Youngblood Brass Band

Is That A Riot?

[4/5] A theory: MIA Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack de La Rocha has relocated to Wisconsin, where he’s posing as Youngblood Brass Band frontman-producer-beat maestro D.H. Skogen. Like Rage unplugged, Youngblood make a rap racket that has little to do with rock, and everything to do with a Division I college marching band-if a previous live-band hip-hop fusion septet had a dedicated sousaphone player in their lineup, it’s news to us. The lyrics of fury are the type of call to arms that have been inexplicably rare in popular music, as in “Nuclear Summer.” When Skogen belts, “Kids are at attention, tending toward prose / Smolder at shows, shoulder all comers / Dirty old bushmen, your season is waning,” it’s enough to get any crowd jumping. And the pit will be safe and fun-YBB’s lack of guitars should keep away the shirtless kids in red ballcaps. (LAYERED MUSIC; layered.org) D.X. Ferris