In un unica direzione

Questo post è in Italiano, tanto gli stranieri non capirebbero mai quanto sono grandi i Diaframma e che straordinario autore è Federico Fiumani... E noi? Siamo sicuri che in questo paese l'abbiano capito tutti? Ma perchè non lo dicono mai al telegiornale e non lo scrivono nemmeno sui quotidiani? Ma Mollica aspetta che Federico muoia per farne un servizio di condoglianze? Io era un pò che volevo scrivere un post in italiano e proprio dei Diaframma volevo parlare, perchè loro sono stati la migliore espressione post punk della musica italiana dell'ultimo trentennio. E i giornalisti nostrani? Quelli più titolati sono ancora fermi a Siberia e pensano ancora che in quella buffa cover band fiorentina dei New Order si canti col vocione anni 80 di Nicola Vannini... ma Luzzato Fegiz ha mai ascoltato Anni Luce o Il ritorno dei desideri? E Mara Maionchi ha mai sentito le parole di Latitante, l'assolo di Vaiano o il controcanto di Manca l'acqua? Hanno mai capito, qui come all'estero, che noi abbiamo un grandissimo autore di musica pop(olare) che fa una pippa a tutti i cantautori impegnati degli anni 70, ai loro epigoni degli anni 80, ai sanremini degli anni 90 e agli scippatori di idee altrui degli ultimi 15 anni? Federico siede a destra di Lucio Battisti, al tavolo con Degre e il grande Faber, proprio di fronte a Rino Gaetano ed Ivan Graziani. E la sua chitarra non verrà da Manchester ma graffia ancora, come graffiava quella dei Clash e le sue canzoni scavano profondo come quelle dei suoi(nostri) miti e anche la sua voce si è fatta più calda ed espressiva. Io i Diaframma me li porto addosso oramai da una vita, proprio come Fiumani portava  "Elena, come un vestito, in un giorno qualunque". Classici o derivativi, moderni o innovativi, sempre attuali comunque. E i giovani-i giovani? Qualcuno ha spiegato loro chi è Federico Fiumani? Anche se mio figlio di 7 anni ancora non ci capisce molto, "ascolta sempre quel suono che sembra arrivare da lontano" ed ogni tanto me lo ritrovo che canta "Libra", come un piccolo Jack Frusciante uscito dal gruppo... ed è questa la mia gioia, la mia piccola rivincita di papà sul passato ingrato e sui One Direction che riempono gli stadi. Abbatti il futuro se non ti appartiene!

Diaframma Live:
Con i Litfiba, 10 maggio 1985 - Teatro Tenda Roma - Siberia/Amsterdam
Con Nicola Vannini - Auditorium Flog Reunion 31/1/1993 - Ceremony/Illusione Ottica/Siberia
Tenax Reunion 24 febbraio 2002 - Ultimo boulevard, Elena, Siberia, Tre volte lacrime, Caldo

What we ask for...

From the Paul Lester biography "Damaged Goods": 

"...It could reasonably be argued that, among certain rock musicians, especially the ones who formed in the wake of the late Seventies post punk era, Gang of Four mean as much as the Velvet Underground did to a previous generation. They may not have sold that many records, but they sold to the right people: everyone who heard them went right out and formed a band. In Britain they pioneered the idea of the white rock band getting funky, making it possible for everyone form A Certain Ratio to Franz Ferdinand to make their dance music, their funk noir, their death disco. and in America, where they possibly mean even more and had an even greater impacty, Gang of Four are the third most influential punk period rock band after The Sex Pistols and The Clash, paving the way for hordes of funked up metal bands: Rage against the Machine, Korn, Limp Bizkit and the rest would, as one journalist recently put it, "be inimagginable without the territory that GOF feralessy staked out in a bold, visionary stance that few bands could have been taken".Back in the time of bands like the Gang of Four it seemed easier to find music that was as inspired. And they still sound great, brilliant as ever... If only there could be music like this nowadays...

For your listening pleasure:

Gang of Four "The 78 demos, live in Zagreb 1981 & KEXP 2011 Sessions"

No wave in Pordenone

"The Great Complotto Pordenone" was a unique and historical punk, post-punk, new-wave organisation grown up in Pordenone (a city located in the North-East of Italy) during the early 80's. Sounds from a lost province, strongly influenced by uk postpunk and us no wave. A crazy bunch of guys who gave life to a series of organisations and to the first Italian punk wave....

Very well known during that early "Complotto" time were punk bands "Hitlerss and Tampax" but many other was following, purposing many diferent forms of music during that "golden age". This was the case of XX Century Zorro, especially with their interesting album "La Volpe du XX siècle"and with other legendary tapes. The music was quite original, a lot of ideas that the classic form of a song could probably not fit well... broken melodies full of nostalgia, dandy and gigolo fascination, black and white sounds, pre and post world war songs, music for an other era which will probably never come ... The weltanschauung of XXCZ is simply formidable and incomparable to anybody and anything, a unique experience out of time!

A midmorning awakening

No doubt for me that 1981 was THE YEAR post punk finally emerged as  a style, an ethos and the sound that will influence music for decades.  It seemed to me the exact moment when that sound and way of looking at music spreading farthest without diminishing their punk intensity.  The heroes of the first wave were about to retire (like Wire, Buzzcocks, Joy Division of course) but still hadn’t lost a step, and so many others were at their peak and still many more greats just getting started. Many artist we like had their masterpieces in 1981... The Bunnymen, DAF, Comsat Angels, The Sound, The Cure, PIL, Japan etc. One album in particular was a real "punch in the stomach" that year... Clock Dva's first proper lp after some schizophrenic cassettes of distorted Sheffield Cabs alike sound. "Thirst", a milestone for the black-clad generation of white souls that couldn't believe that experimental music was only a P-Orridge incarnation. Thirst was the album I was waiting for since I heard "Brigade" for the first time, a sort of DVA's  perennial state in their never ending quest for knowledge. Songs like "4 Hours" soon became symbols of a whole generation of true believers in the possibilities of "real" free creativity. This was a long-selling work (80,000) copies made Clock Dva a very "hot" band for major labels too, and Polydor won the race in 1982 putting them under contract. After a couple of singles, Clock Dva recorded "Advantage", their second LP. Needless to say it's a good album too, cold poetry, noire stories and free jazz. But it wasn't the same. The road to success was wide open but Adi Newton was just loosing himself feeling quite uneasy: the direction that DVA's music was taking was too safe for his fulfillment so he left the band soon after. Clock dva tried to substitute him with a female singer, but the result was embarassing. Years after Adi came back starting a new phase more experimental but less interesting, nothing compared to their glorious Sheffield years...

Sisters with no mercy

Probably the most obscure band in this obscure blog, Scent Merci were an interesting italian post punk band of the eighties. It’s hard to know, as there is no entry on the official sites, only brief posts about them on a few lost blogs. Scent Merci never seems to get mentioned in the endless articles about the post punk/new wave period in Italy. One blogger rated their song "Secret of Joy" in the top ten best post-punk italian songs over the likes of Diaframma, Litfiba etc...  anyway, a lot of italian bands could also have been good candidates for a list of completely underrated bands, but Scent Merci is the one I’d never actually heard of until incidentally saw a youtube video by ex Wax Heroes guitarist and soon after this, the great blog Systems of Romance gave us the wonderful Treviso 1986 Compilation on cassette only "Treviso Underground". And between the others, Scent Merci are really interesting. It may require some patience to navigate their relaxing jingle jangle murky atmospheres, but is rewarding for any fans of those lost italian sounds. It seems also there is a renew interest in their music nowadays. They have a new Facebook page and finally an exhaustive page on Last.fm with some good infos about their history and their discography too, from the ‘Cabaret du Chat Noir’ demo (1986) to their partecipation in various compilations like Amnesty International P.E.A.C.E. Benefit Compilation (1987). From their FB profile they recently promise good news about a possible compilation of old material... let's wait for them listening to their old tunes. 

Eric & the rabbits

Were they the best band on the planet? Possibly although it's really hard to remember now how much Echo and the Bunnymen meant. No doubt that Bunnymen were one of my top band in those days... ah the Liverpool scene, the shores of Lake Placid, the sound of a drum machine and those "pictures" on my wall... I think you'll find plenty of younger bands today will namecheck them and an influence. "The second best band ever to come from Liverpool", as Paul du Noyer once put it. Seen them many times playing live and they never disappointed... One thing for sure anyway, they probably weren't the same band when they reformed after Pete De Freitas died (what a drummer he was!). The latter-day Bunnies have, sadly, become something of a nostalgia act so, before listening to their new album "Meteorites", hoping could be a little better than the horrible 2009's "The Fountain", let's get back to the days that count... It was 21 June 1985, and they played a 'secret' gig at the Manchester International club. They went under the name of Eric and the Rabbits, and they played two sets. The first was a set of covers, while the second was all Bunnymen gems. Listen to their version of Talking Heads' "The Big Country" and put your dusty long raincoat on once again...

Loosing by win

Back to our beloved Italian New Wave, let's briefly talk about Wax Heroes this time, "a band that mattered" in the italian eighties scenario. The "wax thing" hailing from Treviso (where?!) put out only a great debut ep "Sher", a track on the seminal compilation "Gathered" by Rockerilla magazine and some 1982 demos... but that song, the percussive, foreboding "Win by loosing" is really something, a sort of masterpiece of Italian Post Punk. The band did not achieve any sort of popularity due to some bad luck and media noncurance. Rather than persevere and record their debut album, they gave up so soon and some of them ended up in Scent Merci, another band who had no future but great songs. The only discernible impact they had is that their influence could possibly be heard in many italian bands of the late eighties and first nineties, though the similarities could be a only coincidence.  A complete reissue with all their songs has been realised by Spittle records and, in my opinion, is badly needed for a nostalgic post punk lover.

The sound of happiness

Orange Juice stylistic influence can be seen across the board in UK  independent music, from DIY bands to later indie labels like Rough Trade, Sarah Records and Jeepster. Musically, bands like The Smiths, Franz Ferdinand and Belle and Sebastian have been outspoken about the influence of Orange Juice and others from the Postcard stable. It's not a surprise that still, their influence on the culture of alternative pop music and labels to follow has been huge. In the 1970's, Glasgow music scene had a reputation for hard drinking and hard rocking, not a lot more. Postcard changed that with bands like OJs that were fey, witty, intelligent and clean and had a sound influenced by the pop of the 60's and Northern Soul too. Also Orange Juice changed my life in those faraway years, first with their "sound of happiness" then with Postcard symbolism and subversiveness. Nothing special, just a kitten beating a drum, based on an early twentieth century Louis Wain illustration. At the time it was genuinely radical in its playfulness, going against the macho rock stereotype. In this redemption I believed and soon went to buy those old suede jackets & the same Davey Crocket hat Edwyn Collins used to wear... and what about their first 3 singles, what about those refrains!!! Anyway,  35 years after "the event", Domino is going to re-issue once again their 4 albums and OJ still seem so totally evocative of their time. According to their guru Alan Horne, "It was a time when it did not seem quite so naïve to be thinking that popular music might be something other than light entertainment from ‘dumb meets stupid’.” That's "all that ever mattered".

Here's for you "The Sound of Happiness" ( Blog only Rarities compilation)

1 Falling and Laughing - live 1981 at Valentinos Edinburgh
2 Blueboy - live at Glasgow Tech. Inst. 1980
4 You-Old-Eccentric (peel)
5 Breakfast time - live somewhere 1982
6 Lovesick [Janice Long Session]
7 Simply thrilled honey (cassette free -  live)
8 The Postcard version of Texas Fever
9 Poor Old Soul/Rip it Up (live medley 83)
10 I Can`t Help Myself (live at ogwt)
11 Salmon fishing in new york (bbc session feb 1984)
12 Aztec Camera & Edwyn Collins _ Consolation Prize live (b-side)
13 Edwyn Collins - Felicity live at Ica 94
bonus track - Nu Sonics-I-Dont-Care

Entering the secret world again!

As everybody probably knows, "Sarah Records was a truly independent record label founded by Clare Wadd and Matt Haynes in Bristol, England. Active between 1987-1995, Sarah Records set out to be different from other record labels. Committed to socialism and feminism and influenced by the fanzines and DIY attitude of the 70s punk scene, Clare and Matt were as vocal about their causes as their music. They were brave and uncompromising, refusing to play the music industry game to the very end and proved you can run a successful business without surrendering personal ethics. Sarah Records released a wide variety of music by bands based all over the UK and overseas. The fact that the label continues to attract new fans is testament to the quality and breadth of Sarah's discography." 

The good new is that there is now a documentary "My Secret World - The Story Of Sarah Records" that is the first  attempt to explore this legendary, influential and often misunderstood label.Please visit youtube, vimeo, twitter and anywhere else you can find the trailer and help to make distributors aware of  the film! My personal homage to Sarah Records is  a self made collection full of demos & alternate versions of Sarah classics.... Hope you like it!!!

A summer's tale (the sarah demos v.1)

01 The Springfields -  Sunflower (demo).mp3

02 the field mice emmas house demo.mp3

03 the sea urchins please rain fall demo.mp3

04 The orchids - An Ill Wind That Blows (Caff 7_ Demo).mp3

05 14 iced bear - first demo - Ring the Far Bell [#].mp3

06 Heavenly - peel - So Little Deserve.MP3

07 Tramway - Technical college (Demo version).mp3

08 Another Sunny Day - Genetic Engineering.mp3

09 St. Christopher - Crystal Clear.mp3

10 The sweetest ache - when you see her (demo).mp3

11 East River Pipe - Fatherland (rare track).mp3

12- Breathe (Eternal Demo).mp3

13 Even As We Speak - Straight As An Arrow.PEEL

14 Northern Picture Library - Snowscene (Alaska outtake).mp3

15 Primal scream - Tomorrow Ends Today.mp3

Sending letters from East Kilbride

Aztec Camera, from East Kilbride, it seems yesterday that they were the next Postcard stars ready to shine, but it was more or less 35 years ago.... Main man, Roddy Frame at the time was still a very young whippersnapper with an enourmous talent for writing songs, even more than his friend Edwyn, He was quite a flashy guitarist also, not in a Jimi Hendrix way, but it showed through in his choice of chords and his solo runs and he was a great player anyway. Quite sophisticated for bright & breezy pop songs. I mean, goodness knows how many chord changes there are in their songs if you ever tried to play them in years. Anyway, it was the sound of Young Scotland (?!) or was it only bunch of upbeat sparkly tunes for people tired of post punk gothic anthems... I don't know. No need to say how important the've been in "our" music and in my life... I  bought anything of theirs I could find including live tapes and badges for years... High Land Hard Rain definitely ranks among the very greatest debut albums of all times. Years after came the C86 bands, the new folk heroes etc... What I know for sure is that these early songs (recorded live in 1982 at the Astor Univ.) certainly show an incredible emotional depth and tug at the heart strings here and there... Sadly, this was the 80's,and progress, unfortunately,meant getting in big name producers and spending weeks/months achieving big drum sounds! Quality and the special touches get blown away by the sheer gloss and polish of the production...A crying shame,but it has its moments...

Flewing jets again (for the US airforce)

Having recently seen them pithily reviewed online somewhere as "Joy Division without the joy", someone forgets (or maybe he never knew) that Artery was one of the bands that sprung up in 1978 and they developed a large following also here in Italy where they incredibily had a minor hit with their single "Into the garden"! "People wanted to express themselves and that opened doorways" said Mark while reforming his band in 2007... It's a real pleasure to hear them again with a lot of new powerful songs to perform... welcome back Mark it's really a a huge pleasure to hear your great band again after 25 years with your magic intact, "never to late to spread the word"...

The "sweetest" girls

Possibly the finest early eighties band never to have a chart single and they split up before having any real success. According to wonderous singer Judy : "...When the first single ”Getting Nowhere Fast° became NME single of the week, the group ‘Girls At Our Best!” didn’t exist as such. Jez (James Allen) & I were determined to get our 2 songs on vinyl with a view to seeing what if anything happened next. Well something did happen & another record was clamoured for which meant we had to write 2 more songs & find someone to help us record them. This was the time when Gerard Swift & Carl Harper joined us; but there was no serious intention of playing live until much later. The music & the lyrics we wrote, the strategy we used, the image we tried to create was definitely intended to be a serious force in popular music, but we disguised it so as not to appear pretentious, intellectual or musically serious. I suppose that with most bands that break up, the reasons are both incredibly simple & boringly complicated. There was a series of events which I think inevitably led to the band splitting up. We went to America, as just mentioned, which screwed everybody up a little bit. Our record contract came to an end just after our return & we were all getting on each other’s nerves. Just at this vital point in the career of GAOB, when there should have been consolidation, vision & energy, there was a big void & we all just drifted apart. The record contract was left to rot & GAOB didn’t exist anymore...." Girls At Our Best were one of the finest, most life-affirming of a new breed of independent bands who cropped up at the turn of the 80s – long-standing fan John Peel once referred to them as one of the few groups that made the period bearable. All four of their singles for their own Record Records, Rough Trade and Happy Birthday Records are pure gems. The album "Pleasure" a little bit less but still memorable. Hear them playing live with their unique pre C-86 style and enjoy once again Judy's distinctive unique voice.

the season of steel

The idea of an Italian Wave as a genre remains a difficult beast to try and capture, file or contain. The music often collected under that banner is strongly associated with a sort of "total derivative" sound that looked at uk post punk bands, but it also grew by itself becoming something more interesting and complex. Nowadays, from our lofty 21st Century perspective, Italian Wave appears to mount repeated incursions into an almost unknowable number of previously well guarded genres: Synthpop, Techno, Dark, Punk, Garage etc.. United mainly by barely commodified electronics and tiny print runs of 7“s and later cassettes (although somewhat morbidly respectable by today’s sales standards). All of this decentralised music making makes an easily digestible guide all but impossible. And exactly like many of the Uk post punk bands that inspired our italian wave movement, our bands faded into domesticity and obscurity soon after their ninyl debuts. No Depeche Mode and no Cure here in Italy, just a pair of bands like litfiba & Diaframma that were arguably the most successful, carving out a career that’s now spanned (amazingly) four decades. but we're more interested in the ones that couldn't survived the passing of time. This is a simple "homage" to them through a compilation of  updated sounds from  those "now reformed" heroes of italian wave... a little adventure in the music from a far decade which we don't want to become another forgotten story.

no mortal coil

Whichever way you look at them, in the "decade that counts", Cocteau Twins has gradually acquired a mythical prestige that transcends both their original ambitions and the music’s own guileless outlook. One of the early practitioners in Shoegazing territories, the Twins came very much to be synonymous with the 80s and the Atmospheric turn the decade took in music. Not a common dreampop combo but a band that came from post punk and finally reached a mainstream enduring success with the music they played for years. And it wasn't just another r'n'roll swindle and I'm not talking about Enya or Enigma, although someone used to compare them to those kind of plastic popstars. I've alway preferred looking at their music as an evolution of the Banshees style mixed with a sort of Krautrock feeling.  Anyway, embracing a kind of selfmade minimalism in their music, Cocteau Twins and the ethereal vocals of Elizabeth Fraser soon ended to create a style. Their influence was felt in several other bands for years and the volume of the Twins' related traffic on the Internet alone is testament to how profoundly was (and is) their influence on contemporary music. History says that they also split with sorrow and tears and this is why within weeks of the announcement of a 2005 Coachella reunion, Lizzie sadly announced she wouldn't take part cause she still could no longer face working with Robin. This probably means no future for them but a magic past to rediscover once again...

The lost patrol

After being ejected from punk group The Wall in 1979, singer Ian Lowery and guitarist Nick Clift (ex-Debutants) formed Ski Patrol, along with Pete Balmer (ex-Stranded, later to record with Fad Gadget) on bass and Bruce Archibald on drums.  Inspired by the darkwave and punk-funk sounds and emotions of British post-punk bands Joy Division, Gang Of Four, the band set about writing angular, moody songs that fused Lowery's dark lyrical pre-occupations with Clift's ringing, textured guitar chord phrasing. They released their first 7” Everything is Temporary / Silent Scream on their own Clever Metal label. Archibald was subsequently replaced by Alan Cole for the line –up which recorded the first of two singles for the Malicious Damage label: Agent Orange / Driving and Cut / Faith In Transition. Rumour has it that the anonymous synth player on Agent Orange is none other than Killing Joke’s Jaz Coleman. Anyway this last is without any doubt one of the best post punk tracks ever. Pete Balmer was then replaced by Francis Cook by the time of the 3rd single, Cut / Faith in Transition, and this was the line up that recorded a John Peel Session for Radio One and that was one of the real high points of the band. Just a week after they played their final gig at Charing Cross Hospital. The guitarist (Nick Clift) decided to leave and Francis (Cook), the bass player, and Ian lowery decided to change their name to Folk Devils and never came back on their split decision. Malicious Damage never remastered their recordings and no one seemed to care. Ian Lowery played for years with new projects but never had a minimum of success. Then he died too soon in 2001 but we'll never forget him for his music.

The liquid legends

March 1979

"Island had dropped us, and I was planning to leave because I thought synthesizers were going to change music in the same way that the electric guitar did. Then we were offered a tour of America by Miles Copeland and his brother [Ian] - there was a big audience for British new wave acts at that time. We flew over on the cheap with Laker Airlines and, as there were no luggage restrictions, took all of our instruments and our backline amps. When we got off the plane Miles's brother was waiting for us with a van and we did six weeks with one day off. People like the artist Jean Michel Basquiat and John Frusciante from the Chili Peppers came to see us. The tour ended in Hollywood at the Whisky A Go-Go. After the last show I just told them all that I had had enough and was leaving, that they could have the name and the band identity. Things were already tense - at the end of long tours everyone is full of adrenalin but very tired - and a minor argument broke out although I can't remember what it was about. Billy and Chris walked out of the dressing room and Warren stayed hut was really angry, although he didn't shout, as we weren't that sort of people. We left the venue in separate cars and I flew back to England on my own the next day. It was a great wrench to leave, but the grey suits were waiting. I wanted to work alone with a tape recorder, drum machine, a synthesizer and get rid of anything that was rock'n'roll. As for their later success with Midge Ure, I have nothing to say about them, as that band has nothing to do with me". (JF)

From 1976 to 1979 Ultravox were legends as Mr. Foxx was their singer and musical guide. Their immense influence in the rise of uk post punk sound is undeniable.  Then came Midge and the New Romantics Years but please remember them playing with Mr.Dennis their last mythical 1979 us tour...

Amazing stories

According to discogs:

On cold autumn evenings of Milan in 1981 met for the first time Nino La Loggia and Giacomo Spazio. Both were regulars of the Bar Concordia, one of the few meeting places for the post punk generation. Nino with Mark Philopat (now established writer) had given birth to the HCN, one of the pioneering punk bands of the peninsula. Giacomo instead was a performance artist, interested in graphics and was looking for a new form of painting that was innovative and provocative. When the two met sparked. The two had the same passion for music: Kraftwerk, Joy Division, DAF and the whole new scene of proto-electronic wave and together they decided to start the musical project called 2 + 2 = 5, a tribute to Orwellian dystopia. The two split the roles immediately, Nino continued to pursuit the sound to the limit of experimentation and Giacomo wrote texts. The band made their début at the "Cinema-Music Non-Stop" at the Cinema Porpora of Milan in May 1982. Shortly after entered the band Cha Cha Hagiwara, already a keyboard player in 'Jeunesse d'Ivoire', enriching the band's raw sound with sonority which we can now define analog. After several dates among Milan, Turin and Switzerland, the trio entered the studio to record their first LP titled  '... Into The Future' which was to be published towards the end of the year 1983.........and that was the beginning...

Please listen again to their amazing stories... old songs/new versions, recorded in their unexpected 2010 live comeback in Milan!

Another wild ride with the leather kings!

There are some bands who never give up. Who after almost thirty years and thousands of bar gigs still do not know anything better than to cut another record or make another gig in front of 60/70 desperate/fortunate people. The legendary Fleshtones formed in Queens one million years ago (was it 1976 or...) and since then they started touring and never end. Maybe this is the reason why they became  the greatest garage rockers of all time. In all these years, they drew from the best parts of The Yardbirds, The Kingsmen, The Sonics, The Seeds, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Rolling Stones, The Cramps etc. They borrowed from the old and created a monster of American rock music that lived up to the haughty "Super Rock" title they gave to their sound. They intensified everything but the sound: cool, anxiety, joy, and energy. Over the years they've become a tradition unto themselves, incorporating also '50s R&B, '60s frat-rock, and '70s disco into a heady mix that can only be recognized as "their unique sound". I've seen them live no less than half a dozen times and it has always been F.U.N.! And that song too, the one I consider the "SONG" of american garage revival... yes, i'm talking about  “The Dreg”, with the incredible cool fuzz bassline (Jan-Marek Pakulski), a guitar that builds to a fever pitch, soaked in reverb  by Keith Streng, with tones of percussions rattling off in all directions and a cool understated vocals by Peter, singing of a person searching for the meaning behind their intuition, moving forward in life with whatever they have. What a song, what a band! As someone else recently wrote, "The Fleshtones were all garage rock without any qualms of being original; they were just better than what they started with". Not a lot more to say, in my opinion they really symbolize what still matters in rock & roll... dance again to their american beat and sing "Sha la la la" forever!!!

30 years of twee sounds

Ah the C86 years, full of little diy bands playing like The Smiths with no Johnny Marr on guitar, shouting like Orange Juice with no Edwyn singing... and what about those wonderful Sarah small packets on my po box coming from another planet or it was just a dream? I usually listen to C86 bands, often labelled as 'twee' just because they remind me of my teen years and those type of bands usually speaked out my mind, whether lyrically, whether instrumentally I don't know for sure. But tere must be a good reason if I spent those years exchanging mixtapes and twee badges with my penfriends from abroad (where are they now?) and drinking a lot of milkshakes instead of beers...The Pastels speaked out my longing for lost freedom as a teenager, like in 'Automatically yours' (from 'Up For A Bit With The Pastels') for example. And also they played some of the loveliest love songs around at the time. They were not dramatic as post punk heroes I usually love or talk about riots and revolutions, but about a love I kind of wish I had: genuine, spontaneous, simple, young and... boh, the typical teenage love we all dream about even when we grow... 'A Million Tears' is quite the perfect example to it: 'If I can't have you then I don't want nobody else, I'll tear myself apart and cry a million tears...'. So simple but so true. Thanks Stephen if I dreamt of trucks, train & tractors as it was me driving in the green fields. "Please don't think of us as an 'indie band' as it was never meant to be a genre, and anyway we are far too outward looking for that sad tag" said once Stephen Pastel. Sad tag or not, I viewed The Pastels and the C-86 phenomenon at the time as an intelligent reaction to the opulence of the Big League indie bands. And while U2, The Cure and Simple Minds filled their stadiums and sold billions of records, The Pastels reminded us that there were bands still recording in small rooms with their mummies in the kitchen and their papas watching tv...More sounds from Leamington please and buy SLOW SUMMITS immediately!!!
Hear them playing live some times ago and enjoy them once again...

Do you gesang?

Here we probably got one of the best band from the subterranean italian new wave music scene. This was i'm gonna write about is one of the few notable dark-synth act coming from Italy, more precisely from Milano, more or less 30 years ago. There weren't much infos about the story of band or if they played live alot... but there's been a lot of talking in the recent years about this band and their "coldwave" sound. I remember them playing my hometown Torino in a dark rainy night at The Big Club, but sincerely I was not so impressed by them at the time, they played like millions of others and they sang with very terrible english pronounce... So the question was and still is, do they deserve all this posthumous fame the world of blogging bloggers tribute them? What about other hundreds of bands that never surfaced here in Italy from the beginning to the end of post punk era? Boh, sometimes history changes the facts and what we believe to remember is not what exactly happened... listening once again to their records and their live tapes they do no seem so bad and I must admit I really like them now... anyway, also here in Italy we now have our little "joydivisionesque phenomenon", Weimar Gesang (who?) of course! As I told before, more than three decades have passed since they hardly tried to emerge from the minor cultural rubble of italian's wave to a kind of darkly propulsive post punk anthems. The band consisted of four members: Donato Santarcangeli, Fabio Magistrali, Giuseppe Tonolini, and Paolo Mauri, a few of which went on to play in various other Italian bands over the years. Their base was the historical label and record shop Supporti Fonografici. With their atmospheric soundscapes "a la cure" Weimar Gesang tried to demonstrate a personal kind of glacial grandeur, maybe never seen before here in the land of the sun & spaghetti. It was not easy for them, mainly because their derivative post-punk  sound, in the new born wave italian movement, was not immediately known. But now they had their revenge. In the last years it seems that anyone around the blog involved in coldwave things have a word for them, and many have cited Weimars and their works as "seminal" and influential...they certainly weren't, but now they are, stars...