After 10 years, the Stooges Brass Band have released their second recording. However, you’re going to need a turntable to hear it: the first professional recording of the seminal band’s new music in nearly a decade, Street Music was released last week on 12″ vinyl courtesy of the fledgling local imprint Sinking City Records and its subsidiary, Urban Unrest. That’s vinyl only. As in, no CDs, no digital downloads. But if the stock-depleting sales of contemporary brass band wax, like the Hot 8’s release that included their cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” on UK label Tru Thoughts for example, are any indication of how this new Stooges release will do, then both the band and the fellas at Sinking City may be onto something.

One of the hardest working brass bands in New Orleans, the Stooges create explosive energy both on the stage and in the street. Their impeccable timing and inherent harmony are at the core of their superior showmanship. Perhaps more importantly though, is their role in the rooted family tree of the New Orleans brass tradition. The Stooges steadily ran weekly second lines (and still do) as well as provided horn sections for popular rap artists’ production for years before receiving very much media spotlight. Like the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth before them, the Stooges is very much a training academy for just about every young brass band musician making waves today.

It is no wonder that the Stooges have not had time to stop and actually record their music with the schedule that they keep – multiple nightly shows per week around New Orleans, second lines and other private gigs every weekend, and more recently, finally showcasing their sound out of town. In fact, they sold out the Brooklyn Bowl in New York this past January with new labelmate and bounce music pioneer, Ricky B.

Though more of an EP than an LP with six tracks on the disc, Street Music finally lays down one of the Stooges most popular original songs, “Why They Had To Kill Him.” The powerful anthem, sung in unison by crowds at Stooges sets across New Orleans, is a tribute to their late trombonist, “Shotgun Joe” Williams and speaks viscerally about real life as a brass band musician in New Orleans. The band’s version of The O’Jay’s “Family Reunion” also appears on the 12″, entitled “Stooges Reunion,” among four other new cuts.

Street Music is available now online here, or you can get your copy signed direct from those Stooges this Friday, July 26 at Tipitina’s where they’ll play a record release set as part of the summertime “Free Fridays” series. Ricky B, of “Shake Fo Yo Hood” bounce classic fame, will also perform. He too released his first album in years earlier this season, also on Sinking City; B Is For Bounce: New Orleans Rap Classics 1995-1995. A collaborative recording still floating around as rumor, Ricky has been performing regularly with the Stooges ever since they sold out the Brooklyn Bowl together back in January.

The Stooges Brass Band “Street Music’ Record Release Party wsg Ricky B.
Date: Friday, July 6
Time: 9:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.
Venue: Tipitina’s
501 Napoleon Ave. (map)
Neighborhood: Uptown
Admission: FREE
18+
More Info: www.stoogesmusicgroup.com