Steeplejack
No One's Land

Originally they are the Useless Boys, from Pisa: in 1983 the group releases the cassette «Dream's Dust Factory» and shortly after disbands.

Thus begins the journey to rediscover psychedelic rock in Italy, as from the ashes of the Useless Boys emerge the two most extraordinary bands of the genre and among the best on the international scene: the Birdmen Of Alkatraz and the Steeplejack. And if you think this is an exaggeration, know that Greg Shaw went to great lengths to have the Birdmen Of Alkatraz in a Battle Of The Garages.

«Glidin' Off» and «From The Birdcage», «Serena Maboose» and «Pow Wow» are titles that mean little or nothing to those who approached Italian rock in the Nineties; but they are surely branded on the skin of all those who had the fortune to handle discs like «Eighties Colours» or magazines like the «Rockerilla» of the Eighties.

I, for example, immediately became obsessed with «Serena Maboose», even before listening to a single note: for necessity, the cover is more than enough, a perfect reproduction of the works of the legend Rick Griffin, who also authored the cover of «From The Birdcage».

The EP «Serena Maboose» is dated 1987, whereas the album «Pow Wow» is from 1988: for a few months now, the two works have finally been reissued in the double CD «No One's Land», their track contained in «Pow Wow».

It's spelled Steeplejack, it's read Maurizio Curadi. A founding member of the Useless Boys, he's in the first lineup of the Birdmen Of Alkatraz, with whom he manages to participate in «Eighties Colours Vol. 1»; he leaves shortly after to create Steeplejack (until «Pow Wow», practically a one-man-band) and participate in «Eighties Colours Vol. 2»; and then it's time for «Serena Maboose».

«Serena Maboose» is an exceptional record, for the attempt to blend the psychedelia of the Grateful Dead with the garage of the 13th Floor Elevators and the urgencies between punk and blues of the Gun Club.

A record with two faces: the garage side emerges forcefully in the opening «Hot Summer Again», in «I Was Born In A Jungle», which I can't get out of my mind as a child of «Run Through The Jungle» treated by the Gun Club on tour in Miami and sounds like the Grateful Dead would have sounded if the leader had been Bo Diddley instead of that hippie potbelly Jerry Garcia, and in «If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day» from Robert Johnson's repertoire and with heartfelt thanks to Jeffrey Lee Pierce's animalistic passion; the psychotic soul is that of «Falling Leaves And Autumn Thrills» with those little choirs that are so «Crosstown Traffic», «Nobody Around You» and «The Sky Is Full Of Shadows».

Maybe it's not a perfect album, «Serena Maboose», still too raw, in some respects immature and sometimes undecided on which path to take, but the impact is devastating. With the appropriate proportions, analogous considerations apply for «Fire Of Love» by Gun Club in relation to «Miami»: and the Steeplejack's «Miami» comes soon after.

«Pow Wow» is the first full-length release "by" the Steeplejack, with Maurizio Curadi for the first time permanently joined by Saverio Trabalzini on bass and Elio Gavarini on drums.

It is an album similar to «Serena Maboose» in terms of possible references, but it differs significantly in one key aspect: if in «Serena Maboose» every track tells a story on its own, in «Pow Wow» all possible influences are brought together in unity in the individual pieces, each being a kaleidoscope of colors and moods or "visions", to use the words of Maurizio Curadi.

Splendid, from this point of view, the over twelve minutes of «Say Green and Say Yellow»; or the end of the lively «Miss Springtime Sunset», which suddenly quiets into a delicate piece of baroque music only to degenerate, without a hitch, into pure diddley-sound. All in an extremely natural way.

But the quality level is always very high, starting right from «Miss Springtime Sunset» and up to the concluding «Under A Thunder Of Stars»; even in those moments conceived as simple amusements, such as «Rooting Ground Hog» - and this is Howlin' Wolf who, unable to take flight with the bejeweled Lucy, remains with his feet firmly on the ground but still smokes the impossible - and that delightful little gem of timeless music which is «Stomp Around Huge Frog».

All of this is in the first CD, closed by the tribute to the 13th Floor Elevators of «Levitation / Don't Fall Down».

But do not make the mistake of neglecting the second CD, a classic "rare & unreleased" that deserves to be listened to from the first to the last second: a mandatory mention for the autograph «Long Evening Shadow» and the covers of «Opel» and «It's All Over Now, Baby Blue», and particularly the concluding half-hour that immortalizes the group live in 1988 in Genoa, demonstrating an innate talent, the kind that cannot be created in vitro.

«Serena Maboose» and «Pow Wow»: fourteen tracks that elevate the Steeplejack to the top of the neo-psychedelic movement, on a par with «Keep Your Cool And Read The Rules» by Plan 9 and «Greenpeas» by their cousins the Vietnam Veterans.

In such cases, it's a matter of pride to be Italian!

And the hope is that «No One's Land» is a delicious appetizer for the reissue of the works of Birdmen Of Alkatraz and Technicolour Dream (and related descendants, Magic Potion and Pale Dawn).