« Frana-tic » (Frana, Black widow’s project – Blackened tattoo studio, 3 nov.)

Initialement prévu dans le shop d’Urgence disk, ce concert s’est finalement déroulé au studio de tatouage en face ou presque. Les italiens de Frana débarquent 30 mins avant le début des hostilités – surpris comme tout le monde par le traffic genevois de fin d’aprem. Déballage fissa du matos, petit line-check, go !

De toute façon, le punk-rock pied au plancher de Frana semble fait pour ça. S’entasser dans un kangoo, faire des bornes jusqu’à plus soif, poser son matos et balancer la sauce, s’écraser dans un duvet quelque part puis recommencer. Il y traîne comme un air de liberté, quelque part entre punk, noise syncopée et quelque chose de plus mélodique, avec notamment à la chouette voix de Luca – qui évoque des pionniers du post-hardcore. Hüsker-dü peut-être.

La configuration de la salle est un peu curieuse, toute en longueur avec cette partie surélevée qui fait office de scène mais qui éloigne un peu le groupe du public mais on s’en fout, c’est génial. Et puis, avec les peintures cyber-métal façon HR Giger qui tapissent les murs jusqu’au plafond, le lieu a comme une ambiance.

Le concert passe vite. On se retrouve au shop de Dam pour une super bouffe végétarienne, au milieu des disques – la grande classe. On fait mieux connaissance avec les italiens qui dormiront à la maison ce soir. Blagues, anecdotes, connaissances communes. Malgré l’organisation pratique pas toujours facile  – les membres du groupes n’habitent pas dans la même ville -, ils gardent une vraie motivation et envie de créer de la musique. « Je peux pas concevoir ma vie autrement, de toute façon », dit Luca. La semaine suivante, ils jouent avec Hot snakes à Milan. Chouette récompense.

Black widow’s project

La soirée s’enchaîne sans temps mort avec le concert de Black widow’s project, des genevois qui font le truc stoner Fu manchu/Foo fighters, les sons de Herr Liebe et un atterrissage en douceur au Poulpe pour profiter un peu de la fin de la soirée hip-hop noise qui s’y déroulait et continuer la discussion jusqu’à tard dans la nuit.

>>>>>>>>>> FRANA

>>>>>>>>>> BLACK WIDOW’S PROJECT

>>>>>>>>>> URGENCE DISK

« Science of nonsense » : an interview with Frana

A trail of fanzine reviews and band connections led me to Frana and their own brand of twisted, frantic and yet melody-driven punk-rock. One thing leading to another, the Italian foursome is coming to rock Geneva beginning of November and Luca (vocals, guitar) and Francesco (bass) accepted to answer this little interview.

There’s something in your sound – especially in the voice – that reminds me of some post-punk bands from the 1980s. Are you interested in bands of that period?

Luca : Hmm… The 80s… Hmm… Not sure, my references are more placed in the 90s. But I don’t know, most of the time I just do something clueless of where it comes from.

Francesco : It’s not the first time somebody makes this connection. After one of our last shows, a guy from the audience told Luca that he sings just in the same way as Boon from Minutemen – of course he doesn’t recall this. Talking for myself, some of my favorite all-time punk bands are from the 80s. Take Hüsker Dü, Mission of Burma, Big Black, Fugazi. We actually recorded a version of Chartered Trips by Hüsker Dü in a tribute compilation by TBTCI.

And I love 80s brit post-punk, which I think is a mandatory inspiration for a bass player. Wire, Gang of Four, Joy Division…


I believe you live far away from each other. How do you manage to make the band work nevertheless? Can you see any positive aspects to this situation?

L : It has been more complicated than this. Frana was born in Germany. Francesco and I lived in Munich for a few years, and there it all started. We had no friends and we decided to start a band. Then in 2015 both of us moved back to Italy. It’s complicated… at some point we were living 1000 kilometers away from one another with the Alps in between: drummer in Munich, bass player in Florence, guitar player in Genova and myself in Milano. It’s much better right now, just a few hundred kilometers, we sort of manage to practice regularly. Positive aspects? Hmm… not many. Well, we don’t see each other so often, so we have no chance to get annoyed by each other. Lol.

F : Yeah, I live in Florence, but we are all within 300 km from each other. The key to success with this situation are trains and highways… We found some sort of balance. Writing a record in this configuration was very different from what I was used to before. You know, you can’t just go to the practice room and dick around. You have to make the best out of every session and do your homeworks. Maybe you can say it’s even more efficient, just maybe.

The cover of your LP, « Awkwardwards », is pretty cool. Who drew it?

L : Silvia Sicks, a friend we have first met when we played in Rome. I had an idea for some crazy drawings, I tried to explain it to her and she nailed it ! She’s also a songwriter and we’ll play a couple of shows together with her acoustic project “Tunonna”. My favorite element on the cover is the flying cement-mixer-monster, it is the very same “Panpo, the destroyer” that gives the title to the album’s second track. The cover tries to express what is the “Awkwardwards”. This is obviously a self-made word, which could be rephrased as “towards the awkward”. Besides the meaning, I like it coz it sounds quite wrong.

There seems to be quite a lot of nonsense involved in the aesthetics of Frana. Nonsense can be seen as a response to a bewildering situation. So what are the bewildering situations you are reacting to, if any?

L : I like the nonsense and I use it a lot, for fun or sometimes even as a way of life. I like it better than struggling to find deep meanings, as in our lyrics. It’s a fairly free expression of something you have in mind, outside the typical borders, and the boredom of rationality. Clearly, nonsense is never really nonsense… If your brain produced something, some association of words, some ideas that might look random, it’s never really nonsense, just you don’t understand it, maybe you will one day, maybe you won’t ever. There’s always something more than mere aesthetics.

F : I guess the whole universe is fairly bewildering, when you think about it. I mean, not so long ago, dinosaurs were ruling the earth. “God creates dinosaurs, God destroys dinosaurs. God creates Man, man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.” Will we ever witness the end of our galaxy, swallowed altogether by a supermassive black hole? Nah, I guess we’ll awkwardly destroy ourselves and everything else, well before that point.

Are there any band or artists that you found particularly inspiring in that (non)sense ?

F : Devo. Very surrealistic. Shellac as well. And how to forget Blue by Eiffel 65.

Do you think a rock song can reach the status of a classical piece of art or will it remain a piece of pop culture, easily consumed and then forgotten ?

L : Well, music is on the internet nowadays. So as long as the internet exists, music exists, even if it’s gonna be forgotten, it’s gonna be still there, ready to be discovered again.

F : That’s a difficult one…I don’t see a clear contrast between art and pop culture. The border is fading.

What are the italian or german bands that are close to your hearts and that we should be aware of ?

L : On the german side, I’ll go for Trigger Cut, brand new band. Our former drummer plays in there with Ralph that we know from Buzz Rodeo (RIP). My pick of the week it’s them, they just released some very juicy material and we’ll be sharing the stage with them in January.

F : The Italian side on me. Check out Lleroy, cool people and furious shows.

You guys are creating music, putting out records and touring regularly in a DIY/independent network. What is the best thing about that and what is the one that you like the least?

L : The best part of it is that people do that only because of passion and enthusiasm, because they feel it and the want to do it, no money is involved. The other side of the coin is that it’s difficult, as there’s no money involved it’s hard to manage shows, get even with traveling costs. And the record market, at least in Italy, it’s quite down, as much as the “generational change” failed. Young kids are not interested in rock and punk music anymore, so bands grow old together with their audience.

Do you like reading about music? Is there any magazine or website that you check regularly?

F : I regularly check a few zines, like Perte et Fracas. But to find new stuff I mostly rely on friends’ opinions and word of mouth. Very old school and not much time.

 

Are you active in any other way in the punk-rock scene, musically or otherwise?

L : In the past, back in 2004-2009, I used to organize shows in Milan and the suburbs in several squats and bars. When I moved to Munich, I started over, it took a while but I used to organize shows in a very lovely spot called Kafe Marat. Now, that I moved back to Milan, I’m not putting up shows, at least for the moment, not much time and no place where I can do it, but I’m trying to get back doing that. That’s my personal contribution, besides playing in bands, to the punk-rock-noise-metal-hardcore-whatever-diy scene.

You’re going to play Geneva in November. Can you tell us a little bit about this tour?

F : Well, that weekend we have been invited to play in Stuttgart…Geneva is right on the way back to Milan, glad it worked out! It will be our first time in Geneva. The following week we’ll be playing a bunch of shows in south France. Then Italy, with some more shows in November and December, and more Germany in January (for all the dates check our Facebook page). We love to play in Switzerland, we used to know the guys from Deadverse (RIP)… We should do definitely do it more often. Book us if you like our stuff !

>>>>>>>>>> FRANA

The non-philosophy of noise-rock : a (posthume) interview with Buzz rodeo

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We all love it when a plan comes together. Such was the case when Stuttgart-based trio Buzz rodeo said they were available to play with local emo-rockers Nurse at their album release party in Le Poulpe. Meeting Ralph, Daniela and Helge was a blast and, on stage, the dry, angular and yet melodic noise-rock of the Germans seriously kicked asses. It came all the more as a surprise, then, to learn that the band had disbanded a few days later, putting their west-European tour to a brutal halt. So much for rock’n roll. Anyway, they let none of that out on that night and were happy to answer some of my usual questions. Here is what they had to say.

OK Buzz rodeo, let’s go  ! Your songs are really well built, noisy but very coherent, so I guess this is not your first band experience… Could you tell us a little bit about your musical pasts ?

Ralph (guitar/voice) : We played in a band called Are we electric ? It was instrumental surf-punk-math-rock (laughs) ! And I played before in a band called Mink Stole et Helge played in Craving, I played in Bhang dextro. We had four 7 ‘’ out in the 90s.

Helge (drums) : The drummer of Bhang dextro left and then I came and we formed Are we electric ? together.

Ralph : Are we electric ?, Mink Stole and an unknown band called Lightning ships… And Tiger Shower Caps !

And you, Daniela ?

Daniela (bass) : I played in an all-girl band. A cover band.

How is the integration in Buzz rodeo going ? (Daniela has been in the band for one year)

D : Very good ! I love the music, I love the songwriting…

R : The guys ! (Laughs)

D : Yeah. Ralph is a bit special…

R : (Funny voice) Very special !

D : Helge is my flying teacher ! He is such a good drummer that playing bass with him is like flying ! And Ralph, he is…

R : … (Unidentified german word, better not to translate.)

D : No, an endless source of songs… In three days, he can do…

R : … one album ? (Laughs)

That was actually my next question : what is the writing process to achieve these songs that you recognize almost immediately ?

R : I just come to the rehearsal and play some riffs… and the others build it up !

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Your last album was published on a polish label – Antena krzyku -, can you pronounce that name for me ?

R : We say « Antena Kryschkou », but we don’t really know…it might not be the exact way… (Laughs)

Can you tell us a bit about this label ?

R : Its is 30 years old, at some time it was forbidden in Poland. Too political, or something like that… It’s a really cool guy who runs the label !

How did you meet him ?

R : He wrote to me on Facebook and we talked and talked and talked. I hadn’t noticed that he had a label. Three weeks later, he was like « Hey, I’ve got this label » and I was like « WHAT ?!! ». He has many bands on his label from all over the world. And not only noise-rock : hardcore-punk, balkan rock, he has all… But he loves noise-rock and post-punk ! He was the roadie for The Ex in the 80s and 90s, he was all over Europe with them.

D : And the best thing is that he doesn’t tell us what we should do…

R : Most of the promotion we do by ourselves, on Facebook…

Yeah, I’ve seen it once or twice… (Everybody laughs out really loud, Ralph being a serial Facebook poster.)

R : But you have to do this ! There are so many bands out there ! Many bands say fuck self-promotion, but it’s not my opinion…

buzz_rodeo-01.jpg

Do you think this has changed ? In the 90s, there used to be quite a lot of fanzines that bands would use for their promotion…

R : Yeah, I personnally read Maximum rock’n roll, Flipside, Heartattack and the German ones : Ox fanzine

H : And Trust. Trust is better !

R : And Skyscraper magazine and Copper press. And Magnet magazin in the 90s. And another German one in the 90s : Spex.

D : But the change is that you have more direct contact with fans. With social media, you collect them step by step, you talk with them directly. We send the teeshirts, the records by ourselves…

R : We write little messages, include them in the package. We built this Buzz rodeo thing mostly on Facebook.

Then do you think local scenes still have a relevance when you can be in touch with a guy in South america and organize a tour…

R : Local networks yes but not with the local scene… Not so many bands and they are much younger than us. But we have connections all around the world. The guys call us : Hey, come to Russia, come to Australia ! The next step would be to tour the US but… we are afraid of Trump ! Could be a horror trip !

Are these easy connections all good experiences ?

R : In general, you can rely on people, yes.

D : Things happen…

R : Yeah, but I would say 90 % is good. No assholes ! It works !

You seem to be very active : writing, recording, touring. Do you have music-related jobs ? Or flexible jobs ?

R : I’m a landscaper. Self-employed, so when we play, I have no money. But I can do what I want.

D : I’m in a sound studio that does advertising : radio spots, TV spots and videos… The day has 24 hours and it’s always full. When I do stuff for Buzz rodeo, I can’t work so much. But it’s OK.

H : I’m a teacher for fair-trade shops…

R : We can’t live from music only ! So far but… it can change ! (Laughs)

buzz_rodeo-14.jpg

Can you tell what bands are worth listening to in Germany right now ?

R : German bands ? That’s the hardest question ! (Laughs) Heads…. Not many that I prefer listening to…

H : You have to take a few minutes to think about this… Kurt… Ten Volt shock is cool ! Yass…

R : Party diktator. They have a new band called Waran… I personnally listen to American or UK bands : Blacklisters, Usa nails… And all the 90s stuff : Touch and go, Amphetamine reptile, Dischord, Trance syndicate… This shit… And I love Peru, from Poland. they’re great !

H : Frana… Porch… We toured with them in the UK.

You – especially Ralph – seem to be real noise-rock freaks, how would you define the essence of it – the philosophy of noise-rock – to people who don’t know about it and surely want to know ?

D : Good question…

R : We are really loud… and dirty. Well, … I don’t know ! (Laughs)

D : In the end, it’s just music. A matter of taste…

R : My roots are more in the UK post-punk scene. The Fall, stuff like that… Television personalities, Gang of four are my personal favourites. The guitar-player is god !

D : Music just makes peole feel something. You can say I love that but you can’t say what the philosophy of it is !

(Follows a discussion on how music can touch people in different ways…)

R : A new record is in the works : fifteen new songs ready to be recorded. We hope we can go to Blackbox studio, in France. We have contacts with Albini too but it was too expensive for us. But it would be a good thing, recording with him in the near future.

So you’re planning to have the new album out this year ?

R : Yeah, on the same label, Antena Kryzku. Of course.

 

Post scriptum

On latest news, Ralph has started a new band project with Sasha (ex-Frana) on drums and Daniel (Buzz rodeo sound guy) on bass. To be continued…

 

All black and white pictures are from Dylan D. Breed. Thanks to him again.

 

>>>>>>>>> MINK STOLE 1, 2

>>>>>>>>> BHANG DEXTRO 1, 2, 3

>>>>>>>>> ARE WE ELECTRIC ?

>>>>>>>>> TIGER SHOWER CAPS

>>>>>>>>> LIGHTNING SHIPS

>>>>>>>>> BUZZ RODEO

>>>>>>>>> ANTENA KRZYKU

>>>>>>>>>> LE POULPE

 

 

« Bande de fanatiques » (Dustriders, Hollywoodfun downstairs, Vorvan – Makhno, 22 nov.)

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Rien de plus ennuyeux que ces concerts estampillés tel ou tel genre, où les groupes ressassent les mêmes codes et où la surprise et la prise de risque sont minimes. Heureusement ce concert à la Makhno, organisée par l’asso essentielle Drone to the bone, n’avait rien de tel, même si une arrivée tardive n’aura pas permis d’apprécier les locaux de Dustrider.

HFD 1Hollywoodfun downstairs, c’est un duo néo-zélandais et si il y a des fanatiques, c’est bien eux. Des tournées comme des forcenés – c’est quand même leur deuxième passage à Genève dans l’année et ils ont d’ailleurs perdu un bassiste dans le bataille -, une musique sans répit et un dernier album sorti chez les polonais d’Antena krzyku (super label). Preuve s’il en fallait que le réseau DIY 2.0 fonctionne.

hfd 6.JPGFaut au moins venir de l’autre côté de la terre pour jouer la musique qu’ils font. Effectivement il y a un côté garage dans la réverb et cette voix nasillarde mais passé à la moulinette de rythmiques effrénées qui lui donne parfois des airs de hardcore hurlé – screamo pour les intimes.

hfd 5Une sorte d’accouplement contre-nature entre les Buzzcocks et Lightning bolt (ouille !), ou quelque chose comme ça. Une musique qui peut être fun mais aussi assez malsaine et stressante. Entre névrose et psychose, mon coeur balance.

vrvn 2

C’est peut-être bête mais la première chose qui m’a frappée chez les Russes de Vorvan, c’est les tee-shirts qu’ils portaient sur scène ou sur les photos que j’avais pu voir : Doom, Extreme noise terror, Misery, Disfear… Clairement des gens de bon goût.

vrvn 1Leur hardcore « moderne » convoque tout ce qui butte, qui latte et qui tabasse. La voix gueulée est au final assez linéaire mais, bon dieu, c’est en-dessous que ça se passe. Une basse de plomb en fusion – jouée au doigts -, des riffs de tueurs à la guitare mais parsemés de déconstructions noise aux petits oignons et surtout, surtout, une batterie démentielle qui sonnait comme c’est pas possible. Un régal pour les yeux et les oreilles.

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Les compos ultra incisives maintiennent une pression constante. Chaque morceau pilonne et capte l’attention, sans jamais lasser. Ce groupe a clairement la science de la composition et – chose rare – donne envie d’aller écouter leur musique sur disque pour comprendre exactement c’était quoi, ce truc qu’on s’est pris dans les oreilles.

>>>>>>>>>> HOLLYWOODFUN DOWNSTAIRS

>>>>>>>>>> VORVAN

>>>>>>>>>> ANTENA KRZYKU RECORDS

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Et c’est quoi, cette société où il faut clamer les évidences ?