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PRESS REVIEWS:
’Swashbuckling Euro-elegance with the easygoing manner of a Southern gentleman’
— Walter Wasacz | The Citizen Hamtramck MI 30 Jan 2008
’You Brought a Knife to a Gunfight, released in Dec 2007 by Tom Perkins Entertainment (Clone Defects, Piranhas, Valentinos) and distributed internationally by Get Hip, fulfills the promise implicit in Georgio ’the Dove’ Valentino’s debut single (’She’s Got Eyes in All the Right Places’ b/w ’Bête noire’). More than a brief sampling, this 7-song set invites one to absolutely gorge oneself on Valentino’s gilded croon, decadent guitar, purling atmospherics, and gamey subjects: suicides, prostitutes, fetishists of nearly every stripe, monomaniacs, Friedrich Nietzsche.
The bitter, banana-flavored title track sets the tone with its overstated hostility traipsing to the tango for a spell before summoning a regular bash-fest, obliged by drummer Ben Luckett. The disc is buttressed with a new, dirtier version of the Dove’s debut a-side, as well as another winning experiment in pop-- the bright, jangly ’Here I Come (And There You Go)’-- that comes complete with pizzicato strings and spaghetti western guitar solo. But elsewhere, Valentino eschews tight, hook-laden songwriting in favor of mood and dynamics. ’I Won’t Betray You’-- an homage to Chuck Berry’s infamous home video (’I’ll never forget what Chuck Berry said as he leant in regret to stroke that poor girl’s piss-soaked hair: I won’t betray you.’)-- is equal parts glacial meditation and apocalyptic convulsion. The frantic, angular ’Come Out Fighting’ ought to bear the subtitle, ’Edinburgh, 1979.’ And finally, closing the set, ‘the Stranger’ might be equally at home on Low, had David Lynch joined Bowie and Eno in the control room.’
— M. Lane Johnson, biographer
’Georgio ’the Dove’ Valentino isn’t waiting around for anyone to deem him a star—he’s inhabiting that role already. The nickname barely scratches the surface: This labelless Detroit songsmith sounds like Stephin Merritt fronting the Smiths, wringing every drop of hammy drama out of his swooning tales of love and loss. This kind of music is built for the concert hall, so we can’t imagine how surreal it’ll be to hear it in a Lower East Side basement.’
— Time Out New York 1 Aug 2007
’There’s a lot to expect of someone who goes by "The Dove." Cutthroat mercenary running clandestine operations for whoever takes on the task of appeasing his insatiable appetite for devastation? Selfless humanitarian leading a life of purity and union? A guy who wears a dove costume and leaves messes on the cars of baffled drivers? (Oh my!)
Nah. Instead, try to imagine Morrissey performing at your high school prom (ignore any negative connotations - this isn’t meant in a derogatory manner at all). At least, that’s how Georgio "The Dove" Valentino, member of past group Edward the Bear and Bisou Bisou and current group the Valentinos, presents himself on this seven-inch’s A-side, "She’s Got Eyes in All the Right Places." His irresistible, sensuous croon floats - or should I say flies - above what sounds like a new wave group doing a cover of a 50’s pop tune. It’s a perfect blend of pastiche, pomp, and pop. Oh, yes, it’s suave, and, more, Valentino’s sleek singing’ll draw you to that special someone as quickly as you can imagine a man capering around town in a bird outfit.
If "She’s Got Eyes" is for dancin’, then its B-side, the dashing "Bete Noire," is for the car ride home. The instrumentation begins much more sparse, allowing only a languid synthesizer and a very careful guitar to compete with Valentino’s voice, but then it gives way to flavorful piece adorned with Morricone-esque flair. Through it all, "The Dove" croons gorgeously.
It’s not difficult to evade the keystone of these recordings: Valentino sounds terrific. You may fall in love to his voice, you may fall in love with his voice, but prepare to be affected regardless.’
— Jacob Price | Delusions of Adequacy 19 Sept 2007
’Fans of hometown art-glamsters the Valentinos will recognize Georgio "the Dove" Valentino as the impossibly debonair keyboardist with the impossibly tall pompadour. But what fans might not know is that Georgio’s solo efforts are as elegant and Dandy-ish as the man himself. And the voice? Think Edwyn Collins meets Dean-o at a shvitz with Morrissey.’
— Eve Doster | Metro Times Detroit MI 7 Feb 2007
’"She’s Got Eyes in All the Right Places." His name sounds like the moniker of an out-of-town hit man hired by local syndicate heavies to rub out a particularly shifty mark. In that scenario, "The Dove" would have some ingeniously cruel method of dispatch, like death by the pecking beaks of carrier pigeons, or something to do with elevator shafts. In reality, Georgio "The Dove" Valentino is only a crooner. An affiliate of Edward the Bear and the Valentinos, and joined at times by members of Clone Defects, he brings the wobbly, Champagne-buzz romance on "She’s Got Eyes," suggesting Bryan Ferry in a dinner jacket and drunk on Cristalino, only creepier. (In a good way.)’
— Johnny Loftus | Metro Times Detroit MI 7 Feb 2007