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Music

The Brass' Pissed-Off New Demo Proves That Classic Oi! Is Alive and Well in Brooklyn

Dust off your Fred Perry polo shirt and get ready to rage.

The Brass has only been knocking around since last year, but the Brooklyn foursome's rough-edged sound charges straight out of 1982. They've just posted a handful of songs off their upcoming release, the imaginatively titled Demo 2015, and it's some of the best Oi! to come out of NYC in god knows how long. The short, snappy tunes are up-tempo, no nonsense, and mad as hell, and the genre's working class origins shine through the NYC grime on grafter's anthems like "Treading Water," with its "back to work!" gang chants and desperate howls from vocalist Clay and the lads that "the only thing between me and the streets, is one shift on the 9-5."

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Made up of a motley crew of members culled from local metal and punk crews Creeping Dose, Mongrel, Vorde, Chain, and the (A)truth collective, The Brass sounds more like it came swinging out of London's East End than the Lower East Side.

Take a listen to the new demo (which is also available as a free download) before your next shift starts:

Kim Kelly is stomping around on Twitter: @grimkim