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Of the pile of records that the fine people at Deadbeat Records
sent us The Intellectuals’ Invisible is Best was the
first one we reviewed. Yes, we were surprised. And yes, we liked
it enough to send them a transcontinental electronic message
requesting for an electronic message interview. This Italian
three-piece makes some of the most energetic garage punk we’ve
heard in months, and their presence in the States must be
evaluated immediately. Think you know your garage rock? Well,
think again, but first check out The Intellectuals. This is an
interview with G-boy, who plays guitar (that’s where the ‘G’
comes from). Read on and spread the word.
 :
How did you guys get together?
Francesco (G_boy) and Elena (D_girl)
started playing together in '99, they both came from other music
experiences that didn't satisfy them completely anymore. They
started The Intellectuals to give voice to their need of raw and
simple rock 'n' roll. Tina joined the band in 2006; first she
proposed to play the keyboards that were already featured in the
first record (Black! Domina! Now!) at live shows. Later
on she became a stable member of the band.
:
What bands inspired your formation?
When we started
we thought of Avengers, X, Headcoats, Oblivians and KBD punk
rock. In the following years we've been influenced by other
different bands, sounds and ideas.
:
Is there much of a garage scene in Italy? Any kin bands in
Italy, Europe or anywhere else?
 We wouldn't
call it a scene more then a number of bands coming from
different places and with different attitude. In a classical
garage way two great garage bands in Italy comes from Sardinia,
The Rippers and The Angee V. On the other hand there's a lot of
bands (us included) inspired by garage among other genres. In
Europe our best pals are The Normals from Strasbourg, we like
this band and their related projects. Also Martin Savage and
Jenny Silver from Stokolm with all of their bands.
:
Tell us a bit about your touring experiences and about The
Intellectuals live show?
When we play
live we try to express intensity and fun, but sometimes things
get out of control and the performance falls into a chaos... As
a rule, we always receive top notch treatment when we play out
of town. We especially cherish the memory of our French tour
with the Normals, wonderful food, clean sheets, champagne and
friendly smart and funny people. We love The Frogs!
:
Other Italian or small bands you’d recommend us?
In Italy good small/not so small bands:
Cactus, Motorama, Cokerocket, Anti You, Tragicz, Taxi, Mudlarks,
Super Sexy Boy 1986, Nasties, Hormonas, Mojomatics, Manges,
Montecristo, Number 71 One Man Band... and many more.
:
Explain to me why is invisible best?
You can look at naked ladies.
:
Which one is the most important guitar chord?
Most of our songs use G, the best
combination maybe is A-D, but most of the time I don't know
exactly what chord I'm playing.
:
You cover the Velvet Underground's "white light/white heat",
why did you choose this song?
 We were asked to cover a band from the
past for a Halloween rock 'n' roll party, we chose the Velvet
Underground because they had unique songs, great style and we
love them. After the show the cover stuck in our repertoire.
:
In my review of Invisible is Best I linked up your sound
to the riot grrl movement from Olympia, WA. Was I right?
No, that sound wasn't in our minds at all
when we recorded the songs. We like that music though.
:
Please tell us a little about the recording of Invisible is
Best. I really love the messy and raw sound? Who produced it
and where? How happy are you with the result?
We recorded it in Rome in a studio called
Temple Of Noise, obviously the result is noisy and messy..! No
one really produced it, we tried to explain our ideas to the
sound guy, but he didn't always understand what we meant. For
our recordings we would have liked a raw sound but not that
messy. We are happy anyway, we love the songs and we think
that's the important thing.
:
What¹s next for The Intellectuals? New songs? Are they sounding
different than the ones in Invisible is Best? Are you looking
for the same sound? Production wise, are you guys looking for
something cleaner?
We're going on a European tour (we start
tomorrow for France and Spain with The Normals on June in
Austria and August Italy-Germany with Rock 'n' Roll Adventure
Kids). We have lots of new songs, they are Intellectual's style
as usual which means they sound like a lot of different things.
We'd like something more dry and direct for the sound, not
really cleaner but a bit more essential and minimal (something
between a rock 'n' roll Joy Division and Gories with
keyboards..!).
:
Please recommend us a few records that you consider really
important and perhaps made you get into music...
Key_Tee: Ramones: ST, Joy
Division: Unknown Pleasures, Minor Threat: Out of Step
Guitar_Boy: Minutemen: Double
Nickel Of The Dime, Velvet Underground: White Light /
White Heat, Thee Headcoats: Conundrum
Drum_Girl: Sonics: the Sonics
Boom, New Bomb Turks: Destroy Oh Boy, Mudhoney:
Touch Me I'm Sick
These are the records that got us into
music, not the records that made us start The Intellectuals (not
only this records), and they're not the records we recommend you
either. We guess everybody reading this has them.
:
I always ask this because I am always in search of small records
that might tickle my fancy. Please recommend us a few records
that you consider essential.
As for new or less known bands here goes
the list: Busy Signal, Wooden Tit, Rock 'n' roll Adventure Kids,
Volt, Metros, Hipshakes, Black Time, American Death Ray (are
they ...unknown?), Blacks, Murder By Guitar, The Normals, Test
Patterns, Angry Angles...
There you go, one more band to check out now. Like your
garage rock? You know now, if you don’t know The Intellectuals
then you are not informed enough.
Read our
review of Invisible is
Best here
The Intellectuals MySpace Page
Deadbeat Records Site |
