Flash McDaniels

When I opened the cover for the debut album Thrash Funk, by Little Brian, and began to read the liner notes, I thought these guys are either insane or they must have massive cajones. The liner notes open with “From the ashes of what became left of life, there pushed forth, in a writhing dispute with the evils of the universe, men from all ends of existence.” The story and the album create a mythology in which the listener can either choose to inhabit or can just throw away, laughing at the bravado that Little Brian must have in order to put something out like this, especially in a first album. One thing is certain about this album, however, you cannot ignore it.

The music on Thrash Funk is difficult to describe. It's a grand mixture of Parliament Funkadelic, Slayer, jazz fusion, and even some prog-rock thrown in for good measure. The band is a nine-piece instrumental ensemble consisting of two guitars, bass, drums, various other percussion instruments, keyboards, trumpet, tenor sax, trombone, and baritone sax. Like a good French chef, mixing the strangest of ingredients, this album creates a concoction all its own; a singular, unique voice.

Three of the tracks are traditional funk. The opening track, “Slow Greasy,” is a slow and fat song, that sounds straight out of a Melvin Van Peebles film. The track “Ondarf” is a quicker funk song with accentuated upbeats by the guitars and includes handclaps, shakers, and a bass solo. I was dancing in my seat as my coworkers laughed at me while listening to it. The final track, “Party,” is my favorite song on the CD. I sincerely wished this song would have gone on for thirty minutes. I thought I was listening to a revivified Bootsy Collins on bass, but alas, it was Sam Damask, the bandleader and the man who wrote, arranged, and produced the record.

The rest of the album is equally as stunning, peppered more heavily with metal and the occasional extended chords and cadences. You can smell the UNT jazz scene influence in there. “Car chase” is an all out assault on your ears with fast, heavy metal riffs and hugely orchestrated chords that are so thick they'll make you slap yo momma. “Slaughtered Seals” opens with a Ventures-like guitar riff before moving all over the map. It stays glued together, however, via the masterful Butch Smith on drums. In fact, were it not for the consistent pulse generated by Smith, this album might have a tendency to come apart. But with everything going on, including the percussion, Smith provides us with a stable pulsating dance beat. That's right, metal with a dance beat that is so consistent throughout the album, you get lulled into a trance-like body motion that is rather difficult to control.

Thrash Funk is a stellar debut album by a local band from Denton, which unfortunately is in the process of relocating to Austin. Well, they better keep driving up here to play, because I am hooked. This is the best new album I have heard all year. - Pegasus News

By Ken Shimamoto

Metallic funk with horns! What the funk? But then again, aren’t trumpets and saxophones made out of metal?

Little Brian is a Denton-born instrumental band with a horn section, the key members of which (bass-guitars-drums-keys) have recently relocated to Austin. Bass player Sam Damask, who writes all the tunes, has spoken of making the horn charts available online so that any sufficiently motivated horn players can sit in. Absent vox, verbally oriented listeners who simply must have a text are referred to a self-published novel (to be sold at Little Brian gigs) written by the bass player’s sister Tarah Damask “to fully grasp the meaning and purpose” of the music. And here I thought that funk was its own reward!

I remember the first time I encountered the Red Hot Chili Peppers, on early ‘80s MTV. I was channel surfing and chanced upon 120 Minutes. Flea explained their style thusly: “We like to play like we have big dicks.” Little Brian’s music sounds like the Chili Peppers woulda if they’d had big brains. From the opening funkadelicious slither of “Slow Greasy,” this is feelthy stuff. On a typical song, the riddim section pummels you like Oscar de la Hoya, while the dual/dueling guitars deploy their whirlwind fury like nothing anybody’s heard since the multi-6-string-axe lineups of Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society back in the late ‘80s. The horns don’t attempt post-Coltrane free-rock meltdown a la Steve Mackay on the Stooges’ Funhouse. Rather, they’re employed to add punch to Little Brian’s rhythmic attack and color to the band’s sonic palette.

“Ondarf” struts like the early-‘70s JBs in a manner not seen in these parts since Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings visited the Wreck Room (RIP) awhile back, and will get kids who never even heard of Jabbo Starks or Maceo Parker on their feet jammin’. “Bitch Gets Punked” and “Animal Cruelty” wind their way through a steeplechase of Zappaesque thematic shifts, sounding for all the world like leftovers from FZ’s Overnite Sensation-through-One Size Fits All period, minus the silly lyrics. “Car Chase,” with its high-note trumpet blasts, sounds like nothing so much as the One O’Clock Lab Band pumped up on steroids and human growth hormone. Listening to “Rat Damage” and “Slaughtered Seals,” one can imagine the splintered drumsticks and shredded guitar picks raining on the sea of banging heads and upraised devil signs in front of Little Brian’s stage.

Then as if to prove they’re from Denton, they finish it off by appending 20 minutes of Krautrock-like spacey noise, feedback, and musique concrete weirdness to the end of a track called “Party.” It’s the most willfully perverse use of the CD format since Mudhoney closed one of their discs with a “hidden” track that was the entire album played backwards. Now I definitely want to party with these dudes.

Oh, yeah: Little Brian’s Tim Burton-esque logo, drawn by bass player’s sister/novelist Tarah Damask, is the creepiest thing I’ve seen in eons. - I love Fort Worth

Published on: 13 Feb 2008
Do yourself a favor and click onto Little Brian's myspace before continuing reading this review. Little Brian is a band that is taking the challenge of integrating the magic of slick old school funk, some fusion, and some metal combining it into a highly energetic, addictive musical artform that has that magical quality that will make you want to hear it over and over.

Ear Candy is a term meant for music that has a contagious effect on the listener, easily entering the cranium and exciting the aural senses. Thrash Funk, the aptly named cd by Little Brian is indeed, ear candy of the highest order. This unique band out of Austin, Texas has no less than 14 members listed in their performer credits, and they manage to utilize each musician in a manner that really gives one the impression that they can make a club start bumping, and at the same time dazzle you with some excellent playing, only to kick you in the rear with some aggressive metal breaks. I really have not heard anyone really tackle a style quite like this, it's almost what I would expect if Tower of Power were to jam with the Brecker Brothers and Metallica, and leave the singers at home.

It's music that has intense grooves, great funky bass and drums, a tight and dynamic horn section, and best of all, balls, this stuff is just solid from the first song to the last. I am sure there are some readers here that would be most impressed as I am with Little Brian's music. Now about the cover, and the image the band displays, I really don't know what to say about it, there is a story in the cd sleeve that can better explain the origins of the band, and the fact that the music is actually a backdrop for the novel that goes along with it, so, there is more to this band that what you are hearing, yet for me, hearing this band is enough to allow me to highly recommend this cd to fans of fresh, funky and well formed music.

If you never have heard thrash funk, as a music form, well I strongly encourage you to go to the band's myspace (linked here) if you have already, I guarantee that you are in for a special treat. - www.proggnosis.com

Thursday, January 24, 2008
Interview with Little Brian [Austin Locals]

As you'll recall from this post about Full Service's new CD, Little Brian was the opening act at the CD release show. Knowing little to nothing about the band, I was pleasantly surprised at what a talented band Little Brian proved to be.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't initally drawn to Little Brian. Instrumental music isn't my cup of tea. But after a few songs, I could no longer ignore the talent that oozes from their pores. The songs are well written and expertly played, and as if that wasn't enough their stage presence is dynamic and just flat out fun to watch. Featuring head lights, feather boas, a horn section and white jumpsuits emblazoned with tier logo, Little Brian's show is one you have to see.
Watching bassist Sam whip out the vocal line for Busta Rhymes' Break Ya Neck, I was completely awed by the talent and skill on display. As any fan of Busta Rhymes can tell you, he raps extremely fast at times. Keeping up that fast pace on bass is no easy take. Make no mistake though, the entire group is talented. The show at Flamingo Cantina featured only a handful of the members. I'm excited to see them at full force.

Read below for some Q&A with Little Brian bassist Sam. They've generously offered up two free MP3s for your listening pleasure, which are included below as well.

Q: Tell me about how Little Brian came together. Someone at the show mentioned you had all gone to music school together? Is there any truth to that?

A: None of us actually know. We played a show at one point in the future, then went back in time and let history figure it out. Everyone else seems to know but for us it is all a big blank spot.

Q: I know you aren't from Austin, but are recent transplants. Where did you move from? How recently did you arrive here? What made you decide to move?

A: We came from Denton. A big hand came out of the sky 6 months ago, picked us up and dropped us in Austin. We will be here until the big hand makes another move. We are not afraid.

Q: What is your take on the Austin music scene?

A: Good shape, but in need of a serious injection of thrash funk.

Q: Name some of your influences.

A: Praxis

Q: What are you currently listening to? What are some of your current favorites?

A: german thrash and funk... Kreator and Bootsy Collins. Current favorite band: Comanche Abortion.

Q: Can't go anywhere these days without hearing about how the music industry is changing. What is your take on the changes? Where do you see the industry going?

A: I think pretty soon you will be able to download songs before they are written.

Q: What is your favorite Austin venue to play and why?

A: So far Flamingo Cantina! That whole crew is cool. We would like to perform a live birth on stage, but so far we haven't had enough room. Baby Brian can only stay in the artificial womb we have constructed for so long, and he is waiting for a bigger stage. Austin has yet to see a Little Brian rock a show in full force. As Ronnie James Dio once said... LOOK OUT!



Little Brian is:

LB Core...
Sam: Bass
Muehtilator: Guitar
Selden: Guitar/Vibrator
Butch: Drums

LB Denton Crew...
Graham: Keys
Dave: Trumpet
Sylvester: Tenor Sax
Nick: Trombone
Kazuki: Bari
Tex: Percussion
T-Bone: DP

Visit Little Brian:
[MySpace]

Their CD Thrash Funk is available now at all shows, as well as CD Baby and iTunes.

Download Little Brian tunes from Thrash Funk
[Ondarf]
[Rat Damage]

Upcoming Shows:
2/16: Red 7 (Austin)
2/23: Trophy's (Austin) with Muchos Backflips - http://theywerealltakenagain.blogspot.com/

Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Philosophical questions may seem like an unusual way to start a Friday night concert, but when asked by a man in a pink suit backed by seven guys in white jumpsuits, the questions seem relatively normal.

Little Brian is a 14-piece band from Austin, Texas, that includes a variety of guitars, keyboards, brass instruments and even a man in a chicken costume. When they swarmed the tiny stage of Hailey's in Denton on Jan. 18, the band was most notable for its charmingly obnoxious stage presence that consisted of lighted spectacles, top hats, ski masks, pink boas, helmets and plastic axes.

By this time the whole crowd and I should have known this night was going to be anything but normal.

Little Brian started off with the funkadelic tune of "Animal Cruelty," a body moving, foot grooving, lyricless blast back to the '70s. Emphatic bass lines accompanied by harmonious trumpets resembled Sly and the Family Stone. "After I heard the first song, I thought I had Little Brian figured out," said John-Michael Krakoski, a student at University of North Texas. "They were just crazy dudes who liked to jam out."

However, as the set continued, even as early as the second song, the audience was once again cast in a fog of astonishment as to who Little Brian really was, or at least what they were trying to pull. The next song the band played was a mix of ska and funk with heavy metal breakdowns, the kind that make you head bang into full body bends. From that point on, there was only one way to even remotely describe this band: thrash funk.

"Thrash Funk," also the title Little Brian's only released album, is a melting pot of musical genres. The album ranges from bass-infused funk to brass-dominated ska and from intense metal breakdowns all the way back to pop punk riffs that you can gleefully jump around to.

For two hours, the energy of thrash funk engulfed Hailey's inhabitants in what appeared as a musical feeding frenzy. Fans fled on stage, trombone players dove into the crowd and intoxicated women shook what their mommas gave 'em.

And just when things couldn't get any crazier, Little Brian awakened the "Children of the Grave." That's right; they did a mind blowing, head banging cover of Black Sabbath followed by a cover of "The Ocean" by Led Zeppelin that left everyone swimming in sweat and excitement.

As I stood up straight and collected my thoughts for the first time in what must have been an hour, the commotion of the bar softened and the man in the pink suit (occupation: carnival barker) took to the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen. I give you… Little Brian!" Unbeknownst to me, Little Brian was a person. Not an inanimate object or classification for a group of 14 musically talented men; he was a man with waist-long, curly hair in a matching white jumpsuit and ski mask.

For three minutes, Little Brian shred on his guitar almost past the point of what is humanly possible. It was the kind of shred that sends birds to flight and has hardcore kids questioning their idols. He rounded out his solo and the show with the brutal slaying of the chicken and a roar of applause.

When Hailey's emptied that night, anyone who had witnessed the show had answered those philosophical questions. Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Who cares, let's rock!
- www.smudailycampus.com