from Italy

Ackees is a very good 77-punkband from Italy which I fell for at the first time that I heard them. They answered my questions really fast and this was before Christmas 2008.

History?
-Not much to say, we needed an excuse to drink during the week, so we started the band.

Please tell me a little about every member, age, interests, work, family and something really bad about every one?
-There you go:
Rev.Brundo
-Age: 25
-Interests: mainly pussy and booze, then eastern European history, literature, travelling as much as possible (I'm just trying to hump some pussy by dropping cultural interests)
-Something Really Bad: last week on tour I was peeing in a bottle for a bet, we were driving, and when i pulled my cock out the bottle slipped from my hands and landed on Corbe's legs.
Corbe
-Age: 23
-Interests: he knows a lot about porn, he's a real expert
-Something Really Bad: everything he does turns into a disaster, his speciality is getting beat up by our fans, it happens all the time, I swear.
Telly
-Age: 23
-Interests: he's a slaughter, for fuck's sake, what interest do you want him to have besides shagging cows and collecting the worst lofi records ever?
-Something Really Bad: his hair
Andy
-Age: 23
-Interests: wasting money on the tackiest, most expensive and most useless stuff on earth
-Something Really Bad: he always find the red light district at the first shot, no wait… that’s good thing!

Punk in Italy, how is it to play it? And this sort of punk?
-Punk in Italy sucks donkey balls. We have a few good bands, sure, like Smart Cops, Coloss, L.E.A.R.N., The Leeches, Borehead etc… but you know, the so called “scene” is a disaster, there's a lack of young kids, many old punks have turned into pretentious arseholes and now the trend focused on 90s pop punk revival, and by revival I mean that everyone has a Ramones ripoff logo, play songs called something like “Judy wanna dance on my bubblegum cause im a teenage rocker" and copy the bands who copied the bands, who copied the bands, who copied the bands, who copied the Ramones.
But this is only one of the many plagues that affect Italian punk.
Ah yeah, I forgot to mention that everyone hates everyone and it’s an incessant ripping on and talking behind the back etc…
Exciting innit?

Have it been any good bands back in time in Italy, any favourites?
-Many, too many we had a great hardcore scene back in the 80s and some awesome punk 77, I’ll say the first five names that pop in my mind:
Bingo, Negazione, Hermits, Nerorgasmo, CCM, Hitler ss and loads more…

Any good bands right now?
-As I said, I personally love Smart Cops, Leeches, L.E.A.R.N., Borehead, Coloss, To Kill, The Proton Packs, Laser Geyser, Green Like July, Supersexyboy 1986, i could go on...

I´m female, what do you mean?
-According to Alex Vargiu from Bingo, the composer, its about heavy masturbation in the skies, if you know what i mean...

My review sounds like this , ACKEES-TWO PINTS OF CIDER AND A BOTTLE OF BUCKY MIXTAPE(CD-I LOVE MONEY RECORDS) This band was earlier named The Cummies and was a really good 77-punkband. They continue in the same way on this record and the first song have an intro which almost remind me about a early Bad Brains-song. You can hear that there..s a lot of bands from the past and from early punk which have influenced this group and the group have make the best out of that because this type of messy punk doesn..t grow on trees nowadays and I love it so much. That it..s from Italy is a really surprise because I only thought it could come HC-bands from there.(EIGHT) 3/12-08
Comment about that?
-You forgot to mention how beautiful we look.
Apart from that flaw I'm really flattered and, well, If you think so I guessed we reached our objective.

Which type of people comes to your concerts?
-Mainly drunk people who buy our records and tshirts and then eventually beat up our drummer.

What does punk mean to you, is it only a word or is it a lifestyle?
-I wish I could make a living out of a lifestyle, instead of making it out of words, that’s literally what I do, you know, I’m a translator, I get paid per word!

How would you describe your music in three words?
-Worst shit ever

How is the reviews you have got for the new CD?
-They pretty good surprisingly. Some fool also complimented about the sound quality… weird!

Do you care about reviews?
-As long as they get us laid.

How is it to live in Italy, I mean politically?
-I'll fuck out of here as soon as I can. Wanna swap places? Really! Politics in Italy is a joke, except it is not funny, if you live here, if you don’t, it’s a good laugh.

The best and the worst of living in Italy? favourite football team?
-You already know the worst, There are some good things too, like history, art and family... I don't really care about football, the other guys support Inter Milan

What is typical italian What is typical swedish?
-Mafia / Drunken Blondies

What do you know about Sweden?
-I’ve been there many times with different bands and personally, with the Ackees we played 5 shows there last year and we’ll come back in june, come and see us! I love Sweden, is fun, I have many friends there and I always have a good time.
My ex flatmate is from Umea, he's great, he used to cook all my meals, he’s fucking good at cooking, he doesn’t eat meat and he almost turned me into a veggie, it was amazing seeing him cutting vegetables with his humongous knife, since he is blind… he also played in many great bands including Miranda the Cat and Solipsia.

Any good bands from Sweden you like?
-Many!
From the past I really love Anticimex, Mob47, Asta Kask and many more, amongst my favourite new and relatively new bands I count Regulations, DS 13, Baboon Show, The Scams (we toured together last spring), Vicious, Henry fiat Open Sore, Knugen Faller, Last Patrol Band, the Pricks, and many others but it would take too long to list them all.

Any good website you want to recommend? A good book? Or a movie?
-Mh, website.. I don’t know… go either to www.killbydeathrecords.com or xhamster. com
I’m currently enjoying the diamond as big as the Ritz by Fitgerald and a “I was there" by Umberto Eco.
As a movie I’d suggest Small Faces.
Touching.

Much interviews? Is it boring?
-Don’t worry, I’m pulling myself off while answering.

The question you want to have but you never get? Please ask it and answer it?
- Q: Are you not man
A: I am DEVO
ok that's the cheapest thing i could say... i'm sorry "

Please rank your five favourite records, five favouriteconcerts and five most important things in life?
-Favourite records… jesus it’s hard! Lemme think…ok I’ll go random, no special order:
- One of the first three Ramones
- Dead Boys - Young Loud and Snotty
- Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.
- Elvis Costello - Armed Forces
- Slayer – Reign in Blood
- Beatles - Abbey Road
Ooohps.. it’s 6….
Things in Life, still random:
- Eating / Drinking
- Reading
- Fucking / Loving and related
- Playing / Listening to music / going to gigs and related
- Masturbating

First and last and most expensive record ever bought?
-The first one must have been some Iron Maiden
The most expensive… I don’t know, probably 50 quid for the white album.
But you know, I'm not the kind of collector who must have the original press at any cost. I always go for the cheapest edition I find. Probably cause I’m always skint.

Most embarrassing record in your collection?
-Fuck knows… there are too many! Grateful Dead? I’m kidding I love Grateful Dead… what a fuckin hippie am i…

Your record label is it good?, is it a good label, what have they released more? Or is it your own?
-Well, at the moment we don’t have a steady record label, Murkta Records will release a split in the US and now we are gonna tour a lot, so we’re looking for a proper label here in Europe to release the record and some new stuff... Anyone there in Sweden?
We’ll behave, I swear! We won’t pee inside the house.

New stuff like My space, Facebook and so on.... is it good or how do you see on these things?
-Like everything they’re both, good and bad, it’s alright good promotion for the bands and an easy way to pick up girls or boys, rip on your mates, spy on your ex girlfriend or boyfriend, turn into a social freak and so on… but it is also true that they turned the 75% of the humanity into braindead morons... well, what I can proudly claim is: I was already a braindead moron before social networking! I was retarded before being retarded was cool, UP YOURS TOM!

How do you see on Mp3 and downloading and so on? is it good or bad for smaller bands?
-It’s fine, I mean, that’s the way it goes nowadays isn’t it?
Obviously I’ll stick to vinyl and Cd’s and tapes, but I’m glad people can listen to our or some other bands' music for free, I don’t have anything against it.
You have to be realistic, a record that sells well now, sells like a demo less than 10 years ago, 1000 copies are now considered a lot, it’s a long a complicated topic, you know, now there are so many bands and the web has room for everyone of them, so there's this overcrowding phenomenon, which good in a way, but also very confusing. Then, on the other hand, people buy fewer and fewer records, cause they rather spend money on different things and download what they want to listen to.

Which is the biggest band you have played with on a concert?
-Adolescents I think. I played with the Misfits, but it was another band…

And which band do you really like to support if it´s possible?
-Oh many, specially from the past, right now i'd really like to play with Dean Dirg and Henry Fiat's Open Sore, I love those guys. Ah yeah, Municipal Waste too.

Is it a dream you have to unite all the world punks, do you see that there is many different styles of punks which don´t go so well together?
-The glue is Booze and Ac/Dc, everyone agrees on getting smashed and singing along to some good ol’ TNT.

Futureplans for the band?

-Well, touring, touring and touring. And find a good European label and release the record properly.
If anyone is interested:
www. myspace. com/theackees
theackees@gmail.com

For yourself?
-Quit my job here and start as a freelance and move to Berlin as soon as I do this.

Wisdomword?
-Don't forget to put some talcon powder on your balls after showering, it keeps them dry and smell free.

Something more to add?
-I wouldn't mind adding a couple of cms to my knob, but I guess this is not possible, is it?