Leslie Shatz and the scattering of my undead brainsssshhhh...

Leslie in studio..maybe recording pool table' sounds??!

In a moment of boredom at my parent’s house back in Italy I turned on the TV and started zapping through the tragedy of the Sky channels. Suddenly everything stopped and I snapped out of the room and found myself underneath a shower of broken glasses cutting through my brains. This is kind of what I felt the first time I watched the shower scene from Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park. Without taking away any credits from Van Sant’s amazing visuals, what makes this scene so special to me is the sound design and the resulting perfect synesthetic marriage between the image and the sound.  Searching through the imdb database I soon found out that the man behind this sonic magic is a regular Van Sant’s collaborator called Leslie Shatz. One of his first jobs was as dialogue editor for ‘Apocalypse Now’ and the year after for ‘Star Wars: the empire strikes back’. Since then it seems like he worked in loads of productions that I really enjoyed. As sound designer for The assassination of Jesse James, Gomorrah, The Road, Elephant, Dracula, and only as sound re-recordist for others, which are definitely not in my top 10 best films ever (Rambo 4, Van Helsing, Hidalgo). Finally I’m watching Paranoid Park from beginning to end for the first time. Because last time I started watching more than half way through, many things now start to make sense, but hey! If you didn’t watch it yet try to do it from the shower scene and then rewind to the beginning the second time around. So here’s a video of the scene. Enjoy. Ps Crank up the volume pleeease!!! Signing off..

If Tom Araya is our Elvis then Zu must be our Beatles..

Ok..as the next blog is taking too long to get out of this mish mash slumbering mammoth moaning through the membranes of my brain I’ll give ya a taste of something related to it..don’t get too over excited though..more is coming..zoon..

From Zu to Zoo..

An interview to Zu by Luca Zoo Franzoni

With Jacopo Battaglia (Drums) and Massimo Pupillo (Bass)   

Brescia, 18^th December 2009

Zoo: I remember seeing you live for the first time in 2002 as support band for Girls Against Boys. It was at Leoncavallo in Milan on the 2nd of November …

Jacopo: Shit! The day of the dead!

Massimo: We played at 22:31 pm. I remember. If you want I can tell you the names of all the people that were there…

Z: I tell you guys, you ruined my night. After watching you, GVSB weren’t as good as I thought they would be. And I do love that band! Anyway…Let’s go back even further in time. I know you started playing together by working on theatre productions.

M: At the really early beginnings!

J: Even before making our first record. From ’97 onwards.

M: It’s been two years in which we basically dismembered Gronge, a band from the Rome scene of the 80’s, and then we found each other playing together in this new formation. We developed this musical madness, and one by one the other members left and here we are, the furious crazy three. So yeah, there’s been that period from ’97 in which we made music for plays, and in the meantime we worked on the first record.

Z: That record being Bromio.

J: Exactly. It didn’t even have a name at the time. And we never thought to arrive were we are now. Our aim was doing a gig out of Rome.

Z: I remember receiving from Wallace Records a copy of Igneo (Zu’s album from 2002) on 180 grams vinyl. Heavy!

M: Yep. Heavy…

Z: Ok. Talking about present days, you signed with Mike Patton’s Ipecap Records. Patton himself also joined you on stage during the tour. How was touring with someone like him?

M: It was great. We’re really good friends now.

Z: Any plan of working together again?

M: Yes. We hope. Well yeah! Definitely! With him we found ourselves in situations that we saw as enormous before.

Z: Ok…Stupid question. A Spinal Tap kind of question… Why at heavy rock and metal gigs the majority of the crowd is male? I was talking about it with a friend while watching a Lightning Bolts gig…I know…Dumb question…

J: Well. We like the pussy. Let’s make that clear. (laughs)

Z: You played with Lightning Bolts, didn’t you?

J: Yes, many times.

Z: In London you did that gig at The Astoria (R.I.P.) where you were introduced by Danny De Vito…

M: No! The Danny De Vito thing was in Rome!  At The Astoria we played with Fantomas and Locust. But Denny De Vito no…he wasn’t there.

J: I think we did the last gig ever there. Then they crashed it down to build a Shopping Mall. (laughs)

Z: Five days ago I saw Polvo playing in London. While having a chat with them, it came out that one works in a Museum and another is a therapist. So…how are you dealing with this crippled music biz.

J: We live of this. We don’t have time to be exploited by someone. We exploit each other with great pleasure. It took some years to arrive where we are, but… from when you saw us live seven years ago, everything, thank god, went better and better. This is our life. The chances at the time were working as waiters in some shitty restaurant in Rome or be penniless musicians. We chose the second. Ant until now we’ve been doing quiet well.

M: At the same time you make lots of sacrifices in your private life.

J: Well, me especially. He’s married, and the other got a baby. The only loser is me, talking about private life. (laughs)

M: And our families claim us back home.

Z: Talking about music formats, I’m not a collector of records, but I love to play the few I got, and usually I let them play from beginning to end. There’s a thing that I like to call “Skipping Track Syndrome”, referring to the habit of users of iPod and MP3 players in general of downloading loads of albums and songs, and then just skip them without really listening to any. What’s your point of view on this, how would you feel if someone would start skipping an all album by Zu.

M: He’s a piece of shit and he got to die. We like the 78rpm.

Z: Yes, the heavy black piece of shellac.

M: 78rpm and it got to be listened on a gramophone. In Mono.

Z: Yeah! Back to mono!

M: Back to mono! (laughs)

J: But if you think about it, ok, maybe you’re a bit younger, but the generation of the mid 70’s, is the last one that had a contact with that something that was before Internet. After that it went from the mid 90’s through the Noughties, where the digital downloading became massive. I still have a relation with the object, with the record.

Z: True. So, thinking about album covers, do you see it as part of the record?

M: Definitely.

J: Yes. Certainly.

Z: While with the digital all you got is a really small icon of the artwork…if you’re lucky.

J: There’s a completely different relationship with the music. Anyway music should be live only.

Z: Talking about mix tapes, did you ever do one for your friends or girlfriends?

M: We should go back to cassettes. Thousands and thousands of chicks conquered with mix tapes! Tapes where you had Mina (famous 60’s Italian singer) followed by Indigesti (80’s Italian punk hardcore band). (laughs)

Z: Any cover you remember designing for one of those cassettes?

M: No, I have always been pretty shit at that…

J: Me too, but I used to make photocopies of pictures. You know, giving an intellectual feeling. You’re sixteen years old in the suburbs of Rome, and you make a mix tape with a copy of an Escher’s paint as cover.

Z: If you could chose a souvenir statuette of an important building or monument, which one would be and to who would you throw it at? (Reference to the Berlusconi Cathedral-in-the-face accident)

M: I want to throw a Nuraghe (megalithic edifice found in Sardinia), but a real one.

Z: To whom?

M: Too many people…

J: Way too many people…

M: But, if I’m not wrong, there are 2400 Nuraghi in Sardinia. They might be enough.

Z: Radio. I love the radio. Unfortunately it’s not easy to find a decent radio channel.

J: But nowadays you can find them only on the internet.

Z: Yes, but I love the idea of transmitting on airwaves

M: There’s Resonance.

Z: Yep. It’s great to have Resonance in London. But why’s so much rubbish on the radio!? I remember going around London with this old cassette walkman, and it had a radio on it. Unfortunately, most of the time the only thing decent was the classical music channel.

J: In Italy there isn’t any Radio phonic culture.

Z: Well, X-Factor is everywhere. No place is safe. Are you planning to go to X-Factor?

M: We’ve been invited this year! (laughs) We’re even in talks for “I’m a celebrity (get me out of there)”…

J: Yes, because Simona Ventura (Italian TV host) sells coke to our saxophone player. He got a really good deal. So now we’re all great friends.

M: While the Heroin we get it from Morgan (from the Italian X-Factor). Really good stuff. Actually if someone lives around Milan we can give him his number. Great quality stuff.

Z: Have you got a new tour in program?

M: No. We don’t tour. We stay home.

J: We spent the last ten years in the living room.

M: We watch TV…

memories..WHAT???

I've been thinking about memory all morning..mainly because mine is really bad and I usually tend to distort things..

Example: a friend of mine keeps telling me that he owes me money 'cause he sold one of my guitar to buy smack. well..really nice for him to do this – and then tell me .But the problem is that for what I remember I sold the very same guitar myself to another friend, who needed it as a tour back up for a similar one he has - by the way I'm talking about a sunburst Ampeg by Burns from 1963.
The only way in which I could find out what really happened would be by cross-referencing the different versions of the story consulting all the people involved, but one fact remains: something in my brain didn’t manage to store this information properly..

Another thing that intrigues me about memories is how they can be affected by the senses: a smell or a picture, a sound or a song could trigger images of past experiences or forgotten events..
This shamble of recorded data floating in my cortex’s membranes reminds me of my Tapegrinder installation – you can check it out on my audiovisual section –
I really want to explore this more and link it with my dissertation and the final major project of my course.

Glad I wrote it down you know..just in case I forget it.

Gum Takes Tooth.Dethscalator.Bad Guys drop The Drop..

As my bones drag their weight in autopilot towards the entrance of the club something reminds me of the 9/11 attack at the twin towers: that something is the security guy at the entrance of the building – Man! Chill out!! It’s only a door leading to a pub, not the Fucking U.S. custom! - ..

Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply. 20..19..18..

As I walk down the stairs to the club a heavy rock guitar solo hits my brains and then my eyes focus on the weird presence emitting that signal. Think of him as the replacement of Spinal Tap’s guitarist if the deadly curse had been cast on the axe player instead that on the drummer.

Between us is the sweaty crowd and his double neck Gretsch sparkly guitar. That’s PJ, and together with the other mischievous figures they’re the Bad Guys. The singer – who I’ll find out later plays a Nazi in a new Steven Spielberg film – is winding the crowd from down the stage, while Mark is beating the hell out of skins and cymbals and conceiving drum filling that could wake up Jon Bonham’s alcohol smelling rotten body from its sleep to engage in a drum duel with this bad-ass guy. On the far right of the stage there’s Dave, whose guitar riffs lock perfectly with PJ’s  hard-rock tour de force. I’m pretty late so I manage to inhale only the last three songs. The smell of the smell of 70’s rock impregnates the walls, and the flashes of light beaming from a 1965 180 Lend Camera captures the soul of the action on Polaroid films. I only manage to get out of the building for a fag and some cheap beers from the offie next-door when sudden catastrophe strikes: the manager of the pub cancels the gig because of noise complaints from the neighbourhood. WHAT!!!? Something stinks. And this time is not me..

FACT: The Drop is a venue UNDERNEATH a pub.

FACT: There are lots of angry people asking for their money back as two bands still have two play – I actually don’t mind about the money but I make sure that they go to promoters and bands but NOT to anybody running the venue-

FACT: IF YOU ARE A PROMOTER OR YOU PLAY IN A BAND DON’T PLAY AT THE DROP IN STOKE NEWINGTON

So yeah! You’ll think that this is the end of it, but Tony –the man behind the 180 Lend Camera – proposes to move the gig to his warehouse up the road. The night is young and screams for more. The amps and the guitars and the drum kit sits impatiently at the front of the evil venue like junkies on cold-turkey waiting for a fix. Then the gear crawl slowly away from the pavement and disappear like magic in black cabs.. destination MAYHEM.

I’ll be honest. I hesitated. I was scared. But hey.. this story screams for more and I can’t let it die half way through.. It would be cold-blooded murder – also I made a MixTape for this special girl and both Dethscalator and Gum Takes Tooth are on it (sharing magnetic tape chemicals with Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights).

As I walk towards the warehouse more people join this procession from every direction, flooding like a blood stream going straight towards a black heart full of noise. I arrive at this huge black gate at the feet of Mount Doom – ok, it opens electronically.. No Trolls needed.

As the gate opens I know a ceremony’s about to begin. The bands arrived already and the gear is still cold sweating for more action and sitting in front of the gate. I grab one of the amps heads and take it to the building. I’m sure it is probably damn heavy but you can’t feel a thing when you understand the purpose of such weapon of mayhem consumption.

I receive a txt from a friend saying that she’s with Lydia Lunch down in Whitechapel and yes, would be great to meet her but all I want is a wall of noise to puke on my bones. The room’s pores taste of Daniel Johnston. There’s shitloads of the guy memorabilia all over the place. I suddenly remember that I’ve been here before, but that’s another story…

So yeah..as the crowd helps moving equipment and sorting out space for a stage I’m glad to know that Bad Guys will open with another set. YEAH! Then I freak out for a fraction of a second that seems a long time though..there’s a scary painting that looks like me. It stares at me while melting from the wall. Hey! I swear! I didn’t take any acid or any drug! Ah..well..whatever..

Anyway..the gig. I guess spending time talking about the bodies and the cans of lager flying around the place and on top of me can’t really give you a picture of what I suddenly find myself in. The wall of sound screaming from the amps blow me away. Then it blows itself up: one of the amps die and the gig stops.

Wandering around the place while looking for a place to wee I found a magic door that leads down straight to Lea Bridge Canal. Peaceful boats sleeping on the nasty water surface. Then a roar invades the space. I know what it is. I know that I’m doomed. This roar rapes the air..it’s mean..it’s beating slowly ..it grows..and I know it..It’s Dethscalator. Then it’s carnage happening in a surreal Daniel Johnston world. The crowd is trapped in the kinetic motion of the building walls and gravity decides to scrap its laws for a while and I think I never felt like this since my previous life. Millions of spiders climb out of Sound City amps and 4x12 cabinets while a primordial beat bounces my frail body against other bodies. I see friends passing over my head. Others underneath my feet. And yet this creates an ecstatic experience similar to the one that some religions call Heaven. Dan – the singer- is transported by a multitude of hand to a world far above and his weight don’t matter anymore. he’s like Stephen Hawking flying high in the sky experiencing absence of gravity. Then I loose it too and everything becomes black and nasty and..yes..it’s like Black Sabbath but two inches from your face. Dan tries to tell us something from the mic but everything is melted by delay effects - “DAN!!! YOU WHAT!!!??

It’s a short gig. Short but sweet and tasty and bloody. Matt –the guitar player- lost an amp tonight and that hurts..but yeah! The party is on fire and I want to see how Gum Takes Tooth pearls of wisdom on regard of Odontoiatric surgery will drill our cavities.

It starts with a mantra of a delay saying “Thank You” to the people who didn’t let the night drop dead at The Drop. Then Synths and Drums drilling my skull and everything is interrupted by a guy screaming “Hey!!! I found my glasses. Can you believe it man!!!!’ – he disappears in the moshpit and that’s the last thing I see of him. Between the “Thank You” and the specs boy is just a mass of sweat that like The Blob engulfs the space and spreads and melts on the red linoleum floor. All the above glides of orange revolving flashing lights that whisper something to my brain like “jump on the damn sweaty thing or leave this room as soon as you can!!!!” Synth master Yussy is floating high and Tom is in control of drumsticks and triggers even while holding a can of polish beer on his third hand. Space/time continuum fail to make sense and it’s murdered by electronic sounds triggered by the drums. Than “Thank You Thank You Thank You” and the song from their last 7” “Young Mustard” kicks in. Hell brakes loose and we dance and scream and brake bones like the chimp from 2001 A Space Odissey. The sonic blast ends. I leave the place and run for a bus trying to carry myself to the court of Lydia Lunch down in Whitechapel. My heart collapses at a frequency of 27Hz that makes it drop towards my stomach. Neon lights signs with missing letters resemble something of me that I can’t figure out just yet.