""where'd you get your puzzle? / where'd you get your gun son?"
The shimmy shaking bass line, the raw rock guitar strains, feral drum slap and busker punk vocal aesthetic of "Red Sky" by New York's ZOPA, the long standing and winding garage indie rock project of actor, singer-songwriter, guitarist Michael Imperioli, drummer Olmo Tighe and Elijah Amitin on bass / keyboards, feels blissfully real. The sound, blissfully indie trope free, feels infused with core late 70's / early 80's indie rock proto punk tones and I flashed on iconic artists like The Pixies, Lou Reed and INXS immediately.
A fan of Imperioli as an actor, I am stunned by his vocal character and listened to "Red Sky" dozens of times just to absorb the nuances of his vocal story telling. The guitar shapes feel wistful at the beginning and when the sonic movie falls from his lips, "where'd you get your puzzle? / where'd you get your gun son? / did you take it from the top of the stairs / grab it from down below", until the drums and bass stomp down hard. "how high did your elevator go? / how much did your fortune teller know? /are you just like everyone else? / are you just like / everyone else?"
Imperioli shares, "it’s a love song and a song that celebrates having the courage to be a true individual." Some of the lyrics were inspired by a quote by American novelist Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man) - "The individual is a minority."
As the song becomes bigger with layers of what sounds like synth horn ascensions building a glorious tension with Tighe and Amitin providing backing vox the movie that is "Red Sky" heads towards it's climax, it's conclusion coated in a bruised knuckles, black leather jacket patina.
A follow up to ZOPA's 2020's full length "La Dolce Vita", "Red Sky" has an accompanying filmic Official Video directed by Victoria Imperioli and Lisa Rinzler and produced by Victoria Imperioli, Solidago Productions, Thaddeus Self Williams, Norena Barbella.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.instagram.com/zopaband/
https://zopa.bandcamp.com/releases
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Sh58x8MbsqnDj2lwODhRA
ZOPA is Elijah Amitin, Michael Imperioli, and Olmo Tighe. ZOPA translates to “patience” in Tibetan and also the middle word of Michael’s Buddhist name: Konchog Zopa Sonam.
The trio’s story is one of chance connections, tracing to '83 when at age 17, Imperoli began “kicking it in the city,” choosing the arts over college. It was a fertile time in NY to explore theater, art, music— still connected to the late '60s early '70s underground scene that largely informed Imperioli’s artistic consciousness. That same year, Amitin and Tighe were born. Amitin grew up going to Latin music clubs with his father Mike Amitin, who was a salsa musician in the golden era of the New York Latin music scene. Tighe comes from an avant-garde art background, who at age 14, handed Amitin a Shuggie Otis record and has continued to expand Amitin’s musical horizons. Amitin and Tighe played music together in high school in the early aughts, Amitin on bass and Tighe on drums.
In ‘91 Tighe and Imperioli shared the screen in Postcards from America, fifteen years later Imperioli heard Tighe was a drummer, and years after that, headed to The Strand where Tighe worked and “scooped him up” to be the drummer in his new band. They’re family now. Tighe married Imperioli’s cousin. Tighe invited Amitin along for their first practice session and the day before, Amitin ran into Michael on the street by chance greeting him with; “I’m playing with you tomorrow.”
“What’s even more serendipitous is that they are two of the best human beings I have ever had the privilege of knowing," says Imperioli. "Our first practice was in February of 2006 in NYC, our first gig was in June of that year at Cabaret Maxime in Lisbon and our first record was released in the infamous Summer of 2020. Along the way, we did tons of shows in NYC, played on bills with the likes of Robert Pollard, David Johanson, Tommy Stinson, Walter Lure, Jesse Malin, and Richard Butler, did an East coast tour of America, a few gigs in L.A. and returned once to Lisbon. It feels like we are just getting started.”
In covering Lou Reed’s “Ocean” and “Heroin,” ZOPA’s sound taps into a collective nostalgic past, echoing the transcendent spaces of New York punk rock’n’roll. Relying on analog technology and minimal overdubbing for their production, their vintage sound takes center stage in live performances and recordings.
This connection to the past — and the gaps it creates through age and time — all dissipate in the spaces the band creates with its audiences. Imperioli’s voice is ripe with that feeling of awakening in which 17 feels eternal. Under the influences of Dinosaur Jr, The Smiths, My Bloody Valentine, The Replacements, Joy Division, Galaxy 500, and The Violent Femmes, ZOPA becomes timeless, ageless even, evoking the CBGB era with a beat generation grit to an intergenerational audience.
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ZOPA, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, post punk, busker punk, New York, "Red Sky", 2020 album "La Dolce Vita", strong storytelling, informed by Ralph Ellison, Michael Imperioli, Elijah Amitin, Olmo Tighe,
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