PeaceT(b)lo(g)

Sule paccheri avitacchiappa’ July 31, 2008

Almost going to Italy for my friend’s wedding and already the Italian influence is overwhelming me. It’s something that comes out of the blue. Actually I consider myself pretty musically (and not only) unstable, meaning that today I can listen to some trash-metal and tomorrow been moved by a folk intimate song. That is why sometimes I just wake up and I start singing a song while having breakfast till I’m out of home and I can finally listen to the song in my iPOD but then, it happens that I change immediately my tastes and starts listening something completely different.

Today I woke up with a desire of listening some hip-hop, but from my home town. That’s why we listen today to La Famiglia.

This Neapolitan hip-hop trio is formed by MCs Polo (Alberto Cretara), Sha-one (Paolo Romano), and DJ Simi (Simone Cavagnuolo) and it is the oldest established hip hop group out of Naples, Italy. They are considered one of the most instrumental and influential groups in the development and growth of the Italian Hip hop scene which includes not only, music but other urban art forms such as aerosol art/graffiti and breakdancing.

Since 1993 they have performed with international artists such as Destiny’s Child, WuTang Clan, De La Soul and many others. The group’s first album “the 41st Parallel (quarantunesimo parallelo)” is a classic in Italian hip hop. With that album they received national radio play, and had videos in rotation on MTV Italia, DJ TV, RAI and others.

The video for the song “Prrrr” that we are going to watch right now, it was nominated for the P.I.M. (Premio italiano della musica) Award alongside heavy hitters such as Jovanotti, Ligabue, and Vasco Rossi:

N-joy and sorry for those who won’t understand some or all the words.

Domenico

EBTG July 30, 2008

Midweek in the morning, tomorrow Massive Attack will be in Vienna but I won’t but… tonight… I could go and join Grant Marshall A.K.A. Daddy G who will play some music at Leopold Cafe’ for the Massive Attack pre-concert party!! Hope to be there but it also depends on how the night will evolve.

Meanwhile, I’d like to share with you some music from another band whose singer featured some songs from the second album of the mentioned Massive Attack. We’re talking about Everything But The Girl.

This English duo was formed in Hull just… 26 years ago!! The lead singer that I referred to is the wonderful (at least for her voice) Tracey Thorn, while the other component is the musician Ben Watt.

Not everybody knows that they are also a couple for they are intensely private about their relationship and personal life. The duo have a strong desire to raise their three children outside of the spotlight.

The first time I listened to EBTG was with the album “Eden” that I consider something special. It was thanks to my old friend Antonio Ruggiero that I listened to this pearl of music. Songs like “Fascination” have left a sign on me. A song that can make you cry, but in a strange way, not because you’re sad but for a sense of release. Don’t know how to explain, the point is I haven’t found the video on the web so, if you want to understand what I mean, just ask me for the CD.

But there is another side of this band that in the second part of their career took over their more jazzy mood. I’m talking about about their disco-sometime-drum&bass songs. A clear example is the song I’m sharing with you today, “Before today”, played live in London. This song has been released in 1996, just to let you realize how this band was ahead:

Domenico

Elvis hasn’t left the building yet… July 29, 2008

Hi there, second day of the week, great mood in these days, things are going on, I’m actually looking forward to the result of some work done and waiting for the loooong (well, just two weeks) holiday to arrive. Not so much to say besides the fact that today we will still listen to some music from the (recent) past.

Today we have Elvis Costello.

This is another case of artist whose influence has characterized the bands coming after his music production. This English musician and singer-songwriter with Irish ancestry came to prominence as an early participant in London’s pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and New Wave musical genres, before establishing his own unique voice in the 1980s.

A famous critic wrote, “Costello, the pop encyclopedia, can reinvent the past in his own image”.

I saw his acoustic live performance as he was guest of the 1st May concert in Rome, some years ago. It was memorable. Now let’s enjoy one of his songs coming from the early production. This is “(I Dont Want To Go To) Chelsea”:

Domenico

A bit of Rock & Blues July 28, 2008

New week, new posts, new music for some of you. Actually, this is going to be a quite short week for I’m going to be in Italy to be better… ops… the best…. well, the best man (at least the best you can imagine). Meanwhile, I’m here, waiting for the week to move on, resting from the long weekend mainly spent with my German friends but also with the groom and the bride.

Today we will enjoy something that I rarely put on this blog, some blues. To help us, we will host on this post the presence of a legend, Captain Beefheart.

This is clearly a pseudonym for the American musician and visual artist Don Van Vliet, California (I’m sure our Mel would recall this artist’s name). Between 1960 and 1980, he has been the leader of the so called “The Magic Band”. Within the band, Van Vliet was a singer and harmonica player, occasionally playing noisy free jazz-influenced saxophone and keyboards.

Now, I’ve always been reading on this artist for he’s usually mentioned on Rumore as a reference point, a model for some of today’s folk and rock music. I’ve listened to some of his songs and I found that musicians like Ben Harper and Jim Morrison have taken some inspiration from him. On the other hand, other straight-edge bands like McLusky or some punk scene has something in their sound that reminds me Capt. Beefheart’s style.
The band has been quite experimental for their times especially when releasing their best known album, Trout Mask Replica, which was produced by Van Vliet’s childhood friend Frank Zappa and is today regarded by some as a challenging but groundbreaking and influential masterpiece.

Well, let’s listen to this famous sick-rock-blues, with the song “Sure ’nuff ‘n Yes I do”, played live in Cannes in 1968:

Enjoy the week.

Domenico

I’ve (never) been to the USA July 25, 2008

FRIDAY! Yes! Friday. I hope that my impatience will rest once I’ll go on holiday and be back to work again. I tell you this ‘cos I’m seriously getting impatient whenever it happens to start on Monday a new working week. I’m just sure this feeling will get more and more amplified because of the return of Max since next Monday.

But, let’s not think about the impatience and all the rest, let’s just enjoy the day and, for sure, the night to come. While divided between taking a rest and just not sleeping at all, I hope to find the time to hang some paintings on the wall, cook a nice pasta, go to swim… so many good hopes and wishes!

As you know, for a Friday I always try to shake your bodies and soul with some music. Today we try that with a band named Planet Funk.

Strange but true, this is an Italian electronic dance musical group (they live between Italy and London and some of them are also from Naples) and they ruled the dance hall for quite some time, due to a couple of good singles from their debut album, “Non Zero Sumness”.

And it’s exactly one of those singles that I’m going to post today. The song “Who Said” has best usually part of my track list whenever I spun some music:

Bon weekend. Domenico

Waiting for something to happen July 24, 2008

Almost done for the week. Just a couple more of them and we’ll be flying away for a short but very intense holiday. But before that, so many things are still to happen. Things like a wedding, a party, some work to be done, some friends to meet, some sun to see after the rain will stop falling in this city, a few posts published on the blog, some organization steps, some visit to my brother, some sunbathing, not so much food (I hope) to be eaten.

You know those moments when you just wait for something to happen and you know it will but you just don’t know when. Well, I feel like this is one of them, maybe just because tonight seems to be so long. It could be because I’m watching 24 and every hour of the serial is a full episode but, believe me, I just don’t know what but something will come.

I’m not a prophet, we’re not talking about bad or good things to happen. I’m just trying to describe a feeling, an emotion. Maybe some of that is due to the song I’m going to post today.

A song from Death Cab for Cutie.

This American indie rock band is around sine almost 12 years. Ben Gibbard, band’s vocalist and guitarist, started the whole thing as his soloist project. The strange name of this band comes from a song performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in The Beatles’ 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour.

This band plays something defined “ultra-lo-fi” (I love the critics, they can be very creative when trying to define some kind of music). Actually their emotional indie rock music can bring you away and let you think.

But this song, the one we will listen to today, “I Will Possess your Heart”, is special. First, is longer than usual, almost double the normal length of a song. Second, has a nice rhythmical session (drum and bass are very sharp), but this is still not it.

Be patient, don’t press stop, listen to it and you will realize the feeling of “something that is going to happen but you don’t simply know when” is going to take you. Then, in the end, you’ll realize it was nothing special but it was everything in the wait:

Hope you enjoy(ed) it. Domenico

Sounds from a traffic jam July 23, 2008

Mid week and still sleeping. Vitalina has come yesterday for don’t know which reason and it’s always good to see her, especially after a week of absence… Today some stuffs to do at work, while my beautiful Fra is still in Kabul. Strange world is this one. Hope to see Andrea today, back from Vietnam. Don’t know why I’m telling what’s happening around and I’m doing that for the second consecutive day. Just to fill a blank page or because I want to make the point of a whatever situation?! Honestly, don’t know.

But let’s go back to the shining mood, to the sunny face of the story, to the lighting, enjoyable and impressive strength the music can give. Let’s talk about The Klaxons.

This English indie-rock-dance-punk band comes from the city I just visited and filled your head with nice words about it, that is London. The word ‘klaxon’ is derived from the Greek verb klazō, meaning “to shriek”, and most commonly refers to air-raid sirens or other warning devices. (I mean, if you come from Naples… you know what is a klaxon that in Italy is translated with Clacson)

This band has been considered one of the most significant concerning the phenomenon of Nu-Rave. This term describes and include a mix of different musical genres like rock, techno, disco, punk. The image that characterizes these kind of bands is being dress with bright and fluorescent dresses. Back to the band,  their debut album, “Myths of the Near Future” won the 2007 Nationwide Mercury Prize.

Today we listen to their most famous song, “It’s Not Over Yet”, that has been also re-mixed by I don’t know how many different DJs:

Domenico

Play it Sam July 22, 2008

Yesterday has been a loooong looong day. Today hopefully will be shorter… but I have some doubts about it. Tomorrow our Andrea is passing by Vienna and he will leave us again but this time it will be a short interval. What else, there should be Ingmar BBQ on this Thursday but the weather is quite uncertain and therefore it could be hard to stay in the cold, even close to a hot grill!

We have transmitted the daily Vienna bulletin.

The only thing you have to do now is to relax, get some music (from this BLOG) and take your time. The rest is gonna wait for you. You just need to leave the time goes by. And this is just the song you are going to get today, “As time goes by”. I just found this collage of scenes from the beautiful movie that Casablanca was, is and will always be.

Gorgeous Ingrid Bergman. Mysterious Bogart. I watched this movie just a couple of times but it has something special. I wonder how today’s youngsters can react when watching this movie. I wonder how it was for those from the generation previous to mine. Who knows. Who does want to know:

It’s about 1:00 AM of this Tuesday morning. It’s cold outside and I guess this would be another gray day, like the colors of the movie we watched a few minutes ago.

Enjoy. Domenico