Franci!

Ah, if anyone knows them... I've heard of a band from Bologna (?) called Stoner Kebab. GENIUS!!

Theatre not at the level of Verdena? The album (I won't say beautiful because then it would turn into an aesthetic judgment and thus subjective) most original of the last few years in Italy was made by them (and if you want, I can explain why, but I don’t feel like repeating it now). Then? One Dimensional Man, Gli Altro, Dead Elephant (who only shit in America, and I wonder why), Ufomammut, Zu, Laghetto, and Fine Before You Came (the latest album is the Italian album of the year). Damn, they may not be (anyone) the new Velvet Underground, but they have their own personality and they are certainly not a byproduct of Anglo-American stereotypes. At least that.

No Bartolomeo, respond to Peggio, not to you about the alternative issue. Yours was a centered record, for heaven's sake :) Then, maybe, you got fractured. Their move wasn't a gimmick. I like them (let's say I'm not indifferent) because they were born in a rather spontaneous, natural way (which might sound like nonsense, but in these times...). But then they realized they could do much more and started to copy the most popular alternative-chic sounds. That's why the band is not and will never be much of anything (in fact, they take visibility away from potential bands with more guts and personality).

But indeed, I quote Bartle on both their visibility (how unlucky? They live off music) and their sound (it sounds like they're caressing the instruments :)). "Alternative" is an empty word if it's not placed in a context, if it's not related to something, like everything else. The Verdena were perhaps alternative in the first 2 months of their career, when they did covers of the Melvins (whom one in a hundred Bergamasques may know) in a garage of some gray area in Bergamo (and I live just a few km from Albino and it really is gray :)), but then? They were copying from Motorpsycho (there's their alleged psychedelia), from Queens of the Stone Age (the hottest band at the time), and let's not mention their passionate love (almost seeming like a pose) for that band that starts with N and there's no need to add anything else. Alternative to whom, to what? These guys have made a lot of money with this alternative story, no doubt about it. They're decent guys, I don’t dislike them. They grew up like me (and before me) on a diet of Nirvana, Melvins, and Stooges in Bergamo (which is perhaps the most musically isolated province in Italy, but probably) but they haven't lasted in the long run, they wanted to speculate on it. That’s all.

No, it's not a matter of being limited towards our nation - not very accustomed to Ruock, that's true - because I can find 20 Italian groups with a more distinctive personality than Verdena. On the contrary, people like Verdena precisely because we are not accustomed to Ruock.

I might have read this in middle school, I don't remember. Anyway, what a shame the budget editions from Feltrinelli :) Ah, I've read something by Buzzati too. Unfortunately, I’m not the type for semi-fantastic tales ("The Famous Invasion of the Bears in Sicily" I read in seventh or eighth grade and liked it, but it was a lukewarm love), and indeed I love "The Tartar Steppe" much more. Great book for sure, but can we really place it next to "The House on the Hill" (that inimitable one)?

Now I, as a non-connoisseur of the genre, cannot know if there are any valid blèc-mèdal bands, but if Dimmu Borgir (who have made it to the Italian Hit Parade!) become famous, it’s only natural that I get a bit of a bad smell in my nose. Nice nickname, brother. If I hadn't reviewed blèc-mèdal, I would have thought from the nickname that you listened to Public Enemy (like Radio Raheem!)

<< stoner [...] not psychedelic >> What is it, an oxymoron? The stoner can only be "psychedelic," otherwise it would just be simple hard rock - fuzzy, full of big muff, whatever you want but just simple hard rock - (and "stoner" a word that doesn’t yet exist). Other than that, all good: cool Matt Pike taking singing lessons :)

Yeah, Ezy sounds really good and I’ve never learned how to play slide, but I would like to. Plus, he has a really nice dobro (Gibson?). It’s a shame that sometimes he can be a bit of a fool, but, well, that’s how it goes.

Maybe I let myself be too influenced by a video of hers that I saw some time ago. A cover of "You're Know You're Right" by Nirvana for acoustic guitar and violin, by Agnelli, you know! :) I hope I’m misremembering...