I don’t know that much about The Raveonettes: I just downl.. bought their second album “Pretty in black” (2005) a couple of years ago, after seeing the video for “Love in a trashcan” and being trapped in its dark sixties tremeloes, its resemblance to a B-movie (a noir spy-story, maybe) soundtrack and, of course, after falling in love with miss Sharin Foo’s bangs. I’ve always considered their music the kind of music Quentin Tarantino whistles while knitting a pair of wool socks for his beloved auntie. And I love it.
Since then I lost them a bit, and only now I take notice that from 2007 on the danish duo released their third full-lenght thing, “Lust lust lust” and a bunch of singles and EPs; the latest of these is “Blush” (out in November: 7” vinyl single, ultra limited edition, Uk only).
The references are the same as in “Pretty in black” (more details in wikipedia), but they sound much more minimal than before, kinda.. Jesus and Mary Chains without distortions, or a noisy shoegaze band with.. no noise!
Anyway.. there isn’t any official video for “Blush” yet. And so..
here’s “Blush” recorded live at City Centre Social (Manchester, UK) and the official video for “Dead sound”
Enjoy



The Raveonettes - Blush (2008 - live at Manchester City Centre Social)




The Raveonettes - Dead sound (2007)

I was thinking over the wonderfully funny discussion over my latest post, the one about the video for Bugo’s “Nel giro giusto“.
It’s a fact that the rest of the world probably knows nothing about italian indie music (yes! it DOES exist!! and - guess what! - it doesn’t always suck!!).
But.. what about italian music vids? Does the world know anything about them? I suppose not.
So to make up for this deficiency, let’s start with this post (there’s an old one about that masterpiece that is “Luna” by Verdena. Go and watch it!! NOW!!).

The song is “Incantevole” by Subsonica. The director is Maki Gherzi.
A young happy loving couple. A trip to Prague (/ Praha / Praga), photo shooting, smiles. Is everything alright?
“if you become innocence, I’ll be mud to tempt your skin, without burning“,
“if you become distance, I’ll be (I hope the translation is correct..) asphalt concrete, and footprint to your steps, without ever squeezing”
“if you become war, I’ll be by your side and give you my smile, not faking it”

If you like to sing along with the chorus:

“Fuori è un mondo fragile
ma tutto qui cade
incantevole
come quando resti con me”
(Outside, there’s a fragile world. But here, everything falls into pieces, and it’s charming.
Just like when you stay with me)

It’s not what you probably call “refined arty dense indie stuff”, but everytime I watch the video I feel shivers.
Enjoy



Subsonica - Incantevole (2005)

As I wrote a few months ago here, on a midsummer night a car gently smashed into my Ford Fiesta left parked in the street. Noone noticed the noisy event, me neither (it was a good hit indeed: I had my car back from the autobody mechanic a month and a half later).
The morning after I was waken up by the ringing of my doorbell: it was the driver who, embarassed, admitted his guilt.
Well.. I don’t know how the things usually work there, in Canada / Usa, but here in Italy.. I mean.. I probably met the one-in-a-million HONEST italian guilty driver.
I was so dazzled, so happily overwhelmed by all this integrity / uprightness to declare “Sooner or later, dear wannabe stuntman, I’ll be knocking at your door with a.. car-accident commemorative cake”.
And so.. here it is, pictured above.
A few days ago I paid him a visit, and I brought that chocolate and cream jewel with me.
A promise is a promise.
(for the record: after we gobbled up two generous slices each, we had some laughs while sipping a coffee)

I’m so ignorant about songs from the 60s and the 70s, thus I’ve never heard of this song by Burt Bacharach (that I know and like) as sung by Dionne Warwick.
Ok, it’s not a video.. but this song is sooo gorgeous. So take this slideshow and shut up!
Enjoy



Burt Bacharach / Dionne Warwick - Promises, promises (1968)

(* “bonus malus” is ancient Latin. It’s a formula. You have not been guilty of any accident in the last year? Good. This is a “bonus”. Thumbs up! You move from, like, level 4 to level 3, and next year you’ll pay a little less for your car insurance. You’ve been driving like a drunk mole on acid and you destroyed a police car? You receive a “malus”. You fall from level 4 to level 6. And next year you’ll have to sell your mama to get the money to pay your insurance broker).

He is Bugo (pronounce it like Boogle, without the “L”), he’s Italian and he’s such a weird guy.
He doesn’t fake it.. he is genuinely.. (dictionary! dictionary!!) ungainly? awkward? He’s so touchingly out of place: everytime I listen to him being interviewed, I feel so embarassed for him. And it seems that the shift to a major in 2002 hasn’t changed him at all.
On average, of each of his albums I love 2 or 3 songs, but I’d gladly scratch a good five or six tracks out of the cd with a knife.
He plays (played?) a sort of.. lo-fi (sometimes) folky distorted songwriting pop. Or an alt-folk with buzzing synths. Mmm.. somewhere between Beck’s “Mellow Gold” and “One foot in the grave”, sort of.
(Just to get the idea.. this is 2002 “Casalingo“. Coolest uncool video ever).
Lyrics are intriguing, stupid, crooked, smart, shit and.. pure genius. Often in the very same song.
His last album, “Contatti”, is far away different from what he created in the past: no more lo-fi attitude, or crunchy guitars. It’s plain retro electro pop, now, mixed with his innate talent for melody (I don’t like this version of Bugo that much, actually).
This is the third single from “Contatti”. As addictive as dark chocolate. So childishly and filthy commercial.
And I can’t really help whistling it.
Enjoy



Bugo - Nel giro giusto (2008)

Today (what’s left of it) is a very special day. Yes, dear readers, today, November 12th, 2008 is the ONE  YEAR ANNIVERSARY of Pretending to be Japanese. We’ve come a long way. Here are some highlights:

November 12, 2007: First post ever. Also, worst post ever. Andrew Bird is still rad though.

December 8, 2007: The Spice Girls rock my face off.

December 14, 2007: Two important firsts: my first interview (with The Last Dinosaur), AND my first post using capital letters. Truly a momentous occasion.

December 16, 2007: Possibly the awesomest thing I have ever written.

February 1, 2008: I say nice things about Kimya Dawson.

April 24, 2008: I offend CocoRosie. Oops.

April 26, 2008: Luke’s first post. Notice the new website. Nice.

May 1, 2008: Sergio’s first post.

May 5, 2008: I say mean things about Kimya Dawson.

May 9, 2008: Willirob’s first post.

May 28, 2008: My sister’s first post. It’s pretty much hilarious. She gets that from me.

June 14, 2008: Sergio permanently cements his position as my favourite person ever. Actually, ever since he did this post I’ve been secretly referring to him as “My Italian Boyfriend“. Don’t tell him though.

June 22 - July 4, 2008: EXTREME MUSIC VIDEO FACEOFF!! First, Luke posts a bunch of shitty videos, then I post some awesome shit, then Lauren’s all “I’m cute!“, then Will posts the video I totally knew he was going to post, then Sergio posts some weird shit, then some more weird shit and Justice, then I have another go, then Luke’s like “Oh yeah? Well I’m going to post “The Scientist!” TOP THAT!!!”, then Will posts another ace vid, then Will posts the acest vid of all time, therefore kicking all of our Coldplay-loving asses and winning the contest. Go Will.

July 1, 2008: Some douchebag commits blasphemy against Animal Collective, and I piss off a bunch of Wolf Parade fans.

July 4, 2008: This post is not a highlight. I just love this video a lot. 

August 11, 2008: An exercise in bad taste.

August 30, 2008: Segio is single-handedly responsible for my newfound love of The Spinto Band.

September 2, 2008: Nothing illegal going on here.

September 22, 2008: I totally punked Will and he still has no idea.

September 25, 3008: Sergio is awesome.

September 29, 2008: I posted this awesome video, which isn’t actually a highlight either, but then I totally interviewed the same band for The 405. Check it.

October 21, 2008: HAHAHAHAHA!

November 5, 2008: Obamarama!

So, that pretty much brings us up to speed. Like I said, it’s been a good year. And now, I leave you with this:

P.S. If you’re bored some time, you should try to count how many posts mention Animal Collective. I bet it’s a lot.

I apologize.
I apologize for all the things italian politicians will say about Obama (as well as on MCCain, Sarah Palin, and.. on any other US politician) in the future.
And.. I apologize for all the things they said already.
Here and here.

That’s apologizing for real..

I know that you, dear readers, love colorful vids as well as kick-ass tunes.
Thus I’m sure you’ll like Syl’s new creation. I already posted one of her stop-motion video here in this site, a few months ago: it was her vision of Peaches’ “Impeach my bush”. This time it’s Amanda Palmer’s “Runs in the family”, taken from her first solo album, “Who killed Amanda Palmer?”.
For the few ones out there who don’t know miss Palmer yet (me, for instance..), she was (still is?) the singer of pyrotechnical bostonian Dresden Dolls : about.. four or five years ago I happened to listen to their eponymous first album, and I suddenly found myself magnetically trapped into their.. their.. it’s no so easy to define the stuff they play! Mm.. punk-opera songs immersed in a French 1920’s cabaret atmosphere? Sort of. Uh! and brilliant lyrics, too.
In 2005 their stunning single “Coin-operated boy” obtained heavy rotation exposure also in mainstream italian radio stations.
Some days ago Syl went to Amanda Palmer gig in Milan, where she (Syl) harassed and forced the eclectic singer to give her an interview: if you are familiar with the italian language, you can read the amazing result of this assault here, in this italian indie site.
For all of PTBJ’s readers, here’s Syl’s vid.
Enjoy



Amanda Palmer - Runs in the family (2008). video by sketchingtheweb aka Syl.

Naked picture of Barack Obama:

This is too awesome.

It’s about time, right?
Here in Italy it’s the 5th of November, 2 a.m.; in Seattle it’s the 4th of November 5 p.m., in New York it’s 8 p.m..
Yes, I’m thrilled. I’m.. on the tiptoe of expectation (such curios expression. I found it somewhere on the net some days ago. I can’t help using it). And I’m not the only one, here.
All major italian TV channels are going to cover the event thoroughly: the “US presidential vote 2008″ TV marathon has already started, and we’re here dying to get the first results.
I’d like to write streams of banal comments about it. Nothing any interesting, I think.
I could talk about.. mm.. the shallow and predictable way the most part of italian media presents the main characters of this show, maybe. I mean, do you think we do REALLY know and understand Obama’s or McCain’s political programs? All the fuss is focused on Obama’s symbolic relevance, as well as McCain’s embodiment of a stereotype, of.. what most of the rest of the world expects a “classic” american to be (c’mon.. we all live on stereotypes! just think of how italian people are depicted in movies, in series.. I’m Italian, even though I don’t sing opera arias, I have nothing to share with mafia, and my name’s not Mario, Luigi or Antonio. But.. yes, I love soccer and I’m soooo rommmmantic).
Such serious issues for a such tiny brain (I’m talking about mine, obviously).
Let’s get realllly silly.
Here’s the vid.

(Uh! there!! on the screen! early results!! the early results!!!!!!)



Presidents!

Don’t know what happens there, in Usa / Canada, but here in Italy we all got sick of commercials of mobile network operators. They are not that bad, actually, at least not all of them: sometimes they even boast nice mini-plots, and feature decent movie or TV actors.
The point is the number of times you are forced to listen to / watch them. And you can’t really escape this siege: they are evvvvverywhere.
These commercials succeed in making you hate every effing song they use as soundtrack: it doesn’t matter whether it’s The Rolling Stones’ “Streets of love”, Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman”, Village People’s “Go West”, Sister Sledge’s “We are family” or.. The Beatles.
Yes, they have not spared the Fab Four either.
It’s been months that Italians have been obliged to deal with a cover version of “All together now” (sung by a children’s choir) uncountable times a day.
Can you imagine? I totally hate such innocent and adorable tiny song, NOW.



The Beatles - All together now (1967)