from the writing fragments vault, #2
(from the Encyclopædia of Obscure Music)
Lasagne Lagniappe, Sicilian nationalist band from New Orleans, who in their songs advocate Sicilian independence from Italy, notwithstanding a small minority wanting to make Sicily the 49th (and then 50th, and then 51st) state of the USA; their biggest hit was "No ai Missili a Comiso!" in 1983. They had been around since the 1940s, but kept renewing themselves and their membership, and changing musical styles with the times. Their first gigs were at Pizza Surrealistica in the Quarter. Originally playing Sicilian folk melodies and singing in Palermitan dialect (including their first single, about being Sicilian in New Orleans, a novelty song titled "Lasagne Lagniappe," released in July 1945), but then playing cool jazz after 1958, then starting to use electric guitars in 1965 to play the new "folk rock," then going psychedelic in 1966, and taking the year of 1967 off to travel to various places: Greek islands, London, Esalen, India, Oaxaca. By 1968 they had regrouped and were playing hard rock. In 1969 they went "heavy metal." In 1970 they began to record a country-rock record, but the tracks from it were never released and they quickly abandoned it; the tapes were destroyed and no bootlegs are known to exist. In 1972 they went "glam." By 1975 they were doing disco. In 1976, with a drastic change of membership, they abruptly switched to punk rock. By 1978 their style had changed to "New Wave," which by 1983 had turned into some commercial-sounding Europop, modeled after the sound of Talking Heads happy songs like "This Must Be the Place," which is the era when their protest song against Reagan's missiles in Comiso charted as a single on the greater New Orleans, Bologna, and Palermo pop charts. This song is notable for also including a Sicilian rap section in the middle of the song's extended bridge, while the verses and chorus are sung in English and standard Italian, respectively.
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