.: Brad Mormino :.

July 21st, 2009
Here I am. Back after…(in the words of Peter Griffin) “Holy Crap!” – almost two months!
This is largely due in part to me being:

Alright, enough. Sometimes I like to make fun of myself, give myself crap.
Where to start, where to start…

Friday, July 31st, 2009 we’ll be at MNEMOSINE in Soncino which is in the province of Cremona (see the LIVE page for details).

This will be a cool gig because our great friend, Josh Zighetti from the band Hungry Heart, will be sitting in with us to sing about 5 or so songs. We’ll have some new tunes to do too. Sooooo, come on out and see us. Oh, and it’ll be outside, which means…Tobia, the world famous Rock’n’ Roll dog, might be making an appearance. For those of you who missed us at the Venus Rock Festival, too bad, because he was there for petting and giving licks to all who asked.

>>>>>>>>Onward!
The 4th of July we were at the first edition of the Venus Rock Festival in Orio Litta.

And for all of you who (even you Italians!) who looked at me like it was on the other side of the world when I said the name of the town, it was only about 40 minutes south of Milan, or 10 or so minutes north of Piacenza -----
—not that far you big wussies!

Anyway, it was WAY COOL! Big-ass stage like I like, lights up the ying-yang (in fact, I think there was a yin/yang motif for one of the light scenes.) like I like and a ferocious smoke machine like I don’t like (can’t breathe and kills my voice, that’s why).

We played with a group of cool guys from the area called

.Go to their MySpace page and check ‘em out.—they’re really good at what they do.
Plus, we also got to know a couple of the very nice and very cool guys, Max and Mattia, from The

.
A big thanks to Max who led the charge in the audience to hear ‘Bleed’

Last but not least, MANY A BIG THANKS to the guys who were responsible for this 4-day music festival:
Chris and Giancarlo Bozzoli from Cà di Frè and Mario Percudani of Hungry Heart.

Their idea for The Venus Rock Festival was to do a different beer festival; a beer festival without tribute and cover bands. Sure, other bands like us played some covers, but only a few. The thrust behind this festival was ORIGINAL/INDEPENDENT MUSIC!!!! Mission accomplished thanks to these three. Thanks Chris, Gianca’ and Mario!

Check out Cà di Frè here: http://www.myspace.com/cadifre
Here's Mario's links: http://www.myspace.com/mariopercudani & http://www.myspace.com/hungryheartofficial.

On June 6th, 2009 we were back at the fabulous

.
As usual, it was great time.
Look, I know, I go on about this place, the food and all, but I only do this for places that I feel are deserving and/or I really like. For example, we finished our soundcheck, cleaned up and went in to find that Giancarlo made us an amazing dinner that started with a pasta amatriciana that looked pretty much like this --

We finished that and then he came back with a tray that looked something like this – but times at least 4!
The boys and I were in heaven...

For those of you who love to eat pasta and grilled meats like those in the picture, you can understand how hard it was for me not to really indulge.
It downright SUCKED, and sucks in general. However, I sing and feel like shit if I eat A LOT before a gig. So, this is the reason I come back here and eat when I’m not playing. Man, it’s just some damn good eating!

To close out this post, we recently said good-bye to our keyboardist and friend, Giuseppe ‘Pieppe’ Diana.

The Cà di Frè gig was his last as he’s got other endeavors that need his attention. Thanks and see you ‘round Pieppe!
Filling in, as usual, is our wacky, talented keyboard friend, Larsen Premoli.

So, that's it for now. I'll write you all soon, probably after the Mnemosine gig. Well, definitely before another two months passes...I hope.
Tiill next time,

Today it was 88°F (31°C)! Not exactly what I expect in May. Hopefully, it's not a sign of what the rest of the summer is going to be like. Otherwise, I might start looking like this.

If you've seen the Live Page, you will have noticed that three Saturdays ago the boys and I played down in Assago (a southwest suburb of Milan). It was a damn cool gig--outside, a beautiful night, a slight wind (sometimes a tad strong) nice, big stage and we just ROCKED! What I conveniently left out was that it was a mayoral politcal rally for PDL (Popolo della Libertà-a very right wing political party, but stupid right wing). I'm really not into politics (my politcal view is Politician = Criminal), but I and anyone I know does not support this party. They just suck; it's too long to go into here. I left that fact out of the info for the date because we wanted you all to come see us. Some of you did- Thanks!

Hey -- funny story...well, sort of. I guess it's more of a 'you get what you give' kind of story.
Again, as you can see on the Live Page, we split this gig with two other acts. One was a comedian, a guy named, Bruce Ketta (you know, like bruschetta.). Big, gregarious, nice, funny guy.

The other was a singer who took part in an American Idol/Big Brother type show. The show is called Amici (absolute crap!) and the girl...best not to mention names. Here's why. While we were in the middle of our soundcheck, her 'manager,' unbeknownst to me, was off on the side of the stage giving our keyboardist, Larsen, shit because he felt we were taking too long to do our soundcheck. He was pissed because he felt that his singer wouldn't have time for her soundcheck. Ok, hold on a minute here. This is understandable if she was backed up by a band like mine, a 5-piece of 4 instruments and 5 voices to soundcheck, but she wasn't. Her back up was a frickin' CD!!!! They're called TV tracks. The word kind of explains it all. Ok, so were talking about a soundcheck of, max, 15 minutes. But this guy is the type who feels he's important and thinks everyone else should know it too. So, Mr. Blow-Hard then went and camped out next to the soundman, Gigi (a super cool, calm, kick-butt soundman), and bitched to him. Gigi did a great a job of ignoring him. Therefore, looking for some satisfaction, he turned and faced us making gestures at Larsen, ranting and whining some more. Unfortunately, I had my back turned and didn't see him when he was doing this. Plus, we couldn't hear him. However, just like English, you can decipher all the swear words when someone is saying them to you. And that's just what Larsen did. A heated discussion ensued, and we parted saying he was an asshole and he said we sucked and they did their lilttle bedroom stereo soundcheck. Whatever.

Showtime! We opened the show/rally with lots of energy. I was a little extra amped because lots of the people around us (organizers and such ) were all uptight, nervous and snippy. Plus, add in the little bit of drama in paragraph above and I was slowly losing my patience. Ahhhh!!!! Singing and running around a big stage is always good medicine for me. Cool. Fun.
The girl singer was next up. She did one song. It was ok. She has a nice voice; it's pretty much like all Italian female voices that are poplular right now. So, nothing special or really new. Then, as Larsen said to me later,-- KARMA STRUCK!
About 15-30 seconds or so into her second tune her CD...skipped. Not just a little,
but violently! She totally lost her place and the CD was skipping so badly that they had to turn it off. She apologized and exited the stage. There's an Italian expression that works really well here, and it was mentioned a lot--"Che figura di merda!" or "Wow, what shit impression she made!?"
She came back about an hour later and did about six more songs with the cd skipping here and there, but nothing like her first set. She finished and got a nice round of applause, but the damage was already done.

You know I'm sure she's a nice person, although none of us spoke to her. But that's because her manager was such an ass, no one wanted to talk to him, her or anyone associated with them. It was a good lesson in making sure you choose the right representation. At least that's what I took away from it.

Gig---Saturday, June 6th, 2009 @ Cà di Frè

Yup, on Saturday, June 6th we'll back at one of our favorite places to play, Cà di Frè. Just as it's written on the logo, it's a great place out in the country. And as I always babble on about, the food and hosts, Chris and GianCarlo, are awesome! It's gonna be GREAT because it'll be outside, it's gonna be a beautiful night with a slight breeze, lots of cool people, again, fabulous food, ice cold beer, excellent wine, us and YOU!

March, 22nd, 2009
So...I've been taking quite a bit of crap (crap is actually being nice) lately for not updating this web-site. C'mon! gimmie a break, you guys. I've written it before and I'll write it again--I'm NOT a computer person. The post from March 2nd is just being posted now because I finally figured out that friggin' Firefox was screwing things up for me. Things weren't working right in Dreamweaver and my host showed that I had NO files in my remote directory causing only a minor 10-15 minutes of panic.

Hey, some people swear by Firefox, but I'm not sold. Using it's been more of a pain in the ass for me than anything. It's part of the reason the March 2nd post is making it online with this post. Ok, feels like I'm whining again.

Moving on, we played a place called FERMENTO last Saturday, March 14th. It was soooo COOL to see so many of you come hang with us, eat and drink lots and have a rockin' good time. I mention the eats because I didn't realize what a vast menu they had--pizza, steak, ribs, pasta...damn, it's 1am and now I'm hungry. Arrrrrgggh. Anyway, here's a little peek at what went on.

Okey-dokey, that's all from Milan for now. Gotta hit the hay.
Tootles!

BRAD

March 2nd, 2009
Ok, so after a long, unintended hiatus, I've decided to work on my own shit for once instead of someone else's! Well...to a degree what I just wrote is true. At the same time, those of you who read this site know that, well...maybe it's sort of obvious, I'm a little lazy.

No, not like Mr. FatCat here, GOD NO! But I always find something else to do because web design isn't something that trips my trigger. For me, it's not that fun because it takes me A LONG time to do and/or create what I want. Here's what usually happens.

Yeah, I gripe about this often. Actually, I'll be honest--I bitch and moan about this often. Maybe I'll stop when someone gets tired of my whining and says, "Alright, you whiny pain in the ass! I'll maintain and update your damn site, MySpace page, etc."

I promise you all that when I have some extra dough, I'll hire someone who is not web-design averse, thinks passing time playing with Dreamweaver and Flash is a hoot and thinks that HTML is the best non-verbal form of communication. Ok, end whining here.

Here's some non-whining news--WOO HOO! A GIG!
Saturday, March 14th, 2009 the Boys and I will be at FERMENTO Art &n Pub

Fermento is a micro-brewery and restaurant. The Regina Nera dark lager above is theirs--good stuff! This show will start a little earlier than usual, around 10pm. So, come have dinner first and drink Regina Nera with us all night. Reservations are probably a good idea. Here's all the info:

via Camillo Ugoni, 18 - MILANO
Prenotazioni: Tel. 02/87380668
http://www.myspace.com/fermentomilano
http://www.fermentoaep.com/index.htm