photo by Dan Hooper
Last night was the record release party for the Vaticans new CD and I only have 2 complaints so I'll get 'em out of the way now. First of all the debut full length is called "Guardia Svizzera Pontificia" and even though I'm Italian I can't pronounce it. (It refers to the Swiss Guards at Vatican City, who happen to dress pretty ridiculously so I can see why they decided on this for an album title and who cares what I think or can or cannot pronounce anyway!) 
Second complaint, no vinyl! (The CD is great and it feels like a classic that has been in my collection forever, I want my Vaticans vinyl! ) O.K. enough complaining, I was thinking about it on my way home from the show last night. The Vaticans are like my brothers and sisters in rock & roll. Like my band Hard Place, they have been around for awhile, after two singles they are just now releasing a full-length (after an EP and gazillions of CD-R's Hard Place full length debut coming soon), both bands have had very popular and influential members leave the band, both bands replaced said departing members with super hot super talented women and both bands are still rocking. Yay!
However the flip side to this is that both bands have sounds that not all listeners will gravitate towards. With Hard Place often pigeon holed as 80's derivitives, the Vaticans wear their Nuggets on their sleeves and the 60's garage sound is not for everyone. So what! most all popular music is really annoying, "Guardia Svizzera Pontificia" (there, I said it!), recorded by Tim Green sounds great and boldly goes where the Vaticans have never gone before. Highlights include the sultry "Venus Fly Trap", "Little Boy Blue" with it's trippy jingle jangle interlude sandwiched between an awesome heavy riff, and the undeniably classic hidden track "We Luv U Eddy" is girl group pop at it's finest (listening to the song is like meeting this Eddy character, whoever he is!). I saw on the Vaticans MySpace page that the legendary vocalist Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las' wrote to tell them she digs their cover of Out In The Streets, I myself would like to hear Mary cover some Vaticans. There are some fine songs here.
I hope this new release out now on the Pure Filth label gives the Vaticans a passport/upgrade to performing at better venues. The power of this band live has yet to be fully realized for me. I want to see them perform at a venue where the singers can hear themselves sing, where one of the best rhythm sections in town gets pumped through a huge house P.A. and where the guitar, well Danyka Kosturak's guitar sound, with it's tasteful periodic tremelo, is always the bomb.
The Vaticans
2007/09/30
Brothers & Sisters in Rock & Roll
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2 comments:
Yes I agree, the insanely unpronounceable Italian title those little freaks The Vaticans chose for their record is highly laborious to even try to think about saying. It's even more difficult to say than Mon Cousin Belge! And those Swiss guards the title refers to are beyond poncey...they look like Renaissance clowns! (Or a new incarnation of PRINCE). MY GOD! Did you know to be one of them guards you must be Swiss, beardless and single? Yes those people in The Vaticans must smoke a lot of dope!
Speak English or die! U S A ! U S A !
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