Friday Music Day

FMD 8/10/18: Brass

50 Comments

Let's talk about brass. Jazz, ska, swing, whatever genre. Songs that utilize it just a little bit, songs that embrace it. What do you like? What don't you like? Which trumpet player was the best? What's the best use of a french horn in cinema (Young Frankenstein, right?)? Does that 76th trombone really add anything that the 75th didn't? Etc.

I was a trumpet player in school, so brassy sounds are something that always resonated with me, and I don't think we've talked about instruments for a while, so it seemed like something worth throwing out there.

I used this version of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" on my summer mix this year, specifically because of the brass:

Then drop your top 10s and have a wonderful Friday!

50 thoughts on “FMD 8/10/18: Brass”

  1. I'm just going to hope that someone helps us out with an appropriate image, since I don't see any in the options we've got.

          2. Thanks HJ!
            R_R: I had considered Flügelhorn, but that's bigger than a trumpet and generally less oblong in body.
            This one has such a small overall length and the additional loops of pipe from the valves seems so minimal that I figured it was not that.

  2. Back when In The Aeroplane Over the Sea first came out I hated the horns. Just hated them. Probably listened to the album twice and didn't listen again for a good 10-12 years. I don't what changed my mind but now I can accept the horns. It would be interesting to hear a cut without the horns but at least now they don't bother me.

    1. I think the brass in the latest Sturgill Simpson album shocked me, and I didn't really get far into it, maybe because of that.

  3. If you really like your brass and They Might Be Giants, then you'll want to listen to Dr. Worm.

    When you've spent time at StreamingSoundtracks.com, you catch a lot of really great movie music, and being a low brass aficionado myself I immediately was drawn to this Basil Poledouris treat:

  4. I still do random tens:
    1. Kanye West “Hey Mama” Late Registration
    2. DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince “Megamix” Greatest Hits*
    3. Eric Copeland “UFOs Over Vampire City” Whorehouse Blues
    4. Eric Copeland “Neckbone (NHK yx Koxygen Remix)” Mixbone
    5. Sheryl Crow “Hard to Make a Stand” Sheryl Crow

    6. Aaliyah feat. Timbaland “We Need a Resolution” Aaliyah
    7. Phillip Glass with David Bowie “Heroes (Aphex Twin Remix)”* 26 Mixes for Cash
    8. Katy B “Broken Record” On a Mission
    9. NICO Touches the Walls “Hologram”* Hologram (ホログラム)
    T. Rob Swift “All That Scratching Is Making Me Rich” The Ablist

    *Notes:
    2. Including "Summertime", "Boom! Shake the Room", and "Parents..." among others.

    7. This is actually where I first heard the song. The vocals and arrangement make the lyrics all sound so futile and ironic. So when I heard the Wallflowers' popular cover, or the use of the lyrics in "Moulin Rouge!", I was surprised they took the lyrics at face value.

    8. Opening theme for season 2 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

    1. I saw San Fermin live a couple years ago; that was a lot of fun, and I do like the way they use horns (as well as various other instruments).

  6. The old man's random ten:

    1. Salsbury Hill--Peter Gabriel
    2. You Make Me Feel Brand New--The Stylistics
    3. Beautiful--Gordon Lightfoot
    4. A Thing Called Love--Jerry Reed
    5. Guitar Man--Bread
    6. These Days--Jackson Browne
    7. Help Me--Joni Mitchell
    8. Two Fine People--Cat Stevens
    9. Day After Day--Badfinger
    10. Miracles--Jefferson Starship

    1. I love the live version of Solsbury Hill with Larry Fast (Synergy) on keys

      Two thumbs up on this list. I've always loved Badfinger; their story is a sad one, unfortunately.

  7. Brass hasn't really ever been my thing. I'll hold out for strings week.

    Random 10:

    * Hashshashin Chant - Demdike Stare - Triptych
    I put this album back on my player recently. I still like it a lot.
    * Blood and Thunder - Mastodon - Leviathan
    * M.I.A. - Foo Fighters - There is Nothing Left to Lose
    * May - Roomrunner - Ideal Cities
    * I'm Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally - Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
    * Canticles of the Sky: Sky with Nameless Colors - Northwestern University Cello Ensemble - The Wind in High Places (John Luther Adams)
    J. L. Adams + cellos? Yes. Yes, please.
    * Swans - Indian Jewelry - Free Gold!
    * The Knock - Hop Along - Painted Shut
    * The Rip - Portishead - Third
    * Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

    This is my current earworm. Don't know how long I'll keep listening to it, but it's been on pretty constant play for a couple weeks.

  8. 01. “Hold On Magnolia” – Songs: Ohia – The Magnolia Electric Co.
    02. “Soria Maria” – Mount Eerie – A Crow Looked At Me
    03. “Darkness Descends” – Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
    04. “Misery” – Matt Maltese – Bad Contestant
    05. “Borrowed Time” – Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
    06. “B.G.S.W.” – Lizzo – Big GRRRL Small World
    07. “Walk On By (feat. Kendrick Lamar) – Thundercat – Drunk
    08. “Lloyd I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” – Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out Of This Country
    09. “Be My Lady” – Dynamic Tints & Pieces Of Peace – Eccentric Soul Vol. 6: Twinight’s Lunar Rotation
    10. “One That Suits Me” – Hop Along – Bark Your Head Off, Dog

  9. First song that came to mind was this one. (Can't find a live version with horns, so you get this.)

  10. 1. Born Under A Bad Sign – Jimi Hendrix
    2. Dissident – Pearl Jam
    3. Long Distance Call – Phoenix
    4. Roses (feat. ROZES) – The Chainsmokers
    5. The High Road – Broken Bells*

    6. Stairway To Heaven – Led Zeppelin
    7. Outside (feat. Ellie Goulding) – Clavin Harris
    8. So Far – Billy Eckstine
    9. The Way your Move – Outkast
    10. When I Come Around – Green Day

    B1. All Eyez On Me – 2Pac

    *I really wish Burton & Mercer could get together for another album & tour … some of my favorite songs (& show) of the past ten years. After the Disco was fair to middling, but their self-titled first album still gets regular spin.

      1. I was all set to lay into you with The Saints great Prehistoric Sounds album which is chock-full of delicious horns. Turns out it came out in 1978.

        1. I was going to say, "with the exception of 'Warrior In Woolworths'", but I had saw that was '78 as well.

          I think it would have been better put to say that there is a distinct thing that is "80s horns", though not all horns on tracks from the 80s are necessarily that.

      1. I think overall I'm with HJ on this one. I love my horns, but they can be abused and twisted to evil purposes.

  12. I haven't explored much beyond the 'big' names in jazz (Armstrong, Davis, Coltrane, Parker, Ellington and Gillespie come to mind), and don't know enough about brass instruments to expound upon the matter. I also enjoy brass in bossa nova. That being said, Coltrane's work, especially on his album with Hartman and Lush Life ... man!

    Comes in with feeling at 3:10 ... boom!

    https://youtu.be/0izjSUqCcSQ

  15. I don't consider saxophone brass (it's a woodwind), and I'm not a big fan. Now actual brass I enjoy in moderation. One of my favorites from pop music is the trumpet in "Cantaloop" by US3

  16. More Horn thoughts:
    I find the horn(s?) in "Be Like the Sun" to be incredible. They don't show up until well into the songs (about 3min), but I imagine if someone would work this into a club set, after the cardiac-regular minimal beat and the chanting like breathing. Unexpected, it would be disorientingly trippy, like standing up too fast. It comes in again in the second half, at about 6min; better the second time.
    (Warning, some cursing in the spoken bit in the middle, 4:39-4:45 and 5:06-5:16. I did a clean edit myself on this one for personal/family use but it's not online.)

    I never bothered to figure out the origins of the horn in this one. Kindof reminds me of 80's sax repurposed by being sampled, but maybe it isn't:

    It was recast into a reggae/pop hit the next year:

    I might be forgetting something, but "Shut Up!" is my fave use of horns in hip-hop. (Vulgar lyrics throughout.)
    From the few songs I know of each, my fave verse from each of Trick and Trina.
    Duece Poppi is there just to make the other 3 sound even better by comparison. I only see one other credit from "CO" who had the third verse. He made his one shot count.

    1. I love that Enur song. Don’t think I ever realized that horn part was an actual instrument.

  17. I still get goosebumps when Big Big Train's Victorian Brickwork heads for home at the 9:00 mark and the brass in the balcony begin integrating with the rest of the band

  18. 01. Lil B - "Spend Money" from Platinum Flame
    02. U.S. Girls - "Velvet 4 Sale" from In a Poem Unlimited
    03. Wayfarer - "A Nation of Immigrants" from World's Blood
    04. Shopping - "New Values" from The Official Body
    05. Curren$y ft. French Montana - "Modena Moves" from The Marina EP
    06. Sarah Shook & The Disarmers - "Parting Words" from Years
    07. Johnny Jewel - "Houston" from Digital Rain
    08. The Body - "Off Script" from I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
    09. Payroll Giovanni & Cardo ft. Yhung T.O. - "Turn Ya Phone Off" from Big Bossin Vol. 2
    10. Cities Aviv - "-Blurred-" from Raised for a Better View

    BT. Neckbeard Deathcamp - "The Left are the Real Fascists" from White Nationalism is for Basement Dwelling Losers

  19. did someone say brass???

    Never There - Cake
    Mr. Crowley - Ozzy Osbourne
    Where the River Flows - Collective Soul
    3005 - Childish Gabino
    Candy-O - The Cars

    Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran
    Shadow of Your Love - Guns N Roses
    Straight Tequila Night - John Anderson
    So Alive - Love and Rockets
    Morning Glory - Oasis

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