Samples

New York Magazine and Nymag.com

The following are samples of my writing that ran in New York magazine or on its website nymag.com































































Drums & Tuba Concert Review – Itsrandom.com – 6/11/2002





When Drums & Tuba played the Knitting Factory on May 31, they quickly established themselves as a strong contender for the title of modern rock’s greatest tuba band. Throughout their two hour set, they played a variety of music that fused their many influences with their spectacular showmanship into an electric blend that kept the crowd of loyal fans and bemused modern jazz aficionados switching between dancing and gaping in wonder. 





A quick impression of their show: Drums: Wearing a red and white plaid western shirt with two white stars on the chest, Tony Nozero sits beneath a pair of headphones atop his kit and next to an assortment of toys and pedals that lay on a speaker at arm’s length. When he’s not fingering his drum machine, he is playing with something hidden from the audience which leads one to believe that he is guilty of the ambient noise and quirky sound effects. Where else could the video game SFX come from? He plays a standard kit — two snares, three hats and a bass in addition to all his toys. 





Tuba: The stocky tuba man accessorized in red head and wristbands with curly hair sticking out from beneath a set of big, puffy headphones, all the while clutching and balancing his brass, oversized instrument, at first may cause the mind to wander to comparisons to Ignatius J. Reilly or a John Belushi character, but once Brian Wolff begins to blow and once that tuba begins to bellow, all comic relief is blown away and that old band kid shines in the spotlight. You just gotta love watching Wolff empty his spit chamber in between songs. Tuba sounds are plugged into effect pedals which make it sound like he is switching between instruments without having to do so. He also will play a trumpet when the mood strikes him. 





Guitars: Neal McKeeby plays a guitar stationed on legs often simultaneously with an electric guitar slung over his shoulder. He looks like he wears a grown-out mohawk, dressed all in black except two gold loop earrings. He sets down the funky rhythm or throws in a variety of fills by tickling, tapping and teasing the necks of both guitars. He is a hungry dog, chained to the groove laid down by the drums and tuba, which adds an air of franticness to his short grooves and which adds power to his performance when he leads. You come expecting just drums and tuba, but suddenly there is this fantastic guitarist — he might be their little secret — to keep them honest or maybe notorious. 





In describing their sound, it is best to think of them as a fusion cocktail consisting of equal parts of New York brass, Tennessee guitar and Wisconsin beats that make for a stimulating concoction of rock, grunge, folk and electronic musical flavor. Brian Wolff who plays tuba and runs the live sampling hails from New York originally, while the drummer Tony Nozero is from Madison, Wisconsin, and the guitarist Neal McKeeby is from Knoxville, Tennessee. They met far from home in Austin, Texas, where they brought their differences and influences together to form Drums & Tuba. 





“Tony and Neal are pretty much self-taught,” Brian Wolff wrote via email. “We’ve all played [music before] and are into lots of different kinds of music. I was into lots of Jazz when I was younger, Tony listened to lots of punk rock and Neal was all about Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. We’ve all expanded our horizons quite a lot since then.” 





This new horizon that they have developed is one of the most unique in modern rock. They have developed a sound that has become quite popular with professional musicians and fans alike. The band flows like an erratic tinker toy set, all crooked arms and eccentric directions that build layer upon layer. One thing fresh about Drums & Tuba is that each musician has the opportunity to be the nucleus for each song, from which the ensuing layers branch. Often it is the diverse but feverish beats of Nozero’s drums that set the tone, but McKeeby may also begin a song with grungy power riffs or Wolff may do a live sampling of a combination of sounds that he loops through a variety of effects pedals which the band then uses as foundation for them to jam upon. 





There are two things that are essential for one to realize to fully understand the band. The first is that even though they don’t promote it in their band name and though it is hard to believe once you hear their albums, Drums & Tuba is a trio. Each member has his own voice and his own important role — no one is simply relegated to rhythm. This keeps the sound hardly minimalist, but extremely functional for it conducts a chorus of strong instrumental identity. Being a trio is not too small or not too big — it’s just right. The trio aspect allows them the space and freedom to roll up their sleeves and concentrate on their own individual parts and then to tangle them into a tight web of sound. A tuba player, a guitarist playing not only the axe slung over his shoulder but also a standing guitar, and a drummer with a kit and shelf of toys take up a lot of room in creating their live performance. 





The second thing to remember is that the band members are masters of live sampling. This allows them to lay down tracks, quickly record and spool them into a loop and then play over the preceding jams. This builds layers upon layers which fortifies their wall of sound while giving them the strength and presence of a full rock orchestra. They might have chosen the name Drums and Tuba as a nod to the instruments which keep them anchored to their groove, for the rest is a jam that is spread out without being spacey and a curtain of ambient sound and effects. 





“I got into the effects after seeing a band called Spaceheads from England,” Wolff explained. “That was the first time I ever saw a horn player use effects that made sense to me. Basically, there’s a lot of digital delay looping machines [on stage] and I send the loops through Tony’s collection of pedals.” 





Like the proverbial zinfandel, there are two ways to enjoy Drums & Tuba — at the room temper of one of their shows or chilled on your stereo, for each offers a slight variation on the same delicious flavor. Of course, room temperature is the sweaty and electric atmosphere of a live performance. Besides giving soul to even the most hopelessly stiff, their performances appeal to the intellect as well. It’s not so much what you have heard about this band, it’s what you try to figure out about them when you see them live: How are they doing that? Drums & Tuba is definitely a hands-on experience. 





When they’re served chilled, their music is good background music to inspire a writer or soothe a reader, while also being the right, unobtrusive, funky house sounds for a groovy shindig. Their albums are worth their price for they will become a cornerstone disc in your CD changer. It’ll even impress your friends. 





Though they all live in New York these days, Wolff hesitates to call them a New York-style band. “I’ve been back for four years and Tony and Neal moved here a couple of years ago. Playing in New York is a little weird cause there’s a lot of places, but they’re all flawed in some way…I don’t really feel we’ve become a New York band cause we’re hardly ever here.” 





Drums and Tuba are fresh off a spring tour which followed a stint opening for the supergroup Oysterhead last fall. Opening for Les Claypool, Stuart Copeland and Trey Anastatio hasn’t gone to their heads. “Opening for Oysterhead was pretty cool,” Wolf wrote. “I wasn’t too much into their music (they had the feel of a band that hadn’t played together very much) but they were really nice to us and they are all great players. It was especially cool seeing Stuart Copeland.”





They plan on releasing a couple of new albums at the end of summer and will be on tour from the end of August until Christmas. While you await their return for the chance to see them live, check out an album. You’ll see why many consider them the greatest tuba rock band of modern music, and possibly of all time.