Record's - Fauna, flora and rock'n'roll

The Record's are yet another demonstration of how, today more than ever, the Italian provinces are the real talent pool of Italian indie, and at the same time proof of how healthy that scene is, with its best acts managing to make a name for themselves abroad too.

The story of The Record's begins towards the end of summer 2002 between Verolanuova and Manerbio, two small towns in the Bassa Bresciana, a stretch of the Po Valley tucked between the provinces of Cremona and Mantua, in the middle of everything and close to nothing. The original lineup is made up of Pierluigi Ballarin on vocals and guitar, Angelo Ferraboschi on bass and Gaetano Polignano on drums. The three had known each other for a while, having attended the same high school, and had already played together before, albeit briefly. What set The Record's apart from the hundreds of other bands in the area right from the start was the idea of music the group wanted to pursue: "We started out wanting to indulge our love of rock'n'roll and garage," Ballarin recalls, "as opposed to the rest of the music that was popular at the time, which was way too cerebral and gloomy."

It's what the three of them call garage-pop: playing rock without ever giving up on melody, often imported straight from Britain. The band wastes no time, and in next to no time their self-produced debut EP, "Hi Or Low-Fi?", is out. The sound is powerful and refined, two adjectives that fit the whole of their subsequent output perfectly, while the video for the single "Leather Queen" makes waves on the Italian indie scene, eventually winning an award at Mei in Faenza the following year.

Their live activity is intense, and it couldn't be otherwise: The Record's work well on stage, and gig after gig a hard core of devoted fans starts to form.

2004 is an extremely intense year. In March, One Way Driver comes out, the Brescia trio's first long-form effort: it's still self-produced, but the band is now backed by Nyberg Music, who handle promotion and booking. The record is recorded at the Phoenix Studios in nearby Castel Mella and includes a cover of Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" as well as the single "The Mixdown".

The day after its release, the band hops into a Volkswagen van and heads to the UK. During the trip they shoot on-the-road videos for "R'n'R Machine", "Big Black Courtain" and "Fameless", followed by "Hot Dog Cobra", the group's first real success (over 10,000 online views).

On returning from their English adventure, the three meet Alberto Conti, aka Dick Rocket, who would soon join the lineup as frontman and performer, also taking over vocals on half the songs played live during the 2005/2006 season. "In him," they explain, "everything irreverent that the songs' lyrics and music expressed took physical form."

It's in this context that the EP "Rudy" is born in 2005, six new songs, some of which (including the title track) would later find a place on the subsequent LP Money's On Fire. The formula is the same as ever, straddling garage, rock'n'roll and power-pop, but the band's efforts to define a personal, unique style are becoming increasingly evident.

The definitive turning point comes that same year, when Pietro Paletti takes Ferraboschi's place on bass alongside Ballarin on vocals. Paletti, also originally from Manerbio, is a longtime friend, having played years earlier with Polignano in a local cover band. After four years living in London and a brief stint in Rome, he settles in Milan and joins The Record's. The band shuts itself away in the rehearsal room, experiments and blends its sound and, according to the members themselves, finds its ideal shape.

The Brescia trio takes off: they take part in Midem in Cannes, while "Elevator Trap", "Dirty Workman" and "Mixdown" soundtrack TV commercials, "One Way Driver" becomes the theme song of the Mille Miglia and "Fameless" is used by Pitti Uomo. The band never slows down, entering and winning major contests like "Nokia For Music" and setting the beaches of Greece alight that summer.

It's on the crest of this enthusiasm that Joyful Celebration is recorded in 2007, the first official EP of their career, now backed by the young label Mizar Records, published by Warner Chappell Spa and distributed by Audioglobe.

Joyful Celebration - they explain - is the first chapter of a two-part record project: the first, white-coloured, expressing the more melodic, pop side; the second, black-coloured, celebrating rock'n'roll's rawness and fury." The single "Move You Little Fingers" is promoted both online and through a poster campaign along the streets of Milan, with the biggest radio networks playing the track, while the star of the video, aired on All Music and MTV, is an invented character: Mister R's.

The Record's open for Enemy, Blood Red Shoes, Timo Maas, Foals, and then head back into the studio to record their first official full-length, Money's On Fire, self-released in 2008. Giovanni Ferrario works alongside the band, the publishing is handled by N5/Warner Chappell and distribution - online only - by H20/SonyBMG. The record features twelve tracks, and it's immediately clear that the trio has no intention of giving an inch on sonic impact, nor of losing sight of the melodic side. "Cannot Sleep" is the first, excellent example of this: the track that kicks things off opens with a lone guitar with a vintage sound, soon joined by organ and drums that fire off constant rolls whenever given the chance. The clean vocal lines explode in the choruses, making them all the more catchy.

On the single "Clouds Are Moving" the roles are reversed: the mood dissolves into a dialogue between guitars and keyboards, an idyll broken by a fragmented chorus marked by Pietro Paletti's versatile voice, here at its most "raucous". The fast four-four of "Free As A Bird" (a nod to the Beatles?) once and for all reveals the solidity The Record's have achieved, their catchy guitar riffs exploding here into fresh, "sun-drenched" choruses: garage-pop, full stop. "Hot Spot" is no less impressive, perhaps the most driving track of the bunch, in which the trio seem to be paying tribute to the Beach Boys in a rock'n'roll key. The result is a song that makes it impossible to stand still.

The acoustic guitar that opens the title track "Money's On Fire" could be misleading: because even the word "ballad" here is put to the service of a carefree urge to dance along to fifties atmospheres. "Little Content" is perhaps the only truly introspective track, with the drums serving as backdrop rather than driving force, while melancholy vocal lines grafted onto the piano unexpectedly recall Mike Patton. Picking the pace back up right after is "Rudy Can Shake", the true garage-rock'n'roll peak of The Record's entire discography. An explosion of guitars embellished by the vibraphone played by Giovanni Ferrario, once again skilfully layering a pop element over a bed of distortion.

"Draft" and "Black Ropes Hanging Over" continue along the same lines: even as the guitar sound softens, the power of the sound remains intact, proof of how far the formula has matured. And there's more to come: "Girl Of My Wet Dreams", soon picked up by Gazzetta dello Sport for its TV commercial, heads straight back into sixties territory with its garage atmospheres. It's the shortest track on the album, and it's followed by the longest, "Shoe Shine", five-plus minutes of rock'n'roll in a state of grace. From the halfway point onward, the track fades into the sound of a needle running along the groove of a record. The feeling is that the album ends right there, save for a welcome bonus in "Big Time Moaner", in which Ballarin's warm voice is accompanied by acoustic guitar: an unexpected closer somewhere between folk and blues.

Money's On Fire wins broad acclaim from the Italian public and industry insiders alike. It's hardly a coincidence, then, that the Record's catch the attention of the fledgling label Foolica Records, who make their move after the trio play a show in the summer of 2009 in Castel d'Ario (Mantua): the band signs with the label and heads back into the studio to record De Fauna Et Flora, released on March 5, 2010.

It's their most straightforwardly pop work to date, even if the traditional fifties, garage and rock elements are still present. But, more importantly, De Fauna Et Flora marks a further step forward, a dive into broader and partly new sonic territory. The sound of the thirteen tracks, once again recorded with Ferrario producing, is more refined and considered, and the band's musical signature grows even further. "On Our Minds" sets the tone right away: it unfolds over percussion and acoustic guitars that manage to reconcile — successfully — the "provincial" charm of Yann Tiersen with the reggae-Caribbean atmospheres that come fully into the light on the first single, "Rodolfo", beach pop (complete with a few Beach Boys-style harmonies) in which the beach is meant as a cherished place, certainly not as a cheesy commercial catchphrase.

"I Love My Family" is the one true link to the previous LP: fast rhythms, riffs that are both playful and incisive, garage distortion: once again, the Record's are having fun and effortlessly manage to infect the listener with that same energy. "Panama Hat" is a bittersweet pop ballad, enriched by the presence of trumpet and strings. The gorgeous "Turtles Will Mind Your Fate" sits in an ideal middle ground between Nada Surf and Blur, a summation of new American indie and old-school Britpop. With "We All Need To Be Alone" the Record's return to the tracks of a "feel-good" pop-rock, joined by fans who lend a hand on the choruses. "Don't Go To Bed Angry" expands further on that idea, moving between a laid-back drum pattern and melodic openings led by the piano.

The second single, "Mr Hide" blends pop and folk, but what really stands out is the beauty of the sound, able at once to push the listener away and draw them in. Sitting right in the middle of such a varied tracklist, "Easy Way Out" slips by without any real surprises, like a simple divertissement before the final stretch. "Call Of The Ice" sounds a lot like Vampire Weekend: a kaleidoscopic, cutting-edge indie-pop track, a sonic melting pot that embraces instruments and noises without distinction. By this point the only thing missing from the roll call is ska, and sure enough it turns up in the excellent "New Gear, New Feel", yet another twist in an album that refuses to settle on any fixed reference point. The rock of "Colossus" winks at the Kooks and grows exponentially until it winks, too, at the band's own (recent) past. Placed at the end of the journey, "Rain Down" is a heartfelt ballad in the American indie-folk mold, the last great song on a great album.

The most recent studio release to date from the Record's is the EP "Music From The Tube", the soundtrack to a commercial for a famous beer brand, co-written with I Serpenti. The track is called "It's In Your Head" and for the first time the trio comes to grips with electronics, an experience that could well prove useful down the line. At the start of 2011 the project officially changes its name to R's. The change is prompted by the trio's move into the American market under the wing of Geo Music Record Label, for whom they will release De Fauna Et Flora and three vinyl singles, each accompanied by a video: the first is "I Love My Family" (with "We All Need To Be Alone" as the b-side).

Their arrival on the American market was also marked by a show the R's played at SXSW in Austin, Texas. From Manerbio to Texas: quite a leap, and one that bodes well for one of the most interesting names to emerge from Italian indie-pop.

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