A Classic Education – News
It’s always nice when I band who you’ve watched make their own luck actually manage to start achieving the breaks you think they deserve.
I’ve written about A Classic Education a couple of times now, and they’ve just emailed me through with a little bit of news, so I thought it would be nice to pass it on. Firstly, they have a new single approaching on Bailiwick Recordings – the label which released the excellent Gossamer Albatross (who apparently need a drummer – any takers?) single earlier this year. It is called Best Regards and, although there’s no set release date just yet, the song can be previewed on both the band’s and label’s MySpaces.
Funnily enough, there seems to be a lot of very good, slightly dark, slightly Smithsy indie coming out of Italy at the moment. I haven’t featured it here as much as I would have liked to because most of the stuff I’ve been sent has been perilously close to, but just short of, having quite cracked it yet. There’s no more than a hair’s breadth in it though, and it certainly seems like there is a really healthy scene bubbling under in Italy at the moment. Fascinating how these things start to build and snowball, isn’t it.
Anyway, the other little bit of a treat in that email from A Classic Education was an English version of Toi, a Gilbert Bécaud song, which the band picked up on from the soundtrack to 1965 Italian movie called “Io la Conoscevo Bene” by Antonio Pietrangeli. My ignorance of this is absolutely at one hundred percent, so I am doing little more than passing on the press release at this stage, I’m afraid, but I like this kind of little project. It’s easy to end up with cultural tunnel vision when writing a blog like this and to forget that pop music is just a tiny part of a broader spectrum of arts (okay okay, I know, most of which I really can’t be arsed with) and it’s really nice to see people mixing the context of their music around like this.
Anyway, here’s the song:
A Classic Education РToi (Gilbert B̩caud Cover)
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The original scene with the original Italian version of the song:
And the same footage with their version:
This has clearly struck a chord with The Kids(TM).
Anyway, never mind the tumbleweed. check out this major archeological find
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090311/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_saving_colonel_sanders
Just think, another 600 years and Col. Sanders could have been an unknown king of ancient times. Chuck the fucker back in say I. Just next to a bust of Ronald McDonald, Britney Spears’ false tits and an entire wardrobe of mishapen clothes emblazoned with the legend of Tommy Hilfiger. That’ll confuse the fuckers.
Now just one dang minute! There’s no call to go disrespecting the Colonel. Anyhow, any baseball fan worth his salt knows the curse can’t be lifted until they find his naughty bits. That’s curse-lifting 101, that is.
Is that how the Sox won the World Series a few years back? Someone exhumed Babe Ruth’s bits?
Hmm.. You’d never guess how many bass guitarists are called Randy until you try and google image search that baseball player to see if he really does look like Colonel Sanders.
Basically, dude has a beard and that’s about it.
…And a smattering of sports fisherman share the name too, for that matter.
“Funnily enough, there seems to be a lot of very good, slightly dark, slightly Smithsy indie coming out of Italy at the moment.”
Interesting Mr T. Be good to know who you’re referring to – the Bologna bands? I live in Italy and the music scene here is unremittingly depressing, not to mention derivative. A Classic Education are based in the UK though aren’t they?
They may be in England now, but I am pretty sure that they were born in Italy, so to speak, although I could easily be wrong. As to the Italian music scene, I can’t really remember, unfortunately, but Bologna and (I think) Genoa and a couple of other places have turned up on MySpace pages and promo emails over the last year.
Unfortunately, because I haven’t liked it quite enough to post, I’ve tended to delete the emails just to keep my inbox from exploding. This means I can’t really tell you because I can’t really remember, but quite a few have come through who have been just a whisker away from being written about.
What a wonderfully unhelpful answer – sorry I couldn’t do any better with that.
That answer’s just brightened up my day
But cheers for trying. A Classic Education are Italian sure, but I think they’ve moved to the UK. Best of the bunch I’d say. It’s not that Italian bands are so bad, just desperately un-original in my experience.
And just to head off any flak, I’m constantly asking my mates to point me towards good stuff here. Il Rumore Del Fiore Di Carta are maybe worth a listen….
My 14-year-old sister and me kinda got into this song when we were out in Genoa a couple of years back supporting my brother in a sailing competition.
It was on the Italian MTV all the time.