“Garage Pordenone” is the tenth album of unreleased songs by Three Merry Dead Boys, released on April 12th by La Tempesta Dischi: twelve new songs that celebrate the music and history of a group that was able to synthesize rock and comics, becoming a point of reference for the independent music scene. The group, which this year celebrates its first thirty years of a career started in 1994 right from Pordenone, with this work it dives back into the poetics of one of the most artistically prolific and active centers of the Italian province. The result is a decidedly contemporary album, far from nostalgia and that instead looks to the future of the band, which is now intent on celebrating its history and its present with a year of concerts and special events. In Italy and abroad.
To best convey the psychedelic rock of the new TARM cycle, the frontman, singer and cartoonist will perform live Davide Toffolo, Enrico Molteni on bass and electric guitar and Luca Masseroni to the drums, they will be joined by Andrea Maglia on lead guitar.
All together passionately, masked and full of rhythm and energy to embrace their many fans with rock and fantasy.
Three Happy Dead Boys
But let’s go back to the tenth album “Garage Pordenone” which was preceded by two singles and videos “Ho’oponopono” and “La sola concrete realità”, which was followed by the third extract “Mi plea che è vero”, focus track released at the same time as the album’s release.
“Garage Pordenone” features the Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti che si as protagonists of loud stories they rebel in their own way to the crookedness of the world. The band, between punk nursery rhymes, acoustic ballads, wave stories, existential declarations on rocksteady rhythms and a closing with a piece of “concrete music” with a blackbird as the main interpreter, shows that they really enjoy making music. And they pay homage to themselves with a memorable party, lasting a year.
The interview
Toffolo, did you also come out of the Pordenone Garage? “We come from there. The Pordenone Garage is full of things you wouldn’t expect to find: masks, comics, electric guitars, scooters and strange costumes. There are words, magic and science books, brushes and ribbons. For years we have been carrying all this around Italy, in a van.”
What themes do you deal with in the new album? “There are new characters entering our world. There’s Greta, who is just that Greta, a Robot girl, Dyslexic Jessica, an energy vampire, a cat and even a blackbird from Torpigattara. Each of them tells what he wants from life.”
How do you experience the dual role of cartoonists and rockers? “Well, I’m the only one who makes comics in the band. Luca, Enrico and Il Maglia are the ultimate characters. I gave them the form of absolute teenagers: Zombie Boys for eternity. Like the Ramones, basically.”
What effect does not being recognized without a mask have on you? “I like. It makes me free to meet whoever I want without the burden of being ‘famous’, as they say in Rome. Then, if I really find myself in difficulty I say: “I’m Davide dei Tre Allegri”. It works with a certain type of people.”
Do you feel a bit like an alternative rock superhero? “We are. We have a secret identity and the superpower of distorted amplification. This makes the world less black.”
Do you recognize yourself in events like Lucca Comics? “In Lucca, where I often went and where I grew up as an author, I happen to see cosplay by the Allegri Ragazzi Morti. Today, in Lucca, I really like them: cosplay.”
Three Happy Dead Boys
Is there still room for commitment in music? “Music is a commitment in itself. Or rather, it is always important, so I try to respect it, to make it beautiful and true.”
How did you organize the foreign tour? “The reality is that Europe today, despite its major political limitations, is still the space of the inhabitants of Europe and, among these, there are the Italians. I look forward to meeting them”.
Are there any graphic novels on the horizon? “Last year at Lucca Comics, I presented a book that I had coming out for Oblomov, La nave di Teseo, it’s called “Il cammino della cumbia”: it’s a psychedelic comic documentary about a trip I took last year from Buenos Aires to Cartagena, Colombia, where cumbia was born. This year the second part of that project will arrive. Before launching the next comic book into the universe, I need to “charge”. For now I’m enjoying our thirtieth birthday as a band”.
