wonderboat

WHEN THE CYMBALS BROKE FREE

2009-10-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

This is a pick from outside the Jamboree, we played a very intimate gig, nice chats, friends and beers.
I think Jamboree is one of the most beautiful little venue in London, go and check it out when you have time...
by the way Rena you ROCK!

In one day will be off to Malaga...SUN SUN SUN!
keep you updated.
Love
x

New gigs update!

2009-09-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

We have new gigs here in London and one gig in Malaga organized by Boliparty ( the night will close with Dj Amable, resident dj at Razzmatazz Barcelona). Check the flyer and fallow the rocket!

BAck FrOm ThE FuTuRe...

2009-09-17T04:17:00.000-07:00

We came with a boat, a wonderboat.
Once we landed there where aliens and people who apparently traveled light years to be there. We saw a spaceship made of cardboard, a laser gun on the ground, the Moon's face with sun glasses and we did see Kraftwerk playing live.
Machine
Machine
Machine
Machine
Machine
M A C H I N E

Next to our tents there was a green girl who said to us 'HI'. We kept drinking this weird thing made of English Wine and Vinegar...after a while that medical liquid started to work, better than LSD.

We played in this very beautiful stage, with flags hanged on it, it looked like a Tibetan temple...or like a band stand at Bestival.

People danced, some one yelled 'Brainless or else' some one smiled and jumped on the opening chords of Adrenaline. It felt nice and we played some new tracks which will be released soon.
When the gig was over Mary Jane helped us with merch and with the equipment.
We kept the good vibes rolling and managed to see the last Elbow's song on the main stage.
Lots of confetti all around.
That was a great way to end the Festival.
Now we are back to the present and do you what...we play at 100Club at the end of the month!!!
So come along and join the Wonderboat!
;)
M

New Gigs Coming!

2009-08-14T03:49:00.000-07:00

Yo! New dates just confirmed. We'll play the 5 of September at BESTIVAL, it's going to be fun.
Also we have a London show the 30th of Sep at 100 Club, really looking forward for that one.
Meanwhile...
Is any of you going to Sardinia in September?
If that's the case come and see us playing!!!
Stay tuned, news about our forthcoming EP are on the way...x

The White Glove

2009-06-25T17:29:00.000-07:00

The surreal news spread like a stain of oil in a tank of water.
We had just finished rehearsing, a text arrived. What can you think about something like that,
nothing much...we kept drinking.

In this video the legends of soul, rhythm blues and funk are in the audience. It's 1983.
In that room the past was celebrated while the future was about to unfold the moonwalk...not yet though.
Let's have a little trip down memory lane...
(noise)
'...I repeat, Huston we have a problem, this guy dance better than John Travolta in Pulp Fiction but it's just 1983...'

PS
Now that you saw the original clip...enjoy the 'white glove'.

Hey Mr Tamburine! (...picks from Old Blue Last)

2009-06-17T08:06:00.001-07:00

We would like to thank everyone who came at the Old Blue Last on Sunday. It was hot, sweaty and FUN!
We have a couple of gigs to be confirmed (probably around July)...stay tuned for details.

...also these days we are rehearsing the new songs that will be part of our brand new EP...
Let you know news about that soon!
x

On and On (and on and on)

2009-06-12T03:30:00.001-07:00

hey...come close to the computer's screen....closer....listen up....HEY...I said c l o s e r...
this Sunday (the 14th) we play...yes....at the Old Blue Last....
how much to get in?.....FREE!
The night starts at 8pm we are on at 9.40pm I guess...
We will play some new songs that will be part of the EP that we are about to record...ah!...I said too much!...
ok...
pretend you didn't read what I just wrote...
Tell everyone about the gig on sunday but....keep it quite about the new songs....ok?...good.
This post will self destruct in 5 sec...
4...
3...
2...
1...
o!!!
Bye Bye for now....see you there!
M
x

An afternoon in Brighton...

2009-05-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

Waking up at 6.30am is not rock'n'roll. Taking a coach at 8am neither.
Playing in Brighton in the afternoon for the Great Escape festival was cool though.
The venue was small but really nice indeed.
The sound man looked like the Big Lebowski...a dude that managed to maintain his calm mean while everything around him was pure chaos.
The stage had windows that faced the sea side. Before starting with Stranger, one minute before the first note, I saw five surfers on the beach. Looking at the sea, in line. Not moving.
We did our set, sweet.
I turned to see if the five Fonzies were still there. No...they were gone. Probably for a pint.
I suddenly realised I was thirsty too!
I ran out of the venue, I opened quickly a Can of beer and some drops went straight on this girl's skirt. She smiled at me and said 'thanks...nice set'. It meant a lot to me.
If an accident like that would have happened, let's say, in London on one random friday, probably I would have ended up with a iron shoe's hill in my forhead.
Instead...it was thanks, nice set.
Brightnon, good times, noodle salad.
See you in three weeks time at the OLD BLUE LAST!
x

TOMTOM (using our ideas as our maps)

2009-05-12T03:05:00.000-07:00

A big 'thank you' to everyone who came along at the Joiners yesterday night.
We had so much fun, you guys and dolls in Southampton are ace.
But let's start from the beginning. We went there with two cars. I was with Ed, Onyee...and TomTom.
TomTom is a satellite navigator, an instrument that talks. Says things like '...now turn left'.
And you better do as he says.
Sometimes he makes a strange sound that at first seems 'horn-like' but if you listen carefully you quickly understand that he's saying his name: T-o-m-t-o-m.
Once we arrived, after the sound check, we had some food. Fish and chips. Amazing...
Than we chatted a bit with the guys from the other bands (two really good bands from Southampton). Than the gig.
It took me 2 hours to digest the food and still on stage I didn't understand if it was me singing 'Teenagers Talking' or the Cod in my stomach.
We had fun on stage, played some songs we usually skip (like Hollywood), there were really good vibes in the room. We need more of these kind of gigs.
Than after few random chats we headed back home. With the help of TomTom of course.
Here some picks of the night.
Don't miss our gig this thur in Brighton!!! 2.30pm sharp, check The Great Escape website for details.

...outside the fish and chips restaurant there was this old shop called G.J's.
The sign says 'Our Business is looking good...' ahaha
x

We are just hanging out dude

2009-05-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

We are back from Notting hill Arts Club. What a night...
We played and everybody was close to the stage. The sound was perfect. Slowly you could see heads moving, feet tapping, hands rising. After four songs my guitar stoped working. I changed it. People were with us, they didn't loose the focus. After the gig, in the van, we kept playing. I sang 'wired fishes'..., than Matthew sang some songs from Neutral Milk Hotels' album.
Random.
After the gig a girl came forward and asked me where we were from and I said 'from Nebraska'.
Like Bruce. Is he?
...
OF A TIGER!

Thank You for the Delay!

2009-05-02T02:46:00.001-07:00

Well...where shall I start. I slept four hours on Ed's sofa because all of us had to wake up very early to go to Manchester to record a TV program.
Next to me there was Matthew sleeping, for some weird miracle this time he didn't snore.
In a matter of minutes the five of us were in the van heading to the smiley town of Manchester...
but wait a minute...that sign doesn't say Manchester...
it says LIVERPOOL!

Yes, we drove to Liverpool instead. Fortunately it happened to be that the two cities are next to each other.
The producers of the Channel M Tv of Manchester were, let's say, a bit upset of our delay.
Telephone calls were made, people were ensured and at the end we made it at the studio, safe and sound.
The producer smiled at us, we shook hands and very politely I said 'Thank you for the delay'.
I don't know why I said that, I was tired and a mixed up two nice sentences that for a strange coincidence made a bad sentence.
Anyway we where there and according to our maps that was already a strange coincidence.
After some food and some coffee, after some 'spontaneous' claps cued by a very nice Scottish man, here we go!
We played and within an hour after the performance we drove back to London.

While going out from Manchester we saw the entrance of China Town, Max asked Onyee what the big sign on top of the main door was saying.
The translation was BUSINESS FOREVER.

Such a Perfect Day...

2009-04-19T04:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it felt like the first day of summer, Bricklane was packed with half naked people thinking they were in Palm Beach...it felt as if LA moved to London.
We played at Rough Trade around 2pm and everyone working there was very nice, the sound man, Phil and the rest of the crew...Onyee signed the roof of the shop and we took some photos in the photo-boot they have inside the store.
Than we went to the Luminaire, we had some food at CIAO CIAO restaurant...'just to catch up with the latest Italian jokes' as Matthew put it.
We started around 9pm and the gig was fun, great sound on stage and the Luminaire is one of the best venue in London, the funny thing is that everyone in the room was kind of frozen in a 'open jaw' position maybe expecting some nice delicate folky stuff, we just couldn't help to choose the heaviest songs (I mean...what ever heavy means to us, it doesn't mean anything to Faith No More).

At the end a stranger came to me, I was expecting him to say something like 'I enjoyed the gig' or something like that (yes sometimes happens!..) and instead he asked me with the softest voice on earth:
'where's the toilette?'.
I know it's a random anecdote but why not...why not.

Here some picks taken with my digital camera:

Miss Lo (with bleeding nose) in front of a red curtain...

At some point I saw some members of SDSF (they were about to soundcheck at Luminare) and I couldn't resist to take pictures with them...

Rough Trade action...

Just hanging out man...just hanging out.

Gigs on Saturday!!! >>>In Store at Rough Trade and at the Luminaire

2009-04-16T03:29:00.000-07:00

Yo everyone! This coming Saturday we will play not one but two gigs...'can our heroes go through so much fun?'...anyway.
Saturday's first gig is at Rough Trade (east, my favourite record shop) around 2pm, free entrance. Afterwards, in the night (9pm), we'll play at the Luminaire.
It's going to be fun for us, that's for sure.
Ah! here some picks of the gig we played last week at the WINDMILL!
See you all later x

SUMMER PALACE out now in JAPAN!!!

2009-04-08T02:24:00.001-07:00

Amazing, this is our first release in Japane and we are very excited about it.
THISTIME records made this happen and we are receiving the first Japanese reviews...I hope I knew how to read Japanese just to know what they say about us ahah.
Here is the link to our page on THISTIME records' website:
http://www.thistimerecords.com/ecard/sunnydaysetsfire/

By the way...
we are playing at the WINDMILL this coming friday come along!!!!!

Glam Palace!

2009-03-31T01:19:00.000-07:00

Hello kids!
We have some London shows lined up. The first one will be this Friday at Jamboree and if you wanna get mellow don't even think of coming along!

Live at Cafe Oto

2009-03-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

new new new songs!

2009-03-14T04:18:00.001-07:00

We have started to rehearse and make rough demos of brand new songs...
here some picks from one of our sessions.

Matthew lays down some classic rolls

It started as an experiment...but now it's reality, we have a new singer and he rocks.

Ed was listening if all the frequencies where at the right place

Onyee was 'mosh sitting'

Matthew digging Max's rhymes

The Wild Bunch

2009-03-03T02:47:00.000-08:00

Well well...what a night we had. The gig at Cafe' Oto was ace and we would like to say 'thank you' to everybody who came along and made our launch party a really special night,
we didn't aspect to see so many people!
It was our fist time having a merchandise-table with poster T-shirts and Cds and that was fun too!
Also... NME made our album one of the best 5 albums of the week!
We'll keep you posted with more news.
Love
Mauro

If You Feed Them They Will Come...

2009-02-18T12:58:00.001-08:00

BBC RADIO --- ADRENALINE single of the week!!!

2009-02-10T04:04:00.000-08:00

Adrenaline is single of the week on BBC radio-6 music!
Steve Lamacq thank you!

Adrenaline digital EP is out now, ITUNES download only. buy buy buy!
See you all at CAFE OTO the 27th of this month for the album's launch party!
xxx

Pre-order SUMMER PALACE!!!

2009-01-11T06:47:00.000-08:00

Hey folks so how was it? I mean Xmas...did you eat a lot? Good! A brand new year just started and guess what...Summer Palace is ready to be ordered from ROUGH TRADE!!!

http://www. roughtrade. com/site/shop_detail. lasso?search_type=sku&sku=309523

London's shows

2008-11-14T04:46:00.000-08:00

Come with a whoop came with a call
Come with a good will or not at all
Up the ladder and down the fall
Check us out in the name of R'n'B (it doesn't rhyme well but I like it).

Chinese Democracy

2008-11-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

Let's celebrate

The Sun Shines Down On Me

2008-11-09T16:24:00.000-08:00

"I'm walking down an empty road,
but it ain't empty now because I'm on it"

Schubert was built in Vienna

2008-11-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

The Best Of Whatever

2008-11-03T12:16:00.000-08:00

I often wonder what is so affacinating about charts. Why are we bombarded with every kind of possible charts on tv, newspapers and magazines? The best 100 works of art you must see before you die, the best 100 songs ever written, the 100 albums of all times...
Who writes the charts in the first place?
I ask myself, who's the author of these charts?
Journalists of course, probably some kind of experts.
Why bother? I guess it is a sort of "must" to call the atention of readers (or viewers).
We want to check if our favourite song is in it. We want to check if our taste matters.
Secretly we do. Maybe making comments like "I knew my favourite song was on the first five!". Or maybe secretly complaining it's not there.
We should stop making charts, we should stop reading them.
To list and squeeze a series of "masterpeces" into a chart, with a top "winner", it's using the same language of sports: a podium where only the best can rise their flags.
It's not even fair that a masterpiece can't write a list of the best 100 people that "really" undestood it.
Anyway, let's check who really rock!

A Brief History of Nothing

2008-10-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

Nothing was born with the big bang.
Than nothing started walking with its own legs...no help from mummy and daddy.
When Nothing was aged 20 stole a record of Joy Division.
Nothing felt in love once with Never, they split after making a baby, Godot.
When Nothing looked in the mirror to see nothing he so something instead.
He died than.
END

2008-10-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

I'm developing a great admiration for a material called concrete.
Grey is the colour of "no motion", static.
I don't see it in that way though.
The material and the colour define our cities.It's a basic standard for us, our cities are built with that material.We don't really see it anymore.It's taken for granted.
I'm making some drawings which I called "Ossature" series.Puting a A4 paper on a concrete block, rubbing a pencil on it...I'll show you soon.
I think I'll make a brand new blog about this.Stay tuned.
I don't have much to say, just watch this video.
M

Spinning Head

2008-10-23T05:49:00.000-07:00

There's something in this video that makes my eyes glued at the screen.Maybe it's the monotone voice he has...I don't know.It looks like an home made TV NEWS, a program about the way the brain works , is he a mad scientist that never made the grade?
I can't say,
that's why I like it.
Mauro

B R E A K I N G >>>> N E W S

2008-10-18T01:31:00.000-07:00

The new president of US is a Panda.Suddenly Americans had enough of humans and switched to the obvious "parallel choice"...animals.
The Amazon has been completely refurbished with great furniture thanks to IKEA.All the trees are gone but people there can finally seat and have a tea.
A man's foot has landed on the Sun.The rest of the body was found floating around the Moon.
All sports have been baned forever.Reasons unknown.
Scientist discovered a new cosmetic that makes you look like yourself but slightly better.
A famous panting of a famous painter is been sold for lots of money to a famous man.
AH...almost forgot.
According to the weather reports we are still alive.
bye bye.
M

2008-10-16T05:35:00.000-07:00

I've got ninety thousand pounds in my pyjamas,
I've got forty thousand french francs in my fridge.
I've got lots of lovely lire,
Now the Deutschmark's getting dearer,
And my dollar bills would buy the Brooklyn Bridge.

There is nothing quite as wonderful as money,
There is nothing quite as beautiful as cash.

Some people say it's folly,
But I'd rather have the lolly,
With money you can ma-ake a splash.

There is nothing quite wonderful as money,
(money,money,money,money)
There is nothing like a newly minted pound,
(money,money,money,money)

Everyone must hanker for the butchness of a banker,
It's accountancy that makes the world go round.
(round,round,round)
You can keep your Marxist ways
For it's only just a phase.
For it's money money money makes the world go round.
(money,money,money,money,money,money,money,money,moneeeeeeeeeeeyyyy)

HAVE A NICE DAY!

(with thanks to Mark Jenkins and Monty Python)

Concrete

2008-10-15T03:15:00.000-07:00

A new building is about to be done, the metal structure and the concrete as its bones.
You can imagine the organs where they would be, and you can almost see the skin which is not there yet.Like a human body a building starts to breath.People start to live or work inside, like blood cells.
Some buildings don't decide their position.They take the free space available.
How will a building cast its shadow on the ground?
Do architect think about that?I guess the would answer yes.

Let's celebrate!

2008-10-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

What a sunny day that was.London is never been so beautiful.
And for today's special I recommend you a cool evening with...:

2008-10-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

We built cities, some look like labirints, some can almost touch each other.
Washing machines making noises, cars, building sites...
We are so use to some noises that we don't even notice them anymore.
They became part of the landscape.They are not exciting, they are just there.
I loved Berlin because I found that city acoustically polite.
I can't explain but I had a sensation that the city wanted me to listen.
You need space and silence within the city itself.
Just if you have that you can feel the excitement of a white noise coming from a radio in a bar or even some random noise in the street.
As soon as we make them part of the landscape they become invisible.Painfully invisible.

"It's only noise which we secretly want,
because the greatest truth usually lies behind the greatest resistance".
(Morton Feldman)

2008-10-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

It seems everything has and end...if it ever starts in the first place.
I don't care.
I want her here.

2008-10-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

I new bookshop opened close to Bricklane, I don't remember how it's called...anyway they sell just books about movies, plus DVDs, just a selection of independent movies.Nice.
They had this second hand book "Andrey Tarkovskj: TIME WITHIN TIME".
I copied two sentences from that book, which basically were Tarkovskj's diaries from 1970 to 1986.
The first quote that got my attention:
"How does a project mature?
It is obviously a most mysterious, imperceptible process.It carries on independently of our self, in the subconscious, crystallizing on the walls of the soul" (1975)
It made me think about the band.
Than the other one goes like this:
"There is nothing more difficult to achieve than a passionate, sincere, quite faith." (1982)
...
The thing you are doing itself will find its place.
M

2008-10-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about this video I saw on youtube of John Cage talking about his music.He said that he was interested in sounds, like the sound of traffic down the road and so on.Those sounds don't tell a story.While other music is focused on telling you a story (a romance or a tragedy or emotions in general) John Cage's one is just there to excised.Like an object.Doesn't tell a story.
I thought it was a really nice concept.I thought straight away about Bach, his music doesn't tell a story either.It's almost mathematical.No landscape, you can see almost the DNA spinning.
Well it was cute to see J. Cage telling us about him not wanting to tell a story with his music.
We are storyteller, no matter what.
You don't want to tell it?...well you can't resist to tell someone you don't want to tell a secret.
No matter what there's something that cannot be erased in us.
Our nature.
I don't have anything to say but I want to say it anyway.
That's what pubs are for.
Instead there's a girl in a room and a man talking.
Paris, Texas.
Mauro

About a new song I wrote

2008-10-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

Advising people not to travel far, that's what half population on this planet silently do.
While the other half travel.Few of us can do that standing still.
The guy down stairs serves coffee and quote Dylan since his radio is broken.
Children go to school, computers get turned on and off millions of times every day.
Like a chain reaction.Life goes on and on.
Me?I'll buy myself a home one day.

2008-10-03T16:27:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to sing my part on the cover we recorded few days ago...hours of warming up, using a VHS a friend of mine gave me showing Axel Rose's training technique.I dug it.I'm not ready yet though.It takes a motorbike and a gal named Nancy.
Changing subject (anyway I can handle more than two sentences that make sense) I found this photo on internet.I like it.
He drives, he's tired a bit upset.She's drunk maybe.They are driving home I'm sure.
It's early in the morning.
The movie is called La Dolce Vita.
...I wish I had a driving licence.I think I missed many nights like the one on this picture.
I mean you need a car like that to feel cool yeah sure...maybe not.
Any car can do the job...
...diesel too.
to cut it short:
night buses suck.

Painted World

2008-10-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

If heaven is in hell...where is hell right now.
If just people wouldn't slam doors in such a way Hell wouldn't existed.
I had a conversation about happiness, how can it be?
What a gentleman would say about that?
...tutti frutti!
Than it was all drinks and talks.
Someone told me how sweet is to go back home on xmas.
I said "that's true if you are not Santa Claus".
M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzw287lAe70

The Magic Glass

2008-10-01T05:31:00.000-07:00

I have a huge fascination for delay.
It's something that is irrational.These repetitions of the original signal become something else, they make the origin disappear.
The signal itself becomes longer, leaving a tail, a trace that seams to say "I was here!"...going where?Holiday maybe.
Delay is not a loop.Loop repeats itself like a circle, for ever maybe if needed, making the repetition "automatic".Delay instead is meant to disappear, "...from a distant shore miles from land" Syd Barret sung.That's for me "delay".It goes into the abyss and doesn't return.
A loop returns, according to his timetable, stronger than before.It changes the original signal into something else, like million of mirrors facing each other.
Delay is a glass, glass is transparent, you see through it.

M

Rocketman

2008-09-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

Temporary Secretary...what a tittle.Well we are recording a cover of that song, just layed down some drums and bass, we were clapping and playing cowbells as well.Few sessions to go and than poof! it'll be somewhere.Net or cd?There's something rotten in the state of Denmark...and it's not close to here so keep looking somewhere else.
Love
M

John Cage invented silence in music and dilettantes making fake silence.This guy invented John Cage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN3MGN899yE&feature=PlayList&p=AF4C6A9067961DE7&index=7

Rusty Magnets

2008-09-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

.
Recently I'm into metal.Not the music but the material.I even started to cook more often at home because I like to hear the sound of pots and forks when I wash them.The sound of metal.
It's exciting.Short.High pitch.Clean.
You can have long metal sounds as well, like gongs or bells but you can't wash them in the sink.
Bells are like a call.They can be heard from very far.
I wonder...imagine to build a giant bell and hang it on the bottom of the moon do you think you'll be able to hear it?No way.Who's gonna pull the rope anyway?The little prince?And what's for?Anybody getting married on the moon anytime soon?
No way.Even though I'm sure Virgin is already working on it.
Deep breath.
Pause.
I went to see Rothko's exhibition the other day at the Tate modern.Huge paintings that looked like rusty magnets, sucking light from our world.
Like a mirage, you are attracted to it.A powerful experience.Those paintings don't give back anything.They attract, suck, hold and decay anything that gets closer.
They have a inner gravity.
The sound of heavy forks on a giant red plate.

Mauro