Stick Against Stone Orchestra - Album Release Party at Joe's Pub

Thirty-one years ago, a six-piece band/collective called Stick Against Stone started writing songs in a dirt-floor basement of a row house near the University of Pittsburgh. Like a musical cargo cult fed by the global eclecticism of their local freeform community radio station - WYEP-FM - this “horns and percussion” outfit acquired a taste for afrobeat, punk rock, art funk, free jazz and dub reggae. Beyond the moniker of “no wave” – they wrote surprisingly deep melodic hooks amid swirling, ambitious, polyrhythmic arrangements. Finding themselves with a devoted local following – but without a proper album to their name – it would be several years and cities later that they eventually broke up and their quirky, soulful song- book was lost to time....

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Thirty-one years ago, a six-piece band/collective called Stick Against Stone started writing songs in a dirt-floor basement of a row house near the University of Pittsburgh. Like a musical cargo cult fed by the global eclecticism of their local freeform community radio station - WYEP-FM - this “horns and percussion” outfit acquired a taste for afrobeat, punk rock, art funk, free jazz and dub reggae. Beyond the moniker of “no wave” – they wrote surprisingly deep melodic hooks amid swirling, ambitious, polyrhythmic arrangements. Finding themselves with a devoted local following – but without a proper album to their name – it would be several years and cities later that they eventually broke up and their quirky, soulful song- book was lost to time.

Until now. Stick Against Stone Orchestra’s new album “GET IT ALL OUT” (January 22nd, 2013) shares the same name as a multi-platform documentary about the band and their music (due in 2014). Consisting of a powerhouse nucleus of both original members and an impressive cadre of new players – including keyboardist Joe McGinty and guitarist David Terhune from Loser’s Lounge, Moist Paula Henderson on baritone sax (Burnt Sugar), Jesse Krakow on bass (Shudder to Think, Time of Orchids), percussionist Yusuke Yamamoto (Dizzy Ventilators, FELA! - The Musical) and session-ace drummer Denny McDermott. It’s a veri- table cavalcade of talent, but amazingly, everyone sounds fully invested in the “power of the circle” that is the new Stick Against Stone Orchestra.

“A smorgasbord of solid grooves, seasoned with global spices - served in a punk funk setting.” — Liquid Liquid’s Salvatore Principato

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