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Checking
stuff like this really gives some hope. To know that a band like
this hails from Rome and is being issued via
Ohio based label Dead Beat gives us some impulse and
along with that a reason to continue this heartbreaking labor.
The scene is perhaps stale (isn’t that always what we have to
say?), but the quality is there. All you have to do is gather up
the energy to unearth tiny bands like The Intellectuals. Formed in 2001 and
sowed out of a punk/garage/rock ‘n roll Italian scene; the trio
formed by the tacitly named Guitar Boy, Drum Girl and Key Tee
(we are guessing this last one plays the keyboards) shape up
some basic and gutsy garage punk. The sound is organic, and as
being organic goes, the music is basic and full of hooks with a
blues based sound. Think of what RL Burnside could have made had
he been born in Rome, raised on crack and become a punk fanatic
at the age of twelve. Guitar Boy and one of the girls here take
turns or attack the mike at once; the energy is there and also
certain flamboyance that only comes with at least 4 years in the
circuit. The flamboyance is covered alright, and made up as if
all that mattered in music was music and groove, which
Invisible is the Best has plenty to spill of.
Like much of
the riot grrrl stuff, when The Intellectuals leave Guitar Boy in
his corner the music comes off as if it had been crafted in WA
only a handful of years ago. But this is much more disheveled
plus the boy makes his presence be felt in about 98% of the
songs. The girl’s pitch is almost strident and matches up to the
fuzzy lucidity of the two-chord rock and two-note keyboards.
Some of it
also makes you think of the land of the rising sun, with its
crazy garage scene and the furious sound of bands like the
awesome Guitar Wolf and the cozy-doll vocal sound of
Shonen Knife.
“The Insiders” perhaps one of the most calmed moments in this
very contagious record makes you think of The
Animals minus
the suits or the ugly old age that was about to come. Like said
earlier; this is a breath of fresh air. Let’s keep stuff like
this rolling in and never quit.
Read The Intellectuals
interview here.
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