Germany Funks It Up: LaBrassBanda and "Western"

Last weekend I watched with astonishment as, in the waning moments of a tense soccer match, a German soccer player named Goetze took a perfect pass from a teammate streaking down the left side of the field, stopped it with his chest and in one fluid moment, before the ball it the ground, sent a screaming kick to his right past the Argentinian goalie and into the right side of the net. Of course, he and the German team celebrated wildly, knowing that the kick sealed their World Cup Championship. I had never really liked the German teams in past World Cups. They were efficient and ruthless, a machine-like soccer team that didn't win with flash or style but just ground their opponents into the dust. But this team was different. They had flashes of very un-Germanlike play, in which the team had more show than in the past, yet they had all the right elements from the past teams - extremely efficient passing, a coterie of players who could score yet an emphasis on teamwork, and that same wear-the-other-team-down-with-patient-play strategy. I liked them and what they showed in the World Cup.

While I have a lot of experience with Germany and Germans, and love the country and have people I consider very good friends there, I always considered Germans to be a serious people. They love to discuss weighty matters whether they are in a business meeting, a political event or a party. Even their fun seemed serious, and their music onced seemed serious me too. Yet as I have been getting more into the global music scene, it has confirmed what I have already known...Germans can get funky with the best of them. One of my favorite discoveries was the rap and hip-hop band Die Fantastichen Vier, who were one of the first groups to rap in German and who create fun, engaging pop and hip-hop music.

For one show, Megan put a call out to our Facebook friends - send us a group or song you'd like to hear and we'll try to include it in our set. A friend in Germany suggested something by LaBrassBanda, a group I'd never heard of. I looked them up and listened to some of their music. Once again, a pleasant surprise was provided. Their music was fun, full of brass, and they could easily go between Eastern European brass to some pretty funky stuff. They appear to be fantastic showmen.

LaBrassBanda is from Bavaria, and their name is a mashup of the Italian "la banda" and the English "brass band." They were formed in 2007 and became well known after their tour from their hometown to Vienna. the venue of the 2008 European Football Championships. They ended their tour on mopeds and performed a public concert from the trailer of a semi. After that they were invited to play in other places around Europe, and in Harare, Zimbabwe at the International Festival of the Arts organized by the German embassy. They also played the famous festival at Rothskilde, Denmark. They currently have released four albums. This song, Western, is from their 2013 release Europa.