Eat the phikis

Eat the phikis is the breakthrough album by Italian rock band Elio e le storie tese. They became famous after their second place finish at the Sanremo Music Festival with the song La terra dei cachi, a humorous take on Italian lifestyle. This record shows the band at their creative peak.

Track listing

1. Vincitori o campioni? - 1:59 (tr. Winners Or Champions?)
2. La terra dei cachi live in Sanremo - 4:21 (tr. Land Of The Khakis)
3. Burattino senza fichi - 4:52 (tr. Wireless Puppet)
4. T.V.U.M.D.B. - 5:26 (tr. I.L.Y.S.M. (I Love You So Much))
5. Lo stato A, lo stato B - 4:31 (tr. The State A, The State B)
6. El Pube - 5:03
7. Omosessualità - 3:34 (tr. Homosexuality)
8. Mio cuggino - 5:36 (tr. My Cousin)
9. First Me, Second Me - 3:32
10. Milza - 4:34 (tr. Spleen)
11. Li immortacci - 4:40 (tr. The Immortals -Untraslatable equivoke-)
12. Tapparella - 6:31 (tr. Shutter)
13. Neanche un minuto di non caco - 14:59 (tr. Less Than A Minute Of Not Khakis)

Personnel

• Stefano Belisari - lead vocals, transverse flute, electric bass,
• Sergio Conforti - vocals, keyboards, electronic drums, piano
• Nicola Fasani - electric bass, backing vocals
• Davide Civaschi - electric guitar, backing vocals
• Christian Meyer - drums, percussions

Allusions

• The cover is inspired by the cover of Time to Move by H-Blockx.
• At the beginning of Vincitori o campioni? voices by judges of Jeux Sans Frontieres are heard. Voices from Teatro Ariston (in which Sanremo festival is host) are coming next.
• La terra dei cachi is the version sung disguised as Rockets at the Sanremo festival. There are many citations of Italian and international music like Papaveri e papere by Nilla Pizzi, Una lacrima sul viso by Bobby Solo, La donna cannone by Francesco De Gregori, BWV 1068 - Orchestral Suite No. 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach and In the Flesh? by Pink Floyd.
• Burattino senza fichi it's a parody of Collodi's Pinocchio. The title resembles the title of the album Burattino senza fili by Edoardo Bennato. Citations: Più ci penso by Gianni Bella, Get Back by the Beatles, the soundtrack of an Italian Pinocchio film and It's a Long Way to Tipperary, a song of World War I sung many times by Snoopy.
• T.V.U.M.D.B. is inspired by Earth, Wind & Fire works. A snippet of the soundtrack of the film Jaws is heard in the song.
• Mio cuggino is a joke about many urban legends; there are citations of Autobahn by Kraftwerk, the voice of Ike Willis in Sy Borg by Frank Zappa, and Tullio De Piscopo's voice.
• Li immortacci is sung with Italian singers Giorgia and Edoardo Vianello (who sings on the notes of his own past hit I Watussi) and talks about famous dead rock stars living secretly in a quasi-immortal state ("mortacci" is a mild-to-folkloric roman swear roughly meaning "your damned dead"). "Li immortacci" are Jimi Hendrix (er Chitara), Freddie Mercury (er Mafrodito), Bob Marley (er Rastamanno), Federico Monti Arduini (er Guardiano der Faro), Elvis Presley (er Pelvicaro), Michael Jackson (er Thrilleraro), Jim Morrison (er Lucertolaro), John Lennon (er Quattrocchi immaginaro), Luigi Tenco (er Vedraro), Ian Curtis (l'Impiccato), Kurt Cobain (er Fucilense), Brian Jones (er Piscina); the identity of er Tromba (the Horn, translated from roman dialect) is uncertain (probable names are Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis or Chet Baker). There are also citations of Lisa Marie Presley and Haile Selassie. MMusically, there is a sampling of We Are the Champions by Queen (and of Mercury's voice) and in the part dedicated to Jim Morrison, some of the lyrics resembles the lyrics of The End by the Doors.
• In Tapparella are cited: Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix, Gente per bene, gente per male by Lucio Battisti and Impressioni di settembre by PFM.