Solar Barbecue by Sterbus
“You'd think that people would've had enough of silly prog songs,
but I look around me and I see it isn't so…”
Thank you Paul.
The new Sterbus project you are just reading about is something I always wanted to do - a collection of all the instrumental/crazy/useless-noodling/self-indulgent/wanky/rockambulesque stuff we recorded over the years on our albums. I grew up listening to Frank Zappa, so since I was a kid I always saw instrumental music as something fun, something to be uplifted by and to toy with, like watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon with a big grin on your face. And when I started to play and pen my own tunes I always wanted to have songs like these, with different sections, twists and turns, little quotes of this or that musical hero, playful arrangements for as many instruments as I was capable of thinking of, like a movie for the ears! Lyrics? “Wasted time between solos” like that old Gibson ad said. Then when I was 27 I discovered Tim Smith and Cardiacs, and it was like I finally found that kind of music I was looking for all my life: brilliant, exhilarating, inspiring.
For this compilation I decided to write a new song, “The Great Wallop Dollop”, recorded during the Let Your Garden Sleep In sessions in 2021, and then this year I decided to work on a new arrangement for the coda of “Fall Awesome” - a song from “Real Estate / Fake Inverno”. I always loved that chord progression so we removed guitars, bass and drums and replaced them with cellos and piano. We found the melody so cute that we wanted to present it with just two recorders and a harpsichord on “Billa”, the 30-second album opener. “Back to Black Delivery” is another old one that had a major reworking: I wasn't happy with my lead guitar parts - so we replaced them with clarinet, flute, tenor sax, organ, and new parts have been written for trombone and trumpet. So, it’s actually FOUR new songs, in a way!
“SOLAR BARBECUE” is dedicated to the musicians who played on it, and to the listeners who have appreciated STERBUS for the last 15 years. Thank you!
Emanuele, October 26th 2022
Tracklist
| 1. | Billa | 0:31 |
| 2. | The Great Wallop Dollop | 2:35 |
| 3. | Back to Black Delivery | 4:19 |
| 4. | Razor Legs | 4:09 |
| 5. | Ruben, Raja, Lieve, Nike | 1:55 |
| 6. | The Amazing Frozen Yogurt | 3:03 |
| 7. | Any Minute Now | 1:01 |
| 8. | Congratulator | 3:47 |
| 9. | Big Daisy | 3:47 |
Credits
All songs written by Emanuele Sterbini except “Razor Legs”, (music Sterbini, words Sterbini/D’Avanzo) and “The Great Wallop Dollop” (music by Sterbini/Piergiovanni)
Songs 1 to 5 produced and recorded by Francesco Grammatico with Pro-Tools at DB Recording Studios and Jungle Music Factory in Tivoli (Rome). Songs 6 to 9 produced and recorded by Emanuele Sterbini at home with GarageBand.
“Billa” and the overdubs for “Back to Black Delivery” and “Ruben, Raja, Lieve, Nike” recorded, engineered and mixed by Francesco Grammatico @ Jungle Music Factory October 3rd & 4th 2022. All songs remastered by Francesco Grammatico October 6th 2022.
Cover, illustrations and paintings by Stefano Fiore.
Lieve/Billa/Brubbru photo by Marco Ferrara.
Sterbus photo by Francesco Gentile.
English grammar consultant: Noel Storey
Artwork direction by Francesco Stefanini.
In loving memory of Lieve/Billa/Brubbru.
℗ & © 2022
Supported by Zillion Watt Records
MUSICIANS:
1. BILLA
Riccardo Piergiovanni: harpsichord
Dominique D’Avanzo: recorders
2. THE GREAT WALLOP DOLLOP
Emanuele Sterbini: bass, electric and acoustic guitar, organ, GOOONG
Dominique D’Avanzo: very deep clarinet, GOOONG
Paolo Sala: narrating voice
Riccardo Piergiovanni: piano, synth
Edoardo Taddei: stunt guitar solo
Emanuele Binelli: GOOONG
Pablo Tarli: drums
Video here!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWLrMnnQ-c8
3. BACK TO BLACK DELIVERY
Emanuele Sterbini: bass, all guitars (from the original 2009 recordings)
Valerio Minelli: guitar solo (from the original 2009 recordings)
Valentino Nardi: drums (from the original 2009 recordings)
Dominique D’Avanzo: clarinet, flute, tenor sax (2022 overdubs)
Riccardo Piergiovanni: hammond solo, organ (2022 overdubs)
Francesco Grammatico: trombone, trumpet (2022 overdubs)
Video here!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTeLDAR8NXI
Original power trio version on the album “CHI HA ORDINATO GLI SPINACI?”, released in 2010
4. RAZOR LEGS
Emanuele Sterbini: vocals, electric guitar, bass
Dominique D’Avanzo: vocals
Claudio Cavallaro: clarinet
Carlo Schneider: alto sax
Moira Ceccaroli: vocals
Nick Prol: vocals
Riccardo Piergiovanni: marimba, electric piano solo, r’n’r piano
Brenda Gaga: tambourine, synth sweep
Bob Leith: drums, “bollocks!”
from the double album “REAL ESTATE / FAKE INVERNO”, released in 2018
5. RUBEN, RAJA, LIEVE, NIKE
Emanuele Sterbini: electric guitars, bass (from the original 2017 recordings)
Dominique D’Avanzo: clarinet (from the original 2017 recordings)
Riccardo Piergiovanni: mellotron (from the original 2017 recordings), piano (2022 overdubs)
Francesco Grammatico: trumpet, cellos (2022 overdubs)
Bob Leith: drums (from the original 2017 recordings)
Brenda Gaga: tambourine (from the original 2017 recordings)
Original version on the double album “REAL ESTATE / FAKE INVERNO”, released in 2018
6. THE AMAZING FROZEN YOGURT
Emanuele Sterbini: acoustic, electric and talkin' wah-wah guitars, bass, vibes, organ solo, drums programming
Lonnie Shetter: tenor sax solo madness, sampled from the album “Don Ellis at Fillmore” (1970)
from the album “SMASH THE SUN ALIGHT”, released in 2012
7. ANY MINUTE NOW
Emanuele Sterbini: bass, all guitars
Paolo Sala: drums (Recorded in advance: the whole tune was written using the pre-existing drum track)
from the album “IRANIAN DOOM”, released in 2011
8. CONGRATULATOR
Emanuele Sterbini: bass, guitars, keys, drums programming
from the album “A WONDERFUL DISTRUST”, released in 2014
Composed as a soundtrack for Charlie Mounsey’s “Unwelcome Human Guest” video.
Check it out on YouTube!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKXgxDY3K40&t=151s
9. BIG DAISY
Emanuele Sterbini: bass, guitars, drums programming
Outro: little Francesco Gaglione, Dominique D’Avanzo, Emanuele Sterbini
from the album “IRANIAN DOOM”, released in 2011
This song and its real wacky fake-MTV video were my first tribute to the genius of Tim Smith of Cardiacs.
We will praise him!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj7LzHFklWg
BEWARE: THIS COMPACT DISC CONTAINS EXPLICIT SOLOS
FILE UNDER: UNPOPULAR
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Sterbus are from Rome, but their true musical spirit wanders much further afield, from the joyful power-pop of The Lemon Twigs to the rainy Portland of Elliott Smith and certainly all the South of England's ground-soils Cardiacs and XTC.
"Solar Barbecue" marks their comeback with a new ALL-INSTRUMENTAL opus centered around funny chords, frantic paces and exhilarating arrangements.