COOL BANDS!!!

I've noticed that when it comes to the italian music scene basically everyone thinks about rap or pop songs and there are A LOT of alternative bands that are unknown to the general public (international or not) so here I am!!! I've divided them in genres and will do a brief description of the history of the band + my favourite songs/album from them!!

ps. these are bands that i listen to almost a daily basis and known for a long time since they are either from my local scene or my dad also listened to them so in the future i maybe do even other bands that are even more unknown!

PUNK GROUPS

CCCP - Fedeli alla Linea

CCCP were a pretty influential group and, in my opinion, the ones that really brought "classic" punk in italy. The singer Giovanni Lindo Ferretti and the guitarist Massimo Zamboni met in West Berlin, even if they met in Berlin they are both from Reggio Emilia (what are the chances!). In 1982 CCCP was formed, then a few ex-members of another italian band were included. CCCP is the italian "translation" of the acronym in cyrillic SSSR which stands for Unions of Soviet Socialist Repubblics. They defined their sound as "emilian melodic music" and "pro-soviet Punk". They still associate themself with the communist party.

As much as I love I also resent them, mainly because they are sell outs. The singer Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, the one who sang about being a communist, is now a far right activist who voted far right politicians. Even if he isn't a communist the group in recent concerts they wave a communist flag. And the prices for the tickets of their concerts are insane! 40 euros!!! FOR A PUNK BAND!!!! they often called them "Fedeli alla Lira": lira was the currency in italy before the euros so calling them this was saying they were only faithful to money.

My favourite songs from them are quite a few so i will list 3 of the albums with some of the songs and their translations (the names of the albums are shorter bc they are s effin long):

ORTODOSSIA II - Mi ami? (Do you love me?), Spara Jurij (Shoot Jurij)

AFFINITA' - Curami (Heal me). Io sto bene (I'm fine)

SOCIALISMO E BARBARIE - Per me lo so (For me I know), Tu menti (You Lie)

Skiantos

They are easily one of the if not the first italian punk band and they are the founders of the genre demented rock. They formed in 1975 and are still active even if, sadly, the singer Roberto "Freak" Antoni died in 2014, 2 years after he left the group to become a solist. The group in their early days played in the basement of the singer. The name "Skiantos" comes from the word Schianto which means Breath-taking or Beautiful.

They are really the most ICONIC group because everything was a joke to them!! They are known internationally because on 2 april 1979 they participated at the Bologna Rock Music Festival and once it was their turn to play they brought to the stage a kitchen, a table, a TV and a fridge. Instead of playing they cooked and ate spaghetti!!!The pubblic wasn't very happy and the singer said "This is avant-guard, shitty audience". Shitty audience is thill how they refer to their audience!

My favourite album is KINOTTO, here they sing some really funny songs like "Mi piaccion le Sbarbine" ( I like naughty girls) in which they sing about how they like all kinds of women or "Gelati" (ice creams) where they sing about how they like icecream but they are too expensive

"I gelati sono buoni ma costano milioni" = "Ice creams are tasty but they cost millions"

If you want a more classic punk (but still upbeat) then the album Monotono is for you!

Punkreas

They form near Milan in 1989 and aare still very active today!! They are currently on tour and I was lucky enough that one of the (FREE) dates was near me so I went with my dad and my mom!! They publish their first album indepently but in the 2000 sing with a record label. I will define them as a truly punk group: they criticize the government and are leftist. They even let people come up on the stage to crowdsurf and chill out with them!! when I when to their concert there was a guy with an inflatable banana that went on the stage had pretended to play the banana as if it was a guitar!!! I talked to the bassist for a very brief of time before they started playing and he was very nice!! The name Punkreas comes from the organ pancreans and the term punk added to form the name of the band

Their sound hasn't changed that much throught the years and they are pretty consistent with their albums too!!

My favourite songs form their first album are Il Vicino (The beighbour) in wich they talk about their hatred for their neighbour and No Cops and from the title alone you can guess what it's about LOL. Meanwhile from one of their latest albums is "Dai Dai Dai (Die Die Die)" in which they play with the word Dai wich can be translated to come on and the word Die.

My my favourite songs out of all of them are Disgusto Totale (Total disgust) and La canzone del Bosco (The song of the forest)

Prozac+

Prozac+ is probably one of the must popular bands in my local scene, even Metallica in one of their tour dates in may of this year sang Acida which is their most popular song! They formed in 1995 and disbanded in 2007. There were only 3 members : Gianmaria Accusani, Elisabetta Imelio and Eva Poles. They got the name Prozac+ from the antidepressants!

Gianmaria Accusani had some prior ecperience as he was part of the Great Complotto (a project with a lot of different bands from the local scene) in a band with Davide Toffolo, singer of Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti (later in the blog!!). Prozac+ after only 3 concerts were in a contract with Vox Pop: the most important independet italian music labels!

They started getting famous in 1998 after realising their second album Acido Acida!! National TV tried to cencor the song Acida beacause they said that it encouraged drug use. One of their albums 3 prozac+ also has an english version available on spotify but I personally prefer the original version in italian (also because the translations aren't super accurate ):)

Once disbanded Gianmaria and Elisabetta went on to form Sick Tamburo (which I will talk about later!)

To be honest all their songs are iconic and i could listen to them all day but there are some songs that i find underrated from each album:

In Acido Acida my fav songs are ICS, GM and Colla (Glue), for 3Prozac+ it's Cagna (Dog in a female sense not the cuss word) and for Testa Plastica it's Senja, Diversi (Different), Pastiglie (Pills) and Sceglimi (choose me)

Every month i fixate on one of their songs so i have a lot of favs

GOTH/POST PUNK/ NEW WAVE GROUPS

Diaframma

The name comes form the mechanic component of a camera, which in italian is the same name of the organ diaphragm. The Band formed in Florence in 1980 and it's still active!! From the original lineup there is only one member: Federico Fiumani, which is the guitarist, the singer and the author.

At first this band was called CFS (from the name of the members) and made some covers of punl songs. They later changhed it to Diaframma. Not a lot of people know about them, I found out about them in an instagram reel (lame ik).

Their best song is definetly Siberia, but impronte (fingerprints) and gennaio (january) are also pretty good!!

ALTERNATIVE/INDIE GOUPS

Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti

Also part of my local scene, they formed in 1994 and are still very active! Their latest album came out this year and is called Garage Pordenone. TARM is formed by cartoonist Davide Toffolo (WHICH MY DAD TALKED TO BUT I WAS BEING A FANGIRL FAR AWAY), Luca Masseroni and Enrico Molteni. The name translates to "Three happy dead boys" and their music is often associated to alternative rock, but they have been influenced by ethnic and raggae music over the years but what made them pioneers of the italian music scene were their live performances and their masks resembling cartoonish skulls. This year the band turned 30 and are doing a tour to celebrate (I sadly cant go).

La Seconda Rivoluzione Sessuale is easly their best album (i won the vynil hehe) and my favourite songs on there are Il Mondo Prima (The world Before) and Mio fratellino ha scoperto il rock 'n' roll (My little brother discovered rock'n'roll) but Come mi guardi tu (How you look at me) from the album Nel Giardino Dei Fantasmi is also a beautiful and romantic song.

Sick Tamburo

The best for last!!! Like I said earlier Gianmaria Accusani and Elisabetta Imelio once Prozac+ disbanded they founded Sick Tamburo, a band already made popular from the ex-members of prozac but also from the ski masks the members wear creating this sense of mystery. In 2009 their first album Sick Tamburo was realised and the first few songs were also published on myspace!

Sadly Elisabetta Imelio got diagnosed with breast cancer, and died on the night of 29 of February 2020. There are a few songs about her fight with cancer like Un giorno Nuovo (A new day) and La Fine della Chemio (The end of chemio) which is their most sad song.

My favourite album of theirs is Sick Tamburo, their first ever album. The song that autoplays on my profile is actually Dimentica (Forget) which is in that very album! One of the verses says:

"Dimentica Dimentica dimentica il sapore dei miei baci" = "Forget Forget Forget the taste of my kisses"

I really can't pick a favourite song from this album as i find them all so catchy!! They also released an album last year called Non credere a Nessuno (Don't belive anyone) AND I'M SEEING THEM IN AUGUST YPPIE

thank u for sticking around!!! this took me actually so much lol let me know if you want a pt 2!!!!!

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