Youngblood Brass Band

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Youngblood Brass Band

Origin	Oregon, Wisconsin
Country	United States of America
Years active	1997–Present
Genres	Riot Jazz Hip Hop Punk
Labels	Layered Music
Website(s)	www.youngbloodbrassband.com

Originally named "One Lard Biskit", the Youngblood Brass Band is a brass band from Oregon, Wisconsin that was started by some Oregon high school students. The band's founding members, sousaphonist Nat McIntosh and snare drummer/lyricist D.H. Skogen, both went to Oregon High School and first played together in 1994; the band came together in 1995 as the One Lard Biskit Brass Band. The Youngblood name dates from 1998, the year the group put out their first album, Word On The Street. In 2000 Youngblood released Unlearn, which featured appearances by Talib Kweli, Mike Ladd, DJ Skooly and Ike Willis. Unlearn, which like Word On The Street was released independently, garnered the band significant attention and led to them being signed to Ozone Music NYC. The band's first album for Ozone, called center:level:roar, came out in 2003. They tour consistently in the United States and Europe, and in 2005 released a live album entitled live. places. on their Layered Music record label. Their newest album, "Is That a Riot?" 2006 is their most experimental work to date, with multiple composers taking the music to dynamic extremes.

The Youngblood Brass Band combines the inspiration they took from the traditional New Orleans brass band sound with influences from jazz music, improvised music, a decidedly punk ethos, and a strong hip hop component. More than many New Orleans groups, the Youngblood band focuses on tight ensemble playing and pushing the boundaries of brass band music beyond its traditional genre, which allows them, even when performing live, to provide solid, diverse backing for Skogen's rapping and McIntosh's virtousic sousaphone work. Unable to be classified as either jazz, hip-hop, punk or any other existing genre, the band coined the term "Riot Jazz". The band acknowledge the debt their music owes to the New Orleans bands, however, with performances of traditional tunes such as Chinatown, My Chinatown, which they included on their Unlearn album.

Band members credit "really good public school system arts-education programs" [1] for inspiring their love of music, and they make an effort to play for schools as well as at clubs and larger venues. Under the aegis of the Layered Arts Collective, which band members co-founded, they also present musical lectures where in addition to performing they speak about the history of brass bands and hip-hop. Layered also promotes free workshops for local Wisconsin youth, brings in national touring musicians and fuctions as label/publishing house for their family of artists (including Cougar, another genre-bending group of experimental rockers that also count D.H. Skogen as a member).

Youngblood's current lineup features D.H. Skogen - percussion/vocals, Tom Reschke - percussion, Jonah Gaster - percussion, Moses Patrou - percussion, Jason Slack - sousaphone, Charley Wagner - trumpet, Mike Boman - trumpet, Tony Barba - saxophones, Zach Lucas - saxophones, Jerome Harper - trombone, and Matt Hanzelka - trombone.