I mean, listen to that 14” tom. It sounds MASSIVE! My Ludwig Supraphonic really cuts through the band and my Zildjian As blend nicely.

Here’s a short video of three drum clips: The first is an excerpt of Titi’s Kawa where I try to sneak in some licks inspired by two of my favorite drummers - John Bonham and Stanton Moore. Next is the halftime breakdown of Lady Marmalade. And finally, here’s some uninterrupted drum footage of Vision Quest. I don’t have video of the take that we used for the album, but I’m really happy with the drums throughout this song so I wanted to feature it anyway:

As always, Brass Queens has a jam packed schedule coming up, but I invite you to join us for an official release show for the album on November 18th at Littlefield. I hope to see you there!