Drawing Dead- Adieu, Ciao, See You Soon

I was a little late to the party with writing about One Chord Wonder releases when I first reviewed The Manges "Plan Honolulu" just about a year ago but had been paying attention to what this label was doing since it's start! This means I of course was already familiar with a Milan band called Drawing Dead. Consisting of Mega's frontman, OCW's  CEO, and a couple members from Colin Farrell, this band had some promise to catch my interest with their debut self titled record and did! Punk rock that stays close to the elementary principle with a heavy streak of 90's passion is easy for me to love and that's exactly what they do, so it was great news to hear that they'd be starting to record some new material last summer. That's what I'd like to tell you about this time. An album called,  "Adieu, Ciao, See You Soon"!

The songs were recorded and mastered during August of 2014 at New Mood Recording Studio by Frederic Mazzei who also shared the role of producer along with Drawing Dead. Great sound from Freddy as always! The cover art is cool, featuring Stefano Bevilacqua's nicely shot photography of the band paired with a retro image from Django done by Raffaele Carrieri and it worked well! Release happened on January 16th and is a co-production between  One Chord Wonder and Banana Brain of Rufus Recordings Emporium for 150 LPs that come with a download code. 150 CDs were also made possible by Monkeyrite Rec. and Commando Records. Digital only can be found on OCW's bandcamp page and it's streaming in full.

The first thing I noticed in giving the LP a spin is that there is a definite progression in sound from the guys. They already had something cool going in the first record but the presentation this time overall is definitely a lot more polished and I like it! Track one, "Over The Storm" starts things strong and is a Robi tune. This guy is without a doubt, one of the Italian punk rock scene's most magnificent poets, coming in just after greats like Andrea Manges and Chris Polecat for me. He connects to an emotion and the words just build around a great song about moving past a big loss. Next up is a sweeter, mid tempo Dave led one called "Bad Girl" and it's a nice representation of that progression I mentioned with his vocals that have branched out of the rougher more straight punk tone and now offer more of a melodic approach. As a Tough fanatic, "Faster Than Biso" brought a big smile to my face and of course is one of my favorites on this record. Using Biso's drumming speed as a metaphor for the way a woman can quickly break a heart is pretty genius. That's like, lightening fast heartbreak haha! Romantic Dave is terrific(don't get me wrong!) ,but "Target: Lorraine" really shows his wit and sense of humor I like so much, focusing around the scene in Back To The Future where Marty scares the shit out of George and it has a really cool Riverdales influence too. I love that one and as an 80's movie junkie "Teen Wolf" also was a big hit with me. Boof, Stiles, Mick, and van surfing, it's all in there. Yeah! There's a lot of range in the thirteen tracks this album has to offer but the way it ends with two ballad style songs was a great move. Both "Million Piece Puzzle" and "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye?" are beautifully arranged gems.

Somewhere around the release of "Adieu, Ciao, See You Soon", the band played it's last show and parted ways. It's a bummer to see things like that happen. Especially with a band that is steadily developing into something better with each move but hey, that's rock 'n' roll and things ended on a wonderful note with this LP! Make sure to add it to your collection by visiting OCW, Rufus Recordings, or Striped's webstores and stay tuned to each of the guys' individual efforts. Robi, Dave, Lollo, and King Mob are all passionate for what I believe in as a punk rocker and I'm glad they once made up a band called Drawing Dead.

Drawing Dead is...
Robi- Guitar and Vocals
Dave- Bass and Vocals
Lollo- Guitar and Backing Vocals
King Mob- Drums

Additional backing vocals on "Teen Wolf" by Freddy

Keyboard in "Bad Girl" and "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye?" by Greta

All songs written by Drawing Dead

Tracks
Side A
1. Over The Storm
2. Bad Girl
3. Faster Than Biso
4. Target: Lorraine
5. A Coffin For You
6. New Tattoo
7. Blue On Blue
Side B
8. When You Love
9. If You Live, Shoot!
10. Shapeshifter
11. Teen Wolf
12. Million Piece Puzzle 
13. How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye?