Italian Americans (Italian: italoamericani or italo-americani [ˌitalo.ameriˈkaːni]) are citizens of the United States of America who are of Italian descent. Italian Americans are the fourth largest self-identified ethnic group of European Americans behind German Americans, Irish Americans and English Americans, though realistically the various Americans of British and Germanic ancestries that do not identify their ancestry are likely much higher in number. About 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the United States from 1820 to 2004. In 1870, there were fewer than 25,000 Italian immigrants in America, many of them Northern Italian refugees from the wars that accompanied the Risorgimento—the struggle for Italian unification and independence from foreign rule which ended in 1871. Immigration began to increase during the 1870s, when more than twice as many Italians immigrated (1870–79: 46,296) than during the five previous decades combined (1820–69: 22,627). The 1870s were followed by the greatest surge of immigration, which occurred between 1880 and 1914 and brought more than 4 million Italians to the United States, the majority being from Southern Italy and Sicily, with many having agrarian backgrounds. This period of large-scale immigration ended abruptly with the onset of the First World War in 1914 and, except for one year (1922), never fully resumed. Further immigration was greatly limited by several laws Congress passed in the 1920s. Approximately 84% of the Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy and Sicily, which was still largely rural and agricultural, and where much of the populace had been impoverished by centuries of foreign misrule, and an oppressive taxation system imposed after Italian unification in 1861. After unification, the Italian government initially encouraged emigration to relieve economic pressures in the South. After the American Civil War, which resulted in over a half million killed or wounded, immigrant workers were recruited from Italy and elsewhere to fill the labor shortage caused by the war. In the United States, most Italians began their new lives as manual laborers in eastern cities, mining camps and farms. The descendants of the Italian immigrants gradually rose from a lower economic class in the first generation to a level comparable to the national average by 1970. The Italian community has often been characterized by strong ties to family, the Roman Catholic Church, fraternal organizations, and political parties.

Brad M. Carlson (born June 12, 1950), better known by the stage name Bun E. Carlos, is the original drummer for American rock band Cheap Trick. He was the band's chief setlister and archivist, and maintained recordings of all the band's shows, some of which have been released under the title 'Bun E's Bootlegs'. Carlos has two side bands with former Cheap Trick bassist Jon Brant: The Bun E Carlos Experience, and the Monday Night Band. Carlos is left-handed and plays a right-handed drum kit, but he is also ambidextrous. He has several writing credits, the most notable of which is the drum solo track "Who D'King", from the album All Shook Up, and Bun E. in a Box (2004), a drum sample CD. In the late 1990s, Carlos introduced his own line of coffee. At one point, he offered a Special Limited Edition hand-signed numbered bags of coffee. In 2009, Carlos, together with Hanson singer Taylor Hanson, current Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, and Fountains of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger, formed a new band, Tinted Windows. This new project ran alongside each of the artists' main bands. Tinted Windows played its first publicized gig at SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 20, 2009, and appeared on late-night network TV shows. Their album was released on April 21, 2009. On March 19, 2010, Cheap Trick issued a statement that Carlos had stopped touring with Cheap Trick but that he still remained a band member. Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen's son Daxx was named in the statement as the touring drummer. In 2011, Carlos once again debuted a band at SXSW in the form of his new project . The other members of Candy Golde are Nicholas Tremulis, John Stirratt (Wilco, the Autumn Defense) and Rick Rizzo (Eleventh Dream Day). Mark Greenburg (The Coctails) was added to the band when they started to play live shows. Their 5-song EP was mastered by Ivan Julian of Richard Hell and the Voidoids. The EP contains four originals and a cover of Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble", issued for limited edition 10" vinyl and download on Ten O Nine Records. On August 21, 2014, he filled in for drummer John Cowsill on a sold out Beach Boys concert in Princeton, Illinois. On June 24, 2016, Carlos issued his first-ever solo album, Greetings From Bunezuela!, with Jon E Brant.

Italian Americans (Italian: italoamericani or italo-americani [ˌitalo.ameriˈkaːni]) are citizens of the United States of America who are of Italian descent. Italian Americans are the fourth largest self-identified ethnic group of European Americans behind German Americans, Irish Americans and English Americans, though realistically the various Americans of British and Germanic ancestries that do not identify their ancestry are likely much higher in number.