PeaceT(b)lo(g)

Thank You and Goodbye August 30, 2009

Well, it was exactly 2 years ago when I decided, based on Giovanna’s suggestion, to start this experiment of sharing my personal musical tastes with anyone that would have been interested in listening to something (maybe) new.

Many things have happened since that time. The BLOG has changed face, style, got some sporadic contribution, moved from a 7-days version with something not-musical during the weekend to a 7-days version with something not-new-but-always-musical during the weekend to the final 5-days version mainly concentrated on the week days.

Some numbers proved that my work (because, believe me, even if it’s a pleasure… it takes time and commitment) has been somehow appreciated. In fact we got :

• 625 posts
• 1530 comments
• more than 16000 views (1187 views during the first month)
• about 3400 spams

In the end, it was a great experience and it gave me a lot of fun. I say in the end, because it’s time to move on and do something else. The BLOG will stay here, waiting for someone to visit, waiting for someone to discover new music, for someone to like it or not, to comment, to ignore… but it will stay. I won’t add any new post, though.

I want to thank all of you that have paid even a single visit to these pages. But special thanks go to Gio (who didn’t miss a single day), Andrea (who missed only the days when he wasn’t close to a PC), Francesca (who contributed from time to time but always tried to read), Roberto (my inspiring friend), Dario (who uses the BLOG “also” to refresh his English), Kelly (who was the only person publishing several posts besides me), Milica (who some months ago was the first in the morning to write something here), Roberto-di-Torino (who reads in the background… but I know that is there).

So, we started long time ago with a wonderful song from “Jamie T“, that song was “If You Got The Money”, and today I want to close this chapter with another song from the same artist. This is “Sticks ‘N’ Stones”:

Thanks again and enjoy.

yours, Domenico

Romantic break of the rule August 7, 2009

Today I’ll partially break the rule of not writing anything on the BLOG, because a couple od days ago I watched a movie whose title is the same as for today’s song and then, the day after I was talking with Sergio about the artist that sings the song itself. Then I thought that life is strange (most of the times) and unpredictable (luckily, almost everytime) and therefore I’m here publishing the song itself.

The song is “E se domani…” and the singer is Mina.

Now, we could spend I don’t know how much time talking about this wonderful interpreter but not now (I said I will partially break the rule):

Enjoy it and have a good weekend.

Domenico

Not from a book July 14, 2009

Still recovering from the trip… or maybe from the fact that the holyday is finished… today I have short time to post another song that caught my attention while I was in Italy. It’s the song “We are the people”, from the band Empire of the sun, an Australian band which does not take the name from the J.G. Ballard’s book.

The song itself reminds me of several stuff, from the 8o’s, from some Italian stuff I was listening a few years ago and other kind of music I can hardly locate and define.

Nevertheless, I want to share the song with you:

Domenico

Back! July 13, 2009

Hey! I’m finally back from the well-deserved holiday. I must say Sardegna is amazing, wonderful, colorful, unexpected, welcoming, full of friendly people and good food and great beaches and multicolored sea and… I could never stop this list as I’m very into the Sardegna-mood.

And finally we start the BLOG again. Now, I must say that I spent the whole driving-part of the holiday listening to the radio and I found a nice surprise that I’d like to share today with you.

I’ve been listening most of the time to the song “Domani – 21 Aprile 2009”, a song created and played by more than 50 of the most famous/important/significative Italian bands/artists/musicians, united in a collettive group called “Artisti Uniti per l’Abruzzo”. I must say that the first time I’ve listened to the song itslef, I thought it was the bad copy of the (already miserable) musical attempt express with We Are the World. But, then I learned a bit more about the intent of the song, about the musicians who participated to this project and, last but not least, I must say the song is not so bad at all. It’s still true that we have artists like Laura Pausini or Tiziano Ferro, etc. but on the other side we have people like Manuel Agnelli, Carmen Consoli, Battiato, Finardi, Ligabue, Jovanotti, Zucchero, etc.

Whatever is the reason why I’m posting this song today for you, I hope you’ll like it the way I do:

Domenico

Domani: chiuso per ferie! June 24, 2009

Hi there, for the ones non-Italian-speakers, the subject means “Tomorrow: closed for holiday!” and it refers to the sign you put on the door of a shop that is, exactly, on vacation. And that will be since tomorrow and for more than two weeks. So today we got the last post of this week.

We talk again about rap from UK. Today we have Klashnekoff.

Mr. Darren Kandler, A.K.A. Ricochet Klashnekoff or just Klashnekoff (pronounced K-Lash-Nek-Off), was the founding member of the “Terra Firma Crew” along side Skriblah, D.Ablo, Diamond Ruff and Smasher. Klashnekoff is one of the freshest talents on the UK Hip Hop scene at the moment and is on his way to hit the success. He is currently working hard on his own album and The debut Terrafirma Album (following the critically acclaimed mix tape THE FOUNDATION) both of which will be released in 2009. This young very talented singer started writing rhymes at the tender age of ten, way before rap became the cool thing to do. The conscious MC is named after a Russian gun, but the reason he chose this stage name Klashnekoff is because to him it represented a freedom symbol. Through the news on TV, he saw these little child soldiers in Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Dafur with their little Klashnekoffs guns what it meant to them.

And his name makes sense to the title of the song we got today, that is “Murda” (Cavina, spare us any interpretation of this title..):

Hope you’ll enjoy the rest of the time from now till my return.
Domenico

Meno due! June 23, 2009

Yes, I’m so thrilled about going on holiday that I can’t resist talking about that on every occasion. During these days I’m studying the theory for scuba diving certificate and I’m quite excited to try this new experience. Will tell you more when I’m back from holiday.

So, let’s continue with the short week, today we have Just Jack.

Just Jack (real name: Jack Allsopp) comes from London and the things which inspired his style are: dance music, break dance, electro hip hop and house. He wanted to be a break dancer at eight and his love for dance music led him to start DJing at the age of fifteen (!). About his music, it reminds me about Mojo at the time of the hit “Lady”.

I like the following sentence he stated when talking about himself: “I never had heroes and never wanted to be like other musicians”…“I have no affiliations to anyone, I’m not part of a gang, I’m not a part of a scene and I don’t have a sound that’s obviously a part of a scene. I’m Just Jack.”

Let’s dance with Jack, then, to the rhythm of the song “Starz In Their Eyes”:

Domenico

Minus Three June 22, 2009

Don’t worry, in Vienna today we got no ice or snow. It’s just a countdown. Because on Thursday I’m finally going on holiday. Therefore, you will get a bit of a pause from the daily posts and the BLOG will be back in a couple or weeks or so.
I was thinking about what to post today and I thought that a little bit of hip-hop would have fit. Then I thought about something closer to Raggaeton would also have been cool to listen to.
In the end, today we talk about Plan B.

While looking for some info on this artist, I found there are 9 different ones having this name! Some of them play hardcore/punk, while some other do rock. The one we’re interested in is a Ben Drew, a rapper from Forest Gate, London. He has described his character, in school days, as “a bit of a cunt”. He is signed to 679 Recordings, home to UK rap act The Streets. His unique sound is characterized by his use of acoustic beats and lyrics involving drugs, rape, murder and underage sex (the usual stuff we hear from US rap, that proves UK stuff ain’t different at all!).

I found this song, that is “Mama”, to be not so bad. I like the guitar in the background:

N-joy it. Domenico

The band that was a band June 19, 2009

And we end this week by playing songs from another indie-rock band. This time we have a band that is not a band anymore, that is The Deirdres.

The Deirdres were a Derby, United Kingdom based band. Once located within the strange music scene of Derby, the Deirdres consisted of 7 members and they rose to fame in October 2006 when they appeared on the BBC Antiques Roadshow programme, where they performed the theme music. Then the band started playing gigs later that month, making their debut at the Halloween party of the Greyhound pub in Derby. A year later, and the band released their first single ‘Dinosaurs That Can Swim’ on ltd edition 3 inch CDs, and almost a year after that the band released an EP called ‘Why Do My Glasses Give You The Heeby Jeebys’. As you can see, imagination and word-funny-games are not missing at all! Three-sevenths of the band + one girlfriend (Emily Bell) played a gig in Melbourne, Australia under the name ‘Can You Say Nincompoop’ which included some Deirdre covers and other songs.

I found a couple of their songs on the web and I noticed the incredible resemblance with “Los Campesinos”. Then, the song I chose is “Milk Is Politics”:

Domenico

Rock tremors June 17, 2009

It seems to me this week we’re doing fine. Some rock here and there is always well appreciated (at least by some of us). So let’s continue with this indie-rock week.

Today we have an almost unknown band, named My First Earthquake.

What could we say about these band? They play something like dance/rock/electro music but using real instruments, having a nice female singer somehow reminding me of Courtney Love. Their songs talk about zombies, soup, sprinkler systems, cross-dressing boyfriends… the usual stuff. In the end, this Four-piece band based in San Francisco is nothing special, but still not bad compared with other ones.

I chose their song “Sack Lunch” as the one I like more (I found other three/four from the same performance they had for this song):

Domenico

Rockettino frickettone June 16, 2009

And let’s continue this week that started with some nice rock mood by posting something similar. Today is supposed to be around 37 degrees (at least here in Vienna, according to the forecasts) and I found a band that reminds me of summer.
Then, here we go with The Steeples.

The Steeples are an indie band from Ormskirk (what?!) near Liverpool. Coming from the city recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as having the most number 1 hits in any country, it’s easy to see that this band have clearly inherited Liverpool’s hit-making gene.

Their music reminds me of The Libertines, when Pete Doherty was still not a junkie. There is something light and easy-going that results in sweet and adorable songs. Hope you will agree with me when you will listen to the song I chose today, that is “Loosy Lucy”:

Domenico