#sundayrevival Pretty good year - Tori Amos

Pretty good year - Tori Amos

I don't know why I found myself with this song in my head this afternoon, but I just did. I suppose I triggered Tori myself by suggesting her music to a friend recently, but I suppose that's not all of it...! Anyway I guess that, notwithstanding my generally bad mood of the last few days/weeks (I need a holiday), a Sunday with Tori can never be a totally bad Sunday. Maybe it's a bliss of another kind...!

#sundayrevival No need to argue - The Cranberries

No need to argue - The Cranberries

What a horrible moment... I am sure you guys have known about the mass shooting happening in a gay club in Orlando, awful news that we keep hearing more and more often lately. Yes, the chances of any one of us dying in a terrorist attack are trivial and I think that the more we amplify this kind of news, the more power we give to those who commit these vicious crimes. Nonetheless it is worth noting that the most important thing to do, in my opinion, is NOT to respond to this kind of violence with more violence and hate and intolerance. I can just imagine how delighted Donald Trump and the such are at such news, which will surely be yet another consent boost. Let's not make that, otherwise the politics of terror will just get stronger and stronger. Be brave, be strong and spread the love. To everyone.

#liveweek Satisfaction (live @ Brit Awards) - Björk & PJ Harvey

Satisfaction (live @ Brit Awards) - Björk & PJ Harvey

By now we're in the second half of this #liveweek, which has been going quite well up to now! Yet I wanna take it to the next level with these last few posts. This is a song that immediately came to my mind when I thought about the whole idea of a set of blogposts about live performances and I feel I cannot leave it out. So, the recipe is quite simple: take a great and underestimated singer/songwriter from England; take a crazy singer/songwriter from Iceland who is ages ahead her current time; take a glorious rock song by the Rolling Stones; mix it all together and... voilà! I dare you to find a 4-minute music video more powerful than this one in its simplicity!

Eraser - Nine inch nails

Eraser - Nine inch nails

As I told you last night, it's a tie! Tie between 'The bends' and 'The downward spiral'. I guess that non-straight, non-square shapes even out each other! Anyway this is probably going to be the last NIN post for a while, until I get to their (and Radiohead's) third album(s). NIN are still leading the race, thanks to their early victory, but the fight is close! This is the answer to 'The bends' (song), so you let me know which album is better in your opinion! And enjoy your Saturday night!

Closer - Nine inch nails

Closer - Nine inch nails

It took me a while to get in sync with NIN's sophomore album, but in the end I've been able to get something good out of it! This is a good example of what I'm talking about. I'm sure the rockers among you out there will not be disappointed, and maybe some of the non-rockers!
Today I ordered a bunch of albums on Amazon, so I'm waiting for my CD library to grow very soon! And I got some great bargains too, can't wait to share with you some of the good things I bought!

March of the pigs - Nine inch nails

March of the pigs - Nine inch nails

The pig is an animal I can really relate to. I mean, I don't love rolling in the mud, but apart from that... I love eating, I have pink skin, I am a human being... what more do I need?! Ok, I read 'Animal farm' by Orwell and I'm probably the only person I know who didn't like it that much, but, well... that maybe is an even stronger claim towards my pig love. I compare myself (and my friends who love eating) to pigs. Actually I took my Korean friend's version of the Italian word ('Maiallo', while the original only has one 'L') and made it my own. And I comment 'maiallo' or 'maialli' every time I eat too much or someone else eats too much, or we all eat too much. And what do we do then to consumer our many calories? Well, of course we march!

Hurt - Nine Inch Nails

Hurt - Nine Inch Nails

I've been having a strange relationship with NIN's music: I started listening to them at the beginning of this year and unexpectedly liked their music quite a lot! I am not used to listening to "strong" rock, but when I approached them together with Radiohead, which have been in my queue for years, I found myself liking NIN debut album more than 'Pablo honey'. I was thus somehow optimistic, even if people told me to be careful, and they right... I listened to the subsequent EPs by NIN and found them too much for me. Now I got to 'The Downward Spiral' and, even if at the beginning it's been hard, I feel like we're making good progress together! I can't wait to get to "softer" parts of their discography, as I'm confident I will like them quite a lot!

#90smusic You gotta be - Des'ree

You gotta be - Des'ree

Yesterday I did not post, I am aware of that and I am sorry, but unfortunately it has been a crazy, crazy day. It started in the late morning, when I had to do a Skype interview but the guy I had to speak with was not there, so I waited in vain. Then I moved with my father to reach my mother's school, driving him there. I was then ready to drive to Milan to have lunch with a classmate of mine, but the highway was completely blocked because of a car crash, so I decided to come back, have lunch with my parents and stayed there with them a couple hours more to let the traffic move away. When I got to Milan, I helped my aunt with the cleaning up a little and then we went to buy a new vacuum-cleaner, then shower and out for dinner and drinks (drink actually, just one). And that's when the real problems began: that freaking thing dulled me more than it should so I threw myself on the bed and fell asleep (it was 2.30 AM) only to wake up at 6 for a short trip at the toilet and not being able to fall asleep again, with a mess in my stomach and nausea. Well, that was the nice start of my day! I'll post twice today to compensate yesterday's loss, and I am posting about a lesson I should really learn...!

"You gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser

You gotta be hard, you gotta be tough, you gotta be stronger"

Q magazine interview (May 1994) - Tori Amos + PJ Harvey + Bjork

I promised myself I wouldn't post this (again) until I finished listening to all of their discographies. Now a few years have past and, taking out Bjork's latest album (that came out after my decision anyway), I got through the whole experience.

I take the occasion and exploit this chance to make myself a birthday gift and I'll share this with you now! Also, almost 20 years have past since the article was written, but it is still so up-to-date and so relevant to their music and to the music industry panorama that it really makes you realize just how great and true their work has been and still is.

These ladies have been one (well, actually three) of the most awesome music discoveries and their songs will stay with me for my whole life. I hope you enjoy my favourite music-related interview ever.

Yes, Anastasia - Tori Amos

Recently one of the best albums by one of my favourite singer/songwriters (i.e. Under the pink by Tori Amos) has turned 20 years old, so I thought I'd be nice to celebrate its birthday with a post up here! This is one of the less radio-friendly songs of Tori, but one of the most beautiful in my opinion: its more than 9 minutes of length blend up perfectly some classical music-like melody with clever lyrics, creating an outstanding atmosphere that brings you back in the Russia of the first 20th century. The song is about Anastasia Romanov, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia and here is a quote from Tori about it:

"And that night came, as she softly sings the line “‘We’ll see how brave you are,’ and that was really about the whole record. That came just about before everything. And whenever I sing that chorus, ‘we’ll see how brave you are,’ it means so many different things to me. It’s part of my self, my spirit self saying to the rest of myself, ‘if you really want a challenge, just deal with yourself. The funny thing is that Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Anastasia, died very close to where I was playing, an hour or so from there in the 80s. The feeling I got that Anna Anderson was Anastasia Romanov."