#and of course a lot of albini and albini produced works

[neomachine]

it's insane and infuriating to me when people ask for alternatives to daughters and people only recommend really standard hardcore punk or whatever that just doesn't meet the need. the pull of ywgwyw is literally the math, the force and momentum that makes you feel like you're having a heart attack

[howaminotinthestrokesyet]

Behind The Album: In Utero

The third and final studio album from Nirvana was released in September 1993 via DGC records. The band wanted to make a clear departure from how their second album sounded. They felt that their huge hit album, Nevermind, was too polished as a record. The producer of that second LP, Butch Vig, would later note that Kurt Cobain needed to “reclaim his punk ethics or cred.” For his part Cobain would tell Rolling Stone in early 1992 that the record would have elements to it much more raw then found on the second album. However, he did emphasize the fact that the pop sound would not disappear entirely. He had hoped to start working on it l in the middle of 1992, but distance between band members getting together was an issue as they all lived in different cities. Another issue came in the fact that Courtney Love was expecting their first child. DGC was hoping to release a new record by Christmas of the year, but instead they were forced to go with the compilation album of all the early material from Sub Pop, Incesticide. For In Utero, Cobain showed interest in working with former producer of Bleach, Jack Endino and Steve Albini. They brought in Endino to work on a few instrumentals for the record that were eventually re-recorded, and he was never asked to produce in any capacity. The group went back and forth debating whether to hire Albini or not. In January 1993, the group recorded another set of demos while on tour in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. This would later become the track, “Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip,” which originally had the working title of I’ll Take You Down to the Pavement. The latter represented a direct reference to an argument between Cobain and Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. The band finally decided to go with Albini as a producer despite his reputation of strict discipline within the studio and remaining one of the most opinionated producers out there. He was said to have referred to Nirvana as “REM with a fuzz box, unremarkable Seattle sound.” He would later say that his decision to work with the band came out of sympathy, feeling smaller groups like Nirvana were at the mercy of the record label. This particular statement should be taken with a grain of salt as Nirvana had just released the biggest record since Appetite for Destruction. Cobain had been a fan of the producer based on his work with the Pixies and the Breeders.

Producer Albini wanted to complete recording within a strict two week timeframe. Nirvana paid for the recording sessions themselves on Albini’s suggestion to avoid interference from the record label. The band paid him $24,000 for his services, while he refused any royalties whatsoever, which would have amounted to $500,000. He would continually say that royalties were immoral and a complete insult to the artist. They recorded at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota in February 1993. Krist Novoselic would compare the environment to a gulag. “There was snow outside, we couldn't go anywhere. We just worked." Nirvana during this time emphasized to the record company that they wanted absolutely no interference from them, which meant they did not share anything from these sessions with their A & R representative. For his part, Steve Albini followed suit by only speaking with members of the band. He characterized anyone associated with the group as “pieces of shit.” After a short delay, the band's equipment finally arrived, so the actual recording of the album went very quickly. Each track began with the group playing together as one doing the instrumental aspect of it. For some tracks, Dave Grohl did the drums in the kitchen due to the natural acoustics sounding better. Albini had also surrounded his drums with 30 microphones for each track. They did not remove any take from the album, but instead kept them all. Cobain even added more guitar parts at the end of each day before doing the vocals. Although Albini had a reputation for being opinionated, he let Nirvana decide what to keep. “Generally speaking, [Cobain] knows what he thinks is acceptable and what isn't acceptable [...] He can make concrete steps to improve things that he doesn't think are acceptable." They did all of their musical work in six days, while Cobain said that it was the easiest recording he had ever done. Albini proceeded to mix the album in five days, which actually was slow by his standards because he usually only spent 1 to 2 days on it.

After completion, the band began to send the unmastered tapes to various people including the president of the DGC records. They absolutely hated it saying the songwriting was mediocre, the entire album was unlistenable, and radio would never except Albini’s production. Cobain took the comments personally to mean that the label wanted him to start from scratch and record again with a new producer. He would say, “I should just re-record this record and do the same thing we did last year because we sold out last year—there's no reason to try and redeem ourselves as artists at this point. I can't help myself—I'm just putting out a record I would like to listen to at home." Yet, the group remained dead set on releasing this version of the record as late as April 1993. They had played it for a number of their friends, who had liked it. The singer said, “Of course, they want another Nevermind, but I'd rather die than do that. This is exactly the kind of record I would buy as a fan, that I would enjoy owning." Around this time, some doubts crept up with all members of Nirvana because the mix of In Utero did not sound right. They asked Albini to possibly remix the record, and he flat out refused. “[Cobain] wanted to make a record that he could slam down on the table and say, 'Listen, I know this is good, and I know your concerns about it are meaningless, so go with it.' And I don't think he felt he had that yet ... My problem was that I feared a slippery slope." They took the record to Bob Ludwig for mastering, while at the same time mentioned their issues with the mix to him. Upon completion, Krist Novoselic said he was happy with the result, but Cobain still felt it was not perfect. At this time, Steve Albini gave an interview with the Chicago Tribune, where he doubted whether the record would ever be released. Newsweek would run another article that echoed the comments made by Albini. This caused Nirvana to write a full page letter to the magazine denying the label was putting any undue pressure on them. The same letter would be reproduced as a full page ad in Billboard not long after. The head of Geffen Records, who owned DGC made the unprecedented move of actually calling Newsweek to complain. The band thought about having Andy Wallace remix the release, but once again Albini refused saying they had only agreed to work with him. At the time, the producer also would release any of the tapes that were now in his possession. He only did so after a phone call from Krist Novoselic. The entire album for the most part was not changed at all, except for a remastering. Yet, the producer continually made comments that it was nowhere near the album he recorded in Minnesota. “The record in the stores doesn't sound all that much like the record that was made, though it's still them singing and playing their songs, and the musical quality of it still comes across." He would go on to say that major labels refused to work with him for the next year or so because of In Utero.

As for the music, the producer wanted to go as far away as possible from Nevermind with this record. He felt that the second album made the group look incredibly bad because it had been overproduced at such a level to make it extremely radio friendly. He wanted to create a much more natural sound for the group. The 1993 Nirvana biography, Come As You Are, noted the vision for the band on this record. “The Beatlesque 'Dumb' happily coexists beside the all-out frenzied punk graffiti of 'Milk It,' while 'All Apologies' is worlds away from the apoplectic 'Scentless Apprentice.' It's as if [Cobain] has given up trying to meld his punk and pop instincts into one harmonious whole. Forget it. This is war." If one goes through the track listing, you can count which tracks are over the top punk, and which tracks are more radio friendly pop. The interesting thing is that they correspond equally, 6 to 6. Fans and critics alike would talk about how abrasive In Utero turned out to be, but Cobain and Novoselic really did not see it that way. The bass player had said the band had always had songs as they are found on In Utero. Yet, the group did consciously try to bring fans into the more punk sounding songs by releasing the first two singles that could have realistically been included on Nevermind. Some of the songs found on the record had been written years prior as early as 1990. Cobain used various points of inspiration for the lyrics. The track “Frances Farmer” came from a 1978 biography of the Seattle figure called Shadowland. “Scentless Apprentice” originated from a horror novel that the singer had read by Patrick Suskind. One of the central themes found on the album noted in that same Nirvana biography from 1993 was the fact that every song talked about sickness or disease in some manner. Although Cobain said the lyrics were very impersonal to him, many disagreed with this assessment. Dave Grohl would say this in an interview. “A lot of what he has to say is related to a lot of the shit he's gone through. And it's not so much teen angst anymore. It's a whole different ball game: rock star angst." The singer continued to argue that much of the album had been written years prior to any issues he was going through at the time. For example, “Rape Me” quite possibly could be talking about his frustration with the media in how he has been portrayed over the past couple of years. The track “Serve the Servants” seemed to specifically talk about Cobain’s father and how divorce affected him from a very early age. The Nirvana frontman wanted his father to know that he did not despise him, but he also had no desire to be around him whatsoever. One track, “Gallons of Alcohol Flow Through the Strip,” was actually one of the only improvisational tracks they ever recorded. The song represented a jam session that the group would frequently participate in in during down times at the studio. They had done this quite often, but this would be the first time that it was ever recorded in some form.

Upon its release, the record label took a very low key approach to promoting the album. None of the singles would come out commercially in the United States, as they concentrated all of their press releases at media specializing in alternative music. The band remained convinced that there was absolutely no way that In Utero would sell even a quarter of what Nevermind sold. The record would debut at number one on the charts selling 180,000 copies in its first week. They sold this many copies without big retail chains like Kmart and Walmart selling it because officially the demand was not there. The truth was actually these chains feared backlash due to the graphic nature of the artwork accompanying the album. In March 1994, an edited version of the album would be released with new artwork and alternative song titles. The band made this concession saying they wanted fans who could not go to a traditional record store to be able to purchase the LP. Following the death of Cobain. the third single “Pennyroyal Tea” was canceled, as well as any tour plans. Immediately following his death, the popularity of In Utero on the charts increased by 122% from 72 to 27. The album would eventually be certified five times platinum.

Critics were not unanimous in the praise of In Utero. For the most part, rock writers really liked the new sound from Nirvana. Time’s Christopher John Farley noted that once again perhaps the mainstream may need to go to Nirvana, rather than the other way around. David Browne of Entertainment Weekly emphasized the absolute contrasts on the release. “The music is often mesmerizing, cathartic rock & roll, but it is rock & roll without release, because the band is suspicious of the old-school rock clichés such a release would evoke." David Fricke of Rolling Stone would say that the record was both “brilliant and corrosive,” but undoubtedly a “triumph of the will” for Kurt Cobain. NME’s John Mulvey did not share the same sentiment as he observed the album really was not up to par with previous Nirvana standards. The review from Plugged In did not mince words saying it had absolutely no redeeming value whatsoever. Some reviews became quite bittersweet as you are reminded of Cobain’s suicide. Q said this about the record. "If this is how Cobain is going to develop, the future is lighthouse-bright." Ben Thompson of the Independent merely seemed happy that the record did not represent the punk rock nightmare the group had continually threatened to release. In Utero would go on to top several end of the year lists as one of the best albums including Rolling Stone, Village Voice, and the New York Times. The band would even receive a Grammy nomination in 1994 for Best Alternative Album. As time has passed, critics have lavished even more phrase on it seeing their work with Albini as far superior to Nevermind. Charles R. Cross would write in his Cobain biography, “If it is possible for an album that sold four million copies to be overlooked, or underappreciated, then In Utero is that lost pearl." Pitchfork named it the 13th best album of the 1990s, while it even made Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. NME named it number 35 on its greatest albums of all time list creating quite a sense of irony since the periodical did not think too much of the album at the time of its release.

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 4, Number 10

Underworld and Iggy Pop photo by Rob Ashton Baker

The fall rush of record releases is in full swing, and unopened promos are piling up like leaves on hard drives, kitchen counters and office floors. We’ll never catch up, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying, as Dusted writers crack open the obscure and the celebrated, the familiar and the new to us, the comfortably in our lanes and the way out there. As always this edition of Dust covers a lot of ground, from retro New Orleans R&B to grind to dream pop to some eyebrow raising cross-genre collaborations. There is also a surprising amount of improvised bass music. Contributors this time include Jennifer Kelly, Ian Mathers, Bill Meyer and Jonathan Shaw. 

Carlo Ditta — Pass the Hatchet b/w Life in Heaven (Orleans)

After a lifetime of making other people sound good — as the songwriter for the Mighty Sam McClain, Willie Deville and others and as the long-time proprietor of Orleans records — Carlo Ditta carves out a space in the front for himself in this smoldering R&B single. “Pass the Hatchet” on side A revives a slithery 1966 classic by New Orleans songwriter Earl “Stereo” Stanley Oropeza, with Oropeza himself in tow. The song is a marvel of shimmery swamp guitars, squalling sax and back-slanting swagger, like Andre Williams in a deep ruminative groove. “Life in Heaven” is slower, blearier and more rickety, like a Tom Waits cut lost in the rain. There’s no hurry anywhere in these two sides, no particular urgency in catching your ear, but give it time and a moody magic will take hold, hot, humid and indolent.

Jennifer Kelly

 EMA — Outtakes from Exile EP (City Slang)

As you might expect from an EP of offcuts from a very strong album, only a few of the five tracks on the newest release from Erika M. Anderson are truly essential, but nothing here is really lacking either. And those two tracks are at near opposite ends of the spectrum of EMA’s work; the 20-minute “Breathalyzer Instrumental (EMA Long Cut)” is pretty much what it says on the tin, one-third of an hour worth of the sinister, fuzzed out, gradually shifting drone and clang that underscored one of the highlights of Exile in the Outer Ring. To listeners not into this kind of thing it probably feels indulgent; for the converted, it could easily be doubled or tripled (or just, you know, looped). Whereas “From the Love That We Made,” which Anderson feels strongly enough about to play at recent shows is more distinctly song-like and intensely emotional in a way that links it to everything from Exile opening track “Seven Years” all the way back to Anderson’s “Cherylee” from her years in Gowns. The other three songs here are worthy of being collected (two being fun, darkly electronic tunes and “Anything Good” feeling like a dry run for “Down and Out” from the album with different subject matter) but it’s in those two tracks, one of which it feels like a shame there wasn’t room for on Exile and one which absolutely would not have fit in, that are the best reminders of EMA’s talents.  

Ian Mathers

  Billy Gomberg — Beginners (Dinzu Artifacts)

Beginners by Billy Gomberg

Billy Gomberg is no beginner. He’s been releasing music of his own and with Fraufraulein, a duo with Anne Guthrie, for nearly a decade. And the sound sources he uses on this tape are familiar ones — electric bass, urban field recordings, synthesizer and hand-manipulated objects. Even so, it feels like something new is happening here. Gomberg’s music has often seemed to stretch away from the listener, luring you to follow it through virtual expanses of space and time. Now it seems closer at hand, the sounds like sunning fish just under a pond’s surface. They’re simultaneously more recognizable and more processed that what he’s played in the past, creating a discreet reality that never quite loses its mystery no matter how often you play it.

Bill Meyer

 Brandon Lopez — Quoniam Facta Sum Vilis (Astral Spirits)

quoniam facta sum vilis by Brandon Lopez

One door closes, others open. Barre Phillips, the grand-père of solitary improvised double bass performance, has just closed out a half century of exploration with a final solo CD. In the same year, two musicians young enough to be his grandkids have taken up the gauntlet by releasing albums on Astral Spirits. Luke Stewart’s wasn’t quite solo; he gave his amplifier a co-starring role. But Brandon Lopez’s Quoniam Facta Sum Vilis is full-on mano a contrabass. Each of its eight tracks zeros in on a particular way to attack the instrument. Fittingly, “Vanitas” sounds like it arises from some great sonic depth to ascend to a writing platform. On “Lay,” stark figures blossom and twist like bursts of turbulent cloud erupting from a soon-to-blow volcano. The energy that Lopez expends on each track might give the listener pause. Will he stay in his corner? Will he throw the fight? No, he comes back for another round, and the listener’s the winner.

Bill Meyer

 Stefan Neville / Greg Malcolm — A Nuance (Feeding Tube)

A Nuance (2017) by Greg Malcolm + Stefan Neville

Sometimes you can listen to a record and know who engineered or produced it. Steve Albini, Steve Lillywhite, Roy Thomas Baker — these guys have a signature sound or respect for certain kinds of sound that stands out no matter who they’re recording. To that number, add New Zealander Stefan Neville. He’s mostly recorded himself, performing under the name Pumice, and anytime he gets his hands on the two-track he favors a blown-speaker distorted quality that’s unmistakably his own. That sound meets a song selection process that could best be described as “let’s call our favorite tunes and whack ‘em down” on this record, which was mostly recorded live one night in 2015 in Ohope, a surfer’s haven situated on the Bay of Plenty. Research turned up no evidence that Neville, who plays drums, keyboards, and tapes, and Malcolm, a marvelously idiosyncratic guitarist whose aesthetic cherry-picks the best of rock, jazz and the folk musics of the world, caught any waves while making this record. But their treatment of the Klezmer tune “Sirba” evokes mental images of dudes with sidecurls riding their boards right through that hole in your woofer. They aren’t confined to one mode of transportation, though; in their hands “Telstar” becomes an ode to a rocket ship held together by duct tape and the Scottish hornpipe “Banish Misfortune” soundtracks a dogged march through ruins.

Bill Meyer

 The Papercuts—Parallel Universe Blues (Slumberland)

Parallel Universe Blues by Papercuts

Jason Quever’s sixth album as Papercuts gets the balance between daydream and muscle right, shoring up his delicate melodies and shimmery guitar textures with drums in a way that much of his work between the stellar Can’t Go Back and now have not. Thus while tremulous organs and feathery fretwork strew glitter dust on tracks like “Mattress on the Floor,” while lush, choral harmonies buttress its wistful wondering, you don’t get lost in the clouds. A swaggering Spector beat punctuates airy “Laughing Man,” underlining the keen ache of its melody and resolutely preventing the cut from evaporating into mist. “Clean Living,” with its strident bowed cello and pounding toms, is even more emphatic, a drifty melancholia anchored to the here and now, and “Walk Backwards” slips a drum-pumping adrenaline into its narcotic haze. Quever’s world maintains its soft, evocative edges—there’s plenty of space for moody contemplation—but runs a through line of rhythmic motion from one end to another of his songs. Always lovely, his songs here are unusually purposeful and gripping.  

Jennifer Kelly

  Pig Destroyer — Head Cage (Relapse)

Pig Destroyer’s new LP opens with 20 seconds’ worth of Ray Noble and His Orchestra’s “Midnight, Stars and You” (which some listeners will recognize from a certain scene in Kubrick’s The Shining); over the strings, a cultivated English voice, sounding much like Margaret Thatcher, intones, “We will not be held responsible for any hearing impairments or damage caused to you from excessive exposure to this sound.” Then the record proper starts. It’s not a particularly new device, but it’s sort of funny, and it signals something about this record: Pig Destroyer are making music you can enjoy. That’s a big shift. On 2012’s terrific Book Burner, the band distanced themselves from the gratuitous gross-out splatter (and the even grosser misogyny) of earlier records like Terrifyer and Prowler in the Yard. But like that early music, Book Burner was a grindcore record: uncompromising, unrelenting, deeply pissed off. Head Cage varies the sonic palate. There’s still a heavy dose of grind, but there are also hearty portions of death metal, hardcore and even suggestions of slam. That’s not to suggest that the record is incoherent or opportunistic. Pig Destroyer have been at their craft for the better part of two decades, and all that experience shows. Songs this precise and athletic are hard to perform, and harder to compose. In addition to all the pace and volume, Pig Destroyer have discovered a groove: check out the supple bottom end and nigh-danceable riffing of “Army of Cops” and the first minute of “The Adventures of Jason and JR.” There’s even a sort-of love song. Fun may not have been on the agenda when Pig Destroyer were creating these songs, but it’s hard not to have some fun listening to this madly pinballing, energetic album. 

Jonathan Shaw  

 Quietus—Volume Four (Ever/Never)

Volume Four by Quietus

Geoffrey Bankowski makes slow, somnolent, surreal music, employing the usual tools of bedroom recording—hushed voice, lingering tones of guitar and piano, tape hiss—in hypnotic, idiosyncratic patterns. Here, simple melodies course through complex architectures of noise and music. A clarinet soars over clatter and dissonance. Odd, evocative fragments of lyrics drift in and out of focus. It’s a gentle ride, but surreptitiously wild, lulling you into calm, even as it takes you to some very odd places. “Airfield” for instance has a sleepy indie rock surface, all strummy guitar backdrop and whispered fantasies. Still anarchy lurks in the sounds between phrases, muted clashes and hums and booms suggesting a fight in the room down the hall. Likewise “Whisper into Muddy Cloth” slouches into being, a dirty rain of guitar chords pelting slack murmured phrases; it could be home-taped Pavement or nascent Silver Jews. And yet, a scrim of noise obscures whatever’s pop at the core of these songs, grounds them in a lo-fi bank of decomposing organic matter and makes them both realer and harder to grasp than you’d expect.

Jennifer Kelly

 Underworld/Iggy Pop — Teatime Dub Encounters EP (Caroline International)

Other than, er, both appearing on the soundtrack of Trainspotting (the sequel to which was the catalyst to this EP, where soundtrack supervisor Rick Smith met with Iggy Pop and to the latter’s surprise were ready with a portable studio if he was willing to seize the moment…) it’s unclear how much overlap the fan bases of these two titans in their fields actually have, but the unexpectedly winning Teatime Dub Encounters ought to have something for both. “Bells and Circles” immediately establishes the mood, with a clearly whimsical Pop talking about having wings and smoking on airplanes and trying to pick up stewardess while Karl Hyde and opera singer/Smith’s daughter Esme Bronwen-Smith (both in fine voice) coax him into a refrain of “sunlight on my wings” that’s as beatific as anything on Barbara, Barbara We Face a Shining Future. While much of the EP’s material works in that register, with beautifully sculpted productions from Smith given an appealingly ramshackle feel by Pop’s vamping about losing his shirt and being trapped in the suburbs, there’s also the slightly melancholy, surprisingly moving “I’ll See Big,” where Pop reminisces about the nature of friendship and the way life changes relationships. As one element of a more joyous overall work it’s strongly effective, but much of Teatime Dub Encounters suggests neither Underworld nor Iggy Pop need are in any hurry to stop creating.  

Ian Mathers

 Various Artists — Seed Blunt / AC DC (Gilded Records)

Seed Blunt / AC DC by Vibrating Skull Trio // Packard/Hoogland

When two ensembles share a recording, one hopes to find some shared resonance. You could listen for a while and keep puzzling, but you don’t have to look too far to find the common vibe on this tape. Both sessions were improvised in Chicago, mostly by Chicagoans. Vibrating Skull Trio, which includes drummer Phil Sudderberg, prepared guitar player Eli Namay and clarinetist John McCowen, obtain an electronic-sounding foundation from the latter’s contrabass clarinet. Further pursuing paradox, their music feels patient even when it arises from the collision of agitated actions. Flip the tape and you’ll find a more fractious encounter between Dutch keyboardist Oscar Jan Hoogland and Chicago-based drummer Ryan Packard. Both men bring plenty of electronics into the fray, so that it often sounds like a sound clash between a drum machine and an old radio tuned to somewhere east of Istanbul. Electric sputter gives way to reluctant exchanges of feedback squiggles punctuated by cheap electric key plunks. The two sides of this tape don’t sound like each other, but they jointly make a strong case for not sounding like those who have come before you.

Bill Meyer

  Matt Weston—This Is Your Rosemont Horizon (7272 Music)

This Is Your Rosemont Horizon by Matt Weston

Chicagoans of a certain age will get the reference. But for the benefit of everyone else, the Rosemont Horizon was once the name of an arena situated just northeast of O’Hare Airport. Depending on your age and tastes, you might have had your life changed there by Madonna, Andrea Bocelli, Taylor Swift or Queen; this writer cherishes memories of a pretty rocking night involving Sonic Youth, Neil Young & Crazy Horse and thousands of pissed-off Neil Young fans. Matt Weston might have been there that night, but this record doesn’t sound like anything you’ve ever heard coming from any stadium PA. People move on, and Weston’s moved into an idiosyncratic extension of INA-GRM electro-acoustic composition filtered through some more contemporary rock and glitch moves. Keyboards dance, needles scratch and bump and monolithic sound walls grow out of the splatter and evaporate in the echoing space of some airport terminal. It’s just the thing for when you don’t want any questions answered.

Bill Meyer

 Xylouris White — Mother (Bella Union)

George Xylouris and Jim White have, for three albums now, shown that their collaboration is among the best places to catch these two supremely talented musicians. Even existing fans of the Xylouris musical dynasty in Greece (George specializing in the lute-like laouto) and White’s drumming with the Dirty Three and Nick Cave’s band might have been surprised at just how much the two have shone together. With Mother, for the first time one of their albums begins with the big bang rather than moving towards it, with the one-two punch of the forbidding “In Media Res” and the incredibly fun “Only Love” beginning things strongly and the album gradually exploring less urgent rhythms until it winds up with a beautiful closing “Lullabye.” About the faintest praise you can damn Mother with is that it’s another excellent, compulsively listenable album from the duo, but whereas 2016’s Black Peak marked a leap forward from their debut, here there’s less of a significant progression than a refinement. And that’s not really a criticism; when you’re as adroit and compelling in conversation as Xylouris White is, it’s hard to hope for much more than many future albums like this.  

Ian Mathers

[animalsenterprises]

RAINBOW SEASON LP & A Dark Desert Drive with No Lights

It's been a decade since I released a "full length" record. The first time up, I was just learning music production. I had never recorded anything myself before (not entirely true; I had recorded a short film score ((STILL LOVER)) on a portable multi-track), and my understanding of the process was from what I gleamed from observing my friend produce my first record, which was purely an instrumental one. While I had some production credits on that, my role was in composition, instrumentation and performing, not in tracking, or any of the studio stuff associated with recording records. Up to that point, I had been in and out of bands, mostly just playing electric guitar. But the opportunity appeared because I felt like I could do it. The thought just sprang up in my head, and like the field of dreams, it had to be done.  

It was an intense ordeal, since I had no clue, and was left to learn everything myself, from the ground up. But that process taught me an invaluable lessons; that if you want to do something way outside your competence, it can still be done. Dive head first, break shit, learn, and if you're still excited, do it again was the ethos. You have that bounce back energy with youth & there never is anything to lose. Time refines process, but process comes before quality even after refinement. You never really know quality (it's an intangible), but you always know process & that's easier to refine. 

My time in music happened in a similar way to filmmaking. It was the start of the digitalization of media. Computers and soundcards and emulation and plugins and as important, digital aggregators where making the home recording possible, and the barriers to entry affordable. All that was left was the energy, the desire and the doing.

In 2007 I released a short instrumental record, A DAY LATE: INSTRUMENTALS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS under my project alias at the time, SHANKS AND THE DREAMERS. My friend Ray P headed the production. He had recorded a couple of DIY albums (they still hold up) for his own projects and was a super fan of Steve Albini's style and methodology. We did the tracking in a music space (Bassland Studios) in Santa Ana California headed by OC electronic music pioneer Alex X. from the project of the same name BASSLAND (location where I shot a film called "my break ups into a million pieces"). A DAY LATE had six tracks and it took nearly 2 years to complete. Scheduling the sessions, mixing, tracking, school, work, and balancing my first love, film, expanded the production cycle way past what I had anticipated.

As a son of first-generation immigrants, my life seemed completely foreign and wayward to my parents. They had no idea where I got my interest in music, as I had never played an instrument before, except after high school, while in college, picking up my first guitar while I studied at UCLA.  Though the seeds were planted much earlier, and maybe I'll write about that in a different time. In any case, all was upheaval. It's hard to transpose an understanding now, to how things were. At that time, my choices were limited, because my understanding was completely limited. So, I could only see two viable options. Go back to school, or work at a coffee shop for the rest of my life (this binary seems incredibly naive and silly, but I suppose that's how it looks for large swarms of people). There were no career aspirations in art, even though all my time was spent doing it because I was disconnected from that reality even existing. It was an impossibility. And of course, that impossibility was just an illusion. But an illusion is no different than a reality, without the tools to break through.

In any case, and to the relief & constant campaigning from my parents, I headed back to school for a graduate degree. This experience made me an advocate at dissuading most from going through the same mistake. It is part of my story, and I would not change it in any way, but when asked, I offer the truth. And that truth is that for the majority, there are much better options and routes. 

And that leads me the last full-length record I did many years ago. A month after I shot my thesis project, I recorded my first full-length record under SHANKS AND THE DREAMERS (it had turned more or less into a band at this time), "MY DARLING DIA". It took a few intense months of education, assembling the tools, learning the programs, writing the songs, and tracking.  And all of it was a giant fuck up for the most part. But it was the single greatest music production lesson I ever learned. It was a condensed, intense education, full of "Skin In the Game" and no help or resources other than my partner at the time (Art Toussi) and localized friends in the scene (bands) and of course, the web. To my giant relief, almost every question had an answer on some forum once you filtered through the arguments. And some of the tools I gathered for that project still sit in my studio (music hardware lasts much longer than the digital stuff). Here we were, a local two-piece band out of Orange County Californian, self-producing an entire record, sitting in one of the top NY Mastering Studios, where a single compressor cost more than the whole production & still completely clueless, but feeling accomplished & wild-eyed. Oddly enough, neither of was thought of ourselves as musicians really. We both had wholly different lives with trajections that had nothing to do with music.

Which leads me to this. My first full-length record under my project MIRS, RAINBOW SEASON is coming out later this year. While I've been recording EP's and singles for the last several years under MIRS, I had assumed that a full-length project was out of the scope, as each EP was thought of as my last time recording (interestingly, music had always been regulated as a side project until the last couple years when I dropped compartmentalizing everything).  But, with time and refinement usually bring in something else. Help. And ever since CANYON, MIRS has had lots of help. So what was once a solo endeavor now has the assistance to take the means of communication into another space. 

And that all changed because one thing was missing. The desire to repeat & expand the process, something that I had always wanted to do with this new project, but never allowed myself to go all the way. It was another glass ceiling. That's what they always are. 

It took a long time to get to CANYON and the merging of music & film, but not surprisingly, it's just another beginning.

[jjjjjjjjjjjjjim]

How to be more consistent in your music

This song used to be under my high school's band name (probably finished around 2014), but was composed, recorded, and produced wholly by me. Eventually I grew a distaste for the track and deleted it off social media. Nowadays I do not hate it; I find it interesting in retrospect.

Despite being an indie pop/dream pop sort of hybrid, the song flows like a progressive track. It has wildly different passages and only two repetitions in its structure. The lyrics go from surrealism to a more grounded, sarcastic romance, depicting how confused I was about my feelings for my first girlfriend. I also sounded like an asshole in the lyrics. I was an asshole.

Anyway, this track exposes one of my recurring problems as a bedroom musician, something you might encounter yourself: a desire to explore all ideas, without an ability to remain in a coherent path. For a single song, this might or might not work (here it sort of doesn’t). For a whole album, it can be curious, though it is often jarring because we tend to grasp for some sort of pattern in a band's or artist's release.

In similar fashion, it can be awful when all songs in an album sound exactly the same. Of course it varies from genre to genre, taste to taste, moment to moment... in the case of my releases, I strive for some uniformity while still exploring diverse ideas. This was a difficult balance to achieve, and I am still in the process of perfecting it.

If you are a musician/producer that found this in the depths of the internet by accident, below are 4 things you can do as a bedroom musician to try and improve uniformity in future releases and projects.

1. Focus around your genres. (The Gravitational Center Analogy) Lay down the genres you associate with the release you want to work on. Maybe you have some in mind now, and it could be that as the composing and recording stages flow, the genres you want to focus on change. Let's take my high school band: we were an indie rock and dream pop outfit. That was our sonic basis.

Now visualize all of the associated genres as gravitational centers, like stars. They might be closer or farther away, but are close enough that they interact in some way.

Around those gravitational centers will be every possible sonic element of your songs: the way the guitar sounds, the way the bass sounds, the drums, the vocals, the lyrics, the song structures, the time signatures, the downbeats... those elements are like planets or asteroids, and they orbit around the gravitational centers, sometimes making complex dances between them.

This is how your music is supposed to be. It needs a coherent relationship between said gravitational cores, which can only be observed when it has a logical interaction between the elements orbiting around them.

In plain terms, it means that the focus should not be ON your genres, but AROUND your genres. Genres are not monolithic entities fully embodied by bands or artists. They are in fact those vague notions (those gravitational cores) that we pin-point only by observing elements that tend to orbit around them.

What elements did I want to take from dream pop for my high school band? I wanted the simple, airy, reverb-laden guitar lines, and the distant vocals. I had to concentrate on that. What did I want from indie rock? The basic yet prominent bass lines, and the tight drum beats. I had to concentrate on that.

So I shouldn't focus on the genres, but indeed on the elements that I associate with those genres. This gives me something much more concrete to work with than a general term and a list of bands.

A huge influence on my music at the time was Deerhunter, but here even Deerhunter is a vague “gravitational core”. What release of theirs influenced me the most back then? It was their second and third albums: Cryptograms and Microcastle respectively.

A lot of my time was spent listening to the songs in those two albums and asking myself what was in those songs that I'd like to have in my music. It was mostly the guitars, the reverb, and at times the drums.

To no surprise, for good part of my life after that I mostly played simple dream pop riffs with the same tones I developed out of studying Cryptograms. I had understood the elements I desired, learned how they worked, redeveloped them in my own way, and applied them to my own compositions. Dissolve and coagulate.

This takes time and patience, especially in your road to create the musical personality for an entire project. Don't try to expedite it.

2. Start testing it out with songs. If you are a bedroom musician, you will try out those elements by recording or producing instrument/vocal tracks. If you are a band, it's either that, collective composition, or jamming. I'll focus on the case of bedroom musicians, as that is what I did the most.

This is time for you to start thinking of riffs, harmonies, melodies, beats, maybe even vague timbres. Whenever an idea pops in your head, take the opportunity to grab an instrument or open your DAW and bring that to life as fast as possible. Once it has been established, record it with your phone or whatever is at hand.

Listen to the repertoire of musical elements and motifs you have and ponder about them. Think of what music could be built around them. When you feel ready, properly record a motif on your DAW and start building around it.

This is an early stage. You are trying to achieve those elements you thought of in the first step, so you shouldn't be afraid to trash whole racks of effects, re-do entire guitar timbres, re-record lines, change the composition entirely, reprogram the drums all over... no matter how much effort is necessary/lost, admit when some element is unbecoming, and do what you must do to approach a sound you enjoy.

The result will either be exactly what you imagined, or something different that still sounds satisfying to you. Regardless of whether this will all be kept for the final version of the song, the process is what reinforces your ability to remain musically coherent.

This is a thing I lacked entirely in my past projects. Whatever I recorded at first was what I'd have in the end. Whatever I mixed for the first time drilled into my mind the notion of what the song was going to be forever. My perception of a track was like a stone sculpture. However, that couldn't be farther from the truth, as a song can change if provided the possibility. All I have to do is abandon my perception of what it is and go back to pursuing what I wish for it to be.

3. Use a single set of philosophies for each release. Imagine a hypothetical Nirvana album. All of the songs have the popular trio, however, a part of the album has been mixed by Steve Albini, another part by Butch Vig, and another by Jack Endino, all of this done in the exact same studio.

It's safe to say that hypothetical album would sound like a chimera. It would probably sound sick, albeit absolutely bonkers, like the producer couldn't settle on a sound, or like the band had to change recording studios every week or so.

That's because the mixing obviously changes the way a song sounds. Many people would be able to tell that “Breed” is a Nevermind song, because the mixing is particular to that album, which was done by Butch Vig. In another case, “In Bloom” has two versions: the first one is similar to how Bleach sounded (I don't know if Jack Endino mixed it), and the other is a clear fit with Nevermind. If you added the old version of In Bloom to Nevermind, it would sound like a bonus track.

This enlightens the fact that you should maintain a single set of production and mixing philosophies for each of your releases, especially when you are dealing with “band” music. Avoid using too many different amplifiers and microphones, changing your guitar's pickup position unnecessarily, or singing with completely different intonation for each song. If you are going to route all instrument tracks to a room reverb channel, try to ensure it is similar or the same for every song. Be precise with the EQ and compressors, and try to approximate the same feel on the frequency spectrums of songs within the same release; if one song sounds too rich in the lows and the next too rich in the mids without apparent reason (e.g. different instrumentation), that can sound quite off.

This is also something I completely ignored in the past, and the results were atrocious. I only ever hit a good spot with production/mixing consistency in two releases: once accidentally in a 3-song demo, and the second time in my latest release. The secret is to focus, be patient, be open for repetition, and understand your limitations.

4. Once you've walked far, walk back for a while. Yes, this sounds counterintuitive, perhaps frustrating, but you have to do it. Once you got however many songs in the process of producing a release, make a hypothetical track list and pay attention to how the songs would interact. Do they work genre-wise? Do you feel your release would occupy a space too broad stylistically than what you'd deem preferable? Separate the songs that don't function well together and remove them from the release. Any empty space can be filled by future compositions. Culling songs like this will hurt, it will feel like wasted work, nonetheless, this can be extremely important to achieve uniformity.

I only recently learned to do this well, and of 7 songs I had for the EP I'm working on currently, I culled a bunch (most being genuinely good songs) down to 3. Now I am composing new music to have more material for the release.

Take into account two Radiohead releases: Kid A and Amnesiac. Amnesiac is dubbed by some as “Kid B”, because it was recorded at the same time as Kid A, and its release might seem like an afterthought in a certain way. Some songs feel like B-sides despite being great compositions. “Knives Out”, for example, has a chord progression incredibly reminiscent of “Paranoid Android” from an even earlier release. (Quick and dirty as I got lazy, but should play it yourself to notice the way they are composed is too similar for coincidence. Paranoid: Cm, A#/Cm, F/Cm, Gm, Em7 || Knives: Cm, A#6, G#Maj7, Gm, F6, E7)

Why did Radiohead choose to cull all the Amnesiac tracks off Kid A? The reasons are many. But Kid A and Amnesiac are very functional albums on their own, and even though some songs could be exchanged between them (“In Limbo” may have been a good fit for Amnesiac too), they work smoothly with the track listing they ended up with.

Keep in mind that the songs which ended up in Amnesiac didn't get kicked out of Kid A for being worse songs, but for not fitting what Radiohead envisioned for the album. Understand that you aren't going to choose the best songs, the songs with the best hooks, or the songs that sound the coolest. You are going to select good songs that create a coherent body for your release.

Radiohead are kings of doing this. Some of their best songs are B-sides or even demos: 4 Minute Warning, Go Slowly, Fog, How I Made My Millions (you can hear Yorke’s now deceased ex-wife in the background)... their quality alone wasn't enough for Radiohead to select them as part of a main release's track list.

Beach House is another good example. When replying to someone who said all their album tracks sounded like B-sides, they agreed, and explained that was by design. Beach House isn't selecting all their poppy songs to populate their main releases, but the ones that better exhibit their vision. For better uniformity, you should try doing similar.

[fashionsummedup]

Fashion designer, Gualtiero Walter Albini was born in Busto Arsizio, Italy, on March 3, 1941.

Although his family preferred ifhe coursed classical studies, such as law and medicine, Albini decided to join the Institute of Arts, Design and Fashion in Turin and at 16 he was the only man on the course.

At just 17 years old he started to contribute to magazines and newspapers, which published his drawings of haute couture fashion shows in Rome and after Paris.

In 1961 he moved to Paris, where he met Coco Chanel. Over the time they spent together, the designer helped him increase his knowledge of fashion, polished him and sometimes helped him by editing his collections. She was also one of the sources of constant inspiration for Albini.

In 1963 he created his first collection for Gianni Baldini.

Soon after he met the fashion designer Mariuccia Mandelli known as Krizia. In 1965 he moved to Milan, and formed a partnership with the designer that lasted three years. With this partnership he gained a lot of technical and industrial knowledge, learning to deal with everything from knitting to the study of threads, from the production of clothes to the study of fabrics. In the last year of the partnership, Walter Albini also worked with the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld who was at the beginning of his career.

Walter ALbini for Krizia. Second half of the 1960s.

In the late 1960s he worked for major Italian houses like Billy Ballo, Cadette, Cole of California, Montedoro, Glans, Annaspina, Paola Signorini and Trell.

Albini began a collaboration with Gimmo Etro, creator of Etro (who at the time worked as a fabric manufacturer), in which he was responsible for the design of the fabrics made.

In 1969, like Karl Lagerfeld, he participated in the “Idea Como” event, sponsored by the Italian Silk Producers Association, with the intention of showing which items would be used in 1970, with a union of color and style.

In 1970 he presented the Anagrafe collection for Misterfox with eight brides in long pink dresses and eight widows in short black dresses; shortly afterwards he presented a PréRafaelita collection that made clear his power to mix cultural passions and fashion; another example was the following collection, called Rendez-vous, which featured fabrics with prints and embroidery inspired by Art Deco.

By this time Albini was very successful and was one of the most sought after Italian designers, but unfortunately in many cases he was unable to sign his work, maintaining his own brand as a dream.

Until the Ftm group bought the right to distribute clothes made by him. Thus, for the first time Albini worked with 5 different brands from different sectors in a single project, creating a union and helping him to consolidate his style.

Creating an unique line, to present it also in a unique way, he chose, instead of the Bianca room in the Pitti Palace in Venice, to parade it in Milan, at the Circolo del Giordino. Caumont, Ken Scott, Krizia, Missoni and Trell also adopted the new place, creating what is considered the birth of the Italian ready-to-wear and Italian fashion week as we know it today.

This was an important moment for fashion, as the way the clothes were produced and the relationship with the consumer was changing. Haute couture as it was in the 1950s, for example, was giving way more and more to ready-to-wear and the new relationship with the fashion designer.

Milan was also closer to the factories for both fabric manufacturing and the machines and tools used to produce a fashion product. It was a time when all fashion production was being rethought.

With the Fall / Winter 1971-72 collection he also innovated in the way of exhibiting products in specialized magazines. Now he presented only drawings and used the concept of “groupage” in which the clothes were displayed in a single block, according to the designer; magazine pages were also paid by suppliers and not by brands or designers.

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In the following collection, Spring / Summer 1972, known as “La Bardierine” or “Le Marinarette” Albini presented a model with bare breasts and some male models. One of the highlights paraded by the male models was the loose shirt, which until then had always been tight. In addition, he also worked with Etro designing the fabrics they produced.

The media now followed him calling him the “new Italian star”.

In April 1972 he presented the Fall / Winter 1972-73 collection, which was very rich and long.

The international media hailed him and considered him as strong as Yves Saint Laurent. Meanwhile, the Italian media treated him more coldly.

Discouraged he broke the contract with all suppliers and distributors with the exception of Misterfox, for which he presented the Spring / Summer 1973 collection, with it’s fashion show in Milan.

The dream of having his own brand was still alive and he decided to create the Walter Albini brand, within Misterfox, and for that he created his famous WA logo.

Walter Albini’s WA logo.

Finally, with the help of Mrs. Joan Burnstein, owner of the Browns brand, walter Albini was able to present his own collection in which 6 male and 27 female models were presented in London. The collection was titled The Great Gatsby, in honor of one of his heroes, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

In this show he presented the unstructured coat and the shirt coat, important pieces for Italian fashion. It was the first time that the strategy of presenting a first line of the collection with stronger and more significant models with restricted sales, which was later supported by a second line of the same collection with more basic and easily accepted models, with sales pretensions for the mass, was used.

In 1973 he opened a showroom in Milan. The space was all mirrored and used to showcase Misterfox collections.

In Venice he bought a house, and presented the WA Autumn / Winter 1973-74 collection at Caffè Florian, which was presented again in New York.

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At this point Walter Albini had international recognition, but even so he did not have the support of any solid commercial organization, so the following years, 1974 and 1975, were years of crisis, even though he continued to amaze people with his collections, creating even paisley and millefiori prints and those inspired by cashmere, which were successful in the clothing and furniture department.

Throughout his career Albini created several prints ranging from polka dots, stars, stripes to faces, dancers, dogs and even the face of the Prince of Wales.

He specialized in creating a total look, and even went so far as to create coordinated collections that combined his clothes with home furnishing accessories published in Casa Vogue magazine.

For the Fall / Winter 1974-75 collection he decided to make an exhibition, in his showroom in Milan, of illustrations of the clothes made from 1962 to 1972.

Shortly after the exhibition he ended the contract with Misterfox and left the Milan showroom.

He then traveled extensively, especially to India. These trips inspired his next collection. And yet in 1974 he innovated again by parading a men’s collection alone, separate from the women’s.

In 1975, in partnership with Giuseppe Della Schiava, a silk supplier, Albini presented his first haute couture collection for Spring / Summer. The collection was inspired by Chanel and the 1930s, two of his passions. Next came the Fall / Winter collection from 1975-76, in which the fashion show’s soundtrack consisted of 25 different versions of the song La Vie en Rose, it was completely pink and was also inspired by Chanel and Paul Poiret. As for the ready-to-wear collection, he again partnered with Trell and presented some of his most famous collections such as “Guerriglia Urbana”, “India” and “Folk”.

The fall / winter 1975-76 men’s collection was presented in a restaurant in Milan. The clothes were worn by both men and women, reinforcing the concept of unisex.

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The Spring / Summer collection was also presented in a restaurant this time featuring beige and black busts that reproduced his image. For the Fall / Winter 1976-77 collection he presented a series of portraits of himself wearing clothes from the collection; these photos were taken by his photographer friends.

Among the collections made by Albini that are considered “cult” is the one made in 1977 at Galeria Anselmino in Milan. To display the collection, 12 panels were presented with a mix of clothes that were lent by friends and even by himself, reinforcing the concept that what really matters is the art of knowing how to mix clothes and accessories.

In 1977 he was responsible for an exhibition of penis personalized as celebrities and signed with their names; some of the “honorees” were Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, Mickey Mouse and even the devil.

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In 1978 Albini ended his contract with Trell and relaunched his brand, Walter Albini, with Mario Ferrari, presenting three more successful collections.

The Fall / Winter 1978-79 collection was long awaited, was showcased in front of 3 thousand spectators and was a great success. The subsequent collection, Spring / Summer 1979, was also a success.

The Fall / Winter 1979-80 collection was the last with the partnership with Ferrari.

With the arrival of the new 1980s the media was looking for something new, and started to put Albini aside. In the midst of day-to-day anxieties and financial difficulties, the designer’s creativity was shaken.

He still made collections for Helyette, Lanerossi, Lane Gravitz and Peprose, but the media had already lost interest.

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Walter Albini lost his motivation, and on May 31, 1983 he died in Milan at the age of 42.

The fashion designer was responsible for several collections that liberated women with clothes inspired frequently by Chanel, the 1920s and 1930s, the designer Poiret and the exoticism of places like India and even some aspects of Chinese culture. He innovated not only with pieces of clothing but also in the way of presenting them, innovating in the use of soundtrack and show locations; in the use of unisex models as well as in the decision to hold a male-only fashion show.

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Bibliography: Allan, Georgina O’Hara; Enciclopédia da Moda: De 1840 À Década de 90: Companhia das Letras, 2010.

https://amodaresumida.wordpress.com/2016/10/09/albini-walter/

http://walteralbini.org/en/biografia/

http://www.vogue.it/en/news/encyclo/designers/a/walter-albini

http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/A-Az/Albini-Walter.html

https://fashionheritage.eu/walter-albini-power-to-imagination/

https://www.magazzino26.it/walter-albini/?lang=en

https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/fashion-s-unsung-designers-walter-albini/201603301990

ALbini, Walter Fashion designer, Gualtiero Walter Albini was born in Busto Arsizio, Italy, on March 3, 1941. Although his family preferred ifhe coursed classical studies, such as law and medicine, Albini decided to join the Institute of Arts, Design and Fashion in Turin and at 16 he was the only man on the course.

[boozeymustdie]

Feature Story: Frank Iero

OCTOBER 8, 2017 BY BECTON SIMPSON

Frank Iero and Bec

Frank Iero is a busy man.

So far this year, he’s been involved in a serious bus crash in Australia, toured with Taking Back Sunday, made an appearance at Slam Dunk festival, played with the all stellar line up of Thrice, Rise Against and the Deftones, and now he’s released a brand new EP, Keep The Coffins Coming, and has embarked on a month-long tour of the UK and Europe in what he describes as “the first headlining tour for Parachutes.”

After the accident down under that left him and a couple of his bandmates banged up in hospital, Frank Iero and the Patience were thrown off kilter for a while and plans were put on hold. So, despite the release of Parachutes in late 2016, this is actually the first time Frank has had the chance to tour it properly, as a headliner rather than a support act. It’s now ended up being a ‘double tour’ for both Parachutes and Keep The Coffins Coming.

“I like to multitask as much as possible,” laughs Frank. “Feels like it’s been almost a year in the making though, y’know?”

We’re sat in a darkened corridor backstage at the Academy in our makeshift ‘office’ with a couple of mismatched chairs we’ve managed to squander from the Student’s Union. It’s half an hour before the doors open, and as we chat, we’re also listening to the sounds of Frank’s excellent line up of support bands soundchecking a few rooms down – the Paceshifters, The Homeless Gospel Choir, and Dave Hause & The Mermaid.

Despite his own soundcheck going on fifteen minutes longer than expected, Frank seems relaxed and happy. His laid-back manner and cheeky sense of humour make him easy to interview, and the passion when he talks about his music and inspirations shines through. The fact that Frank has been to the UK no less than three times in the space of twelve months is no coincidence.

“I really do fucking love it here. I really do,” he says enthusiastically. “I feel like as a young person, I didn’t truly understand all the history of it. I got held up on the hardships of travel, and didn’t get to enjoy it as much…” And he has similar words to say about the touring lifestyle in general. “I’m incredibly thankful for all those opportunities to get to see all this. I mean, it’s unreal. That education is unlike anything else you can possibly get. You start to have this real worldly view. You realise that being a big fish in a little pond is worth nothing. There’s so much more out there. So many people out there, so many cultures out there, so many things to experience and to do and to see.”

Frank talks like an excited, wide-eyed boy, still in awe of the world around him, despite having been in a touring band since he was a teenager and now approaching 36 years old. Perhaps it is this consistently fresh outlook that always seems to keep him on the road. He still enjoys it, and very rarely takes time off.

“There’s something to be said about creating and getting to play, y’know? I’ve done that for so long, I don’t know what my life is like without it,” he readily admits, but he also insists that next year he is definitely having some time to himself and his family.

“I’m telling you, this is it,” he insists with a playful giggle after I express doubt over his ability to avoid the addictive lure of the road. “At the end of this year, I’m gonna take some time. I swear to God. I keep saying that, I do, but I actually made the phone call two days ago. I had stuff ready for next year, and I fucking canceled it.”

Then, adopting a more serious tone and speaking in a reflective murmur I can barely hear above the noise in the next room, he admits, “I think this year’s just been a little too much for me, and I think it’s put a lot of things in perspective. I think I need 2018 to be mine.”

It really is fair enough, considering everything Frank went through at the beginning of the year, and how busy he’s been since that, bouncing back doubly hard in a way that a lot of people couldn’t. Plus, he has a wife and three kids at home who are bound to miss him when he’s away, and finding the work/life balance is always tough.

“It’s like a tightrope, and I think that you spend a lot of time trying to make everyone happy and end up not succeeding so much. And then everyone’s miserable and so are you! I think you owe it to yourself to kinda take a step back and get your head straight and kind of figure out who you are without this, y’know?”

Then, never quite able to stay serious for too long, he adds with a little twinkle, “Plus, if you’re on the road, you’re probably not in certain cities, probably in Brazil, that people are going to be very upset about!”

It’s no secret that Frank’s fanbase is widespread and worldwide, and when he doesn’t tour those cities and countries, he gets frequently pestered about it on Twitter. His online relationship with his fans has been well documented in the rock press, and he definitely gives as good as he gets. Although recently, a lot of the Twitter hype in his fanbase has been surrounding the recent release of his brand new record, Keep The Coffins Coming, which has so far has been met with warm reception and favourable reviews.

Despite it being a ‘new’ release, the four tracks on the EP are not new songs and were in fact recorded before Parachutes. Frank has been sitting on this one for a long time, and he goes on to explain why it seemed like the right time to release these very special tracks.

“When I recorded this, it was really something I did just for me. I’d just finished touring on Stomachaches, and I had a conversation with Paul, my manager, and he said, ‘Alright, well what’s next? What do you wanna do?’ And I said, ‘I don’t really know. I have some songs, but I don’t know what the next thing is just yet.’ And he’s like, ‘What are things that you’ve always wanted to do that you’ve never gotten to do?’ So, we made a list – a bucket list – of people I wanted to work with, things I wanted to accomplish. And he was like, ‘Alright, let’s start checking them off,’ and one of those was to work with Steve Albini.”

Albini is something of a legend in the music industry, having produced records for Nirvana, the Pixies, and Jawbreaker to name a few, and Frank readily admits “he’s someone that made me want to create and make records” and that he’s wanted to work with him “since I was like, 11!”

Frank’s childhood dream finally came true when his manager placed a phone call, and before he knew it, he was in the studio. For Frank, it was a fulfilling and exciting experience, but also an eye-opening one on a personal level that ultimately led to him choosing Ross Robinson as the producer for Parachutes.

“Steve’ll tell you, ‘I’m not a producer. I’m an engineer, and I want to facilitate your vision.’ He’s very hands-off, and I think that’s because of experiences he’s had in his formative years of becoming an engineer and learning the recording process. He saw one of his favourite bands get kind of railroaded by a producer, and he said, ‘I’m never going to do that again. I just want to showcase bands’…and he’s booked constantly because of that, and also because he is such a genius and such a talented engineer and guy…he knows his shit. So, when we got in there, I didn’t know how much time we were going to have or what we were going to do. His process was very confidence-building in that he said to me, ‘The reason you’re here is because you know what you’re doing. I’m not gonna come in here and tell you how to play your songs.’ And that was amazing, but I still felt like I was…on my own in that realm, y’know? Which is cool…but I had done that with Stomachaches. I did it all by myself. I didn’t have anybody else to bounce ideas of off; it was very DIY. And yes, for this, Steve would be behind the board and micing things and getting the sounds that I wanted. But there wasn’t someone there who would really get to the core of what these songs were about and push me farther. It was all on me. And I knew that I needed to – these songs demanded that. And that’s why the record was done by Ross.”

As for the track choice on Keep The Coffins Coming, at least one of them will be familiar to casual Patience fans – “I’m A Mess” – which is featured in its final form on Parachutes and is given a different lease on life with this earlier and slightly rawer version.

And those who have been following Frank’s solo career from the beginning may also have an awareness of the other tracks on the album. “BFF,” for example, was originally released back in 2014.

“That was a song my daughter wrote that I did in my basement before even Stomachaches,” explains Frank. “And when I knew I was working with Steve, I handpicked that song because I knew I wanted to do a full band version of it…I thought that…just the tendencies of that song and the way I heard it in my head…what it could be…it was a perfect Steve Albini song.”

Then there’s “You Are My Sunshine,” a cover of an old classic, of course, and one which Frank used to whip out and play live on stage occasionally.

“No Fun Club” is an interesting one. It’s probably the noisiest and punkiest of the four tracks. It has gone on a musical journey of its own, reforming and taking shape into something else entirely, although the music is still roughly based on a joke song Frank released some years ago…

“It’s not the first thing I released but like…around the first couple of EPs and 7 inches I did on my own under my solo ‘career,’ I put up a song on Soundcloud called “Xmas Sux.” It was just kinda this thing that I threw together in an hour in my basement, and it was just an experiment to see if I could do these types of things. As soon as I put it up I was like, ‘I kinda really like this song, but it’s a joke.’ I didn’t really put too much thought into it, but I liked that I could take that and make it something important. It’s this idea that songs don’t die until you say they’re done with them. I can have that idea and mold it and grow it and evolve it years later, and form it into something that has some gravity – and actually has some meaning behind it and a purpose.”

Evolution is a key theme on this EP, and even for Frank in general, who is constantly changing the name of his band.

“It’s not just to confuse people,” he laughs. “It’s to keep me interested. Every record, the band name is gonna change. The original idea when I was formulating what Parachutes was gonna be, I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll do two records, a double record. One will be Patience and one will be Patients,’ but it didn’t make sense to split those songs up when it came to fruition. It just felt like a full record. So this time around, after the whole experience in Australia and stuff like that, it was just my own clever little way of being able to change the band name up again.”

I tell him I think it’s a cool idea to which he replies, without missing a beat, “I think it’s cool too,” before cracking up in a fit of giggles. But Frank’s not the kind of guy to use throwaway, unimportant titles for anything – either for his band names or his records. Wordplay and meaning are clearly important to him, so it goes without saying that Keep The Coffins Coming wasn’t just chosen simply to keep up his dark emo credentials. There’s a much deeper and more interesting message behind that choice of words.

“With Stomachaches, I could trace every song back to a feeling of illness. With Parachutes, every song was a story about feeling safe or an instance that allows you to kind of enjoy life or experience that fall. This…this is more like…these ideas, these songs, these creations that we have. We relinquish control of them, and we send them out into the world…almost like sending the bodies home from war…and if you can continue that process of creating and inspiring, creating and inspiring, and never letting these ideas fizzle out…just keep them coming and coming and coming. Then hopefully, even beyond our own mortal souls, these things will carry on.”

Inspiring words, indeed, Frank, and we certainly hope you’re right!

Keep The Coffins Coming is out now on Hassle Records, iTunes and all your usual music providers. You can still catch Frank Iero on tour if you’re in the UK until 21st October. You probably should try and do that – he’s pretty damn good. Check out frank-iero.com for dates.

Link to Article

[callmeblake]

Posted on September 22, 2017 at 1:00 AM by Erin Spencer

[Erin Spencer/AltWire]: The new EP, Keep The Coffins Coming is an interesting title, what’s the meaning behind it?

[Frank Iero]: I started to think about how as artists we need to relinquish control of our creations in order to release them into the world and fulfill that final stage of art. Killing off ideas as we go and shipping the bodies home. These songs are my creations and I am sending them out into the world hopeful they will be born again in the form of inspiration to others.

[AW]: You said you wanted to work with legendary producer Steve Albini since you were 11, what was it like finally getting to do that?

[FI]: Definitely a dream come true. I feel incredibly lucky to have had that experience. I learned so much in those three days and it was unlike any other recording experience I’ve ever had.

[AW]: Which of all the albums Steve Albini has worked on made you want to work with him the most?

[FI]: That’s difficult to choose just one to be honest. His work with the Pixies, Breeders, the Ghost, and Nirvana were all such huge influences on me. Jawbreaker’s 24 Hour Revenge Therapy also completely shook me to my core. These Albini records shaped the way I wanted to hear music. He captured some of my favorite bands of all time in such a magnificent way. The music surrounds you, and you know you are experiencing something important and raw.

[AW]: How much did working with Steve Albini influence the sound of the EP?

[FI]: Immensely. He’s such a pro and so gifted. He mics up quickly and efficiently and if you describe a sound you’re going for he knows how to get it in a timely fashion. It’s so important to the process to have someone at the desk that knows their shit. It sucks the life out of a session if you’re waiting on someone to fiddle through and waste time getting things wrong. Steve just knows what he’s doing and it makes the process so much easier and prolific.

[AW]: How do you think your fans will receive Keep The Coffins Coming?  

[FI]: I think for a fan, this EP is something really special to hear. It gives a lot of insight into how I got from Stomachaches to Parachutes. Plus it’s a really fun listen on its own. It works as both a stand alone piece and a bridge between records.

[AW]: And how would you sum up Frank Iero and the Patients (formerly Cellabration) to someone unfamiliar with your music?

[FI]: I don’t know I hate doing stuff like that. It feels like a rock and roll based art project at times, but I think it takes just as long for you to listen to a song as it does to read my half-assed description of it.

[AW]: You have been touring pretty solidly for the last few months, what new things are you bringing to your show for the upcoming tour?

[FI]: This tour, that actually starts tomorrow (9/20), is going to be really fun. We’re planning a few different sets for the tour and playing songs that really span the entire catalogue of the band. From the first song I ever released as a solo artist, to songs off of every release since. I’m real excited to see how the audiences react.

[AW]: When you’re on the road for so long, is touring still fun? What do you do to make it more enjoyable?

[FI]: I think it can still be fun, but it can also be incredibly painful. I’m never a fan of being away from my family for long periods of time. However I think I’ve learned to tour smarter. Not going out for marathon runs, and making sure to take bands and people along that make the travel enjoyable, that sort of thing helps alleviate some of the hardships.

[AW]: By now you have probably been through hundreds of them so what is your all time favorite guitar and of course why is it so special?

[FI]: Oh man, they all have a soul and a personality. Some you just get along with better than others. But each one is different and has something to offer. There have been a few though over the years that definitely stand out. My first guitar was a Fernandez Strat copy that my dad bought me for my 12th birthday, then there was my Gibson SG I bought myself much later on that up getting smashed onstage and now rests in a coffin my father in law built in my living room. Then there was pansy, a white Epiphone Les Paul elitist, that made the rounds for a few years in the MCR revenge days, and 131 is my main Epiphone Phantomatic that’s been smashed and fixed and smashed and fixed and still rides every show. There’s also a 65 Fender Jaguar that is only used for writing and recording. She has a very special place in my heart and helped me write some songs I really love.

[AW]: Lastly what would you do if you couldn’t play music anymore?

[FI]: I don’t know just yet but I must say I think about that more and more these days. I don’t think I will ever stop playing and writing music but touring is something I think I need less of in my life these days. I think I’d like to write a book and work on art in different mediums.

[sebastiankurz]

Know more about Italian Interior Designers and their influence

Italy and Italian Design have always presented us with several strong and powerful examples of luxury and quality design works, inspirations and projects that put our imagination and design taste in overdrive! Let’s have a deeper look at the way Italian Interior Designers have changed design as many people used to know it.

From amazing Home Interior Projects or stunning Contract Examples to incredible Showcases or Expositions in some of Italy’s top Galleries, in this top guide/ article, you’ll find the Best of the Best of Italian Design and Italian Creativity! We’ll go beyond the Luxury Brands and the Luxury Designers and we’ll show you the Backstage and the true Nature, Quality and Creativity of the grand world of Italian Design and Interior Design!

The Italian Influence in Europe

If you’re paying attention, then you know that Italian Design is one of the main sources of inspiration for the world’s industry of Interior Design. It’s almost impossible to find a Top Brand or Designer that never showcased a project with Italien Influences. This proves the range and the power that the Italian Industry Design in the world!

Portugal, for example, isn’t an exception. Even though Portugal and Italy share many Craftsmanship Values, like the love for Woodworking or the passion for ancient techniques involving Glass or Jewellery, we can say for sure that many of today’s Portuguese top brands and designers get some inspiration form the Italian Designer, in fact many of the designers of the top Portuguese brands studied in Italy!

A stunning luxury brand that perfectly balances the Portuguese Design Values with the Italian Design Inspirations is Boca do Lobo. This stunning brand with a high focus on craftsmanship provides glorious pieces that combine craftsmanship techniques, values and inspirations with some luxury and opulent style. Their pieces are a full example of how Art, Design and Craftsmanship can work together to create stunning pieces. Do you want the perfect piece of Boca do Lobo that combines the best of Portugal and Italy? Then we highly recommend you take a look at the stunning Fortuna Dining Tale!

Other brands from other parts of the world also mimic the style of the Italians. Take for instance the incredible and late Zaha Hadid that clearly got some inspiration from the modern architectural lines created by Gio Ponti in Italy! Her design brand mimics the same style and we can perfectly envision any Zaha Hadid piece in a modern Italian villa!

Luxury Brands that Are Vehicles for the Italian Style and Italian Designers

 Italy is home to some of the biggest Luxury Design Groups in the World and some of the most expensive and popular designer brands on the planet! These brands are the direct result of everything that we’ve talked above. They are the end refined result of years of Italian Design Style and Progressive Refinement that was provoked by some of the biggest and most talented designers and creative minds of Italy!

The luxury basis of top brands like Fendi Casa, Roberto Cavalli Home, Missoni, Seletti, Kartell, Baxter, Bugatti Home, Armani Casa, Versace Home, Porada, Poltrona Frau, Cassina, Flexform, B&B Italia or Molteni can all be traced to the same origin: Italian Craftsmanship and Italian Classic Furniture Style.

Every single one of the brands mentioned above, as well as many others that focus on Italian Design, get their inspiration from the biggest Italian Craftsmanship Ideas, Art and Inspirations! They embody the Italian Design Style and the values of Italien Furniture that are based on Elegance, Luxury, Craftsmanship and Durability!

That’s why all the major Interior Designers of Itlay have collaborated, at one time or another, with these Top and Luxury Brands and that’s why the value of these two pillars of Italian Interior Design are linked and they will always be linked. We risk saying that if Gio Ponti and other Masters of Design didn’t inspire or collaborated with these brands, there wouldn’t be a Fendi Casa or a Poltrona Frau as we know them today!

Legends of Italian Design

Gio Ponti

Alongside with Mendini, Gio Ponti was also part of the Modernity Movement of the Italian Design! This two Italian design icons helped elevate the Design Industry in this country and in Milano, and they both had a powerful contribution in the progressive transformation of this cultural hub into the top Design Capital of the country and into one of the Design Capitals of Europe!

  On his own, Ponti is considered the father of modern Italian design, but to be fair he was only one part of a much larger movement: But no one doubts that Ponti was one of the ones that started the Design Movement in Italy and he developed a method of introducing his prolific work and method to the entire industry.

There was little that Ponti couldn’t do. He trained as an Architect and in this Job, he created some of Italy’s most stunning and modern structures, like the Pirelli Tower, a statement of Modern Italian Architecture and a Vehicle for the Modernity of Design! But he also made a name for himself designing ceramics, glassware, and furniture, in fact, his life work was at the basis of some of the great design brands of today!

Alessandro Mendini

We’ll start with the beginning and by this, we mean to say that we’ll star with the Legends and Icons that Inspired and Kickstarted the Growth of the Italian Design Industry. One of those legends recently left us in 2019, and his name is Alessandro Mendini! This top product designer was one of the Fathers of Modern Italian Design and during his long and prestigious career he helped shape the incredible industry of Italian Furniture and it’s amazing Craftsmanship Style!

Famed for designs that include the iconic Proust Armchair, Mendini was one of those Legends who were at the front row of the radical design of the Italian Modernity movement that started in the 1960’s. He produced some of the most stunning projects, but at the backstage, he also helped Italy’s Editorial/ Media business to grow to incredible new heights with his incredible inside knowledge of Design!

Other relevant names

With their powerful and unique style, Ponti and Mendini will always be remembered as the Founding Fathers of Modern Italian Design, but they must share this status for all eternity with other great design icons, namely Achille Castiglioni, Gae Aulenti, Joe Colombo, Franco Albini, Mario Bellini, Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Enzo Mari, Carlo Mollino, Carlo Scarpa or Marco Zanuso! As you can see, Italy’s Design History is rich in Design Influences and Amazing Creators, and that’s why this is one of the Top Design Markets in the World.

Top Italian Interior Designers of Today

Antonio Citterio

Legends like Ponti or Bellini inspired all of the great Architects and Product or Interior Designers of today’s Italian Design Industry. We can’t find one Great Name of Today’s Design that isn’t inspired by at least one of the names mentioned before and that says a lot about the legacy that those legends left the Designers of Today. In fact, some of the Top Designers of today were Mentored by those Legends of the Past.

One of the top names of today’s Italian Design is Antonio Citterio.  Like all the design legends that inspired his youth, Citterio started his career in Milano and like his hero, Gio Ponti, Citterio started his Academic and Professional life as an Architect. From 1987 to 1996, Citterio worked in association with Terry Dwan in several amazing buildings in Europe and Japan, but after many years spent designing buildings, Citterio also decided to follow the footsteps of Ponti and became a prominent Furniture and Industrial Designers!

In the capacity of Product Designer, Citterio helped shape the World and Style of some Top Italian Brands of Today, namely Vitra, Ansorg, Arclinea, Axor-Hansgrohe, B&B Italia, Flexform, Flos, Hermès, Iittala, Kartell, Maxalto, Sanitec (Geberit Group) or Technogym! All of them showcase in their most popular Collections of all time at least one piece designed by Citterio and those pieces bear his amazing trademark style that boosts Italian Modernity and a more Contemporary Vibe!

The versatility of Citterio also reaches the world of Interior Design Projects. To better pursue this career, Citterio founded, in 2000, with Patricia Viel, the Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel Studio, a cross-disciplinary practice for architecture and interior design that is always developing complex projects on all scales in collaboration with a qualified network of specialist consultants. one of this firm’s top project was the incredible BULGARI HOTEL in Shanghai in 2018, where Citterio and Biel used that Iconic Touch of the famous designer by promoting the use of modern Chairs and Tables!

Dimore Studio

Also related to the world of Luxury Interior Design we can find another major name of the current Design Industry in Italy. We are of course talking about the Dimore Studio, another heavy hitter studio based in Milano that’s quickly becoming an International Trend Setter.  Head Designers Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran both invested in their individual experience and founded in 2003 this now prestigious studio on the hopes that this institution could become a beacon for Italian Design!

And that’s precisely what this studio has become. With a focus on Design Art and Fashion, the Dimore Studio have collaborated in the past few years of some of the great names of Italian craftsmanship like Ceramica Bardelli, but their list of clients/ partnerships also includes some top names of Italian Luxury, like Fendi. In fact, Dimore Studio was responsible for the redesign of some of the most iconic Fendi Shops in Italy and they work closely with this brand in their Design Projects in Italy.

Fendi knows that Dimore will always represent the Essence of Italian Design and, since Fendi it’s also a Top Italian Ambassador, they know that only a Great Name of Italian Design can perfectly recreate the image that they want to transmit! This love of the Dimore Studio for the World of Art and the Style of Italian Design led it’s Head Designers to create the Dimore Gallery, a top Design Gallery in the Heart of Milano where this studio pays a constant tribute to the past, present and future inspirations and products of Italy!

Karim Rashid

We couldn’t pass the opportunity of mentioning another great name of Italian Design, but like the other Two Giants mentioned earlier, this one is native of Italy but his influence is well present in the Italian Design Industry. That’s right, Karim Rashid design impresses because of the quantity (over 3000 pieces produced, 300 prizes and presence in 40 countries), diversity (furniture design, spaces, product, new technology, lighting, packaging, fashion, identity, surfaces and not only) and modernity and it’s this versatility that led him to focus in Italy, as well as France in Canada.

Rashied studied in Italy and that’s why is style is influenced by the Italian Style of Design. Even though we can trace his origins to French Design, it was in Italy that Rashid learns all of the skills and absorbed all the influences that allow him to become that top Interior and Product Designer that he is today.

That’s why Rashis is, like Dimore and Citterio, a top and recurrent presence in all the major Design Events in Italy and a Top Reference for all major luxury brands, publications, galleries and design museums of Italy. There are many other names of today’s Italian Design that are also shared with other Cultures and Countries. One of those top designers is Patricia Urquiola!

You can also check out: A little look at the Ancient Crafts Behind High-End Furniture Brands

Patricia Urquiola

 Top collaborator of Kartell and a regular presence at the prestigious Salone del Mobile event, Urquiola is one of today’s faces of French Design, but it’s also impossible to disassociate her name with the Italian Design Industry. In fact, Urquiola is one of the patrons of Italian Craftsmanship, in fact, in 2018 she was the Guest of Honor of Homo Faber, a top Craftsmanship Event in Venice where she presented a strong showcase of her Colorful Style mixed with the Craftsmanship Values of Italy, namely the love of this country for Hand Made and Elaborate products in Wood and Glass!

With stunning projects around the world, including Italy, Urquiola always manages to bring to her Italian Designs and Creations those inspirations that are at the core of her education and that helped her become one of the top designers in the world. From her award-winning project at Hotel Il Sereno in Lake Como to more residential Projects in Central Italy, Urquiola provides each Italian project the passion and the style that characterizes but always adapted to the Italian Culture.

Ludovica and Roberto Palomba

Ludovica and Roberto Palomba are also Top Names of today’s Italian Design! They are the two founders of the Palomba Serafini Associati, a powerful design studio based in Milan, Italy, that was created in 1994. For the past years, they have been collaborating with the most prestigious design brands from all over the world, namely Poltrona Frau, and the majority of their products designed since 1994 is still in production, making them some of the most long-standing design studios in production in Italy!

And like Ludovica and Palomba or all the other names on this List, the very own Italian Style that characterizes many products from the Top Italian Brands can also be found in the heart of the architectural projects of one of Italian architecture biggest names: the award-winning Piero Lissoni, the internationally known architect and designer with a vision for spaces, ambiances and time. Through his works we will see the developing world of architecture in Italy and in the world reflected in his hospitality projects, furniture designs and futuristic ideas.

Art & Design Icons of Italy

It’s not only within the Interior Design Industry or the Architectural Business that the powerful Italian Style is evoked. Also linked to that two powerful industries we have another major vehicle of the Italian Design: The Art World. Well, the relation of Italy with Art is legendary. Most of the major Artists of the World, from the Ancient Art to the Contemporary Age, are Italian or build their careers in Italy, but even though masters like Leonardo DaVinci, Rafael, Donatello or Michelangelo are still strong sources of inspiration for today’s Italian Art Scene, today we are focusing on the Design Art!

It’s within the specific category of the Art World where we can find even more stunning examples of the characteristic Italian Style and Way of Life! There are many big names of the Italian Design Art Scene that mixe their love for both Art and Design and it’s time for us to highlight those names.

Rossana Orlandi

One of the more irreverent names of both the Art & the Design scene is Rossana Orlandi. This Lady of Italian Design is amazing and the perfect example of how the worlds of Interior Design, Art and Craftsmanship can come together under one single roof. That’s precisely what Orlandi tried to do when she opened the Gallery Rossana Orlandi in 2002 in a former tie Factory in the Magenta neighbor.

Galleria Rossana Orlandi has been forecasting along the years new and upcoming designers and establishing the premise as one of the most revered platforms for avant-garde Design and Lifestyle. Started her activity focusing on the rising Dutch design wave with designers such Piet Hein Eek, Maarten Baas and Nacho Carbonell the research has moved widely around the world creating a catalog which reflects the most innovative scenes from Europe to Asia to America, but always with a strong focus on the Italian Inspirations!

Gaetano Pesce

Gaetano Pesce and Piero Fornasetti are other of the two biggest names linked to Craftsmanship, Art and Design. With a passion for Murano Glass and other Italian Classic Design Techniques, such as Wood Craving and Porcelain Work, these two top designers and top instigators of the value of Craftsmanship in the Italian Design Industry are two of the top flagship names of Italian Value in the World of Art and Design!

Piero Fornasetti was one of the top Artists of Italy and, when he died in 1988, his legacy was kept alive by his studio that, till today, is kept in business by a dedicated team of professionals that bring to life in new design projects and pieces the life and work of this Italian master.

You may also like: Matteo Nunziati has designed a new Luxury Penthouse In New York City

Nilufar Gallery, Milan

No wonder their respective work, along with other projects of a few other Italian Art Designers, are constantly on display at some of the Top Italian Design Galleries, like de iconic and worldwide famous Nilufar and Italian. The Art Council of these two and other major Art Galleries in Italy are increasingly responsible for the elevation of Italian Design worldwide and whether it is in Milan, Roma, Florence or Naples, every single major Art Gallery in Italy has one specific mission: Elevate Italian Design & Craftsmanship!

Major Design Events That Are International Vehicles of Italian Design

Needless to say that one of the biggest supporters and partners of the Italian Design Industry is also one of the major design events in the world: The Salone Internazionale del Mobile. This top event was founded in 1961 as a vehicle for promoting Italian furniture and furnishings exports and soon became the most keenly awaited event in the world of furniture.

With spin-off events in Asia and Eastern Europe, the Salone del Mobile is, without a doubt, the most important event of the Design Scene in Italy and one of the most important ones in Europe. It’s at this prestigious event held in Milano that all major Luxury Brands, Designers e Art Promoters come together to celebrate the best that Italy has to offer within the Design Industry.

It’s no coincidence that this event is held in the same week that the prestigious Milan Design Week, a full Design Celebration that transforms Milano in the Design Capital of the World! This is the most important Design Weeks in the World and it’s, without the doubt, one of the biggest showcases of Italian Power in this industry. The entire city lights up with incredible Design Celebrations that mix National and Foreign Designers and Brands that are joined together in Milano to get inspired by the Italian Design Style!

No wonder the Italian Style is considered one of the Fathers of the Design World. The Milano Design Week gives a perfect extension to this title, because at any amazing Design District of the city, like Brera or Tortona, you can witness the perfect balance, innovation, creativity and strength of the Italian Design Culture! All the top designers that we’ve mentioned before, as well as design students, the major design brands in the world, the top foreign designers and many other creative minds from other art related industries all flock to Milano every year to be a part of this celebration and get inspiration from the values of Italian Design.

For a more Crafstmanship Approach then we highly recommend you also pay a visit to Homo Faber, a top Craftsmanship Event that’s held in Venice and that provides enlightenment of all the top Design Techniques and Styles use by the most amazing Italian Artisans in Italy! It’s a celebration of Knowledge, Art, Craftsmanship and Creative Values that you simply cannot miss if you’re mission is to get close to the Italian values!

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from Sebastian Kurz Blog https://www.designbuildideas.eu/know-italian-interior-designers-influence/

[alubaidiya]

Behind The Scenes With Directors Of Fashion-Focused 'Made In Italy' TV Series

Anyone looking for quality clothing today knows to look for the “Made in Italy” label. And now the story behind the label is getting the serial treatment in a new television series from Mediaset, co-produced by Taodue Film and The Family. Created by Camilla Nesbitt, the show will map out the rise of Italy as a global fashion player.

Fashion has always been a key part of Italian heritage since the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when the country produced extravagant textiles that became popular across Europe. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael influenced the fashions of the time in paintings that showcased the country’s wealthy set, draped in decadent velvet, silk and jewels.

Greta Ferro (right) as Irene at Appeal Magazine.

Italy became a key player once again in the '50s and '60s as celebrities from Jackie Kennedy to Audrey Hepburn sought out bespoke work from Gucci and Valentino. But it wasn’t until the '70s that the industry became ingrained in every corner of the world as the everyday consumer craved high-end fashion and street wear that waltzed into stores right off the runway. Milan exploded as the global fashion capital, specializing in ready-to-wear, as brands including Versace, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana opened up shop.

Made in Italy, directed by Luca Lucini and Ago Panini, tells the story through the eyes of Irene Mastrangelo (Greta Ferro), a young journalist who embarks upon a life-changing career at the prestigious fashion magazine Appeal under editor-in-chief Rita Pasini (Margherita Buy).

In the series, Mastrangelo is a firsthand witness to the shift of Italian fashion from haute couture to pret-a-porter as designers including Giorgio Armani (Raoul Bova), Walter Albini (Gaetano Bruno), Krizia’s Mariuccia Mandelli (Stefania Rocca), Gianni Versace (Achille Marciano), Miuccia Prada (Caterina Carpio), Rosita and Ottavio Missoni (Claudia Pandolfi, Enrico Loverso), Elio Fiorucci (Stefano Fregni), Gianfranco Ferre (Silvio Cavallo), Valentino Garavani and more attempt to build their empires.

Greta Ferro as Irene at Appeal Magazine on Made in Italy

The show zeroes in on the personalities, the inspirations and the imaginations of the creative giants, and, of course, the photographers, including Richard Avedon (Wayne Maser). As business grows, visionary manager Beppe Modenese (Bebo Storti) reconciles the quarrelsome Italian brands into an economic powerhouse that could rival France’s dominance over the industry.

The Federation is handling international sales for the eight-episode series, which will premiere this spring in Italy on Canale 5. A U.S. distributor has not yet been announced.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Lucini and Panini about the appeal behind Made in Italy, a universal story that changed the country forever.

Margherita Buy with directors Luca Lucini and Ago Panini

What is most misunderstood about the world of Italian fashion?

Everybody knows Italian fashion today. But very few know the artists behind well-known worldwide brands like Krizia, Armani, Ferre and so on. So, especially for new generations, we think it is important to know the origins, which took place mostly in Milan in the mid-'70s.

What do you hope this story conveys to audiences?

A lot of the series that are coming out of Italy these days are crime stories. They show a violent and crude side of our country, which, unfortunately, exists, but it is not the only story to tell. The history of fashion in Italy is a great one, and a 100 percent real one. It’s a story of passion, a unique marriage between taste, ideas, craziness and the great ability of designers to read the times.

What is the drama at the center of this story?

We can certainly describe Made in Italy as a personal journey of a young girl, Irene (our protagonist), unable to live within the female parameters of her time. But by meeting incredible fashion talents, as well as a group of unique and unforgettable persons, she is able to make a life of her own. She becomes an independent woman — tough, intense, passionate and constantly in love with fashion and its creators.

Models at Krizia fashion show

What kind of audience do you think this show will appeal to?

We think this show is addressed to anyone who loves good stories, the kinds of stories where a young person overcomes difficulties with a lot of energy, passion and humor. On top of that, we hope to be able to tell the “big story” behind this one: the history of the fashion industry in Milan. And we also hope to be able to talk to young people who need to start dreaming big again, as our characters do. Because nothing is impossible if you are really motivated.

How challenging was it to cast the designers?

Some of the designers are alive (like Giorgio Armani and Rosita Missoni). Some others have left us. We decided to consider the designers as “special guests” in Irene’s life. And we wanted to give the audience the same feeling. That’s why we decided to cast big Italian names to play the designers, such as Raoul Bova, Stefania Rocca, Gaetano Bruno and Claudia Pandolfi. It was really fun to challenge these big actors to envision the original designers.

How much of the wardrobe is authentic and how much was recreated?

We decided to use only real vintage pieces for the designers’ atelier pieces. We reproduced some of the everyday clothes. Probably 70 to 80 percent of the wardrobe is authentic. We flew dresses from collections from all over the world. Some of the Krizia clothes came from Japan!

Greta Ferro (right) as Irene, at Appeal Magazine on Made in Italy

What was the best and most challenging part of going through the fashion archives of each house?

The best part was, of course, becoming sort of “intimate” with these great people. It was incredibly inspiring to have conversations with living witnesses of that incredible time. Everyone we talked to had shiny and watery eyes just remembering a time when everything was possible, and dreams were so close to reality, that you could touch them with a finger. Of course. the fashion world is very protective of opening its secret archives, so it was a hard job to gain these people’s trust. But we did it.

Which archives were opened for the first time for this series?

Some of Walter Albini’s [the influential and largely forgotten stylist was considered the forefather of Italian fashion] objects and clothes, such as the “Klimt” look, are shown almost for the first time and definitely for the first time in a TV show. Most of the jewels that we had on set came with armed security, straight out of designers' archives. There was a huge research phase, made by a very determined team of fashion journalists, to create the right connection between the show and the design houses.

Behind-the-Scenes at Milan's Castello Sforzesco.

What was a personal highlight of shooting the show for you?

The two days we spent shooting at the real Missoni factory were truly touching. To be able to breathe and share Rosita’s memories, in her house, it is really something hard to forget.

Are there any particular pieces shown that really represent the history of Italian fashion?

In our first season, we focused on the roots of what then became the “Italian fashion system,” so the audience will witness, for instance, the birth of the world-famous unstructured jacket by Armani, even if the most iconic pieces would come in the early ‘80s.

https://fashion--gallery.com/beauty-insider-experts-weigh-in-on-their-top-tips-this-season/

[ghostcultmagazine]

Nirvana's Final Studio Album In Utero Turns 25

It's hard to believe that the early 1990s are now a full generation plus in the rearview. One of the definitive albums of that era for any music fan is Nirvana's Nevermind (DGC). Whether you like the band or the album or not, the impact they made with that album is still sending shockwaves being felt today. What about the band themselves? How do you top a masterpiece and a hit album you never wanted? Well if you were Kurt Cobain, you know the answer is you don't even try. With their follow-up In Utero (also DGC), Cobain undoubtedly felt like they had made an album closer to what they were originally aiming for in their journey as a group: the vibe of raw punk, but with the sophisticated writing of great classic rock. It was a dichotomy that made the band so special and loved by both fans and critics. Of course not knowing at the time it would be their final studio work, but In Utero gives a pretty fair idea of what was possible for the “biggest band in the world” in 1993.

Coming off of the meteoric rise following Nevermind's release, the band had intended to bounce right back with another record the next year, but once you have a mainstream hit, it's hard to say no to tours, TV appearances, and all that comes with it. Originally demoed in 1992 and recorded and mixed mostly in about three weeks, the now well know controversy about the rough and non-commercial Steve Albini production was a lot to do about nothing. Clearly, the record industry machine that Cobain always feared aligning with got in the heads of the band as the label and the band argued about releasing the album as is. There were questions about the sonics, but the band had as much vision and authority as Albini on the choices of mix and tracking. Who would mess with an Albini produced album or a band knowing what they wanted? Well, record label suits would try, and ultimately Scott Litt (R.E.M., Hole, New Order, Incubus) remixed the singles 'Heart Shaped Box', 'All Apologies', and the abandoned single for 'Penny Royal Tea'. Those tracks are definitely a little more smooth and shiny than the rest, but ultimately are great and don't diminish the end result. https://youtu.be/n6P0SitRwy8 An album of musical Jekyll and Hyde moments that really was at the soul of what the band was trying to do, there are many great songs here, and arguably as many as Nevermind. 'Severe The Servants', 'Rape Me', 'Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle', 'Radio Friendly Unit Shifter', 'Very Ape' and 'Tortures' have all the ragged energy Cobain craved, but also the writing chops that showed his greatness. 'Dumb' is about as close to a Beatles song could be for the 1990s. The big hits, buoyed by videos and live performances bolster the album to another hit, but 'Rape Me', might be the best song here, although possibly too triggering if it came out today. Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic played Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman to Kurt's Keith/Mick/Bowie/Lennon ministrations. Perhaps the original mixes don't quite shine enough on the other two-thirds of the power trio, but the chops and performances are there. Lyrically the album has a bounty of brilliant lyrics with commentaries on society, and Kurt's musings on fame and the fallout from it. In Utero was more than a worthy of the impossible to replicate the success of its predecessor. It certainly was made in the spirit closer to what the band wanted to be remembered for, against the rest of their discography up to that point. Hell, even the b-sides and unreleased tracks for this one are arguably great yet, underloved (thank you 'Marigold, 'I Hate Myself And Want To Die'). It's fun to imagine what could have been potentially in the albums to follow this one, but in the meantime let's appreciate the difficulty the band faced making this one, and the end result, which still holds up.

KEITH CHACHKES   https://open.spotify.com/album/7wOOA7l306K8HfBKfPoafr   Read the full article

[noiseartists]

SUBZERO FUN (France): The gritty and warm noisegaze from Paris

Subzero Fun is a Noise Pop outfit from Paris, France. They propose beautiful and refreshing music that caressed our ears from the first time we heard them. The sound is raw and direct to connect better, without artifices.

Talented, they have released 3 EPs to date that you can listen on Bandcamp and the usual streaming platforms. They are also part of the Noise Artists Bandcamp collective. We love their music.

Discover the band and their music in this article with a great interview and some great music for your expert ears. Of course, do not forget to support the band by buying their music and sharing the love on social media.

THE MUSIC

Regarding the EPs, we scheduled from the start that we would release 3 EPs in 12 months, then an album. We don't want to release 4 titles every 3 years, even if it means we can't spend as much time, effort, money in order to make everything perfect. The point is for our music to reflect our state of mind of the moment. So far we have stuck to the plan, and we are very happy with it. Our third EP will be there in May 2020, and the plan is then an album for later this year.

The music work to date is:

2019: EP1, EP; SF2, EP

2020: Space Drone 3, single; ON3, EP

On each of our first EPs (and also on the one which we released in May 2020) there's a different song called "Space Drone". Some people actually think these songs are linked in some way, they are linked by the fact that they are based on a Drone. Apart from that, they are very different songs with very different themes, keys and related to very different experiences.

THE INTERVIEW

Who are the group members?

Rémi : There is Hakim who plays the drums, JB at the bass guitar and vocals and myself at the guitar and vocals.

How did you meet?

JB : Via zikinf.fr, a French website about music ; it is kind of our tinder for bands. We met with Rémi in 2015, and with Hakim last year. He gave some musical influences that were cool and said that he wasn't interested in people playing shit-pop music... as this is not what we do, we got in touch and it worked!

Rémi : We have in fact played under the name « Chemtrails » with our first drummer for quite a while. We met JB in 2015 in a bar called Sputnik in Paris. After some Deliriums we got along. Then around end 2019 we started to look for a new drummer and that’s when we met Hakim. We got along as well while drinking beers (beers are key it seems). We did our first gig all together after just 3 rehearsals, opening for Dead Horse One. It was awesome.

How did you come up with your name?

JB : It was a long process, just to find a name that we like and that is not already used by 100+ bands. So we ended up with the good old choose-a-name-from-a-song-you-like: Subzero Fun from Autolux.

Rémi : The process of finding a name was endless, we first struggled to come up with “Chemtrails” which is quite an obvious one for a shoegaze/psychedelic influenced band like us. Then after a while another band came up with the same name in the UK and they had an album released so we thought: “oh no, we need to change”. People contacting us on Facebook to tell us we will let world know the truth regarding planes+chemicals conspiracy theories was fun. Only at the beginning though. So yeah, Subzero Fun. We get compliments for it too, but for different reasons.

What is your music about?

Rémi : Alienation caused by modern life in big cities and mixed feelings about the past. Mainly.

What are your goals as an artist artistically/commercially?

Hakim : Do as many concerts as possible. Make money with our music.

JB : And to play music that I like, to start with.

Rémi : I guess the point for me is to make music I’d like to hear, that nobody is making at the moment.

What are you trying to avoid as a band?

Hakim : Doing boring stuff.

Rémi : Music that wouldn’t have a memorable melody, a special atmosphere or some kind of tension.

Why do you make the music you make? Is it in you? Is it your environment?

Hakim : Because we love it...I guess.

JB : I mainly play music because all the bands I listened to made me have the will to. I don't really feel what i do is connected to my everyday life or my environment, it is more about being able, while playing, to get the same sensations and emotions that i got when i listened to music i like.

What inspire you for the music or for the Lyrics?

Rémi : 99.99% of the time, lyrics are a chore for me. It’s always the instrumental parts first, until the song is almost done, and then I struggle to finish it with lyrics.

One thing that I do like though, is to write randomly or even sing randomly, until something comes up. Then most of the time it starts making sense to me, as if I’m discovering what’s in my mind and that I was singing unconsciously. 

Tell us what you are looking when trying to achieve your sounds. Do you experiment a lot or have a clear idea of what you want?

JB : I guess that having a clear goal or idea is interesting, also because sometimes unsuccessful attempts can lead to interesting ideas.

Rémi : I have a rather clear general idea of the direction. Then for guitar sounds I like experimenting to find the main riff of a song for instance.

Explain your songwriting process.

Rémi : Either I have a guitar & a singing part that go well together and I try to develop it into a full song. Or (more often) it starts with a guitar riff, then a harmonic context around it, then a fully orchestrated demo shared with the band. If everybody likes it we start working, everybody on their part. If someone doesn’t like it we don’t. 

Describe your palette of sound.

JB : On bass side it is quite simple, i like to keep the low end of it and blend it with more fuzzy sounds to get it a bit dirtier.

Rémi : On the guitar I always try to find the nice ethereal sound that is going to complement the heavy bass riff. Could be with reverb or delay.

Who would you want as a dream producer, and why?

Hakim : Steve Albini for sur. Because I like his work suit.

JB : I personally don't have enough culture about music production.

Rémi : Butch Vig. Because I love so many records he’s been working on as a musician or as a producer. Or Mark Gardener for the same reason.

If you could guest on someone else’s album, who would it be and why? What would you play?

Hakim : Genesis because it's the worst band ever. It would be a great experience to play..nothing. I definetly hate this band.

Rémi : I’d add that drone/fuzzed guitar part on the next Cake album.

What musical skills would you like to acquire or get better at?

Hakim : Playing at the same BPM from the beginning to the end of the song.

JB : I would like to improve my playing in general, and to be able to keep things very simple but exciting and interesting.

Rémi : Everything around mixing, mastering and recording process. I’d like to be able to do very minimalist music.

Which other musician/artist would you date?

Hakim : Taylor Swift because she's cute. 

You are from France what are the advantages and inconvenient?

JB : The main inconvenient that pops out is probably that there is not really a big indie scene compared to other countries ; but it might make it easier to be part of it. We recently played a gig opening for Dead Horse One, it might have been more difficult for us to play that night if there was plenty of indie bands available?

Also being in Paris means a lot of distractions outside of music, and this is maybe not the best place for playing live music. But it forces us to be efficient, creative, to find DIY ways to create and not to rely on anybody if we want to move forward quite fast.

What are some places around the world that you hope to play with your band?

Hakim : Wembley. I love big stages.

JB : Brussels.

Rémi : SXSW

When is the next album/EP due?

Rémi : Our plan from the start is quite simple: one release 1st of May, and one 1st of November, every year, forever. So see you 1st of November 2020 for our fourth EP.   

Some artists you recommend.

Hakim : Foreigners Society (ok it's one of my bands).

Rémi : Tapeworms, So Many Lines, Dead Horse One.

JB : Bank Myna.

MORE ON THE BAND

Some good interviews on other sites:

Soonglider

Shoegaze Blog

Social Media & where to find their music

Facebook

Instagram

Soundcloud

Youtube

Spotify

Bandcamp

[megadarkbouquettidalwavethings]

Telling Italy’s Story Through Its Clothes

Among the designers whose work forms the backbone of “Italiana: Italy Through the Lens of Fashion,” which opens Feb. 22 at the Palazzo Reale during Milan Fashion Week, are names that hulk like monuments in the history of 20th-century fashion: Prada, Valentino, Armani, Versace. Yet there are also other seminal ones — Walter Albini and Romeo Gigli come to mind — that nowadays are sadly unfamiliar to all but dedicated cognoscenti.

The curators, Stefano Tonchi (he is also the editor of W magazine) and Maria Luisa Frisa, an Italian fashion scholar, had ambitious goals in mind when they set out to examine Italy and Italianness through the lens of fashion. Determined to consider what, if anything, the vaunted “Made in Italy” label inside a garment really meant, they also performed an almost accidental act of resuscitation, bringing to light many worthy but lesser-known figures from the Italian fashion canon.

Speaking by telephone from Milan one recent afternoon, Mr. Tonchi and Ms. Frisa discussed those overlooked designers and also the gifted craftspeople whose anonymous efforts contributed to Italy’s singular stature in the realms of fashion and style. (This interview has been condensed and edited.)

Let’s start with what, exactly, is meant by Italian fashion.

Stefano Tonchi In this show, we’re talking about a very specific time in Italy, 1971 to 2001, a time when you could say there actually was a national fashion, when Italian fashion meant something in the way that French or American fashion did. It had a specific character in the world. Today it is totally different. Everything is run by global companies.

Maria Luisa Frisa, left, and Stefano Tonchi.CreditGuglielmo Profeti; Steven Klein

Given all the attention paid to “Made in Italy” over the last few years, it seems almost wishful to posit style as an expression of nationality.

ST But postwar Italian fashion was something very specific. From its beginnings, Italian fashion benefited from a very integrated system, starting with the fabrics and continuing to the designers and manufacturers.

Wouldn’t the same have been true of, say, France?

ST When you think about the American or the French systems, they didn’t have that organization, from designing fabrics to distribution. Often the fabrics they used were imported from Italy. A lot of French fabrics and even products were made in Italy.

Why was that?

ST It was the high quality of the products and at an affordable price. After the war, during the ’50s and ’60s, Italy was full of very low-cost workers. Many had inherited family traditions of craftsmanship. The idea we had with this show was to demonstrate both the qualities and also the shortcomings of the Italian fashion system.

If traditions of quality craft were the positive, what was the negative?

ST There was an overall lack of managerial experience, a lack of coordination. Some of it was the fault of the government, which didn’t invest in infrastructure or education to bring Italian fashion to a level where it could compete with what was happening in other countries. But, where the government failed, Italian ingenuity stepped in. When you ask what Italian fashion was in that period, you could characterize it by saying Italy produced clothes of great quality at an affordable price. There was an incredible versatility in times of change — the fact, say, that small Italian fashion companies could shift direction every six months, alter the kinds of product they were putting out.

Gianfranco Ferre, 1989.

For example?

ST Women were beginning to ask for a uniform to go to work. Italian manufacturers got the message and produced one. Men were asking for a new uniform to have fun. The Italians got the message and delivered it.

How did you convey this in the show?

ST The show is not chronological. It’s organized by themes. There are nine rooms, and each looks at a specific moment in Italian history and how fashion mirrored it. There is the concept of identity, of democracy, of the global versus the local, and how Italian fashion dealt with the theories of postproduction. Maria Luisa and I were in the exhibition today looking at the actual clothes, and what was so striking was how many manage to look handmade yet had been produced on an industrial scale. You see a pair of Ferragamo shoes, and they have a handcrafted quality. Yet there was an industrial capacity in delivering it.

Italian ingenuity as a premise, rather than the usual clichés about an Italian penchant for beauty?

Maria Luisa Frisa It’s about Italy solving problems. Designers of all kinds would come to Italy from all over the world because there is the industrial structure there to make idea reality.

ST After the war, a big emphasis was given to small family companies and not the big industrial complex. You could make things in small artisan shops.

By shops you mean mills and factories, as is still the case?

MLF Yes. Americans have always been great at producing in mass. But who pays attention to the quality of the fabric or the buttonholes the way Italians do? Nobody does.

And yet in the show you are talking aesthetics but also an ethos that might apply to industrial design?

MLF When you look at some of the Gianfranco Ferré clothes and the Giorgio Armani clothes we used in the show, you’ll see they’re almost designed like a chair.

ST Italian designers in this period were thinking about Italian identity in much the same way industrial architects and designers were. They were thinking about fashion but also about furnishing the body. This was happening within the context of a conversation simultaneously going on with the contemporary art of the period, which is why the show also features art work and photography.

Isn’t this evolution to some degree a result of post-Marshall Plan reconstruction?

ST Suddenly designers here were thinking about Italian identity. They were weighing what kind of impact an increasingly global system would have on them. Probably without thinking about it much, they were absorbing all kinds of influences and Italianizing them. When you look at Versace, it’s incredible what he was putting into the clothes. There is the history of Magna Graecia. There is Hollywood glamour. There are the tropical colors of Miami. He was pairing bluejeans denim with beautiful silks from Lake Como, fabrics with 100 or more colors that can only be made in Italy.

So this “Italianness,” if that���s what it is, becomes both platform and filter.

ST That’s why we call it the history of Italy in fashion. It was fascinating to look at the recent documentary on Gianni Agnelli and how it demonstrates Italy going from being a place that was all in black and white to a place that was full of color. There is a lot of darkness in the history of Italy in the 20th century, even into the ’70s, when you had both the extreme left Red Brigades but also — something everyone forgets — the Fascists. There had been these bleak times, and suddenly there was prosperity. Italians could now afford to travel. They could think again about things like luxury.

Romeo Gigli, 1990.

MLF And the war had isolated the country in such a way that ignorance almost became a form of imagination. Whether or not he ever went there, there is a lot of joy and brio in how somebody like Gianfranco Ferré was interpreting, let’s say, Africa, though not literally.

And there followed a period when “Made in Italy” became a kind of shorthand for elevated taste.

MLF Yes. Though good taste is a quality but can also be a fault.

That brings us to the career of Miuccia Prada, who has spent her career flouting or interrogating class-based conventions of taste.

MLF It’s not only Prada. Franco Moschino was an incredible social commentator. He had amazing wit. So the show is about reminding people of designers we may have forgotten while also honoring the industrial creativity that goes into making products that are stylish, fit well and solve problems.

ST And create beauty. There are magical designers like Romeo Gigli, who is, unfortunately, a little bit forgotten. We talk a lot in the show, too, about anonymous authorship in the industry.

Meaning?

ST There are the name designers, of course. But there are companies where it hardly matters who the designer happens to be. You take a label like Callaghan, where Gianni Versace worked, Walter Albini worked, Romeo Gigli worked and, most recently, Nicolas Ghesquière worked. They were always making incredible things.

You mean, as though there some kind of industrial intelligence underpinning the enterprise?

ST There is a signature to Italian fashion that goes beyond a “Made in Italy” label. There is know-how and a level of understanding. That’s why so many fashion prototypes are still made in Italy. Italians are industrially nimble. They’re intuitive and good at finding solutions. Say a designer says, “I want to put a ton of Swarovski crystals on a see-though shirt.” In the United States, manufacturers would just say, “What?” In Italy, they would never say, “No, this is crazy!” There is a maybe. There is never a no.

GUY TREBAY

The post Telling Italy’s Story Through Its Clothes appeared first on dailygate.

[ricardosousalemos]

Fugazi: In on the Kill Taker

If 1991 was The Year Punk Broke, and 1993 was when the underground had fully bubbled to the surface, between that, the world got Cliff Poncier, the singer of the band Citizen Dick in Cameron Crowe's 1992 movie Singles. Cliff (played by Matt Dillon) is a musician in a band with Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard, and Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, and has an album out on an independent label. To a large swath of America that was still getting used to Kurt Cobain’s face and R.E.M. winning Grammys, Cliff was the fictional bridge into the world of indie artists. He’s “like a renaissance man” we’re told, but it’s obvious he wants to make it big. Everybody wanted that, right?

Alt was the new normal. Things had gone from “Our band could be your life” to stadium concerts opening up for rock legends and poisonous major label contracts. Nirvana followed up Nevermind with the Steve Albini-produced In Utero, former SST bands Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, and the Meat Puppets enjoyed radio and MTV airtime, countless kids got copies of the No Alternative compilation, and grunge was officially a runway style thanks to Marc Jacobs. Fugazi’s independent scene had become a global phenomenon, funded, largely, by corporate money.

Fugazi—reluctantly—turned into one of the last bands standing from the old guard of American punks. They became a band that mainstream kids and college radio stations wanted to check out at the perfect time in their career. Fugazi’s nonstop touring made their music more accessible to a wider audience than ever before. They had an organic buzz that led to better distribution deals, which allowed them to remain fiercely independent. To kids straddling the Generation X and Millennial borders, Fugazi were a touchstone, an introduction into the DIY mindset. Their ability to get people excited without a team of advertisers, big hit song, or anything besides word of mouth is, at this point, the stuff of legend.

And while their hardcore contemporaries were chasing big contracts and slots on the Lollapalooza tour, Fugazi teamed with groups like Positive Force—a Washington D.C. youth activist collective that took on poverty and George H.W. Bush’s war in the Middle East—to the band’s decision to only play all-ages shows with a low door price, Fugazi wanted to let you know they stood for things, and that maybe you should, too. Punk was more than just not knowing how to play an instrument but having something to say, it was about starting a zine, doing distribution, or going to a protest to fight inequality in all its forms. They were champions of the utopian freedom of the 1960’s filtered through the busted amps of punk. If there was any environment for Fugazi to put out the biggest record of their career, this was it.

Since the band considered live shows to be their most natural setting, Fugazi toured relentlessly between albums. One look at the band’s show archives finds them playing the Palladium in New York City to 3,000 people on a spring night in 1992, Father Hayes Gym Bar in Portland, ME to 750 people a few nights later, then wrapping up an East Coast tour at City Gardens in New Jersey to a hair under 1,000 before embarking on a tour of Europe two weeks later. At some point during 1992, even though none of the band’s 73 shows were played anywhere near the Midwest, they found time to go to Chicago to record with Steve Albini. Self-producing their second LP Steady Diet of Nothing left the band “pretty disappointed at the end of the day with that record,” as Ian MacKaye would later say. Bassist Joe Lally found the experience “weird,” and that going to Chicago to record new songs was less about getting a new album out of the sessions, “it was more about working with Steve.”

The resulting demos were not what the band or producer wanted. The song “Public Witness Program,” had the same buzzsaw guitar and sped-up tempo of what you’d expect from one of Albini’s own Shellac songs. “Great Cop,” sounded much more like a raging hardcore song than the band may have wanted. The sessions, which float around file sharing sites and YouTube, would end up being simply a footnote in American indie history; titans from the 1980s underground getting together to mess around. In the end, after they made it back home to D.C., the band received a fax from Albini saying, “I think we dropped the ball.”

The band just couldn’t beat the sound they created in their hometown, so they entered Inner Ear Studios with Don Zientara and Ted Niceley in the autumn of 1992. When they finally emerged playing their first show on February 4th, 1993, at the Peppermint Beach Club in Virginia Beach, the 1,200-person crowd got a set filled with almost all new material, peppered with older songs like “Suggestion” and “Repeater.” The band went on an American tour that stretched over 60 shows. In on the Kill Taker was released on June 30th, sold around 200,000 copies in its first week alone, and Fugazi cracked the Billboard Top 200. Later in August, they played a show in front of the Washington Monument to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s march on Washington. Five-thousand people crowded the outdoor Sylvan Theater and this time, when they played their new songs, the crowd knew every word.

Like the albums that came before it, In on the Kill Taker begins small and grows into something larger. Maybe it’s a metaphor for how Fugazi sees the world, or at least the one they helped to build: “Facet Squared” opens with a few seconds of near-silence that builds into feedback, then some guitar mimicking a heartbeat checks in at the 15-second mark, joined in by the rest of the band who work together building up what sounds like it will be a slow jam with no real leader. The guitars, along with Joe Lally’s bass and Brendan Canty’s drums, all work together like a machine. MacKaye’s guitar takes over for a few seconds, signaling the next level the song is about to take. That buildup leads to one of MacKaye’s most furious deliveries as a singer, opening by claiming, “Pride no longer has definition,” with the kind of energy and anger he channeled in his younger days with Minor Threat. The song ends and cuts right into Canty pounding away to start the Guy Picciotto-fronted “Public Witness Program.” Complete with handclaps, a ringing chorus, and Picciotto yelling, “Can I get a witness” like a punk preacher; it showcases the band at their most driving. This is the closest you get to a polished Fugazi record, but by no means is it slick.

MacKaye, in an interview for Brandon Gentry’s book Capitol Contingency: Post-Punk, Indie Rock, and Noise Pop in Washington, D.C., 1991-1999, believed that little bit of shine was intentional, the result of producer Ted Niceley reacting to what he heard from the popular bands with the same DNA as Fugazi that were getting heavy airplay. “It’s that consciousness of radio,” MacKaye said, “that puts me off a little bit,” while also railing against the producer’s “total fixation on detail.” Yet it’s exactly that consciousness of radio and fixation to details that gives In on the Kill Taker its real edge. It’s hard to imagine a song like “Cassavetes,” with Picciotto conjuring up the ghost of the dead director, screaming, “Shut up! This is my last picture,” being sandwiched between the Smashing Pumpkins and Candlebox on a radio station’s playlist. The extra lacquer on top only makes it more scathing and visceral.

There’s no single on In on the Kill Taker. Besides “Waiting Room” somehow becoming one of the defining Gen. X anthems, Fugazi never set out to make any one song hold any more importance over the others to try and get radio program directors to pay attention. In fact, on their third album, they threw all curve balls, going from fast and hard to slow to mathy and instrumental. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Picciotto and MacKaye had helped lay the foundation for the hardcore and emo scenes in the ’80s with Rites of Spring and Minor Threat respectively. The roots of Fugazi were blooming out into hundreds of sub-genres and taking hold in regional scenes across the country. Fugazi appealed to such a vast swath of people, something a lot of punk, hardcore or indie bands couldn’t claim in 1993, and In on the Kill Taker had something for everyone.

Songs like “Smallpox Champion,” again with that slow start that builds, then blows up into Picciotto delivering a sermon, railing against America being a country founded on genocide, “The end of the future and all that you own.” While “23 Beats Off” sounds like a song from Wire’s early years literally stretched and pulled out to nearly seven minutes, MacKaye going from singing (as best he can) to screaming about a man who was once “at the center of some ticker tape parade,” who turns into “a household name with HIV.” You get a dose of the past, present, and future listening to these twelve tracks.

Lyrically, it’s also one of the more ambitious albums from the era. While burying any meaning beneath a pile of words like Cobain or bands like Pavement were so fond of doing was certainly du jour, Fugazi liked to mix things up. Picciotto flexed that English degree he got from Georgetown, while MacKaye’s muses were Marx and issues of The Nation. The band blends political with poetic, while sometimes erring on the side of the latter. If there’s any deeper meaning behind “Walken’s Syndrome,” besides being an ode to Christopher Walken’s character in Annie Hall, it’s difficult to tell what that is. “Facet Squared,” with MacKaye singing about how “flags are such ugly things,” could either be about nationalism or the facades people wear when they go out in public, you pick. Maybe that’s what they wanted the listener to do.

Fugazi were so unbelievably popular that it was more so the idea of Fugazi had caught on like it was just another adjective like goth or grunge. Even with their famous anti-merchandise stance, an entire small economy of bootleg shirts popped up, including the infamous “This Is Not A Fugazi T-Shirt” t-shirt. The press also took even more notice. Rolling Stone, in a positive review, said Fugazi had inherited the title of “The only band that matters” from the Clash, while Spin wasn’t so hot on it, calling the members “radical middle-class white boys” and the album “rigid, predictable.” The food critic Jonathan Gold, whose music writing tends to be overlooked when discussing his oeuvre, gave it three out of four stars in his LA Times review. In on the Kill Taker wasn’t hailed as a masterpiece or an album that was changing the game, but everybody needed to weigh in on Fugazi.

And as a profile that came out in the Washington Post a month after the album’s release showed, everybody wanted to be associated with them. The article mentions fans like Eddie Vedder, “rock’s couple of the moment,” Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, and Michael Stipe, who shows up to one of the band’s shows in Los Angeles: “He dances the hokey-pokey in the street in front of the Capitol Theatre with Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty,” in a very 1990s moment. In on the Kill Taker isn’t brought up until somewhere near the bottom of the piece. It was almost like saying that you liked or knew them was like a badge of honor, it absolved you of your own sins. The music was eclipsed by the message.

Mainstream interest in Fugazi was never as strong as it was during the period surrounding their third album. Two years later, when they released Red Medicine, the spotlight had shifted to pop-punk bands like Green Day and the Offspring. Fugazi continued to put out albums and pack shows that usually cost around five dollars, but the press was less interested in figuring out this crazy band with their wild set of ideals.

Many of the people who did pay attention to Fugazi, however, reacted. Like Brian Eno said of the initial 10,000 or so people who heard the Velvet Underground when their first album came out, the hundreds of thousands of people who bought In on the Kill Taker or saw the band as they trekked across America, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, that year and beyond, were impacted in some way. Maybe it was one kid out of 1,200 in attendance on September 27th, 1993 who saw them in Philly with the Spinanes and Rancid, or another of the 100 who saw them in Kyoto, Japan. Maybe a 15-year-old girl read about them in a magazine, this band that everybody was talking about, and decided to start her own band. Maybe it was a kid in El Paso, or a kid in Iowa City, or Greensboro. Maybe they inspired another kid to start a zine, which led them to realize they wanted to be a writer. Maybe 10,000 teens were so moved by Fugazi in 1993 that the ideas the band lived and worked by were ingrained into how those people have tried to go out and face the world.

[tweefunk]

EVERYTHING IS ALIVE EVERYTHING IS BREATHING I RIPPED OFF THIS TITLE I HAVE NO NOVEL THOUGHTS

Moving in the right direction here, some thoroughly enjoyable records this time.

Japandroids-Near to the Wild Heart of Life

7/10

I’M ALIVE AND EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK.

Maybe not, but that is the fundamental sentiment of Japandroids decade-plus career. As everyone is probably aware of by now, the ‘droids debut full-length, 2009′s Post-Nothing, was released after they had already made the decision to break up. However, after it became surprise hit, they obviously decided to keep the band going.

Since then, they’ve approached their every move with a level of wide-eyed stoken-ness that rival the gnarliest skater or the cheesiest EZ-core band. In that regard, Near to the Wild Heart of Life does not disappoint in any way.

While this is nowhere near the paradigm-smashing glory of 2012′s instant classic Celebration Rock, it represents a confident and solid step forward. Here we find the 'droids experimenting with synths, ballads, and even acoustic guitars. 

Unfortunately, the whole affair gets drug down a bit by the mid-album "Arc Of Bar." The song drags out for over 7 minutes with no climax or payoff in sight. Just tired cliche after cliche that makes them sound like a slightly gritty yacht-rock band 40 years their elders.

However this is immediately followed up by one of their best ever tracks in “Midnight to Morning” which begs the question of what the Foo Fighters may have sounded like if they never became an arena-conquering megaforce and instead faded into relative obscurity after their debut.

Japandroids are back, but they’re just mere mortals now.

Cloud Nothings-Life Without Sound

4/10

Add Cloud Nothings to the list of late ‘00s/early ’10s hype bands that started out with a couple promising releases and then just ran out of gas.

Most of Life Without Sound just comes off as stuff that wasn’t good enough to put on 2014′s Here and Nowhere Else. Worse still, the ideas still seem underdeveloped.

Most of the songs follow a too-familiar structure. Start off at a decent clip, build dynamics for a bit, repeat one phrase ad infinitum while everything pushes into the red.

Dylan Baldi still has decent ear for melody, and some of the guitar interplay is quite interesting. However, that’s just not enough to elevate this to the level of the band’s high-water mark, 2012′s near-perfect Attack on Memory.

There are plenty of other bands doing the 90′s revival thing a heck of a lot better than this.

Less Than Jake-Sound the Alarm EP

7/10

LTJ haven’t sounded this vital for over a decade when they put out the underrated In With the Out Crowd. While they don’t make another horn-less album here, they definitely confirm they view themselves as a punk band first, and a ska band second.

With that in mind, Sound the Alarm places a premium on vocal harmonies and hooks. Thankfully though, they have corrected course from 2013′s over-produced See The Light and now allow the guitars and vocals to have a rawer sound, kicking the verve up a notch.

Also, the lyrical content here has advanced beyond slacker anthems celebrating a life of loitering in the liquor store parking lot and showcases an ability for self-reflection largely absent from previous work. The strongest track, “Welcome to My Life,” which seems like an intentional re-imagining of “The Science of Selling Yourself Short,” sees the boys recognizing the hurt and pain their dysfunctional ways have caused their loved ones and making a heartfelt attempt at an apology.

Old habits die hard, so this isn’t a genre defining masterpiece, but 25 years in, and LTJ aren’t going anywhere. Like the final track proclaims, “things change,” but maturity is a good look for Less Than Jake. 

The Menzingers-After the Party

8/10

The Menzingers showed up at just the right time. Their first buzzworthy album, 2012′s On the Impossible Past, hit the scene right after The Gaslight Anthem’s underwhelming Handwritten showed that the Jersey Boys were fresh out of ideas despite their insistence that they weren’t just punked-out clones of The Boss. But luckily for us, there was another drunken, over-earnest, east-coast punk band waiting in the wings.

On After the Party, The Menzingers ask the time-honored question of “what do we do when the party’s over?” In this case phrased in a rather-on the nose metaphorical reveal of “what are we gonna do now that our 20′s are over?”

While this type of bluntness is usually reserved for cringy scene bands and edgy singer-songwriters, The Menzingers take a page out of the Jawbreaker/Japandroids playbook and try to cover up for it with sheer intensity. And for the most part, they succeed.

On their previous records, a single phrase repeated 18 times usually sufficed for a chorus, but this time around The Menzingers seem to have made a conscious attempt to build their songs around hooks, rather than jamming a simplistic idea into a sincerity-shaped blur, and just beating the listener into submission.

At moments, the record reaches a truly insightful level of storytelling, namely on “Bad Catholics” where our narrator spins the story of a former flame who grew into a proper “church-girl” in spite of their shared adolescent tomfoolery. It’s a story that’s especially relatable to me as an alumni of Catholic school, and it’s rendered even more touching by the careful handling of a subject that could have easily morphed into woe-is-me bullshit or a stalker fantasy.

However, the emotional crux of the record tellingly arrives with the title track, a heartbreaking story of lost youth and the flickering flame of love that might not see you through the coldest, darkest nights. It’s too bad that The Menzingers missed a prime opportunity to end the record with a gut-punch. “After the Party” has the shout-it-till-you’re-hoarse chorus and a beautiful fadeout, but for some reason they just had to jam in a filler track after it, as if they wanted the record to end with a whimper when it could have been a roar.

Which brings me to the only real flaw with the record; it’s too fucking long. The middle of the album is a glut of 4 straight filler tracks with two more book-ending either side of the aforementioned title track. Sequencing matters people, get it together.

There are also two tracks, ”Your Wild Years” and “Livin’ Ain’t Easy, that feature obviously sampled, "clicky" kick drum hits that stand out in glaring contrast to the relatively raw production by Steve Albini clone wunderkind Will Yip. I've drummed enough drums in my life to know that sample replacement is fairly standard, but the goal is still to make it sound "real."

Had The Menzingers cut this down to 9 or 10 tracks, or better yet, a 7-song EP, this could have been a 10/10 release. Nevertheless, it’s still by far their strongest record and I hope they don’t go the way of The Gaslight Anthem and start making maudlin MOR rock.