Who the fuck are Bar Italia?

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/713ZAWIGOlL._UF1000,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg

So 'Tracey Denim' has become my default comfort listening for the past few months. It's somewhat ramshackle indie rock, all three members sharing the vocals, none of them are great singers but all of them are somehow perfect. Has this overall tone of being hurt but defiant. I don't know what it is that's caused it to burrow right into my heart as I genuinely thought I'd weaned myself off this sort of thing, but there we have it. New one is out imminently. It's called 'The Twits'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvpK-RYtwck

First single off the new one and they seemed to have ramped up their sound a bit, it's more straightforwardly rocking, and I'm not entirely sure I like that because I'm definitely into the kind of broken and barely competent sound of Tracey Denim, had a bruised and brittle fragility that undercut all the cool swagger, but anyhow, this is 'My Little Tony'...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cne81F3fxDo

I really like this album. I'm going to see them live next Saturday. "Nurse!" was probably my fave song of last year. I love the way they intersperse the female/male vox. Two members of the band are also in a group called Double Virgo who are well worth checking out too.

I think the exact moment they got me was that line in 'Changer' - 'Now that you've gone away, I'm bored / I'm going out every day, just to make sure'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk7xLJlehUo

I could imagine them not being brilliant live, but I'm still a bit jealous michael!

this album (tracey denim) has been very weirdly polarizing among music folks on twitter. i loved it tho.

Not too surprised if people are hating it tbh, I mean it's a mystery to me why I like it so much

I really like Tracy Denim, and the idea of fans of this sort of thing in general not being into it is so strange to me.

i like this album, just now listening to it.

Love them. Matador put this out here around the same time as the Water From Your Eyes album, they make a great pair.

yeah that would be a great C90

sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar italia

okay i just got a ticket to see them at a local festival

full line-up for the day is...

THE STAVES
BAR ITALIA ⬣ PARIS PALOMA ⬣ PRIMA QUEEN ⬣ THE GOLDEN DREGS
CHARTREUSE ⬣ CLARA MANN ⬣ CONCHUR WHITE ⬣ CVC ⬣ HEKA ⬣ MARIA BC ⬣ NAIMA BOCK ⬣ MEDIUM BUILD ⬣ MODERN WOMAN ⬣ PICTURE PARLOUR ⬣ SOMEONE ⬣ THE NEW EVES ⬣ TROUT ⬣ UNFLIRT

any of the other bands worth checking? i don't know a single one of them

i don't know if imago is still looking at this thread but pure early HOOD vibes on this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy3vVoD4bzI

i don't know why i capitalized HOOD but i do know that it felt real GOOD

naima bock is special, definitely check out her ‘giant palm’ album. nothing like bar italia lol, more pastoral fresh-ish folk with ambient elements. heard a few good songs by maria bc as well, who i first heard of when she appeared on the rachika nayar album from a couple years ago

great stuff, thank you vc!

I've heard a couple of decent Prima Queen songs

Horsey Girl Rider def came off as a big standout first time! I was actually in the supermarket for that bit before heading out into the rain, those were good times

should pay more attention to the S.E. Rain Patterns, did Hood teach you nothing?

*sad drone intensifies*

Sad Tromdrone?

Sad Traumdrone is the name of my new ambient krautfolk project

this album (tracey denim) has been very weirdly polarizing among music folks on twitter. i loved it tho.

― is he disgruntled adrian? (voodoo chili), Wednesday, September 20, 2023 9:21 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i should say that the polarizing response has me convinced they’re gonna be huge, a la big thief or vampire weekend. though i think those guys are polarizing for the opposite reason, as they’re bands that sound like they’re trying very hard to accomplish things without caring how their sound or approach might grate, while bar italia seems to radiate a flatness that scans as apathetic

i like that the picture on the front page of their website looks like it's been drawn by a courtroom artist

https://baritaliaa.com/img/bg_twit2.jpg

nina and sam have been caught shoplifting nappies for their baby, jezmi is the hotshot young prosecutor who's gonna get 'em bang to rights

in the steadily pouring rain

haha, you got it!

was just out in it, trudging home from the pub. made me want to listen to bar italia

Someone on the forum compared them to Blonde Redhead but I havent listened to them in years so Im not sure how apt that comparison is. Some bits are a bit Cure-ish. Maybe Im making that comparison as one of the dudes sounds like Robert Smith sometimes. Nina's lazy alluring voice reminds me of Kirsty from Insides a bit.

little mini dramas played out in the cold damp grey is pretty much the thing. forthcoming album recorded in mallorca though, stick that on yr moodboard

xp love nina's singing, her pronunciation of stuff is definitely really charming to me, and that's not meant in a condescending way at all. it's also got this quiet desperation to it sometimes? i dunno, it moves me

This is great. Who knew I'd be listening to slacker rock, 30 years later but there's a definite charm to them

Yeah, they sounded good live but Nina's vocals were totally submerged and the sound engineer couldn't help really. Set up was the two lads on guitars, a female bassist and another guy on drums.

listening to new album 'the twits' now and it doesn't have the same je ne sais quoi. maybe because the production is clearer? i'm not sure. i like "jelsy" and "glory hunter" a lot tho.

I like it, it actually seems quite a bit drearier to me (in a good way), or maybe it's just November. "Twist" is great.

Yeah I'm with you voodoo, this is not the direction I wanted them to go in

cool band

the new one is definitely more rockier, not sure if thats a bad thing or not

Was hesitant about listening to this, but quite enjoying it on first pass. Maybe not as good as the first one but I think it'll grow on me. Rockier bits are kinda reminding me of ~1985 when jangly indie bands started getting noisier in the wake of the Mary Chain etc - not just the guitar sounds but the drumming too. There's even a song that references surfing. Not saying it's deliberate btw, just how my ears work

Their upcoming DC gig in a small venue just sold out quickly. Will listen to them

finally got around to tracey denim and it's quite good. it's real comfort food music because there's a ton of familiar reference points but they're never just doing basic pastiche of any one thing and are excellent at creating an atmosphere to hold everything together

kinda makes sense that there's a dean blunt connection

i like both albums a lot. i get what matt and voodoo chilli were saying about the production on the twits, but i still like it. they’re good at rocking out, and the guitar has the scrappy jagged garage rock sound i love. their compositions are pretty smart and they do interesting and kinda unexpected things with the power pop build release dynamics. both singers have very alluring voices

why is this thread called “who the fuck are Bar Italia?”? is that a reference or something

i like this a lot more than water from your eyes

both singers have very alluring voices

they have three singers!

why is this thread called “who the fuck are Bar Italia?”? is that a reference or something

i dont know but i agree its a terrible title

i like this a lot more than water from your eyes

i'd say that water from your eyes are doing more interesting work*, but maybe bar italia are slightly more compelling?

*(i particularly like the mutant dance music stuff they've done - e.g. there are some really good remixes on that new record, and their song 'bad in the sun' is an incredible euphoric wonky banger imo; also 'break' is amazing and sounds like no-one as much as volcano the bear if anyone remembers them)

lol it’s okay at least it’s not the old school ilx style thread title like “WOT, NO BAR ITALIA THREAD YET?? HOW CAN IZ BE?”

they have three singers!

lol that actually explains quite a lot

one of the singers sounds like a midpoint between robert smith and king krule

lol spot on

I really like the Tracey Denim record— and subconsciously, listened to it on a drive somewhere today, then listened to the Water from Your Eyes on the way home, and while they're doing different things, this is much better than WFYE

Weird that they got compared upthread in the first place unless I'm missing something

both on matador innit

Yep. &

Tracey Denim > The Twits

the female vocals remind me of Jonnine from HTRK quite a bit - just a touch flat (re pitch) and also very flat (lack of affect)

they are touring Australia in June and I think I will go

Hearing the new single, made me want to check these guys out. So far, I've listened to both 2023 albums a couple times, and love them both. They're noisy, poppy, and artsy without ever getting cluttered. It's a different sound, but it's the same feeling as the first time I heard Bee Thousand, where all the songs somehow sounded familiar at first listen. I hope this sticks with me, but so far it's love.

i can’t muster the same enthusiasm that i had for them upon first listening to them but whenever they come up on shuffle i am pleased

Nina is on the new Yves Tumor song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT4YNW77RpM
Yves Tumor & NINA - WE DONT COUNT

omg that’s why she was so familiar

oh nice, i'd seen there was a 7" but didn't think i'd ever hear it

meanwhile been really enjoying the new Nina comp, Double Virgo album, and "Cowbella" of course

I love the first two albums but I didn't really like the singles I'd heard from the new one and the reviews I've read don't sound very promising at all.

i do like the early cure vibes on 'fundraiser'...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO9Ed_rU-eY

new album is not sounding great but i also want to register that i dislike this pan in the quietus (apologies if one of you wrote it):

https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/bar-italia-some-like-it-hot-review/

What Bar Italia – the café in Soho – is known for, really, is being there a long time, and serving not very good food. In the end, Bar Italia – the band – is a London art scene iteration of the current pop stardom blueprint, whereby the music itself is just one facet of the artist’s public-facing iconography. The songs don’t need to be real. In that context, the music is merely a tool, on the road to somewhere else.

But here, it flags a key problem with marketed mystique: at some point, your audacity needs to be in the service of something tangible. You can get away with it for a while, especially at the beginning. But in the end, you must deliver something. Greater and edgier artists than Bar Italia have fallen foul of that requirement.

the whole narrative seems backward to me. they got big off the strength of the songs on tracey denim, then fell off. this writer’s framing it like they’ve never written a good song and were always just empty hip window dressing. like you can say “i think ‘nurse!’ by tracey denim is a bad song”, but imo that would be a sign of bad taste

I really liked Tracey Denim and The Twits is good but I listened to their 2nd album Bedhead this week and couldn't really get into it. lots of really short songs that felt like they could've been good if they didn't just end abruptly. I guess that must've been what they were going for since most of them were like that

i can’t muster the same enthusiasm that i had for them upon first listening to them but whenever they come up on shuffle i am pleased

I think I'm at the same place now. Was hoping for a little more enthusiasm on the new one, but not sure why.

feeling kind of the same with this new one that i did about the twits, that it doesn't have the je ne seis quoi of tracey denim, except in rare spots like "lioness" and "omni shambles." i don't think it's that much worse than their previous efforts, but i'm just not as entranced as i was by my initial experience with them

new album has the post-punk pastiche down well enough but the songs are just completely forgettable