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” (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 co-founder 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 drum kit and using the sousaphone like a bass guitar. We thought we could push things a little further.”
New Orleans’ fertile club scene was directly responsible for Bonerama getting together. Trombonists Mullins and Craig Klein were both members of Harry Connick’s band, where they’d been since 1990. Both were looking to supplement this gig with something a little less structured. “Harry sets the bar pretty high, and you have to play it the same way every night for everyone to follow.”
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The big chance came in the summer of ’98, when Mullins had a weekly residency at Tipitina’s in the French Quarter. The club was then turning weekly slots over to some of the city’s favorite musicians, including Allen Toussaint and Cyril Neville; Mullins got charge of Wednesdays. Word got out one week that he and Klein were staging their trombone super-session and everybody they knew wanted to get involved. “It seemed that half the trombone players in town showed up,” Klein recalls. “At the end of the night we had them all onstage, maybe fifteen trombones at once. It sounded like a freight train; a big wall of sound coming right at you.”
Along with his jazz connections, Mullins is Bonerama’s resident rock ‘n’ roller: It was Mullins who instigated the offbeat classic-rock covers that have become a band tradition. Edgar Winter’s ‘Frankenstein’ was the first nugget to get the treatment and songs by Hendrix, Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Allman Brothers Band have since appeared in their set right alongside the funk and jazz-flavored numbers. “There’s definitely something about the guitar and the trombone that are related,” Mullins figures. “You compare the fretboard to the slide; there’s a lot of similarity there.” Indeed, the sounds Mullins makes by playing through a guitar amp and wah-wah pedal may explain why he’s named Jimi Hendrix as one of his favorite trombonists. “It’s great to grab people with the rock songs, and then turn them on to some New Orleans music at the same time,” Klein says.
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The buzz on Bonerama grew with hometown acclaim (with the band winning numerous OffBeat Magazine Awards; and Mullins regularly topping OffBeat’s trombone category), lots of roadwork, and three live albums – the first recorded close to home at the Old Point in Algiers; the second on tour in New York and the third album, Bringing It Home, recorded live from New Orleans’ world famous nightclub, Tipitina’s. The Boston Herald called them a “bonehead’s dream”; the Vail (CO) Daily noted that “the sound is fat and wet; sometimes downright lusty.” As hometown music zine OffBeat put it, “That nerdy kid in the band room with the trombone just might have the last laugh after all.”
Their EP Hard Times contains four studio tracks including the title track, ‘Hard Times,’ the instrumental number ‘Folly’ and ‘Lost My House’ which was co-written by Craig Klein and Dave Malone from the Radiators. These three new originals along with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘When the Levee Breaks’ marks the band’s first ever studio recordings. A bonus fifth track features a live performance of ‘Turn On Your Love Light’ captured live from the stage at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
In May of 2013, Bonerama released their new studio album Shake it Baby. The album marks the band’s sixth major release in their storied 15-year history and includes nine new original songs written by the band’s co-founders Mark Mullins and Craig Klein. Special guests appearing on the album include Dr. John, Mike Mills (R.E.M.), George Porter Jr. (Meters), Dave Malone (Radiators) and Mike Dillon (Les Claypool). Shake It Baby further represents the band’s ever-evolving, unique sound of combining brass, funk and rock with jazz, gospel, blues and even a touch of reggae.
Sol Driven Train
“If you need to visualize the soul, think of it as a kind of train. Yes, a long, lonesome freight train rumbling from generation to generation on an eternally rainy morning: its boxcars are loaded with sighs and laughter, its hobos are angels, its engineer is the queen of spades – and the queen is wild. Whoo-whoo! Hear that epiphanic whistle blow. The train’s destination is the godhead, but it stops at the Big Bang, at the orgasm, and at the hole in the fence that the red fox sneaks through down behind the barn. It’s simultaneously a local and an express, but it doesn’t transport weaponry, and it certainly ain’t no milk run.”
Sol Driven Train’s music weaves through genres like images in a Tom Robbins paragraph. The band’s sonic schizophrenia absorbs songwriting influences like John Prine and Paul Simon, afrocaribbean rhythmic explorations, and funky New Orleans-style brass into earnest songs of life, love, loss, and long johns. The versatile 5-piece band, based in Charleston, SC, features rotating lead vocalists, and multi-instrumental talent spread across horns, strings, and percussion. Combining rich varieties of American pop and folk music into their own port-town sound, Sol Driven Train has carved out a unique musical identity within the burgeoning roots music scene.
During the spring of 2000, a close circle of friends and family began gathering in college apartments downtown Charleston to create sound and share in the joy of music. Through the course of over 12 years and over 1,000 live shows, this same spirit still guides Sol Driven Train through the rocky road of the music industry. The venues have grown from bedrooms to festival stages, the amps have gotten louder, the lineup has evolved, and the crowds have multiplied, but the sense of brotherhood, mutual support, and musical independence within the band has strengthened. Through hard work and a commitment to live performance, the band’s reputation and collective musical ability has grown with every season. Named 2011’s “Rock Band of the Year” by the Charleston City Paper, and “On the Verge” by Relix Magazine in January 2012, Sol Driven Train is an independent band breaking into the national spotlight. Nine independent releases including two critically-acclaimed albums for children, a live concert DVD, a live album, four full-length studio albums, and last summer’s popular “Watermelon” EP document the band’s winding musical development. The band’s loyal fans recently funded the release of Sol Driven Train’s upcoming full-length album, Underdog, due out in 2013.
