Weird Black

WWNBB @ SXSW – our label’s showcase in Austin

We bet that among the “5 things you didn’t expect from SXSW 2017” there will soon be a “Wait a second: did you say this stuff is from Italy?” – The showcase of a small independent record label curiously called We Were Never Being Boring will show you a side of Italy – and in a broader way an approach to music – you didn’t know could exist around the boot.

Friday, March 17th at The Sidewinder (inside), We Were Never Being Boring collective (aka WWNBB) presents six bands that will bring a great deal of good music, from indie-rock to electronic, from psychedelic lo-fi to indie-pop, and everything in between: a little festival inside the festival!

BIRTHH (https://www.facebook.com/birthhofficial)
Alice Bisi debuted her project at SXSW 2016 when she was not even allowed to see half of the shows because of her then 19 years of age. Since that first appearance she has been continuously playing shows, bringing her music to many prestigious European festivals (Ment, Eurosonic, Ypsigrock, to name a few). In March, she’s going to be back in Austin for SXSW 2017 amidst a year that is already full of unwinding surprises. The debut album Born in the Woods has received international praise, due to its’ breathtaking lyrics and vibrating sounds–a recipe for becoming completely absorbed in the songs.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UblL3uxZYI
Live: http://concert.arte.tv/fr/birthh-au-festival-eurosonic?language=fr
Streaming: https://wewereneverbeingboring.bandcamp.com/album/wwnbb-078-born-in-the-woods

Dizzyride (http://www.dizzyride.com)
Nicola and Zoë live in Brooklyn where their paths met a few years back. She comes from Montreal, Canada; he is from Venice, Italy. This is their first project together and their music can be described as lo-fi dream pop. Their songs are the perfect soundtrack to those endless nights in which you meet tons of incredible people and in your head are already writing a movie about all of them. Dizzyride just released their eponymous debut album and they are at the moment on tour in the US.
Video: https://youtu.be/WLaIZqol3Qg
Streaming: https://wewereneverbeingboring.bandcamp.com/album/wwnbb-083-dizzyride

Echopark (https://www.facebook.com/theechopark)
Antonio Elia Forte lives in London, but his Mediterranean roots are vibrant in his passionate and at times euphoric way to face and dismantle synth-pop’s standard forms, and, while doing so, riding along walls of guitars built layer after layer after layer… Antonio is restless and never stops playing, reinventing, pushing the boundaries, and having fun. His sophomore album, Ties, out on March 10th, is a perfect gem that couldn’t debut on a better stage than that of SXSW.
Video:  https://youtu.be/DaolFvEcL7E
Streaming: https://wewereneverbeingboring.bandcamp.com/album/wwnbb-085-ties

Weird Black (https://www.facebook.com/weirdblackband)
This four piece from Rome plays a joyous psych-pop with a great passion for the Beatles and the Canterbury scene. Captain Luca Di Cataldo is a never ending volcano of ideas and songs, and while he is finalizing with Don Bolles (Ariel Pink, The Germs) the band’s sophomore album, set for release in the spring, it looks like there’s more and more urgent songs coming out right before SXSW. We couldn’t be happier to be facing the incoming spring with more surrealistic songs!
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ResJ_dNA0g
Streaming: https://wewereneverbeingboring.bandcamp.com/album/wwnbb-071-hy-brazil

Halfalib (https://www.facebook.com/halfalib)
Marco Giudici might be a familiar face to some, for his bass playing with the band Any Other, but his solo project Halfalib is still somewhat mysterious even if the tracks are already scattered across the web and the physical album is on its way to the stores. Halfalib’s music floats between Chris Cohen and Mercury Rev inside a shiny cloud of its’ own, still transforming and doused with mystery.
Streaming: https://wewereneverbeingboring.bandcamp.com/album/wwnbb-084-malamocco)

TIGER! SHIT! TIGER! TIGER! (https://www.facebook.com/wearetstt)
We are long time admirers of this band even though it’s not part of our label-family (they have released with the awesome To Lose La Track and MiaCameretta Records), we are very excited they will be joining us to bring on stage their indie-rock à la Sonic Youth / Dinosaur Jr. A perfect energy shaker condensed in a 40 minutes set, like their latest album “Corners”, should be played cranked up to volume 11!
Video: https://youtu.be/eCqlLpCGskA
Streaming: https://miacameretta.bandcamp.com/album/tiger-shit-tiger-tiger-corners

Polaroid DJ (https://www.facebook.com/polaroidallaradio)
Enzo Baruffaldi, from his hometown of Bologna, curates since 2001 the indie music blog “polaroid” (the nod is to Douglas Coupland’s “Polaroids From The Dead” and Belle & Sebastian’s “Ink Polaroids”, not the camera…) and a weekly radio show on Radio Città del Capo. In 2014, a survey conducted by Styleofsound.com included polaroid in the list of the “100 most influential blogs worldwide”. He wrote for Rolling Stone and various other magazines and webzines. When he djs he usually mixes indiepop and Northern Soul, and basically spends the entire set going back and forth from the dancefloor.
Blog: www.polaroid.blogspot.com
Podcast: https://polaroidpodcast.wordpress.com/

The beautiful artwork used for the poster is by artist Denis Riva, masterfully arranged graphically by Rossella Merighi.

Weird Black – “Our Lies Are True” Video and album free download

Rome’s Weird Black is a never ending bucket of surprises, and they show it once more with a psychedelically contemporary video for the song Our Lies Are True, another gem extracted from their debut album Hy Brazil, out a few months ago and with just a bunch of copies left for you to grab. The band has been busy lately recording the sophomore album planned for early 2017, and still playing shows around Europe. Here the next dates if you are lucky enough to be close to any of those cities:

13 October – Seregno (MI-Italy) @ Honnky Tonky
14 October – Strasbourg (FRANCE) @ Le Local
15 October – Vagney (FRANCE) @ L’Estaminet
19 October – Besançon (FRANCE) @ Bains Douches
21 October – Landau (GERMANY) @ Fatal

And as a token for your moral support and the 3 minutes you spent watching the video, the album Hy Brazil will be available on free download for a week!!

WEIRD BLACK new tracks in free download

Weird Black are taking the opportunity given by the Rome Psych Fest (where they will play on May 14th) to share 2 unreleased songs. Objects In Dreams Are Weirder Than They Appear is the title of this work available for free download on soundcloud, and as the bands puts it “this 2-Tracks-Bootleg was recorded as what remains of ‘Hy Brazil’ psy and lo-fi experience.” The band’s debut album, Hy Brazil, came out earlier this year and we are still playing it loud!

Weird Black – Hy Brazil

 Una delle cose più importanti che sembrano insegnarci le mappe è che non bisogna davvero cercare là dove credi di poter trovare ciò che cerchi. La mappa non è il luogo che indica. Così, per esempio, se leggi il nome “Hy Brazil” non pensare subito a climi tropicali e spiagge assolate. Piuttosto, dovrai dirigerti molto più a Nord, circa all’altezza dell’Irlanda, nel mezzo del gelido oceano Atlantico. E anche a quel punto scoprirai che Hy Brazil non è nemmeno un’isola: è la leggenda di un’isola, è una voce tramandata per sbaglio o forse soltanto un sogno.
Non è affatto stravagante che la band romana dei Weird Black abbia scelto come titolo del proprio album di debutto questo nome inafferrabile, questo luogo inaccessibile se non per mezzo di mappe vaghe e confuse. In fondo, si potrebbe dire che la loro musica nasce nello stesso stato sospeso, respira la stessa aria di favola, un po’ grottesca e un po’ surreale. Se la psychedelia classica degli Anni Sessanta, quella magia che evoca una parola lontana e al tempo stesso definitiva come “Canterbury”, rimane il porto da cui i Weird Black sono salpati, la rotta della loro folle nave si stempera verso direzioni più scanzonate, sulla scia di una bassa fedeltà più contemporanea, quella che ha ascoltato bene la lezione di personaggi come Ariel Pink e Daniel Johnston, o nuove band come i Foxygen, scrutando l’orizzonte avendo negli occhi lo stesso sguardo beffardo alla Mac DeMarco. Chitarre che sbucano da caleidoscopi, melodie scarne e ipnotiche, ritmi sornioni che finiscono per catturarti e portarti alla deriva. Non cercate Hy Brazil sulle mappe: lasciate che sia questo disco a condurvi là. Hy Brazil è disponibile in CD digipack in edizione limitata e in digitale.

Buy the album [EU]

Buy the album [US]

 One of the most important teachings we get from maps is that we shouldn’t actually look where we think we’ll find what we are looking for, because the map itself ain’t the place it points. At the same time it’s important not to be mislead into thinking to tropical beaches reading the name “Hy Brazil”; instead we’ll need to look way North, in the freezing Ocean around Ireland. And then we’ll realize that Hy Brazil is not even an island but its legend, perhaps just a dream reported on old maps. It is not weird then that Rome-based Weird Black chose this elusive name for their debut album, for it feels like their music fluctuates into a suspended reality that smells of fairy tales: a little grotesque and somewhat surreal. If the classic psychedelia from the Sixties, with all of its magic culminating in the far-away but definitive word “Canterbury”, remains the port from where Weird Black set sail, the route of their crazy ship blends into more easygoing directions in the wake of a more contemporary lo-fi originated from the likes of Ariel Pink and Daniel Johnston, or the more current Foxygen, while scanning the horizon with the urchin look you’d expect from Mac DeMarco. The guitar lines pop-out of kaleidoscopes, sparse and hypnotic melodies, sly rhythms able to send you adrift… Don’t look for Hy Brazil on the maps, let this album take you there. Hy Brazil is out now on a limited edition digipack CD, and digital.

Buy the album [EU]

Buy the album [US]

 

Weird Black share video for their first single – Despite The Gloom

Weird Black surprised us with their unique sound and surreal imagery, both striking in the music and video for their single Despite the Gloom. The song is an entrancing mix of precious lo-fi dipped in psychedelia that will make you keep the beat with your body, while the video is impossible to stop watching. Press play you non-believers!