This article was first published
on CLUAS in July 2006

French Letter: Phoenix ready to make it big?

Air Today, Phoenix Tomorrow? France's latest act to rise from les ashes...

Aidan Curran, a CLUAS writer since 2004, is now based in Paris from where he files the 'French Letter' column

It's hard to concentrate on music at the moment when football, wonderful football, is demanding all your love and attention. The French rock scene, however, could soon have its own international champions before the end of the summer. Phoenix, from Versailles, have just released their third album "It's Never Been Like That" and big things are expected of them.

Phoenix - Thomas Mars You may already know their song 'Too Young' which featured on the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's 'Lost In Translation'. To top that, they not only contribute a track ("Ou Boivent Les Loups", or in English 'where the wolves drink') to Coppola's new movie 'Marie Antoinette' (a rock-soundtracked biopic of a more famous Versailles-dweller and cake-promoter) but they also appear in a ballroom scene where lead singer Thomas Mars as a court musician offers a rose to Kirsten Dunst as the queen (if you watch carefully, the two lads from Air also appear in a couple of banquet scenes).

Of course, it's not incidental that Mars is actually going out with Coppola. But, nepotistic favours aside, could they really make an international breakthrough?

The British press, who normally snigger at the idea of French rock (Daft Punk are named after an NME reviewer's rubbishing of their previous band), have been positively gushing about Phoenix. Album track 'Napoleon Says' is "stunning" in the opinion of the NME, self-appointed arbiter of who's cool/who's fool for the English pop buyer. The Observer's four-out-of-five rating hails the band's "joyous, foot-pumping power-pop" and as the Sunday Times' record of the week it is "a great album" which "oozes infectious glee" (your chemist can give you a good cream for that). So that's Britain won over, then. Yet the old snobbishness lingers in certain quarters. "Phoenix do pretentiousness as only black-clad Frenchmen can", declares the man from the Times, doing cheap national stereotypes as only conservative journalists can.

As for cracking the States - the Holy Grail of European bands - Billboard magazine enthused about the record's "effortless flair". The connection with Coppola, America's hippest director, guarantees Mars and his band the rare potential for both indie cred and mainstream celebrity status - it's surely the dream of any record company executive.

More than the music, it's this kind of pre-made visibility and name-recognition which promises well for Phoenix's chances of international success. Cynical, but probably true. There's no need to ask the boys in the lab to check out whether Chris Martin's relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow did any harm to Coldplay's sales in America. Maybe a particularly ambitious Irish band could follow suit - Mick Pyro marrying Britney Spears, for instance...

Anyway, if you're heading to Oxegen, V2 or T In The Park this summer you'll have the chance to check out French rock's great hope for yourself - if you're there early enough for the acts down the bill. Next year, though, they could possibly be headliners.

Aidan Curran

Other French Letter columns (from 2006 through to March 2007)

*St. Patrick's day 2007 & Irish music in France...*	Dateline: March 2007
March and Saint Patrick's Day, when the expat's thoughts turn home. But don't fear that the lavish CLUAS Foreign Correspondent Expense Account is being wasted on homesick yearning for Tayto Crisps, Barry's Tea and TG4 weathergirls. Not at all! Instead, we're taking the opportunity to see how Irish acts are getting on in France these days. And hurrah! They're getting on very well! Read the full article...
*Best French Music of 2006...*	Dateline: December 2006
In China apparently they curse you with "may you live in interesting times". Here in France in 2006, times are very interesting - and you wouldn't miss it for the world. The country has been shaken by protests, adrenalised and then traumatised by the World Cup, smitten by S?ol?e... and the soundtrack has been fantastic. Read the full article...
*Prix Constantine: France's most prestigious contemporary music honour...*	Dateline: November 2006
France's most prestigious contemporary music honour, the Prix Constantin, was presented at a ceremony in the Olympia theatre in Paris on 15 November last. The prize, named in memory of a late French music industry talent-spotter, is awarded annually to an artist or group who has come to prominence during the year. The ceremony consisted of a concert featuring ten short-listed acts, before the announcement of the winner and successor to Camille, last year's laureate. Read the full article...
*La Rentr? 2006: what's stirring in the French music scene...*	Dateline: September 2006
'september in France means ?la rentr?? (literally, ?the return?), when everybody goes back to school, work and normal life after the whole country was practically shut down for the month of August. France's pop stars are also packing away their beach towels and getting back to the studio and stage. Autumn 2006 will see a flurry of activity on the French music scene. Read the full article...
*The latest Parisian bands angling for indie stardom...*	Dateline: August 2006
?Paris Calling? is the name of a 2006 compilation album and a subsequent showcase gig in the French capital. As the Clash-alluding title suggests, the half-dozen or so bands involved see themselves as parishioners in the broad church of punk and new wave ? and mass is in English. Photos are black-and-white, blurry and taken either in a crowded venue or against a blank wall. Read the full article...
*Phoenix ready to make it big?*	Dateline: July 2006
It's hard to concentrate on music at the moment when football, wonderful football, is demanding all your love and attention. The French rock scene, however, could soon have its own international champions before the end of the summer. Phoenix, from Versailles, have just released their third album "It's Never Been Like That" and big things are expected of them. Read the full article...
*Rap and its constructive role in French society.*	Dateline: May 2006
So far this year there have been high-profile clashes on the streets of Paris lately between police and students protesting at the centre-right government's controversial labour laws aimed at the 18-25 age bracket. Following weeks of strikes, protests, student sit-ins, streetfighting, burning cars and omnipresent riot-police, the proposed laws were eventually scrapped. Read the full article...
*The French success of Irishman Perry Blake.*	Dateline: April 2006
I braved the paddywagons around the Sorbonne last week to head to my favourite Parisian book- and record-store, Gibert Joseph halfway up the boulevard Saint Michel. There, I found a display for the new release by an Irish singer described on his album's promo sticker as 'le dernier dandy romantique' ('the last romantic dandy'). This wasn't the new Van Morrison record, then. Read the full article...
*Irish music, as understood by the French...*	Dateline: March 2006
So it's March again, the month when a certain green-tinted festival will be celebrated around the world by ex-pats and non-Pats alike. France too will join in the fun. Last year, posters plastered across every metro station in Paris were promoting a huge St Patrick's night concert at Bercy, the equivalent of The Point. The advertising featured a young red-haired dancer, Book-of-Kells typeface and a list of Celtic regions - Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, the Isle of Man... but not Ireland! Surely some mistake? Read the full article...
*Hallyday & Gainsbourg back in the news?*	Dateline: January 2006
Not to be confused with the Dublin-based cabaret singer of the same name, Camille and her album 'Le Fil' won the prestigious Prix Constantine for the most promising new act to emerge onto the French scene in 2005. Sounding both petulant and warm at once, this single is idiosyncratic and likeable. An approximate transcription of the backing vocal is 'splutter-groan-squeal-belch-fart'. Read the full article...
*Voulez-Vous Rocker Avec Moi? The French rock scene.*	Dateline: January 2006
As I sit on a terrasse sipping my caf?allong?and watching Parisian commuters scowl at tourists, I reflect on the many wonderful things about life in France ? excellent food; streets alive with history and art; Juliette Binoche. Unfortunately, being the CLUAS correspondent in Paris involves listening to a lot of French alternative music ? and French alternative music is quite dire. Read the full article...

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French Letter: Phoenix ready to make it big?

Air Today, Phoenix Tomorrow? France's latest act to rise from les ashes...

Other French Letter columns (from 2006 through to March 2007)

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