Tredici Bacci’s musical lineage is not difficult to trace, but it’s a very hefty one, and the more you listen to them, the more you realize you’re dealing with brilliant musical heterogeneity in one of its most refined states. Hardly any group will sound as unique-yet-familiar as Tredici Bacci, with its sweeping Zappa influences and the cheeky and hostile punk/ska disposition lying just under the surface of a decade’s worth of big band spaghetti western experiments.
Established in 2013 under the leadership of composer Simon Hanes, the New York-based large ensemble Tredici Bacci has spent the last decade touring various venues, showcasing their eccentric, delightful, whimsical, and cinematic musical performances. Their compositions blend levity with profound sentiments, offering an experience that is both enjoyable and nostalgic. Their debut album, Amore Tutti, was praised by Rolling Stone for its “wonderfully orchestrated kitsch-pop fantasies” and by Noisey for evoking a sense of familiarity as if the listener had known the music their entire life.
The band holds itself above subverted expectations like a hand hovering over a candle. They induce a morbid compulsion to see how far they’ll sustain the sheer insanity, and the longer it all goes on the more satisfying it is when they snatch themselves back into something less risky resolution. It’s a tense situation to listen to them, tense in the same way that jazz can be tense. It’s very rewarding and very fresh.
Far from being gimmicky and weird for the hell of it, Tredici Bacci is in fact about pushing boundaries in complex and meaningful ways that merit thorough consideration and attentive ears. Their newest release is the amazing “Vindication of the Murder Hornets”, a horn-laden disbursement of talent and vision at the service of leading man Simon Hanes’ catharsis over a frustrating working experience, as he puts it:
“I wrote ‘Vindication Of The Murder Hornets’ – or rather, retched up the song in a quick series of vomitous gags – right after a particularly unpleasant experience working as a hired gun for a well established singer songwriter. While not a household name, this person has written songs for very famous musicians – the kind of sweet, wistful songs your mom might listen to while drinking a glass of Sav Blanc and staring longingly out the window, wondering what her life would be like if she had done that backpacking trip through Europe after college instead of of settling down with your father right away. What I found so off putting about working for this guy is that he had absolutely no substance. The music he was hiring me to work on was so hilariously surface level, lyrically speaking, and he was treating it with a hilariously high level of gravitas – and obviously expecting me to approach it with the same reverence, which, quite frankly, I just couldn’t.”
For those deeply passionate about music, nothing is more disheartening than being labeled as “bland.” For devoted musicians, working on a project that lacks genuine soul can be both harrowing and frustrating. While “Vindication of the Murder Hornets” may be lyrically nonsensical – as Hanes himself admits – the track’s sheer cascade of layers and rich sounds serves as the perfect antidote to such frustrations.
Tredici Bacci is currently on tour, and it’s obvious that they’re the kind of band whose vibe is so powerful that it’s almost impossible to actually constrain within the limits of recording, thus the best way to experience them would be to catch them live. Check out their following dates to see where you may encounter them:
Tredici Bacci US Tour
3/20 – Athens GA @ Cine
3/21 – Nashville, TN @ Springwater
3/22 – Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
3/24 – Atlanta, GA @ the Earl
3/26 – asheville NC @ grey eagle
3/27 – richmond VA, @ the warehouse
3/28 – Baltimore, MD @ the crown
3/31 – Brooklyn, NY @ TV eye
