Youngblood Brass Band Biography

The YoungBlood Brass Band started at Oregon high school under the name of "One lard biscuit" is a brass band from Oregon, Wisconsin. The band's founding members, sousaphonist Nat McIntosh and snare drummer Dave Henzie-Skogen, both went to Oregon High School and first played together in 1994; the current band came together in 1997 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 Records. 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.

The YoungBlood Brass Band combines the inspiration they took from the traditional New Orleans brass band sound with influences from the drum and bugle corps of their native Midwest, and also includes a strong hip hop component. More than many New Orleans groups, the Youngblood band focuses on tight ensemble playing, which allows them, even when performing live, to provide solid backing for Skogen's rapping and McIntosh's virtousic sousaphone work. 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.

The band's current lineup features D.H. Skogen - percussion/vocals, Tom Reschke - percussion, Jonah Gaster - percussion, Kenny Bentley - sousaphone, Charley Wagner - trumpet, Mike Boman - trumpet, Tony Barba - saxophones, Joseph Goltz - trombone, Matt Hanzelka - trombone