Zen Circus, The

Pisa, Italy's The Zen Circus are one of Europe's best live acts and stalwarts of the Italian Underground. Their music is a mixture of punk rock and folk, influenced by the Meat Puppets, the Minutemen and the Violent Femmes. After years of touring, busking and releasing albums - they have been joined by Brian Ritchie from the Violent Femmes on their first international album, Villa Inferno which will be released on 5th May on Unhip Records. The band first met Ritchie when they supported the Violent Femmes in Bologna, Italy. He offered to produce them - liked their new songs so much that he joined the trio and became the fourth member! Other international fans were to follow with guest appearances from Kim and Kelley Deal (Pixies/Breeders) who recorded their vocals in Tasmania where Brian Ritchie lives; and Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads who plays on "Wild Wild Life". Villa Inferno contains an eclectic mix of songs in English, Italian, French and Serbian. Punk folk has been mixed with traditional Eastern European music, hence the track "Nardodna Pjesma" is sang in Serbian. "Beat the Drum" represents the band's boozy hedonistic side; and the French song, "Les Tantes de La Dimanche" is the result of their many weeks busking in France. "Punk Lullaby" is a classic 'dancefloor' tune of '90s indie rock (featuring Kim and Kelley Deal), while the catchy "Figlio Di Puttana" (Son of a bitch) is the band's Italian single with lyrics such as, 'My mother is weird, she calls me son of a whore!' To get The Zen Circus experience, you must go and see them live - the band will be touring with Brian Ritchie later in the year.