The Best Of 2009 (and Merry Christmas)

01 BAD LIEUTENANT 
Never Cry Another Tear
 
02 MASSIMO VOLUME
Bologna Nov. 2008 

03 PREFAB SPROUT
Let's Change The World With Music 

04 Marlene Kuntz - Best Of 

05 Elio E Le Storie Tese - Gattini (deluxe edition)

06 Diaframma - Difficile Da Trovare

07 Pet Shop Boys - Yes

08 Section 25 - Nature + Degree

09 Mew - No More Stories Are Told Today

10 Egle Sommacal - Tanto Non Arriva


11 Morrissey - Years Of Refusal
12 Depeche Mode - Sounds Of The Universe
13 Coldplay - LeftRightLeftRightLeft
14 Grand Duchy - Petit Fours
15 Mimes Of Wine - Apocalypse Sets In

This has been a pretty good year in music, well at least by the standards of the decade we're wrapping up, which has been frankly pretty useless. We must be happy that the artists from the 80s and 90s are still carrying on, those who have emerged in the 00s have been a pale comparison. Bands who would have deserved more have been underrated (see Gabrielles Wish), bands who deserve a bright future are still struggling to emerge (see Exit Calm).
New Order have split up, but we find three fourths of their latter line up in Bad Lieutenant. Hooky is missing in action, still trying to do something with his supergroup Freebass (formed with Rourke from The Smiths and Mani from Primal Scream), but the other three have recruited Jake Evans from Rambo And Leroy to form a band with three guitarist and release an excellent album of guitar pop which retains some of what we like about New Order but it's different enough to that legendary band to sound refreshing and escape embarassing comparisons.
Massimo Volume have released a live album from a triumphant concert of last year's comeback tour while we wait for the new studio recording, Paddy McAloon has resurrected the name of his band Prefab Sprout to release an amazing demo recorded in his kitchen in 1992. Marlene Kuntz and Elio E Le Storie Tese released two compilations, the first band addes some covers to their hits, the second re-recorded all their hits with an orchestra, and the result is obviously sublime.
Back to proper new studio albums, Diaframma have made their best album in ages, astonishingly inspired music and lyrics. The same can be said for Pet Shop Boys, nobody was expecting such a masterpiece like Yes. Section 25 followed Part Primitiv, their great comeback of two years ago, with another excellent album.
Mew confirmed themselves as the best new band of this decade with an eclectic and emotional release, if all the new bands were half as inventive as Mew, music would be a lot more interesting.
Massimo Volume guitarist Egle Sommacal made his wonderful second instrumental solo album, this time with an electric guitar and a brass band.
Morrissey and Depeche Mode have released two albums which are quite good, but only just, once again far from their former glories.
Coldplay's live album is pretty good too, especially since it's free.
When back home from rocking the world with the Pixies, Black Francis has formed Grand Duchy, a project with his wife, which sounds a bit like messing with indie for fun, but it's still fun for the listener as well...
Mimes Of Wine have left their mark on the same label of Egle Sommacal with an album of acoustic indie which sounds classic, emotional and disturbing at the same time.
Merry Christams and Happy 2010, hoping that new bands like Exit Calm will start a more exciting decade than this, which won't be remembered with much nostalgia...

Snow storm in Parma, 18 Dec 09

Full gallery on Facebook (66 pics)

4AD sampler streaming here and for free download.

This is a really interesting compilation, it's amazing given that British label 4AD went through the most of this decade almost unnoticed, pushing the wrong emerging bands (with the notable exception of Blonde Redhead) and getting mentioned only for the odd Pixies compilation.
If there's still some irritating stuff, like the kitch retro of Camera Obscura, the most of the bands (some Americans, some English) bring a refreshing sound and are worth investigating: Atlas Sound is the solo project of Deerhunter's Alex Cox, both play a unique take on psychedelic noise, Tune-Yards's fragmented mix of melody and rhythm sounds really original, M Ward's ethereal ballad seems inspired by Bowie's Low and Future Of The Left play an excellent revision of At The Drive In.
Best of the bunch are The Big Pink, which blend perfectly baggy and shoegazing, and St. Vincent which confirms Annie Clark as a genius as inventive as Bjork with an eclectic and emotional song.
The rest of the playlist is pretty average contemporary indie folk, or post folk, but discovering six interesting bands out of 12 is good enough.

Sunset mist

Exit Calm - Always A Way (live)

I've made this video for this astonishingly intense live performance of a truly emotional song.
Exit Calm are an English emerging band, all four members are extremely talented and I think this is the best showcase for their talent. They are the best band to emerge from England in this decade.
The first single, the wonderful Higher Learning, is sold out but you can still find the video here on YouTube, and you may want to check the video of the second single, the brilliant We're On Our Own, before purchasing it on iTunes.
Check http://www.exitcalm.net for links to their (really active and interesting) forum and their MySpace, which links itself to other MySpace profiles created by Spanish, American and Japanese fans, featuring many streaming tracks.

New Blogger editor

Some might not be aware that Blogger has a new, much improved post editor which is not yet active by default.
Better link and image handling, vertical editor resizing and a button for expandable post summaries (no need to code anymore) are reasons good enough to switch to the new editor.
Enabling the new editor is easy, read An Overview Of The New Post Editor on the Blogger Guide to learn how to switch and all the new features, but after you have enabled it you must also read the article Creating 'After The Jump' Summaries because you have to adjust a couple of settings, as customizing the Read More link text, especially if you write in another language, and updating the code of your template once to make the summary feature work if you're using a customized third-party template or if you changed the code anyway.

Bad Lieutenant - Never Cry Another Tear

The best way to purchase this album is to order the limited edition digipack CD with two bonus tracks from Townsend Records, and then download yet another bonus track from iTunes.
Bad Lieutenant are not, as it first seemed, New Order minus Hook, but Bernard Sumner with Phil Cunningham (who replaced Gillian Gilbert in New Order in this century) and Jake Evans from Rambo And Leroy.
Steve Morris appears on just a few tracks. He's even in the Sink Or Swim video, though the drums were apparently played by Jack Mitchell.


One may wonder why Johnny Marr hasn't been involved into the project, since his style is more present here than on many Electronic tracks. He has clearly returned on Bernard Sumner the influence he received from Bernard when he was a Joy Division fan.

One may also wonder why Jimi Goodwin from Doves hasn't been involved, given that Evans' vocals sound exactly like him.
We may wonder what we want, but after all Never Cry Another Tear remains a very good, almost excellent album, much above what we could expect from Bernard Sumner at his age (53).
There are some fantastic tunes and some wonderful guitars, whether they sound like Marr or not.

I've read very good reviews of the single Sink Or Swim, but I think it just repeats a very good idea a bit too long. Towards the end you've just had enough of the chorus.
There are far worse songs on the album, namely the closing Head Into Tomorrow, an extremely boring post-Britpop acoustic ballad, and maybe the only really ugly track of the album.
But there are far better songs too, the highlight for me is Running Out Of Luck which sounds like a great New Order song, at some point you could believe it's Hooky with his bass there in the middle, and not a guitar, the tune is really emotional and inspired, Bernard Sumner on top form again.
Walk On Silver Water (co-written by Blur's Alex James who also plays bass) sounds like Electronic at their best, pure melancholic beauty.
Summer Days is the most Smiths-ish song but you can't help enjoying it, it's just a good tune.
Poisonous Intent is the one sounding more like New Order, as coming from somewhere between Get Ready and Waiting For The Sirens' Call, it's fun with some really good keyboard and programming.

These are definitely the best tracks for me, but don't even think the others aren't good at least.
Twist Of Fate sounds like Krafty but there's a guitar which at times seem to come straight from Joy Division, This Is Home and These Changes are the songs the Doves have always tried to make, they're just huge and beautiful tunes.
Dynamo is a kind of over ambitious pastiche throwing The Beatles, The Who and New Order into a unholy affair, still it's not irritating at all, you just enjoy its strong energy and smile.
Talking about pastiche, Bad Lieutenant venture even into Age Of Consent 2, here titled Shine Like The Sun, well, the start at least just recalls that New Order classic, the rest veers towards the Doves again. And again you have to admit it's just a nice pop song though you wouldn't be supposed to like it because it's kinda uncool.
Runaway lets you hope Bad Lieutenant have made their own Everyday Is Like Sunday, the beginning is that epic, well it's not at the heighth of Morrissey's classic, but it's not way below either.

Now, the two bonus tracks: Falling Trees is nothing special, just a pleasant positive pop song, Split The Atom is far better, a really inspired verse leads to a radio-friendly chorus and some really good guitar, could have been a hit single.
How Long is not a cover of the Electronic track from Raise The Pressure, but yet another song with the same title and it's the iTunes-only track. It's basically Jimi Goodwin singing a wonderful Smiths song, it should be wrong and nasty, but it's beautiful.

Just like the whole album: hopelessly uncool, but honestly lovely, and ultimately better than most bands which have emerged in this void decade have been capable of doing.
It's like Bernard Sumner showing to the kids that if they really want to do music drawing heavy inspiration from the past, this is how it should be made, still inventive and emotional, at the risk of sounding ridiculous.

Bad Lieutenant's debut with two bonus tracks for pre-order. Streaming video and single

The forthcoming debut album by Bad Lieutenant (the new band founded by former New Order leader Bernard Sumner), Never Cry Another Tear (released on the band's own Triple Echo label), is available for pre-order on Townsend Records in a variety of editions.
The limited edition digipack features two bonus tracks and when you order it you can immediately download Dynamo, the wonderful B side to the single Sink Or Swim, which is already available on iTunes in England.
Here we have the streaming video, single and B side:

From Joy Division to New Order to Bad Lieutenant

Once again the remaining members of this band are carrying on with another name.
Just like when Ian Curtis killed himself Joy Division became New Order, now that Peter Hook has left New Order they're becoming Bad Lieutenant.


Here you can see an acoustic performance of one of their songs, the wonderful Sink Or Swim.
Bernard Sumner (now aged 53) and Steve Morris were against the split of New Order, but couldn't carry on with that name without founding member Peter Hook. They're keeping Phil Cunningham, who replaced Gillian Gilbert in New Order when she left for family commitments at the start of this decade.
Still, more like Electronic than New Order, they're bringing some guests. Alex James from Blur is playing bass and Jake Evans from Rambo And Leroy is an additional guitarist, as in the video above.
There will be live dates in the summer and an album is expected for release in October.
Check NewOrderOnline.com.
It's funny to note that while Peter Hook is working on Freebass, a supergroup with two other legendary bassists, Andy Rourke from The Smiths and Mani from The Stone Roses and Primal Scream, Bad Lieutenant will often feature three guitarists.
Here's some interesting news articles:
New Order members form new band – without Peter Hook (NME.com)
New Order and Blur members announce supergroup (The Guardian)
Joy Division stars form new band (BBC)
BERNARD SUMNER SEETHING WITH HOOK (ContactMusic.com)

Blumchen Cafe - Notturno

Video mooolto artigianale creato per una delle canzoni più belle mai ascoltate a Parma e non solo... se volete saperne di più su questo gruppo cercate "Blumchen Cafe" su Facebook

New album by Section 25 coming on June 16th!

The new album by legendary former Factory band Section 25 will be released on June 16th on LTM.
Titled Nature + Degree, it features the vocals of Beth Cassidy, which are as beautiful as her late mother Jennifer, who was also a member of the band.
While the excellent previous album Part Primitiv recalled the best of their post punk days, Nature + Degree seems to be more oriented to their electro period, but seems very well promising as well.
On this page on their official site you can hear a sample of Remembrance, taken from the forthcoming album, and preview the tracklist.
The artwork looks really beautiful as well, very Factory style.

Geocities closes, please move your site

Surrounded by unbelievable silence and apathy, Geocities is being closed by Yahoo!
Geocities is not accepting new accounts anymore.
The true problem seems to be the sites will be deleted along with the accounts, throwing in a black hole a lot of obsolete but precious sites from the past.
Actually Geocities (which started as an indipindent company and was later purchased by Yahoo) was becoming obsolete and the most of the webmasters had already abandoned it, but until the first half of this decade it was the most popular free service to publish a site, especially in the pre-blog Web 1.0 age.
Many sites which have not been updated, but include knowledge you wouldn't like to completely disappear from the web, are still on Geocities. I'm mostly thinking to fan sites of underground bands, sometimes they are the only sites at all dedicated to some bands.
Sure, you can move your existing site, but the webmasters who haven't updated their sites in the last 5 years won't probably even care to move them to another host. If you're one of them, plase take some time to move your site, you might not care anymore about it, but someone else might do.
Some of you will remember that all my sites started on Geocities, the first being A New Order Fan, nine years ago, which is amazingly still getting visits. It gradually evolved into this blog, and I'm slowly importing older posts backwards (I'm doing the 2005 posts now) and will eventually get to the old site, which is still on my hard disk anyway.
The Gabrielles Wish official site also started on Geocities.
So it's just sad for me to see such an important place for me to disappear.

Apparently, Bravenet is still carrying on its free host service, which is preferred from webmasters uploading sites completely made by themselves through coding or computer software.
Also, many free services emerged giving you the ability to create and host a site with modern online publishing tools, such as Google Sites, Weebly and Jimdo. You can't completely customize the sites and you can't import traditional HTML pages (though you can insert HTML as a page element), but there are many layout options.
Finally, Blogger and Wordpress have evolved so much you can almost organize a blog as a site, with more archiving power than a traditional site.
When social networks were yet to emerge in the pre-MySpace age, pages on Geocities were also the most popular tool for people to do a personal page about their interests, thanks to a page wizard and an online visual editor, today both looking really obsolete when compared to what people is doing on Facebook and MySpace, though on the other side people can also be content with posting short messages on an even simpler service like Twitter.

Terremoto Abruzzo: Donazioni facili e veloci alla Croce Rossa con PostePay, SMS e telefonate

http://www.cri.it/donazioni/

1 Clicca "Dona on line"
2 Scegli tramite il menu a tendina "Sisma Abruzzo - Aprile 2009"
3 Compila tutto il resto, metti il segno di spunta su "Accetto" e clicca "Invia"
4 Compila i dati relativi alla tua carta (va bene anche PostePay)
Se vuoi puoi stampare la ricevuta, se non sbaglio è deducibile.

Donate quel che potete, ma vi ricordo che un album su iTunes costa 10 Euro.... un aiuto all'Aquila in ginocchio vale almeno come un album su iTunes, vero?

Aggiornamento: è stato attivato il numero 48580
E' possibile inviare SMS dai cellulari di tutti i gestori per donare 1 Euro.
E' possibile inoltre, dalle ore 09.00 del 7 aprile, chiamare dai telefoni fissi di Telecom Italia e donare 2 Euro.

How to make an avatar like mine

Many people are asking me how I have created my Facebook avatar.
Many other people already found out. This kind of avatar is getting pretty popular.

The site is Face Your Manga, it's really easy and fast, it has some pretty effective options that will allow you to create an avatar which looks quite similar to you, I think it's the best site of this kind.

Sanremo 2009

Diversamente dal solito, quest'anno la categoria delle Proposte ci ha presentato cantanti degni di un certo interesse: la vincitrice Arisa sembra la Marchesini "cecata" (quando è scesa dalle scale la prima volta pensavo che fosse una comica) ma la sua canzoncina a metà tra lo swing e il country funziona alla grande (di questi tempi in America sarebbe una vera hit) e c'è davvero poco da ridire sulla sua interpretazione vocale. Anche il look e il modo di porsi mi sembrano più intenzionali per creare un personaggio originale che non autenticamente naif.
Anche Simona Molinari canta con la sua bella voce limpida un brano piacevole (di cui è pure autrice), fortemente influenzato da jazz e swing, il duetto con Ornella Vanoni è stato uno dei migliori...
 
Un'altra bella voce è quella di Irene, figlia di Zucchero. Spiove Il Sole non era la canzone più bella, ma il talento paterno l'ha ereditato e merita di emergere.
Karima Ammar proviene da Amici di Maria De Filippi (per pura coincidenza co-presentatrice della serata finale). Un programma atroce. Eppure si vede che qualcosa, a quei ragazzini, glie lo insegnano, o forse è semplicemente lei che ha una voce splendida. Come In Ogni Ora è una bella canzone soul (prodotta nientemeno che da Burt Bacharach e cantata anche con Mario Biondi), e la sua interpretazione fa impallidire star celebri a livello planetario.
Eppure c'è stata una voce ancora più emozionante, quella di Iskra (nella foto), 62 anni (per lei le Proposte non si chiamano più Giovani... forse era meglio metterla direttamente nei Big). Vocalist di Lucio Dalla da una vita, componente della prima ora degli Stadio, ha una sua scuola di canto e se la si cerca su YouTube la si vede impartire lezioni, guarda caso, ad Amici. E' difficile comprendere come artisti così interessanti siano in qualche modo collegati a quel fenomeno trash, comunque la sua performance ricorda la miglior Mina; Quasi Amore è, inoltre, forse la canzone più bella di Dalla degli ultimi 20 anni.
L'unico maschio delle Proposte, Filippo Perbellini, è un clone di Riccardo Cocciante, che si esibisce in un patetico duetto con lui. E' un po' come vedere Teocoli con Celentano, ma l'effetto tragicomico è ben diverso. Delle altre cantanti non conservo, sinceramente, memoria.
Passando ai Big dobbiamo registrare un livello qualitativo molto più debole rispetto agli ultimi anni.
Nelle edizioni più recenti mi avevano bene impressionato le esibizioni dei Velvet e di Mario Venuti, erano emersi successi meritati come quello di Max Gazzè... stavolta tutte le speranze erano affidate agli Afterhours (chiamati direttamente da Bonolis, che è loro fan), alfieri del rock alternativo, e loro ci tengono talmente tanto che, dopo aver lanciato il loro ultimo album con singoli estremamente commerciali, portano a Sanremo la loro canzone più difficile degli ultimi 10 anni. Bella melodia, magnifico arrangiamento, ma eliminazione scontata. Avrei da ridire sul testo, un po' qualunquista. Tipo smetti di lamentarti, rimboccati le maniche, ma non si dice per fare cosa.
Tematica pericolosamente simile a quella di Marco Masini, riesumato per l'ennesima volta.
Bonolis ci tiene alla varietà, e allora ecco rappresentato anche l'hip hop coi Gemelli Diversi... peccato che sia quello più tamarro...
Tricarico non riesce a ripetere l'exploit di Vita Tranquilla. Jovanotti e Stefano Di Battista cercano di alleggerire il personaggio di Nicky Nicolai con una canzone facile, in stile Dirotta Su Cuba, ma il finale del ritornello venato di samba la fa arrivare in fondo col fiatone.
Roberto Benigni rende comprensibile anche ai più bacchettoni cosa sia l'amore omosessuale leggendo il De Profundis di Oscar Wilde e diverte prendendo in giro, giustamente, Iva Zanicchi che a 70 anni vuole sesso senza amore.
Un'eliminazione immeritata è invece quella di Dolcenera, niente di speciale ma era sicuramente più piacevole, per esempio, di Fausto Leali con la sua patetica canzonetta che ricalca tutti gli stereotipi melodici sanremesi degli anni 80, sembra scritta da Cutugno....
Eppure al peggio non c'è limite, come ci dimostra il trio Pupo, Paolo Belli e Youssou N'Dour. Buonismo sempliciotto che non è di nessun aiuto alla causa dell'integrazione e melodia che fa somigliare Leali agli Afterhours.
E che dire di Sal Da Vinci, che è più Gigi D'Alessio di Gigi D'Alessio e canta una canzone di Gigi D'Alessio in coppia con Gigi D'Alessio? Rende quasi sopportabile Perbellini.
Ogni tanto Mario Lavezzi decide di salire sul palco, stavolta lo fa con Alexia per una canzone piuttosto piacevole, anche se lui è meglio che torni a scrivere e basta...
Francesco Renga tenta di ripetere il colpaccio di Angelo, ma Uomo Senza Età sembra più una canzone di Al Bano e nel ritornello copia troppo vistosamente Nessun Dorma di Puccini, che avevamo già riascoltato nella sigla di Mina.
A proposito di Al Bano, sarebbe bello poter ascoltare L'Amore E' Sempre Amore interpretata da qualcun'altro, perchè il modo in cui la canta è, come sempre, orribilmente patetico, ma la canzone (di Morra e Fabrizio) è sorprendentemente bella, soprattutto la melodia del ritornello che riprende Puccini in modo ben più originale e lo miscela con Morricone.
Patty Pravo è ormai lontana dalle ambizioni d'avanguardia di canzoni come Pigramente Signora o I Giorni Dell'Armonia, il brano di quest'anno è piuttosto scialbo, così come l'interpretazione.
Ci si lamenta che a Sanremo le canzoni parlano sempre degli stessi argomenti con lo stesso linguaggio, e poi si protesta se Povia porta una canzone che affronta un tema davvero originale in modo personale, peraltro con una melodia più che decente. Intravedo i pericoli di cui parlano le associazioni omosessuali, cioè che il testo di Luca Era Gay venga strumentalizzato per dire che l'omosessualità è una deviazione da cui dover guarire. E' un pericolo grave e per questo Povia avrebbe dovuto rivedere alcuni aspetti del testo, a cominciare dal titolo, che poteva essere, magari, Luca Pensava Di Essere Gay. Essenzialmente la storia racconta di un caso particolare da cui non devono discendere generalizzazioni. Le attenzioni ossessive della madre e il rapporto pessimo col padre spingono Luca all'omosessualità, ma poi conosce una ragazza e se la sposa... a mio parere questo non significa neppure che in realtà Luca è semplicemente eterosessuale, probabilmente è bisessuale... nel finale della canzone Povia sottolinea che si tratta solo della sua storia e che non sta parlando di nessuna malattia o guarigione, e del resto nessuno con un minimo di intelligenza pensa che gli omossesuali debbano provenire da famiglie travagliate o possano cambiare orientamento conoscendo la ragazza giusta. E' una canzone controversa, soprattutto per gli effetti polemici, ma almeno siamo lontani dal Povia edulcorato che conoscevamo e si può apprezzare, al di là degli errori che può aver commesso nel testo e nel titolo, l'intenzione di parlare di un aspetto così delicato del suo passato.
Il fatto che se avesse vinto le polemiche si sarebbero ingigantite è un motivo di sollievo (oltre che perchè l'altro sul podio è Da Vinci) per la vittoria di Marco Carta, che canta benino una canzoncina non troppo brutta, solo che in questo caso la provenienza da Amici comincia a farsi irritante per il suo modo di porsi da bravo ragazzo in pieno stile boy band.
La canzone che rimarrà nella memoria nazionalpopolare sarà, comunque, Sincerità di Arisa, già divenuta, non a torto, tormentone radiofonico fischiettato per strada...

Gabrielles Wish in Rome with us, 23 Jan 2009

I have time only now to write about the magic weekend my girlfriend and I had in Rome.
We met some Roman friends and then went to the Big Bang club in Rome where Gabrielles Wish were about to play, followed by The Vikings, a legendary gang of New Order fans.
The concert was fantastic and the audience really enjoyed it, even asking an encore for 15 minutes after the end of the set.
The day after has also been a day to remember, we had a nice lunch with the band and then guided them to visit the most important places of Rome.
In the pic here on the right you can see me (second from left) with the band (guitarist Bunny, bassist Daz, singer Rob, keyboardist Karen and drummer Bo) in front of the Italian Parliament.
There's a gallery on Facebook of our weekend.
Some of those pics have been added also to a gallery I've built on the Gabrielles Wish official site together with other photos taken by fans.

Snowy Parma

Check the full 58 photos gallery on Photobucket