Interview with Fottutissima Pellicceria Elsa, 2019

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Introduction and Interview by Michael O'Flinn, conducted in 2019

The shit-fi vein runs deep in the annals of Italian punk and hardcore. From the off the rails raging insanity of Wretched to the lurching rumble of teenage creeps Mittageisen*—from loads of semi-officially released live comp tapes to the majority of the Attack Punk Records catalog—there is much gold to be mined from the boot for those willing to dig. But one release that has always stood out is the 1983 self-released cassette demo by Fottutissima Pellicceria Elsa (FPE). Hailing from the tiny town of Gorizia in northeastern Italy, the band both embraced and challenged the prevailing ideas about what constituted hardcore at the time. Incorporating elements of psych rock, jazz, improvisation, and the avant garde the band blasted out a tape full of bizarre raging punk and tense sludgy dirges, sounding unlike anything else before or since. 

When the demo was first released Tim Yohannon compared it to MDC and the Meat Puppets, and though I understand the comparison, in hindsight it misses the mark. A more accurate retroactive description would be to start with an impromptu jam between Negazione and Sonic Youth (both of whom were in their infancies at the time and not widely known, at least certainly not in Gorizia) all shredded throat vocals, detuned instruments, and atonal guitar leads, and then add in bursts of wild and messy thrash in the great Italian tradition (think Underage’s faster moments but even more stripped down and furious). But FPE took their music in so many different directions that this brief summation doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story: "Burattini" [Marionettes] sounds like someone learned the chords to "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and then tried to play it without ever having heard the song; "Dentro: Vuoti" [Inside: Void] features demented surfy guitars and a bass line that would’ve brought No Trend to their knees; most of "Gorizia Nelle Notte" [Gorizia at Night] could pass for a Las Rallizes Denudes jam. Oh, and also the whole thing sounds like it was recorded on a shitty boombox in a tiny concrete room (hint: because it was), everything in the red, everything louder than everything else. In short, it is an incredible recording. 

Italy was in the midst of a tremendous political and cultural upheaval in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the band’s lyrics reflect this directly. Specifically, the police, the military, and the apathetic masses received FPE’s direct attention, and without a hint of subtlety: even when you can’t understand what they’re saying you know they fucking mean it. Their most biting and vicious eruptions, however, were aimed squarely at the issue of animal rights, with the band penning lyrics on the subject that rival the vitriol Dropdead would spew forth nearly a decade later. From "Moda Assassina" [Fashion Kills]: “Have you ever asked yourself how stupid it all is? / You rape animals for useless purposes / You feel superior / You stupid fools / … The only thing left for you is to take your rifle and shove it up your arse.” Even the band’s name was a nod to their passion for animals translating roughly to Fuck Elsa Furs. (Elsa Furs refers to a specific fur coat store in Gorizia.)

When I searched and found no firsthand information (and very little information in general) about FPE I decided to see if I could track down any of the members to get the scoop and spread the word myself. After a few false starts and dead ends I managed to locate Sandro, the guitarist. He does not speak English but was kind enough to forward my message to Luca, the drummer of the band who agreed to do an interview. I found Luca to be incredibly kind, smart, and still full of passion for wild music and radical politics. What follows is an email interview I conducted with Luca over the course of a few weeks in October and November of 2019. I did my best to maintain his specific words and writing style whenever possible but there were a few odd phrases that needed to be cleaned up. After light editing, I resubmitted, the interview to Luca, who approved the changes. Sandro also approved the content of the interview.

A few quick acknowledgments: thanks first of course to Luca and Sandro for the tunes (thanks Roby and Ennio for that as well) and for agreeing to do this. Thanks to Renza from Warfare for digging up Sandro’s email address and sharing it with me, and to Scott Soriano of S-S Records for doing his best to try and do so before that. Finally, thanks to Stuart for continuing to maintain this site so that music like this continues to have a place to be covered.

One more quick note: while doing research for this article I came across a review of the S-S Records 2013 vinyl pressing of the demo that had some disparaging things to say about the music, implying somehow that due to its poor sound quality and amateurish nature that it was not worthy of being resurrected and shared, that it was essentially at the bottom of a very large barrel of punk and hardcore demos from that time. I feel bad for whoever wrote that because to me the FPE demo represents everything I love about not only shit-fi music, but punk rock in general: a band with nothing to gain creating intensely passionate art only for the purpose of immediate, exuberant expression. And if that’s not what you’re here for, why are you here at all???

* Legend has it Mittageisen were so humiliated after their one and only show that they promptly broke up and destroyed all remaining copies of their single.

S-F You mentioned in our previous correspondence that you came upon punk through your interest in political protest. Can you discuss what the political situation in Italy was like at that time, how you first become involved in political protest, and how that led you to punk?

Enjo (if I may say) is a great connoisseur of all that is underground (and even below) in the Eastern European scene; Sandro is very into Nordic bands, metal, and rock in general and I have always had a love of jazz and the avant-garde, up to even the most extreme improvisation. Then ... I don't know what to say: it came out in FPE.