I believe the first I heard of this album was when Wild Honey released the limited edition It’s All About The Music concept 7” EP back in July. Exclusively released for the Punk Rock Raduno festival, IAATM is a three song 7” but only sort of? The concept: one garage-rock anthem, three versions- one is slowed down, one is regular speed and one is sped up. I assume this was done with a bit of studio trickery (as opposed to recording it at three different tempos) so like in the Three Bears, Goldilocks can decide which version best suits them. They’re all pretty good tho and since the 7” was limited to 200 copies it doesn’t seem that strange that all three versions are included on the album as well. What does seem a bit strange tho is that two other songs, “Keep It Cool” and “Angel”, ALSO have alternate versions- “Keep It Slow” and “Angel In Church”. I’m no mathemagician but by my calculations this 12-track album actually only has 8 songs.
Weird not boring, I’m into it. Seems like they’re experimenting and I applaud experiments, better than every song sounding exactly the same! I don’t like the over use of the term ‘psych’ in describing bands but if having different effects on guitars and vocals throughout makes it psychedelic then I guess that’s what this is. To me it sounds punk-y and garage-y with some great powerpop hooks. Based on that sentence maybe they sound like The Hives but tbh I think i’m just saying that because I’ve seen other writers make the comparison. The first song “Holy Money” sounds kinda like T-Rex or fellow Italians Giuda maybe (but better imo) and by the third song “Memories of Another Life” it starts to sound like 90s indie rock, maybe a bit like Guided By Voices but again that’s someone else's likening not mine.
The album title was inspired by the Gizmos’ “The Midwest Can Be Alright” from 1981, which in turn was a response to 1980’s “Can’t Stand The Midwest” by proto-egg punks Dow Jones & The Industrials. What or where is Stanzini tho? Your guess is as good as mine (my guess fwiw is maybe a sock store in their hometown of Castel Goffredo, Italy?) It may seem strange to some that a band would release three versions of the same song on two different vinyl formats but in a world where Spotify’s CEO Daniel (Bl)Ek has the fucking gall to tell artists they need to make more music in order to make money on his monopolistic app, I fully applaud this gaming of the system. Don’t let the greedy Goldilocks of the world have their cake or porridge as it were. Write 8 songs but get paid for 12, there’s value in thinking outside the box!
