THE RITUALS

From : saretti@gmail.com
To : iacopo@sonsofvesta.it

Subject : Re:

Date : Wed, 19 May 2010 11:14:31 +0200

..by the way...

I am puzzled.

And I'm going to tell you why.

I was supposed to publish on my own blog The Rituals' full-lenghts, introducing them with something that sounded more or less like:

"I used to listen to punkrock when I was 15/16.

Then you grow up, you change your music tastes, your habits, you think you got over a period of your life and a certain kind of music too...

One day though, when you have already turned 25, a record called The Past Twelve Months comes out, upsetting all you certainties about your life and making you re-discover a deep love for (what I personally call) punkrock"

This happened last night.

This morning instead, I was surfing through the SOV website, when, by mistake, I found this review, written by you:

THE RITUALS. there are moments in your life in which your musical taste drastically changes. bands, genres you were used to listen to daily, instantly start to sound boring, annoying or even disgusting, and you have to try something fresher, newer, and totally different. i've personally never been that much into punk rock music (which actually andrea loves), i always have been more into screamo/emo violence stuff, post-hardcore oriented metalheads band or sorta. later on i've focused more into grungy stuff, postpunk, postrock, new wave/dark music and eventually, some punkrock.

the rituals is a band that took me in the fabulous world of punkrock music, and i will never be thankful enough to these guys for this.

So, what should I do now? Deleting everything? I don't want people thinking I copied and pasted your words!

argh!

Sara

x

From : iacopo@sonsofvesta.it

To : saretti@gmail.com

Subject : Re:

Date : Wed, 19 May 2010 19:28 +0200

...You know what?

In my opinion you should keep the email you sent me, translate it and using it as introduction in your blog.

That's awesome. I mean, finding out you have written the same things someone else did, either about a band or a record, means that they're working. And they are doing really good.

xo

Well said.

Any further comment will be just pointless.

THE RITUALS - THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS

Band: Rituals

Title: The Past Twelve Months

Label: Wynona Rec

Year: 2006

Genre: punk rock, melodic hc

Geographic Location: Verona - Veneto

1. Not a Tear

2. Leave This Town In Flames

3. An Inept Need For The Backups

4. Back In the Days

5. Song Formerly Known As "Love Song"

6. 100 Razors

7. Clean

8. What You'll Pay For

9. The Knife, The Hand And The Stab

10. Tolerant

11. The Brootherhood

12. Button Shaped Eyes

The Rituals, The Past Twelve Months. rar

THE RITUALS, CELEBRATE LIFE.

Band: Rituals

Title: Celebrate Life

Label: Sons Of Vesta

Year: 2009

Genre: punk rock

Geographic Location: Verona - Veneto

1. Night...

2. ...And the New Born Poets' Mouths Full Of Cutlery

3. Remembering Herostratus ( The Temple Of Ephesus)

4. Naked ( In The woods)

5. Chronicles Of A Van-Tastic Journey!

6. The Migrants

7. Moving Like Wolves At Night

8. A Beard And Its Shadow

9. Votre Cerveu Trompe Vos Yeux!

10. No Organs

11. Naked ( Underneath Blankets)

12. Polite And Clean

13: Harvester

14. Romeo Of All Romeos

The Rituals, Celebrate Life.rar

Youth Of Today: Dummo and Viralvision

...Because I need to remind myself this blog is not only about the glorification of the ancient splendours.

Take a young (boy)band called Dummo. And take a young talented director known as Viralvisions. The result of these young beautiful minds clashing together, is Maschera Da Cane, both a song that can't come out of your mind, and a videoclip shooted at Dauntaun /Leoncavallo in Milan, more and more pleasant as you watching it again and again.

Dummo is Tommaso, Axel and Alessandro, it's born in Umbertide (Perugia - Umbria), and it's mainly influenced by Altro and Fine Before You Came.

Viralvisions is Ivana, a smart lady that on top of her activity as a diy director, plays with The Infarto, Scheisse! and carries on a titanic project: the production of a documentary about the italian diy scene of today: 16hours of live sets, interviews and several shooting: everything is almost ready but frozen in her hard disk. Only the last effort needs to be made: the editing.

I've been waiting for this documentary for at least two years now. If you see her around, you must tell her to hurry up, or all this precious material will go lost!

Fargo live in Maniago.

And so it seems everybody goes crazy for Fargo recently.

Tonight I bumped into this little piece of history.

It dates back to a memorable festival in september 2000, in a squatted house in Maniago.

That day also Fine Before You Came played an unforgettable gig.

I can proudly say I was there.

When the Kids go Indie-Pop: Fargo, Escargot City, Sybil

FARGO

Three guys in their mid 20's began to delight the youth from Pordenone (yes, once again, here we are) in late '99 giving birth to Fargo, a *loveband*. I'd rather call their sound indie-pop, because the use of their self-appellation might sound both worrying or reason of a big shame but, even in hindsight, I can admit with no doubts they made a bunch of great melodic (emo) pop songs, in a certain way influenced by that midwest-emocore that was at its end in the Usa but at its first glimpses in Italy. If you expect to listen a band ala Mineral though, you are going to be disappointed.

Such a long time had passed that I couldn't even remember they opened for The Get Up Kids in Venice in may 2000, up till the last holidays back home when I met one of them who was flipping through some old pictures. Or yes, I have to admit that maybe I was too busy in following Matt Pryor & co that day.

But, as anyone else who has seen Fargo performing a live show, I do well remember their

unexceptionable stage presence, despite their so-called lovesongs.

During their short existence, they self-released 300 copies of a three-song 7": the double thickness of the vinyl and the artwork by Alessandro Baronciani made a little gem of it.

A few months ago Knifeville published on a digital support, a full lenght including the tracks from the 7" plus all the unreleased songs they recorded back in 2000. A Record That Was Never Made, is fully downloadable here.

Rumors say they will play a reunion show one day... maybe... at some point...

In the meantime you might bump into some of its members at any northern soul all-nighter. They are pretty good dancers!

Fargo 2000

Fargo 2008

Band: Fargo

Title: s/t

Label: self-released

Year: 2000

Genre: indie-pop, emo

Geographical location: Pordenone - Friuli Venezia Giulia.

1. What Coul Be Wrong?

2. I Feel Nothing

3. Me And My Half

Fargo, s/t. rar

ESCARGOT CITY

Escargot City has unfortunately been a comet appearing in the late '90s to the eyes of a privileged public of "neighbours". I bet no one else living further off than 50 km from Portogruaro (a small village, maybe just known for being an important junction connecting the hinterland with the north-eastern seaside of the Country) had the chance to listen or even to hear about them.

As a matter of fact what remains of their existence is only a demotape recorded in 1998 but absolutely forward-looking: when I found by mistake the tape, only two or three years ago, and listened to it again it sounded so up-to-date to my ears.

No need to discuss any further, just listen to these awesome melodic pop songs.

Band: Escargot City

Title: s/t (demotape)

Label: self-released

Year: 1998

Genre: indie-pop

Geographical location: Portogruaro (Venezia) - Veneto

Escargot City, demo tape.rar

1. Constant Blowing

2. Crush

3. Duel

4. One Thousand Miles Stare

5. Twirl

SYBIL

Last but not least, from the west-coast side, another example of supreme indiepop comes from Sybil. Active during the same years, differently from Fargo and Escargot City, they released an Ep thanks to a co-production between Greenrecords and Candy Apple Rec (Burning Defeat's singer's label). There was a time when this great ep was available to my pleasure in a 60' tdk , but it was stolen after a while by my nextdoor neighbour because of a punkrock compilation recorded on the B side: I remember how much I loved Goodmorning Midnight when I was 16. Exactly as much as I love the Smiths' cover Asleep today, retrieved due to the courtesy of Tixi on YellowBlueAndGreen.

Band: Sybil

Title: In A Small Town

Label: Green Records / Candy Apple

Year: 1997

Genre: indie pop

Geographical Location: Genova - Liguria

Related bands: Heartside

Sybil - In A Small Town.rar

1. T.T.

2. Different

3. What If I Say...

4. Asleep

5. Goodmorning Midnight

6. I Love You

7. Watery Eyes

Todiefor

...And it comes the time when you realize to be proud of the place where you were born, despite you escaped from it with the willing of finding a better shelter.

This awareness came out of my mind by focusing on the realities of the past deserving a post in this blog, and I ended up realizing how many good bands have been cranked out in my region/town. A contextual analysis should be compulsory to understand in what sort of cultural, social and geographical context we grew up but I will simply underline how this town, and its province, called Pordenone, is often not even known by the Italians themselves.

However I reckon is my duty to make this wonders known.

TO DIE FOR, for example, left the mark on a (inter)national scale with their metallic hardcore also by being a meeting-point between metalheads and emo (omg, I did it again!) lovers, becoming famous for their live shows and the endless stage-divings involved.

From 1997 to 2003 they released three records: "Still Searching For Answers" on VacationHouse Rec, the split 10" with the german Engrave "All the passion to keep you moving" on the german label Defiance Records, and last but not least "Virus Infection Control" on Heroine Rec that marked a change into even more chaotic and metallic sound.

But, as a rule, as the appreciation was high, due to a somewhat unexplainable reason, ToDieFor split up. What remains nowadays is Slowmotion Apocalypse, a proper *punk-guys-who-play-metal* band.

On another positive note, I will never be thankful enough to them for having organised the Better Days Are Gone Festival(s).

In summers of 2000 and 2001, they put up one of the coolest hc festival of the Noughties, set in a open location at the feet of the mountains, just in the neighbourhoods of our town.
Other than being surrounded by wonderful landscapes and heterogeneous bands and public, some highlights (re)occurred in both editions of this 2 day festival and made it a legendary event, such as the free pizzas for everybody provided and delivered by some unknown and mysterious strangers, the emokids-against-metalheads football matches and the unfailing rows between the vegan-sxe-new-school kids and everyone else.

Band: ToDieFor 

Title: All The Passion To Keep You Moving - split 10inches with Engrave -

Label: Defiance Rec.

Year: 2000

Genre: metallic-hardcore.

Geographical Location: Pordenone - Friuli Venezia Giulia

Related bands: Slowmotion Apocalypse, Lucertolas, Kai Yan Wang, Enacoid, Circlesouth, Not One Word.

1. Todiefor - George Orwell Was Right

2. Todiefor - Empty Hopes

3. Todiefor - Where Angels Hide
4. Engrave - Sugar Cubes And Sweet Kisses
5. Engrave - What If
6. Engrave - She Saves The Day
7. Engrave - Target Audience
8. Engrave - Reflections

Todiefor /Engrave,. All The Passion To Keep You Moving.rar