Classy Brassybrassy at Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor West), tonight (Thursday, March 29), 11 pm. $35/wristband or $6/door. 416-532-1598. Rating: NNNNN
yes, brassy’s impossibly named vocalist,
Muffin Spencer, is the sister of now-bearded Blues Explosion shouter Jon Spencer, but forget about a happy family sing-along. The Manchester-based MC is not interested, thanks.
“I suppose it would make for a great story about how Jon and I sit around and sing songs to each other over the holidays, but it’s not going to happen,” Spencer snorts from New York. “I don’t see the point, and neither does he.”
A Spencer clan hookup wouldn’t be so outrageous. Brassy’s raucous Got It Made disc isn’t all that far from the Blues Explosion’s fierce stomp, with shouted, sneering hiphop replacing Delta grit.
And despite being based in north England, Brassy’s lurching grooves have much more to do with the East Coast beats of DJ Premier than with Britpop, or even British hiphop.
“I don’t even feel that this band’s particularly British,” Spencer insists. “In Manchester, you’re either in with the in crowd or you’re not. We’re not.
“We have nothing to do with the whole Twisted Nerve, Badly Drawn Boy gang. They don’t even spit on us on the street. Maybe they’re afraid of us.”
