HONK! - Bands

Titubanda

The Titubanda -- from the Italian "titubare" or the wavering band -- is a wind and percussion ensemble of musicians started on the first of May 1998 during a street theater performance. It's repertoire includes about twentyfive songs: a long musical journey from Cuba to Bombay through the Balkans, from Brooklyn to Cairo, reinterpreting classics like Domenico Modugno, the King Crimson, Charles Mingus and Khaled as well... along with original songs composed by members of the band. Musical direction, internal organization and activities are strictly managed by the members, as well as financial support. The band is a non profit association and does not receive any aid or found by local institutions, which gives great freedom even though reducing the group's potentials and facilities. Distinguishing features of the Titubanda are its community involvement and participation in demonstrations aimed at promoting civic causes but also playing spontaneously in Rome's streets and squares in an attempt to revive a now vanished atmosphere in the super hi-tech western world. The Titubanda has always maintained close contact with the activities of the social centers, both sharing community based projects and musical rehersal space. Moreover, the band's autonomous, roving musical presence is by definition a political statement.

Watch and listen to the Titubanda on YouTube

Himalayas with Lesser Panda

In the year of the Black Horse, circa two thousand two, on the banks of the mighty Hudson River, a nameless band was born to the loving parents of
saxophonist Jonathon Haffner, percussionist Jennifer Harris and bass drummer Kenny Wollesen. Endowed with the gifted ability to be mobile, electric, and acoustic, the band began its odyssey, producing sounds that inspire people to move in ways never thought possible, physically, mentally and spiritually. By March 2003 during the Love Not War parade, the band quickly reached maturity on the streets on New York City. Followed by a well balanced diet of gigs of astonishing variety, plus a constant influx of New York's finest musicians, the band grew and the songbook filled too, mixed with a cache of original music from some of today's brilliant composers(Frisell, Zorn, Bernstein Apfelbaum, Wilson, Mottel, Wieselman). Through the rings of its growth, many names came along to refer to "the marching band", some sticking longer than others, yet each one reflecting the here and now.

Venues: multimedia performances (Anthology Film Archives); massive puppet shows (with NYC Puppeteers Collective, ImaginationExplosion, Great Small Works); cultural festivals (Lincoln Center Outdoors, CitySol, River TO River); community parades (Gay Pride, South Bronx Earth Day); Peace of Love ceremonies (RNC, May Day); music-making workshops for children of the South Bronx and Lower East Side; a spectacular 150-person performance at 2005 Celebrate Brooklyn (known then as S.L.A.M.); a month-long residency with legendary conductor Lawrence "Butch" Morris; special guest appearances (Medeski, Martin and Wood, Brazilian Girls); operas, studio recordings, and a weekly stint at the surrealist bar Zebulon in Williamsburg. Currently, the band can be seen in film great Jonas Mekas' web film "365 films"

Listen to Himalayas on MySpace

Caka!ak Thunder

From Greensboro NC, Caka!ak Thunder started banging five gallon buckets with broom sticks in 2002 for a World Bank protest in Washington, DC. Since then, we've tightened up a bit. We have brought the funk to crowds both large and small in venues both expected and unexpected; in large moblizations such as the RNC protests in New York City, and in local spirited actions in downtown Greensboro. The rhythms we play are borrowed from Brazilian samba. Samba emerged when the music of indiginous latin american cultures mixed with that of Africans who were brought to Brazil as slaves. It is a music of resistance and it carries with it a great deal of history

Loyd Family Players

Born in Chico, raised up at Burning Man, and brought to urban fruition in Oakland, California, the Loyd Family Players take the pulse of traditional Brazilian samba and twist it into a loud, sweaty, sexy muss that's all their very own. The ten-to-twenty-person coed percussion troupe swipes elements from hip-hop, dancehall, punk rock, drum n'bass, summer camp...anything goes. With members hailing from such exotic locales as England, Brazil, Rome, Peru, Antarctica, and Long Island, the Loyds are a foxy, unstoppable (and unstoppably foxy) dance machine. In the last several years the Loyds have earned a reputation as a commanding and jubilant festival band for their massive, moving performances. These shows sweep people into the parade, whether the band is passing through fairgrounds or taking the floor during a set change, making for an inclusive musical experience that keeps the band with the people and the people inside the music.

District Circus Marching Band

Making their home in the District of Columbia, this new activist marching band formed in January, 2008. All levels and ages of players are welcome to join us for neighborhood strollabouts, peace and justice demonstrations, and very special events.Cosmic Dancers of any style and experience are always welcome to join along with the fun. Puppeteers, stiltwalkers and other street-theater types form the Raucus Caucus Brigade

Recent gigs have included Fat Tuseday, International Women's Day, March 19 Anti-war Demos, Student-Farmworker Alliance, SOA Watch, Petworth Strollabout, and May Day Immigration Rights

Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra

Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra is a performance and marching percussion band, whose instruments are composed exclusively of recycled and reclaimed materials, focused on anarchist and anti-authoritarian struggles and mutual support for groups making radical social change. We make percussion on tuned cans, hubcaps and barrels, drums, pieces of sheet metal, and homemade oddities. We are a bone-shaking recycled orchestra – a sonic force of fiery resistance! We appear invited and uninvited at protests and celebrations, furors and fracases, anywhere there's a need to make a ruckus, to shout out and help fight injustice, suffering, and oppression, to make a big noise to celebrate our victories and our losses.!

Recent gigs have included Modesto DIY Festival, Santa Cruz LGBT Pride Parade, Homeless Garden Fundraiser, Counterrecruitment March, Punk Soccer Halftime, Aromas Day Parade and Honk West.

Listen to Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra on MySpace