Rebels Without A Cause "Naked Lunch" 1987***

This is the second band from Ravenna Italy I present in this blog, after The Cavemen. Both play pure garage/rock'n'roll, which may be more indicative of my own music tastes than of that city's music scene. After all, Italian rock is usually melodic rather than frantic - although the Rebels don't lack in the melody department, they mostly deal in high energy rock'n'roll. Not that I knew what they were about when I bought this record, I just liked the trashy aesthetic of the cover and put my faith on the record label Electric Eye, the Italian indie that released the classic Sick Rose LP's in my collection. The first track "Rock Me Baby" certainly has similarities with that band, being a straight energetic garage rock'n'roll number with vocals that reminded me of The Rose's Luca Re. On the whole, despite obviously coming from the punk/alternative scene and retaining the energy and rawness associated with it,  The Rebels also have a rootsy Americana sound evident e.g. in the 8-minute R&B workout "New York Girl" or the rockabilly "She's On Fire" with its Django-like solo.
"It's Only A Different Love" is a groovy rocker with heavier guitar while mid-tempo closer "Situation Of My Head" is reminiscent of 80's paisley underground bands or contempoary American college radio indie pop. This mini LP (plays at 45RPM wih a total duration of 27 minutes) manages to include 5 songs in slightly different styles, but all the influences blend together harmonically thanks to the distinctive vocals and excellent guitarwork of leader Davide Piatto. It has never been released on CD, and neither have the bands' 2 LP records that followed it. The bands' full discography is available to listen on Soundcloud. If you like what you hear you'll be pleased to learn that there are enough cheap 2nd hand copies on sale at discogs and elsewhere.

**** for Rock Me Baby

*** for New York Girl, She's On Fire, Situation Of My Head

** for It's Only A Different Love

The Cavemen "Il Buio E' Tra Di Noi" 2006***

During a recent visit to Rome, I kept searching for some examples of the Italian Garage Beat sound, and one record shop clerk pointed me towards this band. Later, all I could find about them is that they come from Ravenna, a city that features prominently in medieval history and which I had never heard of in modern context. Well, from now on the word Ravenna will not only conjure in my head images of Byzantine mosaics but also the garage rock sounds of The Cavemen. The band seems to be influenced by the original 60's US garage and Italian Beat sound, as well as 80's neo-garage of the Chesterfield Kings, Miracle Workers, Sick Rose etc. Interestingly, both covers here hail from that 2nd garage age: The punky "Vigliacco" is a Gruesomes song with Italian lyrics, while the fantastic Yardbirds-sounding opener "Il Buio E' Tra di Noi" is  attributed to a certain Alberto Donati. It took some detective work to find out the original, but it seems that mr. Donati was a member of Moonraker, who recently played a reunion concert in a Ravenna club (17 years after the initial band disbanded). Some live clips of the band are posted on youtube, although I couldn't find any discography. Possibly they belong to the local legend category and never released any records. Back to The Cavemen and their debut "Il Buio E' Tra Di Noi": Although my copy is a CD, I think of it as mini-LP (only 8 short songs) having a Side A and a Side B. "Side A" is sung in Italian and consists of the two covers and two rough 60's sounding band originals. "Side B" opens with slow surf instrumental "Bugia" and continues with 3 wild English-language ravers: The Bo Diddley/Pretty Things-like "All Is Wrong", punky "Pigs In The Sky" and closer "Just To See You" whose chorus is reminiscent of the old R&B evergreen "Fortune Teller". The Cavemen have released a follow up called "Fiore Nero", also on the Italian Teen Sound Records and are as far as I can tell still active, though information on them is rather scarce. The way I see it, the band's strength and weakness is their faithful revival of the 60's/80's garage sound. As a fan of that style, I enjoyed listening to them but couldn't help thinking I've heard it all before. 

**** for Il Buio E' Tra di Noi

*** for Veleno, E' Sempre Uguale Tra di Noi, Vigliacco, Bugia, All Is Wrong, Pigs In The Sky, Just To See You