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To
me Italy’s The Intellectuals are nearly the perfect
band. Their garage punk rock seems to, musically,
spiritually and melodically, summarize everything that’s
great about wild music. It’s is, childish, youthful and
never grown up. It is exuberant, obnoxious and
beautiful, loud and bratty, groovy and forever hip,
loose and sloppy and all so right. It is ageless but
clearly founded in the 60’s and 70’s. It’s out of
control, simple and primitive and yet sophisticated and uber cool. In other words, I want to wear their
t-shirts and cook them breakfast.
A couple of
years ago I was introduced to their fantastic album Invisible
is Best via the great label Dead Beat and now, this trio is
back. Not really with a vengeance but at least they are back, and
2009 is a better year for it.
Triple
differs
from Invisible is Best in that it is not as immediate of
an album. While the songs of the above mentioned album were
charged with hooks, this time around the band has created a low
simmering record.
Like all
good garage punk, and yeah, even blues, the songs still sound
raw. Just like the band intended to leave them, but this time around
it
takes several spins to fall into their spell. Their sound
though, remains indomitable with those wild guitars, at times
bluesy and always fuzzy and rocking, that one trick keyboard
playing so hypnotically like all of a sudden we fell into an
acid party and everyone is into the psychedelics. What I dig
about The Intellectuals' drum sound is that the kick drum sounds
as loud as the snare and the beat is one and only one.
The male and
female vocals are still the rage. These could be the most
annoying people in the classroom, the obnoxious guys sitting in
the back of the room all of a sudden dropping your jaw with an
album of true punk music. To some it may be hard to take, to
those who know, and those with taste, is just more of the best.
Triple is a
solid record. It is not superior to Invisible is Best. But that
album was almost untouchable in my book. My favorite tune is
“Hands in Blood “, a nostalgic blues tune that will bring back
memories you don’t even have. It is that melancholic.
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