These Go to 11: interviewing We Were Never Being Boring Collective

Time for another interview! Now with Samuele Palazzi, musician and member of one the happiest labels around, our beloved We Were Never Being Boring Collective (WWNBB) because, as they say, "we can't succumb to boredom"! These Go to 11!

Samuele Palazzi, We Were Never Being Boring 

Indie Italians having fun!

The WWNBB Collective was born in June 2009, when Le Man Avec Les Lunettes, The Calorifer Is Very Hot and Enzo Baruffaldi published a collective EP of four covers of Wavves tune ‘So Bored’. Since then, they have published more than 60 releases, including exciting bands such as Be Forest, Burnt Palms, Crescendo, Joyce in Pola, Making Marks, Brothers in Law or Tight Eye. Impressive. But there's more, as aside his work at WWNBB label, Samuele, now living in San Francisco, is a musician, member of The Calorifer Is Very Hot (also known as Calorifero) with whom he released 'Marzipan in Zurich' (2007), 'Evolution On Stand-By' (2009) and 'Mind Warp' (2011) and core member of the worldwide supergroup Still Flyin', leaded by Sean Rawls and with an extensive discography with ten EPs and albums like 'Never Gonna Touch The Ground' (2009), 'On A Bedroom Wall' (2012) or Perfect Future (January of 2016). Not enough?There's even more, as he has played with many bands of WWNBB, like The Ian Fays or The Yellow Traffic Light. All proofs we are in front of a man who breathes music 24/7, every single day of the year. Here we go!

King Kong revisited, early 90s style 

1.First record that you bought (be honest)

I have two stories that I consider my first purchases: do you remember when we used to buy from mail order magazines? My first 2 tapes bought that way were Counting Crows – 'August and Everything After', and Meat Loaf – 'Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell'. But I grew up in the middle of nowhere and I will always remember my first adventure to the record store (bike to the bus stop and then bus) when I was still a kid, asking people at the farmers market where I could find 'On the Rock' (that was the name of the store), and once there I bought Pearl Jam – 'Vitalogy' on vinyl and Pink Floyd – 'Pulse' on CD.

Queen of 'privilege pop'?

2. First and last concert you have attended (be honest too!)
Good memories here too… First was in Bologna (Italy) and the band was Marion for their tour of 'This World and Body', my 10 years older neighbor (with whom I was obviously in love) asked my parents if she could take me to the show, but obviously her boyfriend came too. Last show was Metric in San Francisco.

3. Guilty pleasure (song/band you shouldn’t like but you do, yes, it’s the embarrassing question)

I have tons! Maybe my biggest crush happened with Lana Del Rey – 'Born to Die'?

4. Most precious music item you own (collector mode on)

I do not go extremely crazy for pricy collector’s items; I mostly care about the music on a support that I can touch. I have a lot of rarities that are not collector’s items, but for me they mean a lot, like limited editions of friend’s projects or the test presses of the WWNBB’s releases.

Mark "joyful" Kozelek: keep your guard up!

5.Favorite lyrics (not yours)
BIRTHH has a song called 'Queen of Failureland', and its opener got stuck in my head the first moment I heard it: 'We live worthless lives just to prove/that we’re victims of the system/that our wounds cannot be mended/that you’ll never understand/the pain inside our chest'…

6.Musician/s you would like to meet (should be alive, for obvious reasons, but you can choose a dead one too)
Polly Jean Harvey!! And Mark Kozelek too, but with time to chat…

7. Favorite artwork album (not yours)
Pearl Jam – 'No Code' / Mogwai – 'Come on Die Young' / Belle and Sebastian 'Tigermilk'.

Mark Ruffalo, the impossible manager

8. Books or movies? Depending on your answer recommend us one (trick: you can choose both) 
Books: suggesting is too personal, but I can tell you that at the moment I am reading 'Lust for Life' by Irving Stone and it’s very good. Movies: I do like some films that are not really challenging, and one of these that I liked lately was 'Begin Again', especially because I love Mark Ruffalo in it.

9. Release (of yours) you are most proud of
As record label I can’t say. As musician probably The Calorifer is Very Hot! – 'Evolution on Stand-by'.

10. What does it mean indie for you? (yes, the “serious question”)
Indie means that I wake up without knowing what I’ll end up doing for a band that day, that money is something that goes out but doesn’t come in, that if there were no passion there wouldn’t be indie!

11. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? 
I really have such a life that I can barely think about tomorrow…10 years from now I don’t see myself being too different than now, but I hope to incorporate some nature-related work and surroundings to music.                                                                     

 Zillion thanks Samuele!

"Begin Again", feel-good hit of the summer

Begin Again

It's great that films like 'Begin Again' see the light of day. A film about making, feeling and enjoying the music. A movie about creating songs (songs where lyrics are meaningful and real instruments are played, where asses, stupidity, amount of provocative tweets &/or dresses doesn't matter at all) with enough charms and vividness to keep you smiling after the credits roll on.

Having said that, 'Begin Again' cannot compete with the sense of freshness, rawness and romanticism of the director's previous and celebrated work, 'Once', and some of the tricks that build the development of the film are so hard to believe it all relies on the spectator's shoulders. If you "buy" the story, you'll certainly enjoy 'Begin Again'. If not, it might annoy you from time to time. I encourage you to not get obsessed with verisimilitude and realism. Lower your guard in that sense.

Writer-director John Carney has created a comedy with hints of drama and heartbreaks where possibility and opportunity have the form of a three minute pop song. It's basically a contemporary, flesh and bones tale. Gretta (played with grace by Keira Knightley) and her boyfriend Dave (Adam Levine from the obnoxious Maroon 5, and yes folks, sadly enough, he sings on the movie) are not only a perfect couple but also a major creative force, landing in New York while stardom is knocking on their doors... aka a major label deal. But fame brings also the more common (along with drugs and booze) trouble and Gretta is left on her own... with her tunes. And that's when Dan (as usual, Mark Ruffalo on a solid performance), a fallen angel of a record-label executive appears, also abandoned, in terms of family & in terms of music industry. It jumps from scene to scene in brush strokes, making clear that Carney just needs an excuse, an emotional setting where he can locate his unusual music recording story. The movie really begins when Dan imagines how he could produce the aching, acoustic song a devastated Gretta is performing on an East Village venue. It's also the first of several uplifting moments on the film.

It's kind of a last chance for both. For Gretta is either trying to follow this desperate man into his attempt to record her songs or leaving the States (and maybe music?). For Dan, it's either completely sink or swim. As a feel-good movie, 'Begin Again' takes the obvious directions except in one area where Carney surprises the spectator not going for what it would have been the blandest, romantic choice. Instead, he focus just in music and New York City, the other starring of 'Begin Again' (with all my respect to my dear Catherine Keener and some other secondary roles). The idea of a "live and alive" album Gretta & Dan are aiming to record is refreshing (impossible too) and offers joyful renditions of songs played behind a summery, shiny, exuberant city. It's hard to resist, so haunting you'll forget the lame scenes/debates on music industry or Mr. Levine singing. It's the power of music in a mind-blowing environment.

SCORE: 6,75/10

"The Avengers", superheroes' all-star game

The Avengers

That's the last superhero movie I'm watching in a long while, promise. Too many in the last two years, the majority of them being quite mediocre. "The Avengers" is not going to be any landmark in these overexploited sub-genre, but at least achieves its ultimate goal: being a pleasant entertainment.

After watching "The Avengers", I think I resolved myself a question regarding superhero/action movies. I prefer to have a no-brainer but quite spectacular, and for the most part, entertaining film than a supposedly more serious, but eventually more pretentious and sorry to say, tiring film like the last Batman. After all, a superhero film is not author's cinema and, if the material you are working with doesn't allow you to do so, maybe is better to concentrate in what you can offer: a couple of hours of fun. Besides, Marvel's factory has never been known for its adult/very mature pretensions, something that is completely reasonable, if you keep your coherency. So director Joss Whedon probably realised he had the potential (and budget) to film the most spectacular superhero film ever made. And decided to go for it, leaving the most substantial elements of a film (namely the plot or the premise) in an obvious second place. He probably chose well.

So, if you expected an intricate and tortured villain, look somewhere else. The bad guy is that kitsch version of Loki we saw on the laughable Thor, who by the way, looks exactly as silly as it was on that film, more likely to be participating on Smack Down/RAW than understanding what's going on Earth. If you were thinking on an elaborated major crisis that would force to assemble such a superhero "all-star game" this is not your film: the evil comes from another world, and with no other goal than provoking total war. Basically, "The Avengers" is that battle, and the so-called plot is the excuse to keep you waiting for it.

Well, the good part is that "The Avengers" doesn't pretend to take itself very seriously either. No one really cares about the Tesseract, and that extremely long scene on S.H.I.E.L.D. awesome headquarters, where scientists Bruce Banner and Tony Stark try to find a solution about the energy issue while they discover the real reasons of Nick Fury's behaviour, has the only purpose of being funny.

No, the questions on "The Avengers" are who would win in a fight: The Hulk or Thor? Who will be do the last action, who would be the one that saves the world? Can Captain America pair alongside the powers of the other superheroes? And what are the real motivation of the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers? The sort of questions to please the comic fans, providing a feast of amazing scenes of action, the mother of all battles and quite a few hilarious moments (best one being The Hulk hitting Thor by surprise). Actors doesn't have a lot to prove. Scarlett looks sexy as anyone can expect, but her character doesn't have an important role. Chris Evans has the same lame character as Captain America as their solo film. And Samuel L. Jackson is quite ridiculous again as Nick Fury. The only ones remarkable are Robert Downey Jr's impersonation of the cynical hero as Iron Man and the good actor Mark Ruffalo mutating into the green beast.

"The Avengers" combination is pretty engaging. Pretty silly, understanding silly as some kind of compliment, as it refers to its lack of pretensions. So it's a good, fun option, for having a couple of entertained hours at least. 

SCORE: 6/10

"The Kids Are All Right", modern family issues?

The Kids Are All Right

Familiar issues, wether if they are between the parents or/and the kids, are not an original topic to deal with in cinema. But "The Kids Are All Right" aims to be a "turn of the screw" on the traditional approach on family, as director Lisa Chodolenko presents us a lesbian couple, that start facing problems when the two kids they have raised met their biological father.

My question would be: that's a modern approach on family or just an approach to a modern family? Because in my opinion we are in front of the second case. For the good and the bad.

On the good side, the acting. Having Julianne Moore (Jules), Annette Bening (Nic) and Mark Ruffalo (Paul) makes the work easier for sure, but still, the actors seem credible and human in their behaviours, something that is remarkable considering the material, and the tone of the film. Special mention to Joni's character, played flawlessly by Mia Wasikowska. Besides the cast, with a serious question mark close to the end, the film doesn't want to present a drama, an apology of lesbianism in front of traditional family, or vice versa. To me, is basically a story about communication and aging issues in different periods of life, from teenage years to a couple that has had a long marriage and faces an emotional turmoil.

On the not so good side, the tone. I said it is nice to see a film talking about serious issues without taking itself so seriously, but the mixture between comedy and drama sometimes crosses a thin line, making some scenes a bit ridiculous. This happens quite a lot, in particular between Nic and Jules. It might have something to do with the fact the two characters are a bit charicatureque in their opposing roles, but in a film that wants to be realistic, and that achieves some very refreshing naturality on dialogues and dynamics of the characters, it feels odd. And second, and much worse, is the conscious decission of the director, taking an unexpected and unnecessary side eliminating the masculine characters of her story (Paul and Laser), when they both have their own conflicts that have been showed to us before. Having the impression it was done on purpose, I have to say that shows a pretty conservative take on family, replacing the traditional male-female patronage for a female-female one. But with the same message (you, outsider, against us, family) as always.

Could have been a lot more, but still a fresh and entertaining film.

SCORE: 6,25/10