Bobby Joe Long's Friendship Party on DeBaser: coattowave from Rome East

The Profile

Italian music group from Rome East blending cold/new wave with spoken-word coattowave. Debuted with Roma Est (2016), followed by Bundytismo and Semo Solo Scemi (the “Trucilogia”), then AOH! in 2022.

Reviews cite a lineup including Henry Bowers (texts/voice), Peter Spandau (bass/synth), Abacab Carcosa and Kid Ciampino; early releases were self-produced (Roma Est, April 1, 2016). The trilogy was to be handled by Contempo Records. Style described as cold wave/new wave with dark, recited prose and Roman references; live presence portrayed as masked/ectoplasmic.

An Italian dark/cold-wave outfit from Rome East, also known as Oscura Combo Romana, celebrated for its coattowave blend of new wave, synth and spoken-word. Reviews praise the trilogy Roma Est, Bundytismo, Semo Solo Scemi and the fourth album AOH! (2022). Themes lean into black comedy, horror citations and suburban Rome alienation. Line-up and label details surface across the pieces, with consistently favorable ratings.

Notable Quotes

❝ Bobby Joe Long's Friendship Party are a narcissistic personality disorder, they are a ghost band with dark and raw, repetitive, hypnotic nursery rhymes, and live they manifest like ectoplasms.

❝ Cold Wave. Sounds from those years but without any nostalgia: voice, guitars, bass, eighties drum machine, bounces faithful to the line, many straight boxes, and sunglasses in a midnight cinema.