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In 1989 the debut mini album “All the Good Children Go to Hell” is mentioned by the most influential Italian alternative music magazine Mucchio Selvaggio among the best 10 records of the 80s. A year later independent label Vox Pop releases first album “During Christine Sleep” that gets an exciting review by American magazine Alternative Press. A flight to New York follows: the band fronted by Manuel Agnelli goes to represent Italy at the New Music Seminar. They are later invited to the Berlin Independence Days.
In 1992 the band record a second EP and, once again, is record of the month for the guys at Alternative Press. Several American major companies get interested in the band, among them Geffen Records, in the person of Gary Gersh, future A&R of Nirvana but highly excited by the quick growth of an alternative scene in Italy, to which they are heavily contributing. Afterhours eventually decide to base their project in their own country and they start to write and sing their lyrics in Italian.
In 1995, after a dramatic change of line up, the band releases a new album, “Germi”, entirely sung in their mother-tongue. The work contains the seeds of Afterhours philosophy: melody and noise, music and lyrics cut-up, pop experimentation and a peculiar irony. Music critics define “Germi” as one of the best example of rock made in Italy. A mouth to mouth reputation grows along with the crowds at their gigs. Even Mina, Italy’s best and most celebrated Lady of the Song, shows her appreciation by reinterpreting their piece “Dentro Marilyn”.
During 1997 Afterhours sign a record deal with Mescal, Italy’s strongest alternative label, and record their second album in Italian. “Hai Paura Del Buio?”, the title translates in “Are you afraid of darkness?”, an album of 19 songs where Afterhours inject their personality in rock ballads and hardcore screams searching for new and non-conventional sounds in rock. Afterhours develop a unique writing style that takes distance from the tradition, morphing their mother-tongue into something new. This becomes a distinctive character of their music, representing one of the most stimulating side of the project and capturing the growing interest of both critics and audiences. The album is a collection of great songs, where all the fields explored by the band are in function of the song itself. Mucchio Selvaggio included “Afterhours Hai Paura Del Buio?” among the best 10 Italian albums of all times.
Afterhours are involved meanwhile in several literature and music happenings, together with other artists. The singer and guitarist of the band, Manuel Agnelli, starts to develop interest in producing the work of some of the most exciting new talents of the peninsula, giving birth to the debut albums of Cristina Donà, Pitch, La Crus, Marco Parente, Scisma, the top sellers Prozac + and Verdena, and the experimental project Massimo Volume, with whom Manuel shares the stage for several readings and performances.
The third album, “Non è Per Sempre”, released in 1999, gets them great visibility, and, supported by heavy video and radio rotation, reaches the top ten selling charts. The band play 113 gigs in nine months all over Italy, and most of them quickly sell out. Afterhours end that summer tour on the 11th of July, sharing the stage with R.E.M. at the Bologna stadium.
In February 2001 a double live album is released. It’s called “Siam Tre Piccoli Porcellin” and includes an acoustic CD and an electric one. The following tour will last for 87 gigs and again many of the venues are sold out.
Aware of the incredible growth of the audience and the increased quality of the new Italian alternative scene, Manuel Agnelli creates the “Tora! Tora!” festival, a travelling circus of music made out of alternative bands and artists with the communal aim to create their own promotional megaphone. The event gathers 50.000 people in Rome, Rimini, Padova and Turin and explodes as a case in the eye of the media, eventually receiving the public compliments of Perry Farrell, creator of the Lollapalooza festival. Due to the success of the first edition the festival becomes an annual appointment. Recognition comes at the meeting of Italy’s independent record labels in November 2001 where Manuel is awarded a price for “Tora! Tora!” as event of the year. Four days later Manuel is awarded best Italian producer at the Italian Music Awards.
Afterhours’ new album, “Quello Che Non C’è”, is released on 5th April 2002, and after a few days goes straight to number four in the sales charts. In the same month, Afterhours share the stage with the American band Mercury Rev in an unforgettable co-headlining tour throughout the peninsula, reaching the top in Milan in front of an audience of 7000 people.
Following the release of “Quello Che Non C’è” Afterhours collect another prize at the 2002 Italian Music Awards for best lyrics on the title track. Top selling Italian magazine Tutto Musica awarded the album as best Italian album of 2002.
Arezzo Wave, organiser of Italy’s leading free music festival and behind the showcase at Midem 2004 invited Afterhours to perform at the International Music Market in January 2004, for a music industry audience. In February the band did a five gigs Italian tour with Greg Dulli’s Twilight Singers. Later in the year Manuel Agnelli joined Dulli’s band on keyboards for their American and European tour. Manuel also co-produced and played guitar in “Summertime”, closing track of the Twilight Singers “She Loves You”, released by One Little Indian.
Another collaboration is with the ensemble “Songs With Other Strangers”, the creative encounter between a diverse group of original performers: Manuel Agnelli joins Marta Collica (Sepiatone), singer/songwriter Cesare Basile, John Parish, Hugo Race (founding member of the Bad Seeds, True Spirit, Sepiatone),and Stef Kamil Carlens (co-founder of the Belgian group dEUS and leader of Zita Swoon), Giorgia Poli (Micevice, Scisma, John Parish) and the drummer/percussionist Jean-Marc Butty (PJ Harvey, Venus, John Parish). Songs with Other Strangers has evolved into a concert free of conventional line-up restrictions in which the six singer/songwriters exchange roles and experiment with the arrangements of songs chosen from their own repertoires (and also with a shifting array of cover versions drawn from writers including Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and Michael Gira). The result is a musical journey through different moods, languages and songwriting approaches that explores the interzone of the artists’ backgrounds and personal visions. Diverse and highly entertaining for the large audiences that came to the group’s Italian tourdates, Songs with other Strangers has proven to be also a voyage of discovery for the artists themselves.
Afterhours’ new album, “Ballate Per Piccole Iene”, has been released in Italy by Mescal in April 2005, produced by Greg Dulli and mixed by Dulli and John Parish. Parish’s collaboration with Afterhours follows the work of the English producer with PJ Harvey, Eels, Goldfrapp, Sparklehorse and Giant Sand. The album has reached n. 2 in the official Italian charts, being awarded with the gold record, and the promotional tour has registered all sold-out dates.
The collaboration with Dulli led Afterhours to play as backing band for the first ever live show of the Gutter Twins, the new project of Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan (founder member of The Screaming Trees, Queens of The Stone Age) in front of an audience of 8000 people in Rome. Also, Agnelli appears as co-author of two songs on the latest Twilight Singers’s album, “Powder Burns”, released in April 2006.
“Ballads for little hyenas”, the English version of the album, is released by One Little Indian UK in Europe in October 2005 and by One Little Indian US in North America in March 2006. BFLH tells a story of absence and loss; Wrap your arms around the one thing you can never touch sings Manuel Agnelli in the albums title track, but always, it seems, with a hold on what remains and where that leads: Soon you’ll fade away/ Life has just begun for you. BFLH searches for and implores understanding, but never acceptance.
Following the release of BFLH, Afterhours play a series of European shows, starting with opening performance at the Eurosonic Festival in Groningen (Netherlands) in January 2006, followed by a 40 days tour with the Twilight Singers in the United States. Once again, Agnelli is the keyboard player for Dulli’s band in the U.S. and European tour.
On returning from the second, positive U.S. tour, they have played in a series of selected shows, culminating with the appearance of the 1st of May in Rome, in front of an audience of 700.000 people.
The band has signed a new record deal with Universal and the new album, “I Milanesi Ammazzano Il Sabato” is released in Italy on May 2nd 2008, entering the charts straight at #3. Part of the record is co-produced by John Parish, appearing also as guest musician along with Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs, The Twilight Singers, The Gutter Twins), Stef Kamil Carlens (Deus, Zita Swoon, Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes) and Cesare Malfatti (La Crus/Amout Fou). Meanwhile Virgin has released two anthological top selling double DVDs telling the story of the band.
After a first, sold out leg of the promo tour for “I Milanesi Ammazzano Il Sabato”, Dario Ciffo is replaced by Rodrigo D’Erasmo on violin and Afterhours flies back to North America, to appear at the North By North East Festival in Toronto and to play at the Mercury Lounge in New York.
Band members:
Manuel Agnellli - vocals, guitars
Giorgio Prette - drums
Giorgio Ciccarelli - guitars
Rodrigo D’Erasmo - violin
Roberto Dell’Era - bass
Enrico Gabrielli - keyboards, sax, bass clarinet, flute |
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