What a perfect name for a seven-piece band fronted by four trombone players! No sax. No trumpet. Just trombone, trombone, trombone, (electric) trombone, guitar, drums and sousaphone. You gotta hear it to believe it. And the best place to hear it is on Bringing It Home, Bonerama's third album – which is also the New Orleans-based collective's third live disc. Recorded at Tipitina's Uptown in the band's hometown in September 2006, this 74-minute, mostly-instrumental set bursts with funky classic rock that echoes vintage Chicago on 'roids.
Bonerama blows listeners away with its massive and majestic treatment of both originals and savvy covers — from the obvious (The Meters, George Porter Jr.) to the not so obvious (Led Zeppelin, The Beatles). On Zeppelin's "The Ocean," trombones replace backing vocals and guitar riffs, while "Yer Blues" and "Helter Skelter" — two Beatles tunes from The White Album? — feature guitar work that at times outshines the horns.(Or maybe that's not a guitar. After all, founding member Mark Mullins likens the guitar to the trombone, comparing the fret board to the slide and making his electric trombone wah-wah and squeal as if he were Jimi Hendrix with a six-string.)
This is a must-hear record — one that, had I heard it earlier, would likely have landed on my best-of-2007 list.
Track Listing:
1) Intro
2) Bayou Betty
3) By Athenish
4) Ocean
5) And I Know
6) Mr. Go
7) Sprung Monkey
8) Gekko Love
9) Yer Blues
10) Epistrophy
11) Equale
12) Helter Skelter
13) Louie's Perch
14) Cabbage Alley
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