Hungry March Band


The Hungry March Band is an American brass band with approximately 15-20 active musicians and performers. In performance, the group's size can vary from five to fifty: from a quintet to a large corps of musicians, dancers, baton twirlers, and hula hoopers.
HMB has a repertoire of originals and traditionals that borrows from global brass band traditions, including Balkan Gypsy music, Indian wedding bands, and New Orleans second line. The band also references punk rock; techno, hip hop; various jazz traditions, including free jazz and bop; reggae; and chance music. They cite Sun Ra, Charlie Parker, John Cage, the Shyam Brass Band, Fanfare Ciocărlia, Rebirth Brass Band, The Skatalites, Sonic Youth, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and Black Sabbath as influences.

History

The Hungry March Band was formed in 1997 at the Happy Birthday Hideout for the purpose of performing in the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. Some early members were Scott Moore on sousaphone, Cuzn Johnny, Dreiky Caprice, Tim Hoey, Darius 'Boom Boom' Macrum, Noah on percussion, Theresa Westerdahl aka Tara Fire Ball on clarinet, Gam Mitkevich on trombone, and Sara Valentine as baton twirler. Sasha Sumner, Sebastian Isler, Atsushi Tsamura, Emily Fairey, Okkon Tomohiko, Greg Squared, Ben Meyers, and Jason Candler all joined the band during the early period, before 2001.

Performances

Part of the attraction for band members, spectators, and participants alike is the band's ability to move anywhere relatively quickly without need of electricity or artificial amplification. They have attracted attention with performances in unlikely locations, including subway trains, the Staten Island Ferry, and unannounced street events. They have also played numerous outdoor festivals in New York and around Europe, various protest marches, at Rubulad and Gemini & Scorpio events in Brooklyn, and annually in Boston, Massachusetts at the HONK! Festival in Somerville, Massachusetts. Around New York City, they have performed at Lincoln Center and countless clubs throughout the five boroughs.
Notable gigs and tours:
On May 27, 2010, their performance of Conduction No. 188 under the baton of Butch Morris was also broadcast nationally throughout Italy.
  • 2010: West coast US Tour
  • 2010: Lovefest Saylorsburg, PA
  • 2012: XIII Festival Iberioamericano de Teatro, Bogota, Colombia
  • 2015: Summer European Tour
  • 2016: Le Festif de Baie-St-Paul, Québec, Canada
The band also makes an appearance in John Cameron Mitchell's 2006 movie Shortbus.

Discography

Studio albums
  • Running Through with the Sadness
  • Live at the Sant'Anna Arresi Jazz Festival
  • Portable Soundtracks for Temporary Utopias
  • Critical Brass
  • On the Waterfront
  • Hungry March Band Official Bootleg
EPs
  • Mali Mali / Le Baulois
  • Suspicious Package EP

    Running Through with the Sadness

Recorded over the course of four years, this album was produced and recorded by HMB member Jason Candler. It is composed entirely of original material written by band members, the cover art is by HMB member John Heyenga, and is the first album by HMB to be released on LP format. Basis tracks were recorded at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, Brooklyn, and the rest of the production was handled at the Maid's Room, Lower East Side.

Portable Soundtracks for Temporary Utopias

Recorded in March 2007 at The Hook in Red Hook, Brooklyn, this CD was produced by Danny Blume, Matt Moran and the Hungry March Band, and mastered by Scott Hull. HMB member Jason Candler provided additional production. It almost exclusively comprises original material written by band members, and the cover art is by Samantha Tsistinas with design work by Julie Hair, both of whom are percussionists in the band.

Critical Brass

This CD was recorded at LOHO Studios on Clinton Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side a few weeks after the Hungry March Band returned from its first European tour. In a similar style to On the Waterfront, the entire thing was recorded live, but this time with many well-placed microphones, and in a more controlled sound environment. It was produced by Jason Candler and the Hungry March Band, recorded by Joe Hogan, and contains cover art by Troy Frantz.

On the Waterfront

On the Waterfront was recorded in two sessions in 2001 with the entire band playing live into two microphones. It was recorded in a loft apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn by John Gurrin and edited by HMB member Jason Candler. The cover art is by East Village artist Fly. This disc is named after and dedicated to the vacant lot on the East River in Brooklyn where the band used to rehearse and to which it attributes its miraculous rebirth.

Official Bootleg

The first Hungry March Band CD is a fairly accurate reflection of what the band was doing for the first few years of its existence. Several tracks were recorded at the now-defunct Rubulad art space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the fall of 1999, but most of them were culled from field recordings made by band members. The opening track, Disco Bhangra, was recorded at the Ship's Mast bar on Kent Avenue.
Most of the material was improvised based on loose structural ideas that were conceived by sousaphonist Scott Moore, and designed to allow for maximum improvisation and spontaneity. The CD arrangement was completed by Ben Meyers & Scott Moore.

Related performance projects

The following is an incomplete list of other musical and theatrical projects that involve or have involved members of the Hungry March Band:
Ram Umbus
Crash Worship
Nimble One Minded Animals Here
Sink Manhattan
THRUST
Tung Fa Lupa
Female Bureau of Investigation
Live Skull
Of Cabbages and Kings
Digitalis
Ruin...
3 Teens Kill 4
Bite Like A Kitty
Guarsh
The University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band
The Bleeding Reeds
The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus
Torch Job
Scorchers
Fireproof
Circus Amok
Little Miss Big Mouth
Neues Kabarett
Juliet Echo
Jollyship the Whiz-Bang
Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping
Gary Lucas & Gods and Monsters
Earth People
Gelcaps/Millbrook Falls/The Lids
Guitar Trips
Doug Douglas and the Road Agents
The Woes
Zagnuts Cirkus Orchestra
Rude Mechanical Orchestra
Veveritse
Stagger Back Brass Band
The Red Hook Ramblers
Squeezebox
Phideaux
Lubricated Goat
Minor Mishap Marching Band
O'Death
'''Raya Brass Band'''