The Dead Brothers' story so far… (2008)
Of course the dead brothers are dead. And they have always been. That's how they stay free…

Alain Croubalian first invented the Dead Brothers in his head, after studying death, or more precisely ars moriendi, at the University of Geneva with Professor Jean Ziegler. He then staged a singing doctor selling drugs in cafes and telling the story of the blues standing on the bar. A band appeared the first time in 1993 and played only gospel songs, those sung by Elvis, at the Usine in Geneva. Soon two tubas where main feature with founding member Jean-Philippe Geiser playing Bo Diddley beats on his big horn. Dead Alain then started a circus. The Electric Circus with Alain Meyer, where musicians replaced animals and jugglers(they're cheaper) They travelled Europe with 25 different bands including Reverend Beatman, Bob Log III, T-Model Ford, Withman Mc Gowan and Al Comet three years in a row. The first Dead Brothers drummer had a ladybug disguise (Axel from the band Tulip aus Hamburg) and a dark young lady, a black haired gothic guitar player called Barbara, strumming along (from Last Torridas' fame).

More than 20 ex-members have been Dead Brothers over the last 10 years: Fred Schmutz, Jean-Philippe Geiser, Barbara Bagnoud, Olli Franz, Julien Israelian, Zoe Capon, Axel Jansen, Holger Steen, Resli Burri, Jean-Jacques Pedretti, Alain Porchet, Christoph Gantert, Pierre Omer, Delaney Davidson, Yves Massy, Marcel Salesse, Morback, Denis Schuler, Matthias Lincke, Alain Meyer, Christoph Marti and the one and only dj Scratchy as last minute banjo invitee…This Dead Brothers Kapelle has, since then, taken many forms: A mega combo with three tubas, 9 other horns and a dead Brother puppet dancing, an folk guitar symphony orchestra, a primitive banjo and accordion duo that sounded like shit, ten members reproducing Kurt Weill's arrangements of Brechts' 3 Penny Opera at the Basler Opera, three old acoustic Armenians sitting on chairs, a summer piano cabaret band with slide guitar and fiddle… you never know how they're about to pop up…

2008: So long live the dead brothers. Now on tour as the Dead Brothers' Sweet String Orchestra, a string band...
2010: THE DEAD BROTHERS are back !

2010:
THE DEAD BROTHERS - Things are rarely what they seem
When the fog lifts and the winds shift, things are rarely what they seem.
Was it love or was it murder?
It’s hard to say in this light.
Is she fifteen or is she twenty?
Who knows past midnight?
The truth hides in deep and murky waters.
Which leads us to the question at hand:

Who are the Dead Brothers?
A surrealist chanson outfit, Penny arcade singers from Bismarck, North Dakota, carny attractions at PT Barnum’s or rejects from Hades?
Perhaps taking a closer look at their music will shed some light on this investigation.
Bluegrass clashes with Macedonian funeral marches, Jimmy Rodgers goes line dancing with Bauhaus and Swiss hillbilly folk music becomes the soundtrack to a hardboiled film noir.
Confused?
Good!
The Dead Brothers know a secret is far more seductive than the truth…and they never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn.

Which brings us to the present:
Legend has it that The Brothers recently gathered in a remote Swiss mountain village and fueled by wicked wine and strong spirits, cut a disk that merges the worlds of Richard Wagner, Dashiell Hammet and Georges Brassens.
It will not take long for the analysts to enter the scene and ask:
Is it Jazz?
Is it blues?
Is it avantgarde folk?
Or is it simply Rock ‘n’ Roll?
The answer is: YES!
It’s all of that, tightly wrapped into an exotic little package.
For the Dead Brothers nothing is sacred and everything is profane…or is nothing profane and everything sacred?

So one day when the good Lord sits down to a few glasses of Escorial after a hard day’s work and the light is just right you might see The Dead Brothers pulling their pump organ, upright bass, banjo, lap steel guitar and singing saw down the main drag of your home town and sitting down at a Mahogoni bar at the Marquis de Sade’s, holding up glasses of Escorial and toasting toward heaven before hitting the stage and seducing you into a world of love, pain and magic.
M.A. Littler, Frankfurt, january 2010 . . . . . You should download the "Infosheet" for more informations !