Bingo
Close Up

Time for assessments: a year of DeBaser or a little more, 39 reviews, 250 comments (the rest is just tip); and let me take a look at all the nonsense I've written and, as much as possible, make amends.

The first flaw to be amended is a promise not kept.

Before my hagiography, I'll reveal to you that I registered on DeBaser after finding a review of «Got A Record» by the extraordinary Rip Offs, an essential cornerstone of lo-fi punk popular in the '90s; and shortly after, carried away by enthusiasm, I promised the reviewer a dedicated piece. Which, so far, has never happened.

Therefore, I cover my head with ashes and mark the milestone of the 40th review by spotlighting the Bingo, to honor Gnagnera and the Rip Offs (actually, I do it hoping that no one knows the Bingo, so you'll all be there exclaiming: «Pinhead is such a genius, he has an immense music culture!»).

Having reached, with this, the limit of tolerable nonsense in a single review, I get serious for fear that someone closes the page in disgust before having approached this exceptional band.

Perhaps someone remembers the Bingo for being a reader of «Bassa Fedeltà» - one of the best examples of specialized press in alternative music culture and for this reason lasted the span of a morning - and having run into the cover shouting «PUNK IN ROME!!!» and referred to a feature on the Bingo debuting with «Close Up». Perhaps someone else remembers them for the involvement of former Bloody Riot Alessandro "Alex Dissuader" Vargiu (along with him Manolo Morea and Alessandro "Petroz" Petrozzi). Perhaps someone remembers them because they had the fortune of attending one of their concerts or buying one of their now unobtainable records.

I remember them for all these reasons, and because «Close Up», in the strictly punk realm, is the best record that has seen the light in Italy.

In the opening, I mentioned «Got A Record» and the Rip Offs, and for those who know both the record and the band, the reading could end here; because the Bingo are the Rip Offs raised on pajata and amatriciana, just as «Close Up» is nothing more than «Got A Record», as it would sound if conceived between Trastevere and Testaccio.

For everyone else, it is enough to know that the Bingo play a crazy and approximate punk, significantly worse than what Hitler SS and Tampax did thirty years ago, whether they present originals inspired by the rowdiest Damned («I Think It's Good» and the plagiary of «Born To Kill» perpetrated in «I Want To Be Wrong» the best examples), or have fun re-proposing obscure material from punk '77, following in the footsteps of Teengenerate (and those who do not know «Provocate» by the French Guilty Razors and «I'm In Love With Your Mom» by the Californians Vom has one more reason to desperately look for «Close Up»).

Twelve very tight tracks, among which one cannot omit at least the brilliant opening one-two punch of «I'm A Female» and «Telephone Addict», the pace of «Love For Idiots» searching for a junction between the Pagans and the Ramones of «Teenage Lobotomy», and then the magnificent  title track, put there almost by chance to demonstrate that, buried under tons of foolishness and obtuseness, there's a band that deserved much greater recognition than it received.

To be clear, for the Bingo, the maximum would be inclusion in a volume of the series «Killed By Death».