https://www.cluas.com/indie-music RSS feeds for CLUAS Irish Indie Music 60 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3924/Serge-Gainsbourg-film-Irish-release#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3924 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3924&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3924/Serge-Gainsbourg-film-Irish-release 'Gainsbourg', Joann Sfar's disappointing biopic of France's greatest ever pop star, opens in Irish cinemas on 30 July. You'll remember that we reviewed it in detail here when it first came out in France back in January. Just to recap: the first half-hour featuring the boy Lucien Ginsburg is energetic and promising, but the rest of the movie (focusing on the adult Serge Gainsbourg) is merely a series of clumsy caricatures with no character development or motivation. Ever wondered how the worldwide scandal and fame of 'Je T'aime (Moi Non Plus)', still pop's most notorious single, affected Serge and Jane Birkin? Well, you won't find out from this film. That said, if you're a Francophile you'll probably find it interesting enough. The initial concept - personifying Gainsbourg's self-doubt as a cartoonish alter-ego - is quite clever, even if Sfar makes it carry too much of the film's dramatic weight. Eric Elmosnino, an astounding dead-ringer for Gainsbourg, is watchable throughout. Still, the whole film survives on the good-will created by its entertaining first act. Music-lovers will get little insight on the creative processes of a genuine pop genius: Serge is just shown serving up ready-prepared classics like 'Comic Strip'. Non-francophiles will quickly tire of seeing French stars impersonated for the amusement of a French cinema audience. However, if this film and its publicity help introduce Irish audiences to Serge's 1967-71 golden period, some of the most thrilling and influential pop music ever made, then it will have done some good.  Looking very cool indeed, here's Serge Gainsbourg smoking along to his magnificent 'Initials B.B.': More ... Aidan Curran Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3924 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3925/Video-Villagers-busking-in-Montmartre#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3925 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3925&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3925/Video-Villagers-busking-in-Montmartre Your Paris correspondent finds it the most over-hyped and over-rated Irish album of recent years, but what do we know? Everyone else in Ireland can only rave about Villagers and 'Becoming A Jackal'. This party line has also been adopted by our UK neighbours: Conor O'Brien's recent appearance on 'Later... with Jools Holland' was this week followed up by him popping up on the Mercury Music Prize shortlist for 2010. (Only a begrudger and player hater would dare suggest that he's the token Irish act on the list.) And like one of those animated map graphics showing the Nazis' advance through Europe, Villagers-love has spread to France. On the radio, O'Brien joined Laura Leishman for an interview and acoustic session on her high-profile show on alt-music station Le Mouv'. Villagers tunes have also popped up in the playlist of C'est Lenoir, France Inter's long-running and much-loved indie hour. In the press, 'Becoming A Jackal' has got the serious rave. Les Inrockuptibles devoted a typically flowery feature to the "little genius" O'Brien and "his gothic folk, haunted by black lights and bruised words" comparable to Nick Cave, Scott Walker, Prefab Sprout and Van Dyke Parks. The more readable Magic RPM, in their 5-out-of-6 review of what they consider "a masterpiece", spot a different set of reference points: Paul Simon, Belle And Sebastian and Leonard Cohen.  On the web, O'Brien features in a set of 'Takeaway Show'-style performance videos by French site Le Hiboo. ('Hiboo' is the French for 'owl'.) Filmed in Abbesses, a less-touristy part of Montmartre, the videos have O'Brien strumming and singing and strolling all at the same time. Sharp-eyed French movie fans will recognise the shop in the picture above: the greengrocer's in 'Amelie'. (No wonder that grocer was always in such a foul mood.) Anyway, for the countless millions of you who like Villagers, check out Conor O'Brien on the streets of Montmartre singing 'Set The Tigers Free' and, below, 'Home': More ... Aidan Curran Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3925 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3926/Onra-soup-erstar-DJ#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3926 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3926&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3926/Onra-soup-erstar-DJ Your correspondent predicts that from next week French electronica will have yet another global star. His name will be Arnaud Bernard, his first name reversed to give the nom de pop of Onra. How do we know this? Well, because next Monday (24 May) Onra will release his new album, 'Long Distance'. It's brilliant, and it should make him very popular indeed. Truth be told, Onra (right) isn't a complete unknown. He became something of a cult hero on the blogosphere with his 2007 album 'Chinoiseries'. The title is a French-ism that suggests 'Chinese stuff' but actually means 'bureaucratic red tape', and the music was inspired by old Oriental pop records he picked up while visiting Vietnam, his father's homeland. Now back in Paris, Onra's attention has turned from east to west. 'Long Distance' is drenched in the old-school dancefloor sounds of Detroit and New York. One track, 'WeeOut', starts with a burst of good old-fashioned scratching before laying down some très '80s beats and synths. Other tracks are more soulful, like 'Oper8tor', 'High Hopes' and the title track. And the whole thing fizzes with electronica. To say it's certain to be the best French album of 2010 feels like we're damning Onra with faint praise. As it happens, the record is coming out on Dublin label All City Records, so we can make an adopted Irish artist of him. He's even launching the album in Dublin, with a show at Twisted Pepper on Abbey Street next Friday (28 May). G'wan Oirland! On a related note, the Irish-speakers among you will have noticed that 'Onra' sounds exactly like 'anraith', the word as Gaeilge for 'soup' (hence the title pun). Wouldn't it be gas, right, if he was doing a show in the Gaeltacht and he went for dinner beforehand, and for his starter he asks for the soup, because he's Onra and the soup is anraith and that's him and... Oh wait: this presupposes that he'd be ordering in Irish. And what if he decides to have the salad instead? Well, maybe because he doesn't speak Irish he thinks the server is asking his name instead of his order and he says 'Onra' and instead he gets soup! Wouldn't it be wild? Or what if- CLUAS gaffer: Just post the link and the tune, you eejit! Um, right. To prepare for the album launch in Dublin next Friday you can hear some of 'Long Distance' on Onra's MySpace page. Here's 'High Hopes'. Twenty-five seconds in, what does that keyboard riff remind you of? More ... Aidan Curran Thu, 20 May 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3926 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3927/Gush-diamond-geysers#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3927 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3927&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3927/Gush-diamond-geysers At first glance, Parisian four-piece Gush seem like a French equivalent to Kings Of Leon. The band members are all related - brothers Xavier and Vincent Polycarpe plus their cousins Mathieu Parnaud and Yan Gorodetzky. Also, their fashion sense is more back-woods than Left Bank: shaggy hair, vintage leather and the sort of long-sleeve, round-neck, three-button T-shirt that Grizzly Adams would wear as an undergarment. But soundwise Gush (right) don't follow the Followills down the road of southern-fried blues-rock. The four French lads are certainly retro, but their thing is post-Beatles pop and folk-rock - say, the very early Lennon or McCartney solo stuff, later Beach Boys or a bit of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The storming semi-acoustic rocker 'No Way', reinforced with steely harmonies, shows the strength of those influences to best effect. Still, don't discount the novelty of Frenchmen who actually sing and write melodies. Gush are starting to make a stir in France. Recently they released their first album, 'Everybody's God' (Irish music fans may remember a Donegal band called Georgia who had a record of the same name in the early '90s) and an upcoming Paris show at the sizeable Cigale has already sold out. Now they're picking up airplay with a strange and distinctive single that's a little different to the rest of their tracks. On paper, 'Let's Burn Again' promises to be vastly uncool - it has the upper-register backing harmonies and staccato keyboards of mid-Atlantic, middle-of-the-road '70s pop. Fortunately, music isn't made on paper: 'Let's Burn Again' sounds so odd and unhip that it's almost fascinating, especially when you try to match the sound to the look of the band. You can hear more on the Gush MySpace page. Make sure you listen to both tracks we mentioned, 'Let's Burn Again' and 'No Way' - quite different but each charming in its way. Which one will we choose for our video? The strange, unhip one with keyboards, of course! Here's 'Let's Burn Again': More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 16 May 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3927 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3928/Eurockeennes-2010#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3928 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3928&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3928/Eurockeennes-2010 French summer music festivals tend to be smaller than their international counterparts. There's certainly no Gallic event that compares in size to Roskilde, Sziget, Werchter or Glastonbury. La Route du Rock, for instance, only ever has around two dozen acts. Perhaps the biggest summer music festival in France is Eurockéennes, which takes place on the first weekend of July near the eastern city of Belfort. This year's four-day event will have around 80 acts - plenty of whom are top-quality marquee names. And the festival's spectacular lakeside setting guarantees a memorable experience. The first day, Thursday 1 July, is a starter ahead of the main course. To serenade punters as they arrive from all round Europe, those enjoyable Icelandic electropoppers FM Belfast will play in one of the festival campsites. Real business begins on Friday 2 July. Jay-Z and Missy Elliot bring the bling-bling of genuine rap/R n'B superstars, while Charlotte Gainsbourg supplies some home-grown glamour. Also on the bill that day and night: Hot Chip, Foals, Kasabian, Patrick Watson, The Black Keys and our own Two Door Cinema Club in what seems to be their now-fortnightly French gig. Saturday's notional headliners are The Hives but the real draw that night will surely be The Specials, The XX and Broken Social Scene. A strong French side for that day's line-up features Vitalic, Emilie Simon and General Elektriks. Further down the running order are Memory Tapes, also worth catching. A quaint Eurockeennes tradition is to make the last night's headliner a real stinker, to cater for those who need to skip out early for the last bus or train. Last year it was Slipknot; this year it's Mika. But the rest of Sunday's line-up is stuffed with quality. Massive Attack and Martina Topley-Bird are on trip-hop duty; LCD Soundsystem and Empire Of The Sun serve up electro-pop, an Ethiopiques show should sound blissful on a summer afternoon, and there are some indie gems like Health, Fuck Buttons and The Middle East to be found here and there. A weekend pass costs only €95 and a single day's ticket costs just €39. Camping on the festival site is free for ticket-holders to a limit of 12,000 people. If you book early enough to get a cheap Queasyjet flight to nearby Mulhouse, you could be lucky enough to secure your entire festival weekend in sunny France, travel included, for less than the price of an Irish festival ticket. (In addition, there are special bus + ticket packages to bring punters from most major French cities.) Full details in English are available on the Eurockeennes 2010 website. Here's 'The Songs That We Sing' by this year's biggest French name, Charlotte Gainsbourg. Neighbour of ours, don't you know: More ... Aidan Curran Fri, 14 May 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3928 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3929/Tender-Forever-un-chanson-de-Valera#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3929 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3929&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3929/Tender-Forever-un-chanson-de-Valera Back in 2007 we introduced you to Tender Forever, a Bordeaux electro act based in Oregon, USA. As you might recall, Tender Forever is not a group but the nom de pop of Mélanie Valéra (right) - yes, a mere 'de' short of sharing her name with the dominant public figure of 20th century Ireland. (Our non-Irish readers will know Éamon de Valera as the baddie in the film 'Michael Collins'.) The PR opportunities in Ireland would have been wonderful - an electronica version of 'Amhrán na bhFiann' to close the next Fianna Fáil Árd-Fheis; a residency at Áras an Uachtaráin; a photo op where she symbolically defends a packet of Boland's cream crackers against an English stag party. (As she's now domicile in the States, her American connection would grant her immunity.) And she's tall, skinny and dark-haired - are we sure they're not related? Alas, Mélanie Valéra will have to rely on her music to make an impact in Ireland. Fortunately, her music is good. 'No Snare' is the third Tender Forever album: another likeable collection of idiosyncratic alt-folk-flavoured electronica. The title may suggest an animal trap but is actually inspired by an absent drum sound, according to the Tender Forever MySpace page: NO SNARE is less a rejection of things that have been, as it a reconfiguration. Take away the snare and there isn't a loss, just a new song. As we pass through the flood of moments that is our lives we make a constant stream of decisions as to what to hold on to and what to let go of.  But it is always our life, even as it changes radically. Valéra's lyrics tend to be as heartfelt, contemplative and personal as that teenage-poetry blurb suggests. And her pick n' mix of pounding rhythms creates a sense of emotional urgency, which gives her songs a human warmth not always evident in electronic music. Check out les chansons de Valéra at her MySpace page. Here's our favourite of her new songs, what has all the comely maidens dancing at the crossroads -  the excellent 'Like The Snare That's Gone': More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 09 May 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3929 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3930/Francoise-Hardy#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3930 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3930&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3930/Francoise-Hardy One of France's bona fide pop legends has just released a new album. 'La Pluie Sans Parapluie' (in English, "the rain without an umbrella") is the twenty-sixth studio album by Françoise Hardy. You might recognise the name from her 1994 collaboration with Blur on 'La Comédie', a reworking of 'To The End'. However, like with Serge Gainsbourg (of whom more later), there's a lot more to Hardy than a sole Franco-English duet known in the U.K. (For one thing, she had a UK Top 20 hit in 1965 with 'All Over The World'.) First, though, some vital Françoise Hardy trivia for your next pub quiz: Her husband is Jacques Dutronc, a fellow '60s French icon featured in our preview of Les Vieilles Charrues - and their son is Thomas Dutronc, whose pleasant mix of jazz manouche and chanson française was tipped/jinxed by this blog in the race for the 2008 Prix Constantin. Despite being Parisian, she represented Monaco in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest and finished fifth. Irish drizzle-pop dandy Perry Blake has collaborated with her. She has published books on astrology. Factoids aside, we reckon Hardy was one of the first female singers to become successful with her own compositions - her 1962 debut single 'Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles' sold half a million copies. Her early style was somewhere between US folk and French chanson, often played simply on an acoustic guitar or piano. Rare for a pre-electronica French act, Hardy made a concerted effort at success in the UK - she released three albums of songs in English, mostly containing translations of her original French songs. The third of these albums, 'If You Listen' from 1971, captures the late-'60s-early-'70s pastoral-folk-pop vibe: it's quite good. (You can picture students of that time listening to it in their bedsits.) As for her best ever song, you might know it as a cover version. 'Comment Te Dire Adieu' was a 1990 hi-NRG disco hit for Jimmy Somerville and June Miles Kingston. Hardy's version was a French chart success in 1969 - and was itself a cover version. Before 'Comment Te Dire Adieu' there was 'It Hurts To Say Goodbye' - a typically maudlin and manipulative slushfest by Vera Lynn. Apparently, Hardy heard an instrumental version, liked the melody and asked for some French lyrics from none other than Serge Gainsbourg. Words done en français, Serge then decided to sort out the music. Even by the dizzyingly high standards of Gainsbourg's work at that time, 'Comment Te Dire Adieu' is magnificent. Like all great pop songs, its apparent simplicity hides a satisfying depth and complexity. The original's slushy melodrama is replaced by clipped arrangements that have an edgy sang-froid; listen just before the first verse for the pedal cymbal that hisses like a cobra. Serge's trademark symphonic strings infuse the song with glamour and a slight hint of feeling - but only a slight hint. Hardy remains impeccably poised and aloof throughout - even her spoken-word middle section is delivered matter-of-factly, like a dispassionate voiceover. (Compare it to the except of dialogue from Charlotte Gainsbourg used as the intro to Madonna's 'What It Feels Like For A Girl'.) Just as remarkable as Gainsbourg's arrangements were his new lyrics. Already known as a provocateur, and with pop's most notorious single soon to follow, Serge had the ingenious idea of making nearly all the lines rhyme with '-ex'. As the '-ex' rhymes become more imaginative, the song progresses towards a seemingly inevitable encounter with the most taboo '-ex' word of all. (Even today, how many mainstream English-language pop songs feature the word 'sex'? Not the meaningless 'sexy' but the blunt 'sex'?) What's more, in French 'sexe' is the word for the reproductive organ. One can imagine the listener (and the censor) of the time wondering where this song would go. (Had this song been released in the UK, it would have been banned by the BBC for an unacceptable '-ex' word: a piece of product placement in the third and final verse.) 'Adieu' is something of a definitive 'goodbye forever', where 'au revoir' means 'until we see each other again'. In English, of course, we can use 'goodbye' to mean both 'adieu' and 'au revoir'. Here in glorious colour is the ultra-cool Françoise Hardy of 1969 with 'Comment Te Dire Adieu'. Goodbye: More ... Aidan Curran Mon, 03 May 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3930 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3931/Boogers-play-that-funky-mucus#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3931 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3931&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3931/Boogers-play-that-funky-mucus Nasal mucus - British and Irish people know it as 'snot', while our north American friends speak of 'boogers'. Note how the European term is a collective noun while the US/Canadian word is countable; this suggests that- CLUAS gaffer: What are you on about, you eejit? Your correspondent: Why, it's the intro for a post about a French singer and his cracking new tune. Our readers will want to know the cultural and linguistic backgrou- CLUAS gaffer: Just post the bloody tune, alright? And keep it respectable - I'm staying at Silvio Berlusconi's villa this weekend and I don't need you embarrassing the site! Right. Umm... Stéphane Charasse is from Tours in the picturesque Loire region of central France. A former DJ on local indie radio station Radio Béton ('béton' is the French word for 'concrete'), Charasse makes idiosyncratic indie music under the nom de pop of Boogers. His second album, 'As Clean As Possible', is out now. The lead-off track from 'As Clean As Possible' is a real charmer. It's called 'I Lost My Lungs'. The happy-go-lucky vocalising at the start might remind you of 'Widths and Heights' by Manchester electro-folkie Magic Arm. Charasse's monotonous spoken-word verses - so typical of French male singer-songers - are outweighed by the snappy, melodic arrangement around him. In particular, the guitar parts - funky clipped chords in the verses and a fizzy rising scale in the middle section - are positively joyous. Charasse has found a novel way to promote his new album - concerts on the train. Boogers will perform on the TGV from Paris to Nîmes on the afternoon of 27 May and on the Paris-Lyon service on 2 June. Both appearances will be followed by a showcase at the local FNAC record store, depending on the timely arrival of his train. You can find more info and tracks on Boogers' MySpace page. Here's the video for 'I Lost My Lungs', set on a train station platform: More ... Aidan Curran Fri, 30 Apr 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3931 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3932/Quantum-physics-and-electro-pop#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3932 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3932&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3932/Quantum-physics-and-electro-pop Our regular readers know by now this blog's taste in pop. Catchy and swaggering, please - and if it's dark and electro-fied too, so much the better. We find that in France it's the boy-girl duos who do this best - Pravda and John & Jehn, for instance. Joining that esteemed company are Pink Noise Party (right), a Paris pair comprising Joy Buckley and Syd Rey. (Pink noise is a sound frequency just lower than white noise, and is a feature of analogue keyboards.) What do we know about them? Well, perusing their MySpace page the following facts present themselves: They're both quantum physicists, meeting in university at a class that Syd was teaching and Joy taking. They build their own keyboards, using parts from old synthesisers. They give underwater performances. They have a gig this August at a festival in Balaclava near the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, scene of the (in)famous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854. Even if none of that is true (though quantum physicists are quite welcome to become pop stars), Pink Noise Party are already far more interesting, imaginative and creative than most bands. So far, so good! But what about the tunes? Well, they're synth-y and slinky - those home-made analogue keyboards have the retro vibe of Roxy Music and the disco-tronic glamour of The Human League. Taut guitar riffs put the swagger into tracks like 'X Buddy' and 'Golden Blond Pulsar Trance' (quantum physicists, remember), while 'Pesky Girl' has an industrial harshness. And the songs have melodies and choruses, stuff most French bands seem to consider contemptible. Which is not to say that Pink Noise Party haven't been thinking about their art. Back to their MySpace blurb to see how they see themselves: "They describe their music as l’art consomme de melody pop [...] Their lyrics are in turn introspective or committed, pondering in particular on the frantic tempo of post-modern western lifestyle."  Oh dear. But anyway, you only have to listen to their tunes, not make dinner-table conversation with them. Check out the Pink Noise Party MySpace page to hear some of their fine tracks. Here's the only video we've found of them - from a show earlier this month at L'International in Paris (a regular haunt of your correspondent), it's 'By Numbers': More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 25 Apr 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3932 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3933/Rock-en-Seine-2010-looking-good#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3933 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3933&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3933/Rock-en-Seine-2010-looking-good Rock en Seine might be familiar to you, by name at least. Last year the annual Paris summer festival earned its place in rock history/pub quiz trivia when Oasis split up mere minutes before they were due to go on stage. Indeed, Rock en Seine has had recurring problems with its choice of headliners. Two years in a row, Amy Winehouse cancelled at the last minute. Such are the perils of booking tabloid-friendly big-name rock stars. It seems that the festival organisers have learned their lesson: this year Rock en Seine goes for weekend-wide credibility rather than putting all their eggs in one basket-case. And they've done well - Rock en Seine 2010, on 27-29 August  in the Parc de Saint-Cloud on the edge of Paris, looks much more impressive than recent editions. Mainstream and alternative music fans alike will find much to enjoy. That said, the first day doesn't appeal greatly to your indie-kid correspondent. Blink 182, of all people, top a bill of '90s nostalgia acts - Cypress Hill, Skunk Anansie and Underworld. Foals, The Kooks and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club fill out the field. Day two makes up for it. True, the headliners are another '90s heritage act - Massive Attack - and a safe-hands rock band - Queens of The Stone Age. But LCD Soundsystem, Two Door Cinema Club (for their monthly French concert), Kele Okereke (of Bloc Party) and Jonsi (of Sigur Ros) bring a breeze of cool freshness that should clear the flatulent stink of Paolo Nutini. On the third day: Arcade Fire, Roxy Music, Beirut, Eels and Wave Machines. Oh yes. More acts will be revealed in June. At the time of writing, there are no French artists booked for Rock en Seine. None at all. No doubt a token 'new bands stage' will be cooked up for appearance's sake at least. A weekend pass for the très tasty Rock en Seine 2010 costs a trifling €99, and can be booked online from FNAC and other French ticket-pushers. The festival site is at the end of a Paris metro line and even has the LUAS passing by. On-site camping is available for three-day passholders and must be booked online: €45 for a two-person tent-space and €90 for the four of you. Full details, including online ticket and campsite reservations, are available in English and French at the Rock en Seine website. No French acts yet, so for the moment this is as French as Rock en Seine gets - LCD Soundsystem's 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House': More ... Aidan Curran Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3933 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3934/Villagers-disappointing-solo-show-in-Paris#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3934 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3934&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3934/Villagers-disappointing-solo-show-in-Paris Conor O'Brien popped over to Paris last week, playing a solo set as support to Wild Beasts at the Maroquinerie. (As it happens, it was three years ago this week that his former band, The Immediate, played one of their last concerts at the same Paris venue.) A packed house saw and heard the Villagers man (right) run through tracks from his forthcoming album, 'Becoming A Jackal'. O'Brien was armed with a three-quarter sized acoustic guitar that had the soundhole taped over, giving a dull yet warm effect. However, the stripped-down show shone an unflattering light on O'Brien's material. With no backing or arrangements, his songs sound like typical Irish male singer-songer fare - hook-free tunes and laboured lyrics. In particular, O'Brien's words stood out for unforgiving attention. He seems too fond of the rhyming dictionary - for example, there's a "shackles/jackals" groaner and one of his female characters is called Laurie only because the next line's rhyme is "life story". Elsewhere it's all tired emotional shorthand like 'truth' and 'love' and 'light', delivered by O'Brien with grimaces, closed eyes and a Hansard-esque quiet-to-loud delivery. There's no room for an emotional response from the listener - O'Brien's facial contortions and facile lyrics tell us what we should be feeling. Villagers are being hailed by some as the next big Irish thing. However, on the evidence of this acoustic set and the full-band recordings O'Brien is more like Whelan's lock-in version 2.0. Earlier in the week, O'Brien was in London to appear on 'Later...' with Jools Holland. From that show, here's Villagers with 'Becoming A Jackal': More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 18 Apr 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3934 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3935/And-So-I-Watch-You-From-Afar-rock-Paris#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3935 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3935&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3935/And-So-I-Watch-You-From-Afar-rock-Paris Two Door Cinema Club aren't the only Ulster band making a big impression in France this season. Choice-nominated Belfast post-rock foursome And So I Watch You From Afar (right) have done their Gallic chances no harm at all after a storming show at the Flèche d'Or in Paris last Wednesday. The previous title-holder in rocking the Flèche was Ted Leo, whose shuddering 2007 juggernaut of a show can still be heard echoing in the toilets. ASIWYFA smacked down the gauntlet with a set that was loud, swaggering and uproarious fun. Fun is the key. Post-rock can be cold and cerebral; hard rock is often crass and cheap. But ASIWYFA-rock is built for jumping and roaring and headbanging and air-punching. The sizeable crowd, mostly French as far as we could hear, went mad. It helps, of course, that ASIWYFA come across as committed and likeable. Rory Friers flung himself around the stage and even down the front of the crowd. And the impish Tony Wright seemed genuinely chuffed at the ecstatic reaction of the Paris crowd. Two songs in and he thanked the crowd for coming: "Merci pour l'arrivée!" - which actually means "Thanks for the finishing line!" Fortunately, there was a whole night of rocking out ahead - and ASIWYFA will certainly go a long way further in France. No footage from the Flèche online yet, so here are And So I Watch You From Afar at the Damnation Festival in Leeds last year with 'If It Ain't Broke, Break It'. Rock! More ... Aidan Curran Sat, 17 Apr 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3935 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3936/The-pop-tastic-Paris-Marathon#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3936 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3936&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3936/The-pop-tastic-Paris-Marathon You might remember our former blogging colleague Key Notes and his epic Dublin Marathon run last year. (Sample sentence: "It was now all about ignoring the pain in my right knee (akin to replacing your knee joint with a testicle and running on it for 12 or so miles), and just finishing the race.") This year, all the CLUAS long-distance running responsibility fell on the shoulders of your Seine-side correspondent. And so this morning your blogger ran in the Paris Marathon for the second time. (You'll remember that Joe Strummer once ran the Paris Marathon, as well as the London equivalent twice.) The course is quite impressive - starting on the Champs-Elysées, out the rue de Rivoli past Bastille, a tour of the Bois de Vincennes, back into town along the river past the Louvre and Eiffel Tower, then through the Bois de Boulogne and home on the Avenue Foch, just behind the Arc de Triomphe. The route is relatively flat - there's no long uphill drag to compare with the notorious Milltown-Clonskeagh stretch of the Dublin Marathon. And the weather - sunny but not too warm - was great. Your correspondent, mindful of being your representative in Paris, ran hard and well. For many Parisian women watching the race, it was their first time seeing a real man - medical services performed many corset-loosening procedures along the route. There was a musical aspect to the marathon - every mile or so a live band or DJ provided motivational tunes. Things began badly: the race started to the inane shouting of Black Eyed Peas. Fortunately, the very first live act was a brass band playing Blondie's 'Atomic' - this set the scene for a pop-tastic marathon. Most of the live music came from samba groups or brass bands, both great for the spirits. Just before halfway, one brass band was playing 'Thriller', which sounded fun. A French rock band was murdering 'One' by U2, inspiring us to dash out of earshot. But our abiding musical memory of the 2010 Paris Marathon is an unlikely yet inspired tune. Two miles from home, along a seemingly-endless stretch through the Bois de Boulogne, we passed a loudspeaker blaring out a disco-pop song you wouldn't associate with long-distance running - 'In Private' by Dusty Springfield. Now, both of Dusty's parents were from Tralee, your blogger's home town, and even at the height of her popularity she performed there. As well as that, it's a cracking song - one of several classy singles she made with the Pet Shop Boys. So, for all you marathon runners out there, here's the erstwhile Mary O'Brien, first-generation Kerrywoman, with the excellent 'In Private': More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3936 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3937/Charlotte-Gainsbourg-new-duet--with-Serge#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3937 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3937&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3937/Charlotte-Gainsbourg-new-duet--with-Serge After her successful L.A. double-act with Beck, Charlotte Gainsbourg is duetting again. But this time she's not straying so far from home. The award-winning actress, now established as an indie pop star, will release a version of 'Je T'Aime (Moi Non Plus)', the notorious 1969-70 single by her parents, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. From 2 April, Serge's birthday, the track will be streamed on Charlotte's website and downloadable from online music-sellers; all profits will go to charity. Charlotte's version is based on a 1967 demo version of the song from the recording session by Serge and Brigitte Bardot, for whom the song was originally written. Due mainly to protests by Bardot's husband, this version went unreleased at the time. Two years later, Serge met Jane Birkin and the two brought the song into everlasting infamy. The new 'Je T'Aime (Moi Non Plus)' features the late Serge in his original role - his voice mixed into a ghostly, eerie echo that suggests the great man is singing from the nether world (as opposed to the nether regions). Charlotte sounds as refined and demure as ever. Despite a rather treacly remix of the trademark Gainsbourg symphonic strings, the duet works well. Will this version cause as much controversy as the original? Well, it can hardly be as controversial as the last Serge/Charlotte duet - 'Lemon Incest' from 1986, where papa and 14-year-old daughter extolled the virtues of 'a love that will never be'. Charlotte Gainsbourg is touring Europe and North America this summer, though she has no Irish concert scheduled yet. It remains to be heard if 'Je T'Aime (Moi Non Plus)' will feature in her setlist.  The amateur videomakers are already on the job - here's Charlotte and Serge with 'Je T'Aime (Moi Non Plus)' version 2010: More ... Aidan Curran Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3937 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3938/Natural-Snow-Buildings#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3938 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3938&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3938/Natural-Snow-Buildings The story so far: Two French musicians toil away in semi-obscurity, resigned to life under the radar. Little do they suspect that someone is watching them. Now read on: Some musicians are happy to be local heroes, cult artists avoiding the harsh media glare and 'Hello'-wedding of celebrity. But no profile is low enough, no cult act obscure enough, no home-made CD-R indie enough to hide you from the CLUAS gaffer. He sees you when you're sleeping; he knows when you're awake. And so your Paris correspondent received orders: find Natural Snow Buildings! So, Natural Snow Buildings (right) are a duo: he's Mehdi and she's Solange. They come from Bourgogne, the eastern region of France we know in English as Burgundy - home of fine wine, delicious beef stew and a shade of red that never looks good on trousers. By any definition, Natural Snow Buildings are a cult act. They've been making records since 1997, often home-made and with careful artwork. Each of them also puts out solo work - Mehdi as TwinSisterMoon and Solange as Isengrind. Their product is usually released in very limited quantities - 500 copies is a typical pressing run. And most of those copies get snapped up by eager devotees. What do they sound like? Well, what we've heard so far is lo-fi alt-folk with a touch of experimental post-rock. And is it good, this lo-fi alt-f. with the touch of exp. p-r? Yes, it is. We recommend their most recent album, 'Shadow Kingdom', and an earlier double-album called 'The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun'. The music is beguiling and thoughtful, the vocals warm and careworn. You can hear some tracks on the Natural Snow Buildings MySpace page. From 'Shadow Kingdom', here's what they probably think of all this paparazzi-esque CLUAS celebrity spotlight - 'Go Away, Disappear': More ... Aidan Curran Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3938 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3939/Muse-Phoenix-for-Brittany-summer-festival#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3939 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3939&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3939/Muse-Phoenix-for-Brittany-summer-festival The first of France's major summer music festivals to announce its 2010 bill is Les Vieilles Charrues. The annual trip to Carhaix in Brittany takes place on 15-18 July. You might remember that last year's event featured Bruce Springsteen in his only French show of 2009. This year's stars are not as legendary but still attractive enough to ensure a healthy turnout. Top of the bill are Muse. Now, the English trio are playing two huge concerts at the Stade de France in Paris this June, so it might seem strange that they play another large French show only weeks later. However, Les Vieilles Charrues attracts fans for the unique experience of a festival in the remote west of Brittany - which is also relatively accessible for English fans. Also, Brittany in July is full of young holidaymakers from around Europe, so Les Vieilles Charrues has a greater potential audience than its isolated location suggests. Back to the line-up - the other name that interests us is Phoenix. However, the Grammy winners are surprisingly far down the bill - tugging the forelock to Mika but also to four other French acts. Who are these artists that the home fans seem to prefer over Phoenix? We featured Indochine early last year - '80s post-punk veterans who will also be filling the Stade de France this summer. Diam's is a tomboyish rapper who raised some eyebrows when she converted to Islam recently. Alain Souchon is one of these old chanson française guys that you non-Frenchies don't need to know about. The other French headliner is Jacques Dutronc (left, in his youth). If that name sounds familiar, it's because you may have heard it in the original version of 'Brimful Of Asha' by Cornershop - at the end, when Tjindar Singh is listing his old records, he mentions "Jacques Dutronc and the Bolan boogie". So who is Jacques Dutronc? Well, as a young man in the 1960s he was a pop star, and by the '90s he had become a respected actor. He is the partner of Françoise Hardy, perhaps France's coolest female pop singer ever - and their son Thomas Dutronc is now a star himself, making a likeable kind of jazz manouche-influenced acoustic chanson-pop. And what does Jacques Dutronc sound like? From looking at his picture (left), you'd imagine such a suave and dapper man to croon like Bryan Ferry. In fact, Dutronc père has a rasping, hectoring voice, like a hoarse Mick Jagger. Indeed, his '60s hits bring a touch of Stones raucousness to the chanson française genre - lots of words and little melody, but with enough attitude to compensate. As for other acts at Les Vieilles Charrues, dance music fans will recognise Vitalic and Etienne de Crécy. Revolver make a rather nice skiffle-pop sound. But you don't need to bother with Gojira or Gaetan Roussel. And if you're travelling all the way to deepest Brittany to see one-hit-wonder Mr Oizo, him of the Flat Eric fad in 1998, then you've got issues. On which point, how does one get to deepest Brittany and Les Vieilles Charrues? First you go to a major west Breton town like Lorient or Brest (by air), Roscoff (by ferry) or Guingamp (by train). From there, the regional authority has organised coaches to Carhaix for only €3 return. Full practical details are available here in English. Tickets for Les Vieilles Charrues went on sale last week and already all 35,000 four-day tickets have been sold - unless you choose a four-day package including transport to and from faraway French cities like Dijon or Toulouse. Never mind - you can still get a three-day pass for €88 or a one-day ticket from €37.50 to €51.20, depending on which day you choose. Muse are playing on Thursday 15 July and Phoenix on Saturday 17 July (with Indochine headlining that night). You can find full ticket details on French online ticket agents like FNAC. For more information on the festival, check out Les Vieilles Charrues' website (in French apart from the practical info page in the link above). Here's a pleasantly bizarre song from Jacques Dutronc that Neil Hannon has been known to perform live - 'Les Playboys': More ... Aidan Curran Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3939 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3940/Declan-de-Barra-French-tour#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3940 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3940&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3940/Declan-de-Barra-French-tour The most prominent Irish act in France this month is Declan de Barra. The Waterford man is here for a series of shows around the country between now and May. We've featured de Barra (right) on this blog before - he performs frequently in France, most notably a recent Paris show on the same bill as alt-country legend Josh T. Pearson. He's also been picking up good reviews from the native press. Fans of acoustic singer-songering will certainly be impressed by de Barra's intensity and poeticism. So far he's made two albums - a 2005 release called 'Song Of A Thousand Birds' and its 2008 follow-up 'A Fire To Scare The Sun' - and alt-folk aficionados should check them out. On his current spin around la hexagone, de Barra visits places such as Saint Brieuc, Lens and Saint Etienne. This Friday, 12 March, he has a show in the Paris region, at Les Mains d'Oeuvres in Saint-Ouen (not far from the Stade de France). Full details of his tour, his life and his works are available on Declan de Barra's MySpace page. No news yet of any upcoming gigs back in the E.I.R.E. Here's a striking video of Declan de Barra from a previous Paris visit. French music website Le Hiboo ('the owl') filmed him singing a capella at the Madeleine, a famous church just off the Place de la Concorde. He's singing 'Throw Your Arms Around Me', a favourite among his fans - and he's in his bare feet on the marble floor. We feel the cold just looking at him: More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 07 Mar 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3940 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3941/London-and-Paris#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3941 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3941&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3941/London-and-Paris Dateline: crack of dawn last Saturday morning. While you were snuggled up all warm in bed, your Seine-side correspondent staggered sleepily across town, up to the Gare du Nord and onto a train. Two hours later, we arrived at St Pancras station. That's how easy it is to go from Paris to London. It was actually your blogger's first time there. The immediate reason for our long-overdue London debut was a match of rugby at Twickenham, so it was certainly a successful trip. But London made a big impression. Paris is probably the most beautiful city in the world - and Paris knows it. The French capital can feel quite uptight and self-conscious, as if every Parisian believes he or she lives in the cold-blooded glamour of a fashion show. The sheer beauty of the place can be intimidating, like when you visit someone's new home and fear leaving mud on their carpet. Waiters and customer service staff demand respect for their authority, and the omnipresent French flags suggest an irritation with anything different or foreign. It's hard work to relax in Paris. By contrast, London was warm and human. Its streets feel practical and lived in, like a comfortable pair of shoes. Compared to the hassle of Paris cafés, London pubs are blissful and kind. And even its monuments are idiosyncratic - despite their functionality and familiarity, Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament still seem so odd. Pop music gives us proof of London's warmth and Paris's cold. There are hardly any French pop songs about Paris - certainly nothing contemporary or cool. Rap acts may rap about Paris - but only as political commentary, not as praise. By contrast, London has been apotheosised in countless songs by its natives and residents. Waterloo Station and the nearby bridge are quite unremarkable, yet Ray Davies featured them in one of pop's most poetic songs. The Clash, The Jam, Madness and Blur have added their own layers to London's pop mythology by singing of ordinary places like Camden Town, the Tube, Hammersmith and Primrose Hill. (Of course, Paris has no pop/rock anthem to match 'London Calling'.) Paris has inspired great painting, literature and classical music - but it has no great pop music. North American songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Stephin Merritt use Paris as shorthand for artistic freedom and old-fashioned romance respectively, but those are outsider images with little relevance to daily life Seine-side. The city's only native pop genius, Serge Gainsbourg, recorded his classic late-'60s records - including 'Je T'Aime (Moi Non Plus)' - in London and filled his lyrics with American pop culture references. There's very little of Paris in Serge's masterworks. And as we've pointed out before, the entire 'French Touch' wave of mid-'90s indietronic culture - Daft Punk, Air, Michel Gondry, Phoenix - come from Versailles.  Why is Paris so poor for pop? Well, it might be due to that intimidating air of cold-blooded glamour we mentioned earlier. Pop music is democratic and open-minded and human and un-self-conscious and fun - and Paris is none of these things. But London seems to have these qualities in abundance, hence it's the pop capital of the world. So, is your correspondent in the wrong city? Well, that's a question for another time... Anyway, thinking of London and the future leads us nicely to four lads from Colchester who made a classic London single and video - here's Blur with 'For Tomorrow': More ... Aidan Curran Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3941 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3942/John-Jehn-new-single-and-album#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3942 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3942&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3942/John-Jehn-new-single-and-album One of our favourite French acts are John & Jehn (right). We've told you about them before - a French couple living in London and making dark, swaggering electro-rock. John plays Velvet Underground-style scuzzed-down '50s riffs on his guitar, while Jehn looks after the cool Roxy Music-esque analogue synths. We found their first album charming and simple. But then at the Solidays festival last summer we saw them live for the first time - they were sexy and sensational. Their second album is due out at the end of March. It's called 'Time For The Devil' and is preceded by a single of the same name. Well, it's clear that your correspondent is not the only fan of John & Jehn - their new label Naive has clearly been spending money on them. Compared to the home-made feel of their debut, 'Time For The Devil' (the song) has top-of-the-range studio production values. However, the song is rather slight - all atmosphere, little in the way of a memorable tune. Only Jehn's Siouxsie-esque chorus vocal hook lifts this track out of the relegation places and into mid-table safety. (For his part, John sounds like Ian McCulloch and the track has that rich and doom-laden Echo and the Bunnymen vibe.) 'Time For The Devil' (the album) will be launched with a special show at La Maroquinerie in Paris on 29 March - your correspondent hopes to be there. As we said above, this pair are great live so we'll have a better impression of their new material then. You can get a taster of John & Jehn's new album by watching this trailer for it. As for the single, here's the video for 'Time For The Devil': More ... Aidan Curran Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3942 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3943/The-fandom-of-the-Opera#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3943 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3943&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3943/The-fandom-of-the-Opera Despite the impression we give in this blog, the most celebrated music venue in Paris is not La Flèche d'Or or La Maroquinerie. Though it may seem strange to us, those busloads of tourists much prefer to visit the Opéra. The Opéra (right) is not the only opera house in Paris. Nearby is the Opéra Comique, a charming little roundhouse. Over at Bastille, a modern venue of that name is equally large but ugly like a financial services centre. The Opéra we're talking about is actually called the Opéra Garnier, named after its architect. When you say "the Opéra" in Paris, everyone assumes you mean this one. In a city whose architectural landmarks know no restraint, the Opéra is particularly over-the-top - a Venn diagram where 'architecture' overlaps with 'wedding-cake'. (In fact, there's a small chocolate cake called an Opéra.) Seen when you're coming up from the metro station of the same name, it looms like an airship. As with many famous Paris buildings, only by walking around it can you appreciate how enormous it is. Commissioned in the mid-19th century, it symbolises the ostentatious wealth of Paris under the restored Empire. The surrounding streets, with their lines of black balcony railings, were designed by Baron Haussmann, architect of the quintessential Paris avenues and boulevards. Paris in the time of Charles Garnier and Haussman was turbulent, to say the least. (The Avenue de l'Opéra - long, wide and slashed by narrow, angled streets - was specifically designed so that the army could outflank any barricade in the area.) By the time the Opéra was finally completed, in 1875, the Second Empire of Louis Napoléon had been ousted by the Commune, the Prussians and the Third Republic. To attend performances in the Opéra he built, Garnier had to buy a ticket. Invited by a friend with a spare ticket to sell, your correspondent went to the Opéra recently. It may be hard to believe, but the inside is even more extravagant than the outside. Marble, gold leaf, hardwood, chandeliers - we found it far more impressive than the chateau of Versailles. The concert hall features Chagall's famous painted ceiling - renowned composers and their works represented in daubs of bright, childlike colour. Most exciting of all is the breathtaking view from the front balcony down the avenue, which makes you feel like a lord or lady looking down on the poor people below. No wonder the people revolted. These days, ordinary citizens can come to the Opéra too - there are some tickets available for 10 euros. However, you actually don't see the show from those seats. Of the Opéra's 2,500 or so seats, many of them only have partial views from behind pillars or balcony edges. Those ten euro seats are at the back of a box - but the people who buy them mostly come just for the music or for the experience of being inside the Opéra. Our seats were at the front of a box, but we still only saw about 70% of the stage. We saw 'La Dame Aux Camélias', a recent ballet made from an Alexandre Dumas short story and compositions by Chopin. (France's other favourite adopted Pole besides Marie Curie, Chopin was born exactly two hundred years ago. He's buried in Père Lachaise - except for his heart, which is in a church in Warsaw.) Those ten euro punters got lucky - the orchestra's pianist gave a marvellous show. For the rest of us, the on-stage show was extravagantly beautiful. Only by seeing live ballet do you realise how the apparent grace of the dancers hides the incredible physical demands on them. Walk on your tiptoes for five minutes and see how you feel; now imagine dancing, spinning and landing on them for an hour. Your marathon-running blogger marvels (and winces) at the strain a top ballerina puts on every tendon and ligament in her legs. Our trip to the Opéra was very educational indeed. The Opéra in Paris is most famous because of a musical from London. Yes, a lot of those tourists are actually fans of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'The Phantom Of The Opera', based on Gaston Leroux's classic French novel about a disfigured man lurking in and under this same venue. (Your correspondent didn't see any phantoms at the Opéra that night. West End musicals - don't trust 'em!) So, here are Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley with its appallingly naff theme song - just for the hilariously awful video. Look out, mullety man! More ... Aidan Curran Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3943 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3944/La-Route-du-Rocks-winter-collection#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3944 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3944&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3944/La-Route-du-Rocks-winter-collection Last summer we brought you on-site reports and reviews from La Route du Rock, the brilliant alt-music festival that takes place in Saint Malo every mid-August. There are actually two annual La Route du Rock festivals - the 'summer' festival in August is complemented by a 'winter' version in February. And so La Route du Rock Collection Hiver ('winter collection' - how fashionable and French) 2010 happens this weekend, 19-21 February. (In France, winter ends and spring begins on 21 March.) The main venue is L'Omnibus on the outskirts of Saint Malo. Like its summer counterpart, the winter version of La Route du Rock has a line-up that's bursting with concentrated indie goodness. Here's Friday evening's bill of fare at L'Omnibus: Fiery Furnaces, Beach House, Jackie O Motherfucker and The Horrors. But check out Saturday night's running order: Clues, Shearwater, The XX, Local Natives and Clara Clara. Same night, same venue, same bill, one after the other - isn't that a fantastic line-up? Update: The XX have cancelled their appearance at La Route du Rock, following the death of singer Romy Madley Croft's father. Their place will be taken by These New Puritans, who supported The XX at their magnificent Paris show last Thursday. Sunday afternoon is less busy but no less impressive - The Tallest Man On Earth will be playing in the atmospheric surroundings of the Chapelle Saint-Sauveur. (Yes, it's a gig in a church.) Another interesting event during the festival weekend is a special Saturday afternoon screening of films from the Takeaway Shows, Vincent Moon's influential series of impromptu performances. If you're thinking of a quick dash to Saint Malo this weekend, forget it - the festival is sold out. You'll just have to wait for the summer festival in August... keep an eye on this blog for the first confirmed details of this year's acts. Here's one of the bands from that cracking show in Saint Malo this Saturday - Local Natives with 'Airplanes', from a recent BBC session: More ... Aidan Curran Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3944 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3945/Magic-reviews-for-Fionn-Regan-Two-Door-Cinema-Club#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3945 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3945&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3945/Magic-reviews-for-Fionn-Regan-Two-Door-Cinema-Club Last Saturday was another rough night at the Stade de France for Irish sport, as our rugby team lost badly to a French side that's good but hardly great. Your correspondent was there, shivering with cold and shuddering in despair beside the visiting CLUAS Album Review Air Traffic Controller (in Paris for an inspection of operations at Chateau French Letter). As ever, though, national pride has been restored by Ireland's pop stars - always good for the Seine-side win that ever eludes our football and rugby heroes. We mention regularly here Les Inrockuptibles, the weekly music and culture magazine with a quintessentially French taste for florid prose. Die-hard devotees of The Divine Comedy, in recent times Les Inrocks have given the rave to Duke Special, Carly Sings and Adrian Crowley. Another music publication carried at all times in our CLUAS Foreign Correspondent Diplomatic Pouch is Magic RPM (right). A monthly magazine devoted entirely to alternative music, its title acronym stands for 'Revue Pop Moderne'. Modern pop: yes, please! Magic RPM is excellent. For one thing, their writers have some strange trick of writing French prose that's simple yet intelligent and witty. Also, the magazine's review section has ambitious scope - the February edition has a whopping 66 albums getting substantive and considered critiques. Two of this month's sixty-six are Irish - Fionn Regan's 'The Shadow Of An Empire' and 'Tourist History' by Two Door Cinema Club. Each gets a fair and informed review that backs up the final rating (out of six, rather idiosyncratically). First up, Fionn Regan. Reviewer Vincent Théval falls in with the general reaction to the Wicklow man's second album - a comparison to Dylan going electric. He isn't impressed by the opening songs, calling them "a set of knives without a blade". However, the man from Magic RPM much prefers the record's home stretch, in particular "a trio of sublime ballads": 'Little Nancy', 'Lord Help My Poor Soul' and the title track. A 'non' to the first half and 'oui' to the second - that makes a final score of three out of six for Fionn Regan, with the consolation of high praise for a handful of tracks. If you read French, check out the full review here. Two Door Cinema Club also receive an obvious comparison from their reviewer, Thomas Schwoerer, who reckons the "excellent" single 'Something Good Can Work' "sounds like Phoenix south of the equator". (That'll be an allusion to Vampire Weekend's world-pop, then.) The review praises the Down lads for their "sense of catchy melody and killer chorus" that delivers an album "to bring a smile to the lips". Overall, Schwoerer remarks on the band's "naive and juvenile" sound but ultimately finds in favour of "these three boys that we'll surely hear a lot this year". And the scores? Four out of six for Two Door Cinema Club, continuing their successful experience in France. Unfortunately, the full review isn't online. So, plenty of much-merited positive comments for the two Irish acts in Magic RPM this month. G'wan Oirland! Here's Fionn Regan with the unquestionably Dylan-goes-electric 'Protection Racket': More ... Aidan Curran Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3945 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3946/Pascal-Bizet#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3946 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3946&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3946/Pascal-Bizet On several occasions we've bemoaned the lack of good French-language pop. By 'good pop' we mean a tune you can whistle and hum and sing in the shower - and songs en français these days tend to be monotonous recitals of precious lyrics. So, allow us to rave about a rare bit of catchy and melodic French music. Pascal Bizet (right) is from Nîmes, the south-eastern city whose lasting contribution to world culture is the derivation of the word 'denim' - "de Nîmes". (The word 'jeans' is also French in origin - the earliest pairs of denim trousers were made in Genoa, which in French is called "Gênes.) Metallica fans will know of a 2006 concert DVD called 'Français Pour Un Nuit' that was filmed in the city's Roman amphitheatre. We don't know yet if Pascal is a descendant of Georges Bizet, the Parisian who wrote 'Carmen', but he certainly has musical talent. Your correspondent has just discovered a track called 'Sans Doute' thanks to Canadian DJ Laura Leishman's excellent radio show on French indie station Le Mouv'; perhaps it takes us Johnny Foreigners to appreciate what's best in France. 'Sans Doute', with its pounding piano chords, has a touch of John Lennon's better solo songs. Changing from verse to chorus, Bizet's voice takes on some of Elvis Costello's vitriol and Joe Jackson's angst. The melody rolls along agreeably from start to finish, drawing in the listener without over-reaching for a killer hook or climax. Good work. There we go: the first decent French-language song of the year and decade. You can hear 'Sans Doute' on Pascal Bizet's MySpace page, which also features some rather dense prose to describe the song's symbol-laden video, directed by Bizet: More ... Aidan Curran Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3946 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3947/Polanskis-dubious-duet#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3947 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3947&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3947/Polanskis-dubious-duet We've mentioned Emmanuelle Seigner on this blog before. The French actress released her first album in 2007 with the group Ultra Orange, and subsequently recorded a duet with Brett Anderson. Now her second album has just come out - and it includes a duet far more controversial than that with the Suede singer. The album (right) is called 'Dingue', pronounced 'dang', which is French for 'crazy'. While her first album was heavily influenced by Lou Reed, this new record harks back to the classic '60s French pop of France Gall and Sylvie Vartan. Not being blessed with a great singing voice, Seigner never strays far from a low monotone - which is quite alright in France, because many singers do this. The album was due to be released last November but was held back due to a dramatic development in Seigner's personal life - the arrest of her husband, Roman Polanski. The acclaimed film director was taken into custody on a visit to Switzerland last September, as the Swiss authorities sought to extradite him to the USA to face charges of unlawful sex with a minor. Polanski is currently under house arrest in Switzerland. Here's where Seigner's album gets controversial: one of the tracks, 'Qui Etes Vous?' ('Who Are You?') is a Bardot/Gainsbourg-style duet with Polanski - and the lyrics have an unfortunate resonance with the charges he faces. The lyrics start with Seigner addressing an unknown man in her bed: "Qui êtes-vous, monsieur? Qu'est-ce que vous faites dans mon lit?" ("Who are you, sir? What are you doing in my bed?") Polanski's reply is "Je suis l'amour en personne" ("I am love in person"). The second verse is even more embarrassing. Seigner sings "Mais vous n'êtes pas mon type/Allez-vous-en/Vous allez avoir des problèmes" ("But you're not my kind/Go away/You'll have problems"). It continues: Him: Tu m'as déjà dit 'je t'aime' (You already said 'I love you') Her: Moi? (Me?) Him: Tu as de peau douce et lisse (You have soft, smooth skin) Her: J'appelle la police! (I'm calling the police!) The third verse: Him: Je ne veux que ton bonheur (I only want your happiness) Her: Tu es un sâle voleur (You're a dirty thief) Him: Je ne veux que ton bien (I only want you to be well) Her: Mais je ne suis pas un chien! (But I'm not a dog!) And the fourth verse, where Polanski's character becomes creepier: Him: Mais enfin nous sommes fiancés (But finally we're engaged) Her: Vous avez fumé? (Have you been smoking?) Him: Tu m'as couru après, c'était en été (You chased me, it was in the summer) Her: Je ne suis jamais engagée! Allez dégagé! (I've never been engaged! Go on, get lost!) This, remember, performed by a man who fled charges of unlawful sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl. What on earth were Seigner and Polanski thinking? The track hasn't yet been posted on Seigner's MySpace site - your correspondent downloaded it from a French online music shop. The album has just been released in France; at the time of writing, we haven't seen or heard any reaction from the French music press. More ... Aidan Curran Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3947 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3948/Phoenix-win-alt-album-Grammy#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3948 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3948&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3948/Phoenix-win-alt-album-Grammy Excellent news for the French music scene from Los Angeles last night. At the 2010 Grammy Awards, 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' by Phoenix won the prize for Best Alternative Album. The other nominees? 'Everything That Happens Will Happen Today' by David Byrne and Brian Eno, 'It's Blitz' by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 'The Open Door EP' by Death Cab For Cutie and 'Sounds Of The Universe' by Depeche Mode. Ironically for an 'alternative' award, this Grammy win will surely be significant in terms of Phoenix's continued progress to American mainstream success. Your correspondent finds this album to be a slight disappointment - but Phoenix are still a great band. To them we say: chapeau! Le jour de gloire est arrivé also for David Guetta, who took home a Grammy for his remix of 'When Love Takes Over' featuring Kelly Rowland. Other winners last night include Kings Of Leon ('Use Somebody' - Record of the Year!), Bruce Springsteen (Best Rock Vocal Performance), Green Day (Best Rock Album), AC/DC (Best Hard Rock Performance), Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. Full details of winners and nominees are available at www.grammy.com. In Irish news, the 2010 Grammy shindig featured Imelda May's duet with Jeff Beck on 'How High The Moon' as part of a tribute to the late Les Paul. Meanwhile, U2 were nominated for three awards but didn't win any. From their Grammy-winning album, here's Phoenix with 'Lisztomania': More ... Aidan Curran Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3948 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3949/Gainsbourg-film-plastic-Serge-ry#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3949 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3949&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3949/Gainsbourg-film-plastic-Serge-ry What? Three weeks without the Gainsbourg-Birkins appearing on this blog? Luckily, and coinciding with the John Lennon biopic 'Nowhere Boy', we have the release of 'Gainsbourg: Vie Héroique' - the film by esteemed comic strip artist Joann Sfar of the life of France's greatest ever pop star. We brought you a sneak preview last November. Noting the startling resemblance of Eric Elmosnino and the late Lucy Gordon to Serge n' Jane, we worried that the film would get stuck in a rut of impersonation. Our fears were justified - 'Gainsbourg: Vie Héroique' is a fawning and superficial treatment of a fascinating and complex man. It starts well, establishing themes and motifs. Young Lucien Ginsburg is insolent, artistic, charming, indulged by his mother - and Jewish in 1940s Paris. With the clever device of marionette-like alter-egos preying on Lucien's vivid imagination, Sfar captures the latent creativity and volatility of the future artist-provocateur. Lucien avoids the worst of Nazi occupation (i.e. deportation and death) by leaving Paris for a provincial boarding school and feigning non-Jewishness - at one point hiding in the woods for three days to avoid a local round-up. A key early scene has Lucien almost charming the clothes off a still-life model from his art class - here is the charisma that would make Juliette Greco, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin fall for a man who was far from being a hunk. Seducing the ladies, evading the Nazis - he charms the viewer too, as do the rich colours and Lucien-esque energy of these opening scenes. But suddenly Sfar jumps ahead to the adult Ginsburg and soon-to-be Gainsbourg (played by Elmosnino) who is now clumsy around women, troubled by dark thoughts and insecure about his art. What happened to charming young Lucien? Sfar offers no explanation and thereby breaks the narrative thread.  He seems overeager to finish the hard work of character exposition and get to the good stuff: Serge playing his hits and frolicking with naked babes. (Sfar repeatedly makes the sexist faux-pas of showing Serge fully-dressed while his lady friend is nude. Perhaps to - ahem - redress this, during the later Birkin years there are some full-frontal shots of Elmosnino.) From here on in, the film is reduced to variety-show impersonation that will please French audiences but bore the rest of the world. (Even Sfar is at it - he makes a cameo as balladeer Georges Brassens.) Anna Mougalis, as a smouldering Juliette Greco, has an appealing few minutes but is essentially a plot device to push Gainsbourg into leaving his wife and children for the pop star life. Former model Laetitia Casta struts on as Brigitte Bardot as if simply because we're at the point in the film where Gainsbourg writes 'Initials B.B.' (Rather witlessly, this is the music that plays as she enters.) Likewise, Gordon as Birkin appears on cue but personality-wise is as flimsy as her dresses. All the female characters in this film are one-dimensional and serve only to signpost certain points in Serge's life. Speaking of signposts, too often Sfar hastily moves the film along with clunking story-marker scenes that reveal his background in attention-deficit cartoons. You should write an innuendo-laden song sung by an innocent young girl, fellow artist Boris Vian suggests to Gainsbourg - cut to Serge slithering up to prissy France Gall and proposing 'Les Sucettes'. On a beach in Jamaica a young boy sings 'La Marseillaise' to Gainsbourg: next thing he's recording a reggae version that incites violent protest from French ex-paratroopers. Most ridiculous of all is when old Mr Ginsburg, almost face-to-camera, breathlessly informs his wife (and us): 'He wrote a saucy song for Brigitte Bardot but her husband won't let them release it so now they must split up!' Potentially interesting episodes like the reaction to 'Je T'Aime (Moi Non Plus)' are left to wither on the vine. As for the portrayal of Gainsbourg himself, Elmosnino is engaging and exact. However, with Lucien now grown up as Serge there's no further time or space allowed for character development. For instance, we never get any insight on Gainsbourg's creative vision or processes - he just heads over to the piano and starts playing fully-hatched 'Comic Strip' or 'Le Poinçonneur Des Lilas'.  Worse than that, Sfar clearly idolises Gainsbourg so much as to present his most unappealing moments as mere character colour or even as virtues. Every time Serge does something bad, Sfar rewards him. Serge walks out on his wife and two young children: this is his doorway to stardom while his young family are never heard of again in the film. Gravely ill from years of abuse, Serge calls the press to his bedside and chainsmokes triumphantly while on a drip. A drunken Serge fires a gun in front of young Charlotte and makes poor Jane lose the rag: next thing he's single and pulling a sultry young model in a nightclub. (Birkin and Charlotte also immediately disappear from the movie.) Right away Serge bullies this new girl: she just cosies up to him as a sugar-daddy and lovingly bears him a son called Lucien. The original Lucien reappears in the film's climax, a concert disrupted by those reggae-hating ex-soldiers. The young boy had sung a few bars of the French national anthem earlier in the film - its reprise here, as French people young and old sing as one before turning on Serge, is heavy-handed symbolism. Yes, yes, they love him and hate him, he's both French and an outsider: Sfar seems to think this vignette will suffice in capturing the complexity of Gainsbourg and continuity of Ginsburg. In fact, it just feels like over-compensation for an hour of French pop star impersonations. In summary, 'Gainsbourg: Vie Héroique' is an entertaining half-hour drama about young Serge that's spoiled by the 90 minutes of plastic telefilm tacked onto it. Go see it only if you're as uncritical a Serge fan as its director. Here's the trailer: More ... Aidan Curran Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3949 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3950/Lisa-Hannigan-stuck-in-the-MIDEM-with#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3950 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3950&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3950/Lisa-Hannigan-stuck-in-the-MIDEM-with MIDEM, the annual global convention for the music industry, takes place this Sunday to Wednesday (24-27 January) in Cannes on the French Riviera. The major players in the business will gather for conferences and workshops on subjects such as digital media, artist management and various aspects of law - you can download the conference programme (pdf, 2 Mo) and list of speakers (pdf, 9 Mo) for more information. The MIDEM 2010 site also currently features a 2-part video interview with Ed O'Brien of Radiohead which is worth checking out. (Unfortunately, the page title at the very top of the screen calls him 'Dan O'Brien'.) Music From Ireland, the body that promotes Irish music at such international events, will be in Cannes for MIDEM - they'll be sharing a stand with IMRO and distributing an excellent 20-track CD of Irish music featuring Villagers, Dark Room Notes, Adebisi Shank, Super Extra Bonus Party, O Emperor and more. You can listen to the compilation online at the Music From Ireland website. If they have time in between conferences and networking, the attendees will also be listening to live music - MIDEM features its own exclusive programme of concerts (pdf, 0.9 Mo). Were we being sensationalist, we could suppose that these are the anointed acts from which the execs and whizz-kids will cook up the ad soundtracks and corporate tie-ins and carefully-crafted buzzes of 2010. In any case, MIDEM is an ideal showcase for any act with ambitions of world domination, however fleeting. So, who's playing at MIDEM 2010? Only one Irish artist is on the bill. Lisa Hannigan appears with her band in a showcase at the Carlton Hotel on Monday night. (She doesn't feature on the Music From Ireland compilation CD, though.) There are several reasons for thinking that she'll be a hit at MIDEM. First, she's very good. Second, the programme notes mention her collaboration with Damien Rice - a ready-made media angle and sales pitch for the execs. ("If you liked Damo, you'll love..." and so forth.) Third and finally, in her photo in the programme (right) she looks stunning. Let's hope MIDEM is the start of a successful 2010 for the Meath lady. The host country has a few familiar names. All-girl punk-poppers Plastiscines will be hoping to build on their US exposure to date, despite their awful second album. The Gallic retro-pop of Diving With Andy will charm anyone not scared off by the band's appalling name. (Your correspondent may yet run an English For Pop Music workshop at MIDEM 2011.) And we featured Toulouse's PacoVolume a long time ago - one good song ('Cookiemachine', like an acoustic Super Furry Animals track) and little else. Anyone else you might know? Dreadlocked English singer-songer Newton Faulkner. Swiss chanteuse Sophie Hunger. And that's it for us - unless you follow featured countries Japan, Taiwan and Korea. There's a MIDEM fringe - local Irish bar Morrison's is hosting a Canadian night on Tuesday 26 January. Fans of the maple-leaf music scene may be familiar with Jason Bajada, Matthew Barber, Danny Fernandes, Jully Black and Plants And Animals. Given the high quality of Canadian music in recent times, the plastic Irish pub looks like the place to be in Cannes this MIDEM-time. But we're cheering on Lisa Hannigan here: g'wan Oirland! Here she is with a song named after a city at the opposite end of France from Cannes - 'Lille': More ... Aidan Curran Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3950 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3951/Two-Door-Cinema-Club-around-France-again#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3951 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3951&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3951/Two-Door-Cinema-Club-around-France-again You might remember us telling you about Two Door Cinema Club when they toured around France last autumn. By now you know them well: plenty of daytime radio airplay and rave reviews have seen to that. Well, the Co. Down trio (right) will be back in France this springtime: not once, not twice, but three times in two months! They're signed to achingly hip Paris label Kitsuné, so the bosses' backyard gets their special attention. Joking aside, French radio has been playing them too - most notably C'est Lenoir, the excellent and much-loved indie music show on France Inter. (Presenter Bernard Lenoir always takes care to mention that Two Door Cinema Club are 'irlandais'. G'wan Oirland!) Added to that, their shows last year were as part of a tour organised by French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles, who naturally gave them great exposure. So, these three appearances should prove popular with French alt-music fans. First up for Two Door Cinema Club in France this spring: a show on 24 February at the Nouveau Casino in Paris, a lovely little venue in the trendy Oberkampf district. We reckon it'll sell out or go close enough to doing so. Then in March the lads fall in for the France/Benelux leg of the European tour by Phoenix. These two bands have a similar sound, so fans of the Versailles foursome may very well come away as fans of Two Door Cinema Club too. Those French dates for this tasty double-bill: 21 March in Dijon, 22 March at the Olympia in Paris, 23 March in Grenoble and 24 March in Nancy. Finally, after a spin around Germany and Scandinavia, Two Door Cinema Club will return to France on 17 April for a slot at the Printemps de Bourges festival. (Where is Bourges? Almost in the dead centre of France, directly south of Paris.) They share that night's bill with another French group who have an indie-disco vibe, Pony Pony Run Run, plus top DJ Vitalic and one-hit-wonder DJ Mr Oizo (him of the 'Flat Eric' yellow puppet/jeans ad). Also appearing in Bourges are Iggy And The Stooges, Emilie Simon, Archive and Rodrigo y Gabriela. So, Two Door Cinema Club look set for a successful 2010 in France. You should know this tune of theirs by now - 'Something Good Can Work': More ... Aidan Curran Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3951 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3952/The-Feeling-Of-Love#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3952 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3952&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3952/The-Feeling-Of-Love For reasons we don't need to dwell on, Franco-Irish relations took a bit of a dive at the end of last year. Croissant boycotts, au pair punishment beatings, burning effigies of Gérard Depardieu - just some of the violent Dublin street scenes broadcast around the world. Thankfully, this is all behind us now - French people can feel safe to visit Ireland again. Here's the first Gallic band to play in Ireland this decade. The Feeling Of Love (right) are a trio from the eastern French region of Alsace. (Yes, that means they are Alsatians.) As you might have guessed, the name is ironic - they make squally, shouty Stooges/VU-style alt-rock with a hint of electro. What you lose in whistleable tunes, you gain in having your brains rocked out. Sounds like a fair deal. To date, The Feeling Of Love have released one album, 'Petite Tu Es Un Hit', and a plethora of singles and EPs, with a second album due out in February. Of their songs, we like 'Handclap Girl' and the intriguingly-named 'Dad = Eat/Mum = Die' and 'Fat Bottom Against Fat Bottom'. You can see them in Dublin on 13 February at Twisted Pepper as part of the Bodytonic series of shows. According to this plug on the CLUAS discussion board, tickets are only €5, which is excellent value for what seems like a great live band. (Hopefully there isn't an obligatory €10 pint inside.) Check out some of their tunes at The Feeling Of Love's MySpace page. For a taste of their live show, here they are onstage in Freiburg playing 'Night Cold Dance': More ... Aidan Curran Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3952 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3953/Five-years-in-France#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3953 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3953&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3953/Five-years-in-France Exactly five years ago today, your blogger arrived in France to take up the position of CLUAS Foreign Correspondent (Paris). In a scene similar to the opening credits of 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air', we arrived outside Chateau French Letter, official residence of the CLUAS F.C. (P.), all our hopes and dreams packed into one small case. Our remit: report on the best of French pop, rock and electronica, all the while swanning around Paris thanks to the lavish CLUAS Foreign Correspondent Expense Account. At first we could get away with submitting a leisurely monthly column, a mere distraction. But then blogging was invented. The CLUAS gaffer, a man with his finger on the technology pulse and a rectal thermometer just to be sure, decided that this new-fangled medium was just the thing for increasing productivity and guaranteeing return on investment. And so French Letter became a fast-acting, high-performance blog. Your correspondent went along with this idea, figuring that we'd get a few months' worth of posts at best. Almost three years and over 250 posts later, we're still at it. Alternative music doesn't have as wide an audience in France as in Ireland or the UK. No homegrown indie act would ever break into the mainstream or enjoy broadsheet ubiquity the way Florence And The Machine and The XX did in Britain last year. Hip indie bands from America play smaller venues in Paris than they would in London or Dublin, and mostly to indie-kid ex-pats like your correspondent - last November a double-bill of The Antlers and Cymbals Eat Guitars played to a three-quarters-full venue that each would have filled alone in Ireland. UK acts get greater exposure here because the Paris music press pays close attention to the London scene; the aforementioned Florence and XX will play large halls here very soon. A Libertines concert in Paris in 2003 spawned a whole movement of 'babyrockers' in thrall to London punk n'lager attitude. Today's French music scene has split along linguistic lines. It's only a slight generalisation to say that alternative, artistically ambitious acts sing in English and mainstream or artistically conservative acts sing self-consciously poetic or socially-aware lyrics in French. To an outsider it seems that French people value lyrics over melody - consequentially a lot of French-language rock music is literally monotonous and tuneless. (Listen to Louise Attaque or Mickey 3D, two popular French bands, and then try to whistle one of their songs.) Young French bands influenced by melodic UK or US indie-pop (such as the bands featured in this blog) usually write and sing in English. As well as escaping the weight of French lyric-writing's demands for overwrought, politicised verbosity there's also the obvious fact of English having a wider international appeal. In France, English is the language of ambition - and of cultural hipness. The excellent new evening show of popular indie station Le Mouv' is presented by Laura Leishman, a brash Canadian who speaks almost as much English as French on air. (Irish music fans will recognise how female Canadian indie DJs are de rigueur for indie radio stations.) Any day now, your correspondent is going to become extraordinarily hip and sought-after in Paris. But then, Paris really isn't a musical city any more. Air, Phoenix, Daft Punk and Michel Gondry - the entire vanguard of French alternative pop culture - all come from Versailles. (It's no coincidence that Sofia Coppola, the partner of Phoenix singer Thomas Mars, made an indie-pop biopic of Versailles-based cake promoter Marie Antoinette.) Regional capitals like Bordeaux and Clermont-Ferrand have healthy music scenes that seem to thrive by being far from fashion-conscious Paris. And France's two hippest music festivals, Les Transmusicales and La Route du Rock, take place in the geographically isolated Rennes-Saint Malo area. In short, there are plenty of great French bands - you just have to look very hard for them and expect them to be singing in English. Anyway, enough of the sociological analysis - we're supposed to be celebrating! To Paris and France, thanks for five incredible years and the promise of more good times to come. Here's our fellow well-read, rugby-loving Francophile Neil Hannon with his most celebrated song about France: More ... Aidan Curran Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3953 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3954/Eurosonic-and-Perez-Hilton#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3954 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3954&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3954/Eurosonic-and-Perez-Hilton Unless the Dutch city of Groningen has disappeared under snow and ice (which is quite likely this weather) the annual Eurosonic music conference and showcase will take place this week (14-16 January). Something of a European equivalent to America's SXSW, Eurosonic features a festival of new and emerging acts from around the continent. It's an opportunity for record companies and festival promoters to go shopping for new talent to fill their rosters. Eurosonic was created in collaboration with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), makers of Eurovision, and national broadcasters can send acts to Groningen. So, 2FM has picked a strong Irish contingent - Delorentos, And So I Watch You From Afar, Villagers and Imelda May. However, the UK delegation is particularly awesome this year: The XX, Marina And The Diamonds and The Leisure Society are among Her Majesty's pop acts crossing the North Sea this week. As for other European acts you might know, Annie was due to play but the Norwegian pop princess has cancelled her appearance. But we see that Icelandic electro group FM Belfast and Swiss chanteuse Sophie Hunger will be there - both are very good. What about France? Well, ten acts will make the short trip north-east to the Netherlands. We've already told you about three of them - Pony Pony Run Run, Clara Clara and Yeti Lane. As well as being excellent, all three happen to be English-named trios making indie-pop tinted with electronica. (Our regular readers know this blog's tastes by now.) As for the others, The Popopopops are also an indie-pop band but not a very good one - and they have that awful, unpronounceable name. The eejits. Jamaica are also a trio but play grunge-rock; Xavier de Rosnay from Justice is currently producing their debut album. If you ever wondered what Janis Joplin would have sounded like in French, then check out the hoarse blues-rock of Izia. La Caravane Passe have an eclectic and good-time mix of Balkan and folk sounds. Turzi are at the trance/psychedelic end of the dance spectrum. And Soma make unremarkable English-style indie rock. That leaves us with one more Eurosonic-bound French act to tell you about: that's him in the photo (right). To answer the questions we posed at the top of the page: Sliimy (rhyming with 'Timmy' and 'Jimmy') is the nom de pop of a young Frenchman called Yanis Sahraoui. From the city of Saint Etienne, he looks like a cross between Mika and Prince and sounds like a cross between Mika and Lily Allen - dayglo, theatrical pop delivered in the manner of a drama-school kid. Sliimy became something of an internet sensation in 2008 with his home-made version of Britney Spears' 'Womaniser', which was spotted by - ta-dah! - Perez Hilton. After raving about it on his blog and Twitter, Hilton signed Sliimy as the first act on his Perezcious record label. (In Europe, Sliimy is brought to you by Warner.) The French don't really do daytime-airplay chart pop. So, when we say that Sliimy's first record, 'Paint Your Face', was the best French mainstream pop album of 2009 we're damning it with faint praise. His voice is relatively weak and unremarkable - to our ears his vocals sound a bit low in the mix. Still, the fun and colour of this record is hard to dislike. Here's the first single from Sliimy's album - 'Wake Up': More ... Aidan Curran Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3954 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3955/Yeti-Lane#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3955 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3955&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3955/Yeti-Lane The country covered in snow and ice, lakes and canals frozen over, schools closed by ministerial decree - for you back in the E.I.R.E. this cold spell is fairly hardcore. It's chilly enough here in Paris too, but us Seine-siders can always duck into the metro and get home without slipping or freezing. These are days for Alpine specialties like the raclette - melted cheese on meat and potatoes, cooked communally on the dinner table with a special hot-plate/grill appliance. Yum yum - or as the French say, miam miam! From the Alps we hop over to the Himalayas - for a topical reference to the Abominable Snowman! Yeti Lane (right) are a trio from Paris - Ben, Charlie and Loic. They were formerly in a band with a fourth Frenchperson, a lady called Cyann, which was imaginatively called Cyann & Ben. (We presume Charlie and Loic were out of the room during the naming process.) Cyann & Ben made swooshy, synthy space-rock that strained to sound all epic and sweeping. But Yeti Lane are more to our taste - the threesome make melodic, charming alt-rock. Vintage keyboards bubble up every now and then to give their sound a Grandaddy-esque vibe, and we reckon they have a more-than-passing acquaintance with the first Velvet Undereground record. These are all excellent reference points, of course - Yeti Lane are very likeable indeed. Their eponymous first album comes out this month, and they'll also be at Eurosonic in the Netherlands next week. Check out some fine tunes at Yeti Lane's MySpace page. We like this one a lot - 'Lonesome George': More ... Aidan Curran Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3955 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3956/Clara-Clara#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3956 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3956&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3956/Clara-Clara It's 2010! For your information, the French are calling it a futuristic-sounding deux mille dix (two thousand and ten) and not vingt-dix (twenty-ten). Anyway, here's the first French band to pop up their heads in the new decade, like a flower pushing up through the winter snow. (It's bbbloody fffreezing here in Paris.) Clara Clara (right) share the repetitive naming policy of other French Letter favourites like Pony Pony Run Run and Birdy Nam Nam. They're a trio from Lyon whose drummer, François Virot, released two albums of likeable indie-folk-tronica in recent years. (He's the one on the right, looking sweaty.) However, Clara Clara  - François Virot, Charles Virot on bass and Amélie Lambert on keyboards - sound more dynamic and urgent. They call their sound 'post-hardcore' and that stands for heavy distortion plus frenetic rhythms plus shouty vocals. For example: the band's second album, with no title confirmed yet, will be released in February, and first track 'Paper Crowns' is a tense stand-off between cold-blooded Kraftwerk-y electronica and chaotic indie-rock squalling. Somehow, what could have been a big old mess is really quite catchy and charming. We suspect that Clara Clara will be very successful in 2010. They'll be at the Eurosonic festival next week, then the winter edition of La Route du Rock in Saint Malo in February alongside the likes of The XX, Local Natives, The Tallest Man On Earth and Clues. A European tour is pencilled in for April - no news of an Irish date yet. And in November they're hitting the west coast of the United States. If the album is any way decent then they'll be in all the right places during the year to get it noticed. You can hear 'Paper Crowns' on Clara Clara's MySpace page - at the time of writing it's the only track posted. Their 2008 first album is streaming here and you could also check out François Virot's MySpace page for his solo stuff. Here's a video promoting the band's forthcoming album, featuring an early version of 'Paper Crowns' and a glimpse of what their live show looks like:  More ... Aidan Curran Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3956 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3957/A-decade-of-French-music#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3957 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3957&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3957/A-decade-of-French-music Before we look back on the last decade in French music, let's jump back a further ten years and look at Ireland.    At the outset of the 1990s, Irish music seemed to rule the world. U2 and My Bloody Valentine's respective 1991 albums, 'Achtung Baby' and 'Loveless', loomed over mainstream and alternative rock. A few years later The Cranberries found huge success in America and mainland Europe while a wave of northern bands - Ash, The Divine Comedy, Therapy? - cracked the UK charts. By 2000, though, our main music exports were boybands to Britain and since then only Damien Rice has made any significant international impact.   French music in the 2000s follows a similar trajectory - starting high but petering out. Daft Punk and Air went into the new decade as figureheads of something called 'Le French Touch' - a mix in varying proportions of indie attitude and dancefloor sensibility. Their first albums of the '00s consolidated their position. In particular, Daft Punk's 2001 record, 'Discovery', has been hugely influential since its release - if only for putting vocoders and distortion onto daytime radio hits.   Since then, Air have descended into self-parody and Daft Punk have yet to follow up their underwhelming 2005 album 'Human After All'. But Phoenix have built a steady fanbase in north America without (yet) breaking into the mainstream consciousness, while Justice have also found relative success in the States. And the likes of Birdy Nam Nam and General Elektriks have the potential to find a substantial worldwide audience. It beats Irish boybands and insipid balladeers, that's for sure.   Here's our choice of the best French music of the last decade. (We know that Rachid Taha was born in Algeria - he moved to France when he was ten so growing up in the country surely counts for something.) Some of these albums and songs are known internationally, others aren't. Would a similar list for Irish music in 2000-09 be just as strong as this?   Albums (click on a title to listen to the album on Deezer where possible)   1. Daft Punk 'Discovery' 2. Air 'The Virgin Suicides' 3. Phoenix 'Alphabetical' 4. Sebastien Tellier 'Politics' 5. Saint Germain 'Tourist' 6. Emily Loizeau 'L'Autre Bout Du Monde' 7. Rachid Taha 'Tékitoi' 8. Herman Dune 'Giant' 9. Justice '†' 10. Cocoon 'My Friends All Died In A Plane Crash'   Songs (click on a title to watch the video)   1. Vanessa And The O's 'Bagatelle' 2. Sebastien Tellier 'La Ritournelle' 3. Amel Bent 'Ma Philosophie' 4. M83 'Kim & Jessie' 5. Alizée 'Moi Lolita' 6. Justice 'D.A.N.C.E.' 7. Daft Punk 'One More Time' 8. Air 'Playground Love' 9. Camille 'Ta Douleur' 10. Cassius 'Toop Toop' Not for the first or last time on this blog, here's the gloriously catchy 'Bagatelle' by Vanessa And The O's, featuring the jangly guitar of former Smashing Pumpkin James Iha: More ... Aidan Curran Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3957 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3958/Best-French-Music-of-2009#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3958 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3958&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3958/Best-French-Music-of-2009 Didn't we do this only twelve months ago? 2009 flew. And now we're facing into 2010, which feels a bit freaky - shouldn't we be living in space and wearing jetpacks by now? It's been a mixed year in French alternative music, as we'll explain below. Still, we've found plenty of great new acts during the past twelve months - hopefully you like some or all of what's been featured here this year. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed and commented during the year - all your feedback, tips and suggestions have been greatly appreciated. And if you only just read, thanks for that too. So, time to make our annual choice of what we liked during the past calendar year. There's a winner of the Palme d'Or (right) in competition this time around - how will she fare in this, the equivalent award race for French music? Albums A disappointing year for long-players in France. Well-known names brought out average records that seemed to settle for consolidation. Hand on heart, only our top two are at Champions League standard - but the others are still worth a listen and genuinely enjoyable despite their modest achievements. (Click on an artist name to visit their MySpace page.)   1. General Elektriks 'Good City For Dreamers' Bursting with a spirit of fun and adventure, the second album by Franco-Irishman Herve Salters is a hugely enjoyable blend of loose funkiness and tight electronica, flavoured with jazzy progressions and Beatles-y pop hooks. At once eclectic and accessible, it should be an international success in 2010. 2. Birdy Nam Nam 'Manual For Successful Rioting' The best French electronic album of the year owes a lot to German audio engineering - the clinical beeps and blips, control-freak loops and robotic voices patented by the mighty Kraftwerk. Like their Teutonic peers, the Gallic turntable foursome put humanity and wit into the machinery. A different experience to their live show, but no worse for that. 3. Kim 'Mary Lee Doo' Our reigning champion returns for a podium finish in 2009. Kim Stanislaus Giani here flavours his '80s-style electro-pop with '60s and '70s references (dig the Fleetwood Mac bassline on 'Solenn') to create an agreeably romantic and wistful vibe.   4. Pony Pony Run Run 'You Need Pony Pony Run Run' ... and you need to change your band name! This Nantes trio's dancefloor-friendly indie-pop did the Phoenix thing better than Phoenix in 2009. A pity, then, that no one outside France will ever take seriously a band with such a terrible name. 5. Flairs 'Sweat Symphony' Perhaps not better than Prince, as Lionel Flairs claims in this album's key track. Still, it's funky, catchy electro-pop that’ll have you grinning and grinding and perspiring. 6. Yuksek 'Away From The Sea' Down-the-line floorfillers from the new boy wonder of le French touch. Could this be the last hurrah of a tired genre? 7. Get Back Guinozzi! 'Carpet Madness' Another awful band name to scupper a likeable record of lo-fi indie pop with a touch of reggae rhythm. Any idea what their name refers to? 8. Diving With Andy 'Sugar Sugar' And yet another nightmare from the baptism font! Juliette Pacquereau's low, melancholic croon complements a charming '60s Gallic pop flashback. 9. Emilie Simon 'The Big Machine' Ms Simon's previous album hinted at a love of Kate Bush but this record feels like a full-on homage to the great woman - a similar style of piano-based pop songs with hints of showtunes and classical training to them, served on a bed of modern and retro electronica. You probably need to be a Kate fan to like this album - but then, you really should be a  Kate fan anyway. 10. Etienne Jaumet 'Night Music' The electronic side project from a Breton indie rocker - cool and thoughtful, conjuring up the atmosphere its title suggests.   (You might also like: Phoenix 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix'; Charlotte Gainsbourg 'IRM'; Emily Loizeau 'Pays Sauvage'; Sliimy 'Paint Your Face'; Miss Kittin and The Hacker 'Two'; Revolver 'Music For A While')   NOT Album of the Year: Plastiscines 'About Love' What's the French for 'second album syndrome'? After a cracking debut, the all-girl punk-poppers lose their personality, wit and charm by churning out formulaic alt-rock on this follow-up. The lack of imagination and individuality in this album is quite depressing.   Roll of honour - albums 2009 - General Elektriks 'Good City For Dreamers' 2008 - Kim 'Don Lee Doo' 2007 - Dionysos 'Le Mecanique Du Coeur' 2006 - Emily Loizeau 'L'Autre Bout Du Monde' 2005 - Camille 'Le Fil' Songs Here's where the real action is happening - new acts in provincial cities posting brilliant tracks on the internet. If even half of them release albums next year then 2010 will be a classic for French pop. That said, you might know our winner, even if it's only from further up the page...   1. General Elektriks 'Raid The Radio' It's the double for Herve Salters with this joyous track. You can dance to it tonight; you can whistle it tomorrow - isn't that what a perfect pop record should be? 2. Mataharie 'O Oak'  A girl with a high, haunting voice sings an enigmatic semi-electro song: another Kate Bush fan for sure. From a promotion-only four-song disc where all four songs are outstanding - this duo from Annecy have the potential for a magnificent album in 2010. 3. Pony Pony Run Run 'Hey You' Like its parent album, a track that takes the lead from Phoenix - danceable indie-pop shot through with wistful romanticism. 4. Andromakers 'Electricity' Two girls from Aix-en-Provence who are gradually building up a large following in France with their glacial Au Revoir Simone-style electro-pop: like Mataharie, another pair who should go on to greater things in this coming year. 5. Lunamira 'Quietly Burning' Okay, so they mightn't really be a lovey-dovey boy-girl duo the way their online presence suggests. But this gorgeous little pop song is as smouldering and romantic as its title. If ever you have a slow set at your indie disco, this is the one. 6. Phoenix '1901' 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' turned out to be a disappointment: this brilliant single and its successor, 'Lisztomania', were the only exciting tracks on it. '1901' is quintessential Phoenix - it seems to go nowhere but by the end you've been smitten. 7. Kap Bambino 'Bluescreen' Slightly lost on an album of Crystal Castles-style techno-banging, this track is a throwback to post-punk new wave synth-pop, with a thudding bassline, icy keyboard parts and actual singing from irritating shouter Caroline Martial. 8. The Sophia Lorenians 'Locomotion'  A fabulous bit of retro-tastic '70s soul-pop: falsetto crooning, shimmering guitar shards and a hint of Philly strings.    9. Underground Railroad 'Pick The Ghost' Following on from their fine 2008 album 'Sticks And Stones', the UK-based trio returned with an EP of more top-quality Sonic Youth/JMC-esque indieness. 10. Charlotte Gainsbourg 'Vanities' Our favourite Palme d'Or-winning neighbour served up a mixed bag of an album this year. The Beatles-y feel-good numbers felt laboured but this cold and distant track showed that Serge's daughter still has her pop wits about her. Next time around, she should head to Scandinavia in mid-winter and make a full album like this: the frostiness suits her.   (You might also like: Kim 'Solenn'; Chicros 'What's New Today On TV?'; The Wendy Darlings 'Suffer Girl'; Flairs 'Truckers Delight'; Freddy McQuinn 'Chasing Rainbows'; Diving With Andy 'Merry Dance') NOT Song of the Year: Charlotte Gainsbourg 'IRM' Palme d'Or? Damn poor! A tuneless and self-indulgent 'Tomorrow Never Knows'-style dirge that had us panicking - had the ultra-cool Ms Gainsbourg made a bags of her new album? Fortunately, the rest of Charlotte's Beck-collaboration was better than this awful title track.   Roll of honour - songs 2009 - General Elektriks 'Raid The Radio' 2008 - M83 'Kim & Jessie' 2007 - Pravda 'Body Addict' 2006 - Vanessa And The O's 'Bagatelle' 2005 - Camille 'Ta Douleur' So there we are: General Elektriks is our grand champion this year. Here's the new official video for 'Raid The Radio': More ... Aidan Curran Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3958 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3959/The-XX-top-2009-polls-in-France#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3959 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3959&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3959/The-XX-top-2009-polls-in-France Have you checked out the CLUAS writers' choice of top 40 albums for 2009? The clear winner was the excellent 'Hospice' by The Antlers, with silver and bronze going to Grizzly Bear and Fever Ray respectively. Read the full list and then let us know what you think of it.   Our various French counterparts have also been choosing their favourite long-players of the year - and the print, web and radio media have more or less settled on the debut album by The XX.   In the French press, Les Inrockuptibles, the most influential music and culture magazine in the country, gave their prize of best album 2009 album to the erstwhile foursome, now a trio.   For second place Les Inrocks picked 'The Turn' by Fredo Viola. The what by who? Well, it's the debut album by a London-born, New York-residing singer-songer who mixes folk, post-rock and a pinch of electronica. The record was shortlisted for this year's Prix Constantin, France's equivalent of the Mercury or Choice prizes, as it was released on French label Because. (It's an okay record but hardly one you'd put forward as the second-best of the whole year.)   Coincidentally, Les Inrocks' third place went to another Because release - 'IRM' by Charlotte Gainsbourg. 'Merriweather Post Pavillion' by Animal Collective was fourth and Phoenix's 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' was fifth.   St Vincent, The Antlers, Dirty Projectors and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart were passed over by Les Inrocks but Passion Pit, Grizzly Bear, Bill Callahan, La Roux, Alela Diane, Sonic Youth and DM Stith are among those who made the final cut. You can read through their full Top 50 list here or here. (The print edition of Les Inrocks extends to a Top 100.)   On the radio, listeners to top indie show C'est Lenoir on France Inter also went for The XX in their poll result ahead of gloomy French chanteur Dominique A, Grizzly Bear, Soap & Skin and Wild Beasts. (The show's presenter, Bernard Lenoir, selected Soap & Skin over The XX in his own personal choice.)   And on the web, The XX was also the pick of Sound Of Violence, the French blog that specialises in UK (and Irish) music. Interestingly, the other podium places in their top ten went to The Horrors (NME's top album of 2009) and Muse, with Kasabian making number five.   So, what conclusions can we draw from this? Well, the small French alt-music community appears to have much the same taste as their Irish brethren and, em, cistern. That said, they seem to follow the UK music press and scene more avidly than the US scene, hence the dominance of The XX across the board and lack of consensus on American albums.   Also: to judge by these results Irish acts are not making much of an impact in France. Adrian Crowley's 'Season Of The Sparks' made number 58 in the Les Inrocks Top 100 (thanks to Nat for pointing that out - we had only seen the online Top 50), having received high praise in the magazine the week before. Will any Irish acts do better in 2010?   Our favourite moment from The XX is still their gorgeous cover of Womack and Womack's 'Teardrops': More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3959 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3960/Etienne-Jaumet#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3960 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3960&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3960/Etienne-Jaumet Were you at Yann Tiersen's show at Vicar Street in Dublin in 2003? Brilliant, wasn't it? If you saw Tiersen that night then you also saw an indie group from Brittany called The Married Monk - they were his backing band that night. We recommend their 2001 album 'Rocky' - spelled 'R/O/C/K/Y' to make sure that absolutely no one bought it. A member of The Married Monk, Etienne Jaumet (right), has branched off into electronic side projects. One of them, Zombie Zombie, is a duo featuring him and one of the Herman Dune brothers, Neman. But now Jaumet (pronounced 'Joe May') is releasing music under his own name - an EP called 'Entropy' back in July and now an album called 'Night Music'. Jaumet's brand of familiar electronica - Moroder-esque rhythms here, Kraftwerk-flavoured synths there - is hardly trail-blazing. But, as with those two illustrious influences we mentioned, the trick of electronica is to make robotic sounds feel human and soulful. Jaumet succeeds: 'Night Music' is warm and thoughtful, conjuring up the atmosphere its title suggests. It's too good to die as sonic wallpaper in trendy wine bars and boutiques. So, that's our final suggestion for a French music gift this Christmas. Now we're busy making a list and checking it twice: our Best French Music of 2009 - and of 2000-09 too, when we reveal who's been naughty or nice in the world of Gallic tunes. But that's for next week... With a bit of luck the snow is melting from the runways of Paris and your correspondent will be able to get home to Ireland tomorrow morning for the holidays. If you're travelling somewhere for Christmas, home or away, get there safely and have a good time. Here's the title track from Etienne Jaumet's 2009 E.P., 'Entropy': More ... Aidan Curran Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3960 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3961/Adrian-Crowley-rave-French-review#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3961 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3961&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3961/Adrian-Crowley-rave-French-review Franco-Irish relations are at a bit of a low point these times. (No need for us to go into the why of it here.) Fortunately, 2009 will end with some good news from France for one of our best-loved performers. 'Season Of The Sparks' by Adrian Crowley, full-time singer-songer and part-time festival curator, has got a rave review in the current issue of Les Inrockuptibles. This is excellent news for Crowley - Les Inrocks is France's biggest-selling and most influential music and culture magazine. Crowley lived in Toulouse for a while some years ago, so no doubt he'll be especially pleased by this notice. (Carly Sings and Duke Special have previously got the rave from Les Inrocks too.) Obviously you'd like to know what the handballers are saying about our man. Well, we should point out that Les Inrocks has a very florid and pretentious style. That said, we've translated for you the entire review of Richard Robert from Les Inrockuptibles: The enchanter Dazzling in writing and execution, Irishman Adrian Crowley joins the circle of songwriters who are as impressionistic as they are impressive. By the magic of an alchemy for which the formula escapes us, certain musicians gather in their hands all the beauty that enchants the lives of us music-lovers and mould it into a form at once immediately familiar and totally unheard-of. With his writing of pedigree and his baritone timbre, Irishman Adrian Crowley (already on his fourth album) joins this exclusive category of enchanters. With its classic dimensions (ten tracks, 36 minutes), its disdain for the spectacular and its unshakably balanced tone, 'Season Of The Sparks' will hardly rock the songwriting world to its foundations. However, it causes a considerable effect which lingers long after its final notes have faded away. It is a miracle of equilibrium and elegance that few collections of songs are able to provoke, a unique mix of melodic clarity (established in the enchanting 'Summer Haze Paradise' and later confirmed in already-classic songs like 'The Wishing Seat', 'Liberty Stream' and 'Season Of The Sparks'), harmonic finesse and instrumental draughtsmanship, heightened by an art that is consummate in its execution. Sensitive in his lyrics, Crowley's attention to natural elements finds its full expression in the organic and hazy textures that adorn his ballads in a minor key: electric guitars unravelling in unreal threads ('The Beekeeper's Wife', 'Squeeze Bees'), strings streaming like autumn rain ('The Three Sisters', 'Swedish Room'), echoing synthesisers covering each song in a shimmering veil... Adrian Crowley crosses these special lands with a deceptively impassive voice that at times evokes the warm richness of Bill Callahan. And when he finally disappears after a final moment of grace (the suspenseful 'Pay No Mind') he leaves the obsessive memory of a fantastic wizard bewitching our consciences by means which he'll keep a secret until the end. (original review by Richard Robert/Les Inrockuptibles, translated by Aidan Curran) Well! Fair play to him - let's hope this is the beginning of great success for him here in France. You can listen to these enchanting tunes on Adrian Crowley's MySpace page. Here's the video for 'The Wishing Seat': More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3961 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3962/Get-Back-Guinozzi#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3962 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3962&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3962/Get-Back-Guinozzi Here are the names of real French bands currently doing well on the Paris indie scene: The Bewitched Hands On The Top Of Our Heads; Jil Is Lucky; (Please) Don't Blame Mexico. Leading cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles awarded their CQFD prize for most promising new act of 2009 to The Popopopops. An electro DJ/producer called Julien Brambilla, featured lately in The Guardian and therefore gaining serious UK exposure at a swoop, decided he needed a stage name and so he's calling himself Danton Eeprom. Far be it from your correspondent to pose as some sort of communications expert, but we spot a serious flaw here in French bands and their plans for world domination. The tunes might be good, the look sharp, the live show tight. However, Jacques le Frenchman then ruins it all by calling his band something so awful that no one outside France will ever take them seriously or have a listen. (We should point out that most young French people speak English quite well.) For instance: you might quite fancy some Gallic retro-pop or dancefloor-friendly indie. But there's no way you'd take an uninformed gamble on bands called Diving With Andy or Pony Pony Run Run, right? Right. Could they not have run the name past an English-speaking friend first? Perhaps some enterprising young anglophone here in Paris should set up shop as an English-For-Pop-Music teacher or consultant. (Hmmmm...) All this is inspired by yet another decent French act let down by slack work at the baptismal font: Get Back Guinozzi! (The exclamation mark is theirs. Because calling your band just 'Get Back Guinozzi' would have been ridiculous.) Anyway, the defendants: GBG! are from Toulon in the south of France. At their core is a duo, Eglantine Gouzy and Frederic Landini (right), but they have three bandmates for live shows. Landini is a prominent music promoter - his MIDI project stages an impressive annual festival in Toulon every summer and next February they're bringing The XX down south. GBG! are currently based in London and signed to FatCat Records. Their first album has just come out - it's called 'Carpet Madness' and it's quite good. If you remember your Venn diagrams from maths class, GBG! make lo-fi indie pop that would be the intersection of the sets The Moldy Peaches, The B-52s, Cibo Matto, Belle And Sebastian and '60s reggae-pop. Gouzy, with her accented and simplistic vocal delivery, is an acquired taste. But so is Guinness and you had no qualms about putting in the effort to acquire that one. Their poppy cover of 'Police And Thieves' briefly recalls the stale joke that is Nouvelle Vague but still (just about) works. On the whole, this album has a lot of genuine charm and energy, plus a love of melodic indie pop. Check out tracks from 'Carpet Madness' at the Get Back Guinozzi! MySpace page. Here's the video (note: contains kitsch '70s nudity) for the best song on the album, 'Low Files Tropical': More ... Aidan Curran Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3962 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3963/Charlotte-Gainsbourg-album-our-controversial-verdict#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3963 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3963&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3963/Charlotte-Gainsbourg-album-our-controversial-verdict A quick round up of some notes in the parish bulletin: First, we lend a metaphorical cup of sugar to our new neighbour, 'Alternative Tunings'. Written by Aideen O'Flaherty, it's a blog featuring stuff that isn't obscure French indie-pop or the continuing adventures of the Gainsbourg family, but don't let that put you off. Already, in her very first post, Aideen has spoiled you with five promising new Dublin bands, so 'Alternative Tunings' should be worth checking out regularly. Second, this blog will have its annual Best French Music list in the last week of the year. And, it being also the last week of the decade, we'll hop on the bandwagon and do a version 2000-09 as well. Drop us a comment, mail or tweet if you have suggestions or strong feelings on the matter. Third, it's Christmas here in Paris. (Coincidentally, it's Christmas in Ireland around now too.) We told you last year how the French don't do Christmas songs - but they make up for it in Christmas lights. Department stores here are dazzling and the Champs-Elysées, if you stand in Place de la Concorde and look up, is glowing like a heavenly constellation. Though there's no 'Jingle Bells' ringing out here, the Christmas lights of Paris deux mille neuf have a music connection. This year the lights outside swish department store Printemps were flicked on by Beth Ditto, in Paris for three sold-out Gossip shows at the Bataclan. Meanwhile, illumination duties on the Champs-Elysées were entrusted to Charlotte Gainsbourg. (You see? That family always ends up here somehow.) It's been some year for Charlotte. Back in May she won the Best Actress prize at Cannes for her role in Lars von Triers' typically divisive 'Antichrist'. Now to December, and new album 'IRM' (right) has been released here in France. As you probably know by now, it was produced and co-written by Beck. We've already featured the title track here - a tuneless, monotonous dirge in the manner of 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. On that evidence, the album promised to be something best avoided. Well, here's 'IRM' the album. And, damned with faint praise, it's better than 'IRM' the song. Though never as memorable as her previous long-player, the cool and nocturnal '5:55', it's still decent enough. First single 'Heaven Can Wait' (video below) continues the '66-'67 Beatles vibe with some 'Penny Lane'-style music hall piano chords, while 'Dandelion' sounds like Donovan's 'Mellow Yellow'. It's hard to have strong feelings either way about two such innocuous tracks. Other songs in this vein, like 'Master's Hand' and 'Me And Jane Doe', are less tolerable. This record is a lot more engaging when Gainsbourg leaves the summer of love behind and heads somewhere wintry. 'Vanities' has a lovely Scandinavian bleakness which makes it the album's standout track. (Perhaps next time she should head to Sweden and make the record with Stina Nordenstam.) The melancholic folk-pop balladry of 'In The End' recalls an iconic French pop star of the late '60s and early '70s - not her father, but Françoise Hardy from the time of her 1971 English-language album 'If You Listen'. Never fear: the symphonic and soulful 'Le Chat Du Café Des Artistes' is a clear nod to Serge. As for Beck, his presence is discreet but discernable - there are enough of his trademark alt-folk touches, electronic flavourings and surreal free-association lyrics. That said, non-fans of his have nothing (much) to fear from 'IRM'. So, despite the contaminating effect of its awful title track, 'IRM' is alright. It'll be released in the UK and Ireland in January, when the accompanying press release will no doubt include '"...decent enough... innocuous... alright" (French Letter)'. Oh, and on the album cover she looks like Mrs Sarkozy. You can listen to snippets from each song on Charlotte Gainsbourg's web site. Here's the interesting video for that first single and duet with her producer, 'Heaven Can Wait': More ... Aidan Curran Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3963 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3964/Les-Trans-Musicales#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3964 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3964&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3964/Les-Trans-Musicales The summer is long gone but that doesn't mean we still can't have festivals; one of France's biggest music events begins tonight. Les Trans Musicales takes place in Rennes, in the heart of Brittany, from 2 to 6 December. It being a university city, Rennes has a lively and established music scene. Now in its 31st year, Les Trans Musicales is a weekend of discovering new French and international music either on the festival site or in the city's bars. When we say 'festival site', of course, we don't mean a field or football pitch - Brittany is much like Ireland climate-wise. The main Friday and Saturday shows are held in the Parc Expo, a complex of exhibition centres several kilometres outside Rennes, and fans are dependent on shuttle buses to get there and back. Meanwhile, the city centre bars are buzzing with young bands and visitors. So, who's playing? Anyone you in Ireland might know? Well, on Thursday night Erland Oye's project The Whitest Boy Alive are in a city centre venue called Liberté Bas along with four lesser-known acts. Friday out in the Parc Expo you could see Fever Ray, FM Belfast and Major Lazer among others. Then on Saturday you've got The Very Best (of that thin-sounding Afropop tune 'Warm Heart Of Africa' featuring Ezra Keonig from Vampire Weekend), one-hit wonder Mr Oizo... and that's it for recognisable names. But maybe some of the other acts will be big in 2010 - have a look through the downloadable programme (in pdf) and place your bets. There's only one Irish act at Les Trans Musicales - Derry electro trio The Japanese Popstars are appearing on Saturday night. You can find out more about the winter trip to Rennes on Les Trans Musicales' web site. Here are The Japanese Popstars showing their love for a cartoon series that also inspired Daft Punk - it's their video for the storming 'Rise of Ulysses': More ... Aidan Curran Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3964 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3965/The-Wendy-Darlings#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3965 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3965&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3965/The-Wendy-Darlings If you know your Peter Pan, you'll remember that Wendy Darling was the oldest and wisest of the three children whisked off to Neverland. Once there, she seemed to buck the trend and become more mature and responsible, though without ever making the leap to modern-minded independence. From Neverland we're whisked back to France and the central city of Clermont-Ferrand, mentioned plenty of times before on this blog. The Wendy Darlings (right) are a trio - a girl leading two boys, like their fictional counterparts. They make fun and catchy guitar pop that has one foot in '60s garage-rock and another in '90s indieness. We think they're great. However, it depresses us to write this next bit: the lead singer calls herself Saddam Suzy and the two lads are Dr Poppy and DJ Sepia. Seriously, like - Saddam Suzy. It's best that we just move on and ignore that. The Wendy Darlings have a limited edition 7-track EP out right now on UK label Lostmusic Records, called 'We Come With Friendly Purposes'. They're also getting exposure on CQFD, the new band community/contest of Les Inrockuptibles. But if you want to hear their best songs, go to The Wendy Darlings' MySpace page. 'Enormous Pop' is the track featured on CQFD - there's a homemade YouTube video of the song set to some kitsch Japanese children's television show. However, our favourite is 'Suffer Girl' - the title is a clever pun on the '60s surf-pop vibe of the song. Here are The Wendy Darlings playing 'Suffer Girl' with the accompaniment of - oh yes - line-dancing troupe The Hate It Loud Quadrille:  More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3965 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3966/La-Fleche-dOr-opens-again#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3966 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3966&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3966/La-Fleche-dOr-opens-again La Flèche d’Or, the much-loved music bar in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, opened again last night (23 November), having been closed since the end of April. As we told you, the licence on the premises – a former railway station served by the train that gives the bar its present name – expired on 30 April and complaints from local residents about sound levels meant that major renovation work would be necessary for a new licence to be granted. This being a costly intervention possibly offset by the venue’s popularity and name recognition, the licence was taken on jointly by two established promoters – Alias Production and Asterios Spectacles, operators of successful Paris concert halls like the Bataclan and the Maroquinerie. So, what does the new Flèche look like? Quite like the old one (right), actually – there have been no visible structural changes but we presume the walls are now packed with insulation. There are a couple of layout improvements – the bar is now along the back wall where the few tables were, and the sound desk has been moved from the centre to the side. The crow’s-nest lighting desk has been taken down, so the Flèche lampies have come back to earth. There is no longer a bar in the smoking patio outside, which also has fewer seats. This being Paris, where the natives smoke like chimneys, most local punters should be happy that the previous overcrowding in the corner has been relieved (though it was still busy last night between sets). Even in the last six months of its existence, the old Flèche had abandoned the free-to-entry policy that attracted music-ravenous punters like your correspondent. But at least the charade of “free entry but obligatory ticket to buy a drink, but free entry” has been dropped – to get in last night it cost eight euro, a price which includes one drink at the bar. However, like at music festivals here, you must pay a refundable deposit of one euro for your plastic cup. Will customers wait patiently at a crowded bar to get their one euro refunded at the end of the night, or will they write it off? (Those euros add up.) Still, eight euro to see four acts is always good value and the Flèche’s international reputation means that there’ll be quality somewhere on the line-up. So, what about the music last night? Launching the good ship Flèche d’Or was American singer-songer Chris Brokaw. Unfortunately, his dour Dylan-esque folk-rock wasn’t a great way to whip up a frenzy on such an auspicious night. Next on stage were The Two, a local boy-girl folk-pop duo whose love-and-angst English lyrics were cringefully naff and clichéd. Still, they had celebrity support – actress Charlotte Rampling was there to cheer them on. (We figure that a lady with her was the mother of the girl singer.) Then came the star of the night – Evan Dando, for an acoustic solo set. He hasn’t aged a day since his mid-‘90s indie pin-up heyday – same long, dangling fair hair and sun-kissed good looks. And those songs from ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ and ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads’ are just as ageless. The strength of those songs is the tension between Dando’s happy-go-lucky stage persona and the melancholy in his voice and lyrics. (‘Confetti’ and ‘My Drug Buddy’, two songs that always inspire celebratory audience participation, are really very dark and lonely in their subject matter.) And, of course, their undeniable catchiness. That said, his later songs are a little whimsical and insipid – so we propose that Evan Dando is the Paul McCartney of alt-rock. Brokaw joined Dando onstage for the final furlong, which included a sincere and unironic version of Christina Aguilera’s hit ‘Beautiful’ and a gorgeous acoustic rendition of ‘Ride With Me’. No rock-outs like ‘Rudderless’ or ‘Alison’s Starting To Happen’ but most other bases covered in an hour-long set – Lemonheads fans were well satisfied last night. Upcoming shows at the Flèche include our fellow Irishman in Paris, Perry Blake, this Thursday and The Raveonettes in early December. Full listings are available on the Flèche d’Or MySpace page. The Flèche is back, baby! From last night’s relaunch here’s Evan Dando and Chris Brokaw performing ‘Ride With Me’: More ... Aidan Curran Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3966 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3967/Quiet-week-in-Paris#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3967 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3967&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3967/Quiet-week-in-Paris Of course, the big news from Paris is the fall-out from last Wednesday's World Cup qualifier. After the extraordinary events of the game, thousands of fans in green and white gathered on the Champs-Elysées, which had to be closed. A minority of troublemakers chanting anti-French slogans clashed with riot police. The upshot is that France has been plunged into self-questioning about its moral and cultural position. Yes, it was certainly a major event, Algeria's win over Egypt and qualification for next year's finals. In other news, you might have heard that Ireland lost controversially to France in our own play-off match. Your correspondent was at the Stade de France with the travelling Irish fans; it was an incredible evening with a heartbreaking finale. But thankfully we Irish haven't lapsed into undignified self-pity, crass rabble-rousing and sanctimonious moralising on the national airwaves. The night before, Dublin retro-rocker Imelda May had given a tonic for the troops at a small cabaret bar near Bastille called Le Réservoir. On page two of The Ticket in last Friday's Irish Times you may have seen the striking photo (right) by Paris freelance snapper Rafael Gomez Enriquez (check out his impressive website for more of his concert shots and pictures from his travels), with a few words from your CLUAS Foreign Correspondent (Paris) underneath. In such an intimate venue, especially one up a side-street and with motorbikes outside, May's brand of rockabilly and blues felt exciting and authentic. It's hard to see how she can capture that feeling on record or in an enormodome like the O2 in Dublin - so Irish expats should take advantage of May's tentative steps in foreign cities and smaller clubs. Speaking of the Irish Times, you might have seen Jim Carroll's rave report on Canadian indie-folk-rockers Hey Rosetta! (The exclamation mark is theirs, not ours.) Well, the band were in Paris this weekend so your correspondent went to check them out. They took part in an independent music symposium on Saturday afternoon but we decided to see them the night before as part of a new band event at Le Gibus, a club between République and the Canal Saint-Martin. Only a dozen or so people showed up to see their show, a 25-minute slot between some energetic Libertines-loving schoolkids and a dire hard rock band. Happily, On The Record was on the money: Hey Rosetta! were wonderful. Their vibe is proudly epic and aspirational and poetic, something like Mike Scott's 'big music' from the mid-'80s or a rocked up version of DM Stith's widescreen dreamscapes. (Tim Baker's voice, soaring yet sensitive, is especially evocative.) But their music is still melodic and tightly constructed, without a pick of self-indulgence. They haven't any Irish show lined up at the moment but that's sure to change: make sure you see them. We hear you in Dublin were also treated to a special concert lately: the double bill of St Vincent and Grizzly Bear. On Saturday night their European tour reached La Cigale in Paris - barely. En route from the Crossing Borders festival in The Hague their tour bus broke down, meaning that both acts arrived in Paris two hours late. All this time the venue doors were closed and fans had to queue along Pigalle for those two hours. As soon as the doors opened, St Vincent went straight onstage for a shortened set of only four songs. Because fans were still trying to get into the venue when she started, most people missed the first song and many missed the second and third. Your correspondent missed the first two. (Something similar happened for her at La Route du Rock: her set started just as the gates were opening, meaning that a lot of her French fans also missed the start of her show there too - so Saturday night must have seemed like a bad joke to them.) Then Annie Clark's fans were stunned and angry to hear her say goodnight after fourth song 'Marrow'. It was almost as disappointing as events in the Stade de France (for the Irish in the audience at least).   Grizzly Bear, for their part, got in a good hour onstage. (Paris venues must obey a strict and punitive curfew, so a late finish wasn't possible.) We had been disappointed with them at La Route du Rock in August when their sound seemed vapid and disjointed - but indoors we could hear better the heavy echo effects on vocals and instruments, making for a more satisfying experience. Feist, living in Paris, joined the band to coo along to a glorious 'Two Weeks'. And the encore version of 'He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)' was agreeably odd and unsettling. Unfortunately, earlier events conspired to somewhat spoil the mood, especially for St Vincent fans. But in hindsight and hindhearing Grizzly Bear were great. Just don't ever take a lift off them - as well as Saturday's breakdown they had a minor bus crash in Austria earlier in the week, thankfully with no serious injury or damage. So, an eventful few days for us in Paris. This coming week we hope to see Evan Dando on Monday night at the launch of the newly-refurbished Flèche d'Or, the legendary indie venue that was closed for major soundproofing works earlier this year. On Tuesday night there's a fantastic line-up at the Nouveau Casino: The Antlers, Cymbals Eat Guitars and Liquid Architecture, all for just 15 euros. (Please don't let anything happen to their bus...) And Yo La Tengo are playing the Bataclan on Sunday night. Anyway, from Saturday night's ill-fated show at the Cigale, here's Grizzly Bear and Feist (looking quite feisty with those boxing moves) doing 'Two Weeks': More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3967 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3968/Paris-before-and-after-the-match#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3968 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3968&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3968/Paris-before-and-after-the-match In hope rather than expectation, thousands of Irish people are coming to France this week. We need not dwell on it except to say that your correspondent feels strangely optimistic and calm. Anyway, if you'll be in Paris this week, welcome! Whatever the result, hopefully you'll have a good time here. To this end we've decided to give you a quick guide to going out Seine-side. (A preliminary word: a pint of stout or lager will cost you around €7.00. Most French people don't drink pints, so tourists get caught out. A bottle of wine is cheaper than in Ireland and much better value. But if you must have beer, most supermarkets and small shops sell it cheaply.) If you're here on Tuesday night then you can catch Imelda May playing at a small venue near the Bastille called Le Reservoir. Given that these days she's playing large Irish venues for large Irish ticket prices, seeing her in an atmospheric Paris club for only €15 would be a bit of a coup. (Imagine her surprise at going onstage in chic Paree to be greeted by a gang of Sligo Rovers lads on tour.) Gig-wise it's quiet in Paris this week - though next Tuesday there's a fantastic line-up at the Nouveau Casino: The Antlers and Cymbals Eat Guitars and Liquid Architecture, all for €15. Paris is great. Apart from concerts, where are good places to head out in Paris? Well, rather than any bar in particular we recommend you pick an area and do a bit of a tour. Have you got a metro map to hand? Right: Towards the east, between the stations Parmentier and Menilmontant, you've got an area known to us Paris-residents as Oberkampf. In fact, it's two parallel streets - rue Oberkampf and rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud. No tourists here - Oberkampf is where Parisian indie kids go out. (It's the spiritual home of the Takeaway Shows; many of the early ones were filmed in that area.) You'll find a choice of action-packed little bars with live rock, samba, jazz, folk, electronica and loads more. For a bit of Montmartre, change at Gare du Nord and take the line 2 west to Pigalle. Shielding your eyes from the sleaze, turn right just before the Moulin Rouge and head up rue Lepic. (On the left you'll pass Les Deux Moulins, the bar from 'Amélie'. They serve Guinness there!) At the top of the hill is Abbesses, the part of Montmartre where Parisians go out. You'll find plenty of lively restaurants and bars around there. Similarly, across the city, behind the Panthéon and the Irish college, there's rue Mouffetard with an enjoyable night-time ambience to its eating and drinking. The restaurant with the model cow outside it (we never remember its name, but you'll find it) makes warm and filling specialities from the Alpine region, all at affordable prices. if you want a really wild night of mixing spirits and dancing on tables, head to Bastille and especially rue de Lappe. You'll feel like you never left Temple Bar. (There's a plastic Irish pub there called The Hideout. We like a little bar at the quiet end of the street called le Bar à Nenette - Cork people, they serve Murphy's there!) The Latin Quarter, around Saint Michel, is really a tourist trap full of kebab restaurants. But jazz fans may like to visit the Caveau de la Huchette, a legendary and long-standing venue and club, and you're right near Notre Dame and the famous Shakespeare and Co. bookshop. On the other side of Saint Michel, on rue Saint André des Arts, there's an Irish bar called Corcoran's that stays open until 5 a.m. That's enough for one trip. If you're in the Stade de France or around town, feel free to drop us a line via Twitter: http://twitter.com/french_letter. If you're unlucky enough to have any serious problems, best give the Irish Embassy a shout at + 33 1 44 17 67 00.  Allez les verts!More ... Aidan Curran Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3968 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3969/Emily-Loizeau-wins-Prix-Constantin#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3969 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3969&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3969/Emily-Loizeau-wins-Prix-Constantin In these uncertain times, where can you turn for reassurance and sanity? Who will show vision and daring? Who can read the French music scene like a book? The answer: your CLUAS Foreign Correspondent (Paris). As we predicted would happen, 'Pays Sauvage' by Emily Loizeau has won the 2009 Prix Constantin for France's best album of the year. The prize was awarded at the end of a ceremony in Paris last night. The victory makes up for Loizeau's defeat in the 2006 edition. That year, her debut long-player, 'L'Autre Bout Du Monde', was shortlisted but lost to slam-poet Abd Al-Malik. In truth, with Loizeau's so-so second album winning, the 2009 Prix Constantin ran to form. The prize has usually gone to a solo artist making safely-bohemian chanson française with mostly French lyrics, and 'Pays Sauvage' checks all these boxes. In addition, Loizeau's current rustic-flavoured style is representative of a plethora of folk-pop acts enjoying success in France today. Even though we feel that 'Pays Sauvage' is a step down from the dizzy emotional and creative heights of 'L'Autre Bout Du Monde', we're still happy that she won. Well done. A new edition of 'Pays Sauvage' has just been released, featured seven of the original songs now sung in English. This ties in with Loizeau's series of U.K. shows later this month. No Irish concert has been scheduled for the moment. Rather surprisingly, her new single will be a cover of 'Sweet Dreams' by the Eurythmics. Here she is performing the song Nouvelle Vague-style with French singer Arthur H on a recent television show: More ... Aidan Curran Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3969 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3970/Air-two-Dublin-shows-in-February#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3970 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3970&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3970/Air-two-Dublin-shows-in-February Air will play two nights at the Olympia in Dublin, on 23 and 24 February. The shows are part of the French pair's European tour to promote their latest album, 'Love 2'. We're not really encouraging you to go, of course. This post merely fulfills our commitment to telling you about French acts playing in Ireland. (It's in writing over on the right, just above the blog roll.) 'Love 2' continues Air's recent form in churning out the same old soft-focus retro-futuristic loungecore that you heard and fell asleep to on 'Talkie Walkie' and 'Pocket Symphony', and why would you want to hear more of that? Only continued goodwill towards 'Moon Safari' and the soundtrack to 'The Virgin Suicides' will bring people to these shows. There are plenty of other more interesting and productive things you can do on those nights instead. The second leg games of the first knockout round of the Champions League fall on 23-24 February, so there'll be decent football on television. If you're not into football or television, you could always read a book or go to the cinema or even do some cleaning. (Did you know that vinegar is great for removing water marks and grease from your kitchen and utensils? Meanwhile, a newspaper is very effective for cleaning windows, but make sure your old fella has finished reading it first.) You can hear some of 'Love 2' on Air's MySpace page. Here's the 'Sexy Boy'-esque animated video for the new single, 'Sing Sang Sung':  More ... Aidan Curran Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3970 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3971/Two-Door-Cinema-Club-around-France#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3971 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3971&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3971/Two-Door-Cinema-Club-around-France It's been a while since we told you about Irish acts playing in France. Were you of such a mind, you could accuse us of neglecting our remit and write a sternly-worded letter to the newspaper. But we'll make up for it now by featuring our gallant boys and girls who are coming to Paris in November. The Swell Season played the intimate Maroquinerie this time last year but have now graduated to the larger Bataclan on 9 November. You might remember how 'Once' got a warm reception in France, so it's good to see Glen n' Marketa building on that success. From Marketa Irglova to another duo and more adopted Irish: Rodrigo y Gabriela are also going well in France. The Mexican pair have sold out their show at the Casino de Paris on 12 November. The following night Bell X1 play at the Batofar - one of several boats on the Seine that have been converted into music venues. By coincidence, the Batofar is a former Irish lightship and still painted bright red. That night is Friday the thirteenth so let's hope the boat doesn't sink or isn't haunted by the ghosts of sailors lost at sea. A few days after that, on 17 November, Dublin retro-rocker Imelda May comes to Paris. She's playing at a venue near Bastille called the Reservoir - we've never been there but presumably it's smaller than the O2 in Dublin she'll try to fill before Christmas. More luck to us: a cosy venue will be a great place to see her. (On 18 November, of course, there'll be plenty of Irish in Paris. For fear of bringing down the jinx, let us move along swiftly. We'll just add that U2 will play at the same venue, the Stade de France, in September 2010. Apparently the show is already sold out.) This busy season of Irishness in France begins this weekend with Two Door Cinema Club (right), who are signed to hip Paris-based label Kitsuné. The three Down lads are on the bill of a high-profile, sold-out touring festival organised by French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles, visiting Lille (6 November), Paris (7 November in La Cigale), Nantes (8 November) and Toulouse (10 November - so they've a day off on the 9th). They'll be supporting Passion Pit, Florence And The Machine and Boy Crisis: La Roux were supposed to be appearing too but have just cancelled due to 'medical reasons'. If La Roux had been there, and at such a small venue, it would possibly have been the greatest line-up in pop history (even though Florence leaves us cold). Anyway, Two Door Cinema Club make brash and melodic indie-pop; they're very good at it. Their next Irish appearance is a free Mandela Hall concert in Belfast on 17 November - no Free State shows lined up for the moment. Check out their choons at the Two Door Cinema Club MySpace page, and watch the vidjo for 'Undercover Martyn': More ... Aidan Curran Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3971 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3972/Frances-album-prize-2009-shortlist#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3972 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3972&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3972/Frances-album-prize-2009-shortlist The Prix Constantin, France's equivalent of the Mercury and Choice music prizes, will be presented at a ceremony in Paris on 9 November. The winner will be selected by a jury chaired this year by icky-voiced chanson française singer Olivia Ruiz. A quick recap of the rules: to qualify, an act must have made their album in France and never have attained gold sales status, which in France is currently 75,000 units. (No fear of that these days, says you the cynic.) You don't have to sing in French or even be French: Asa, last year's winner, is Nigerian and sings in English and Yoruba. That said, her victory bucked past form: the winner is usually a solo artist performing a rather unadventurous album that's mostly in French. And this blog's favourite artists never win - non-runners this time round include Emilie Simon, General Elektriks and Kim, while the disappointing albums by Phoenix and Plastiscines didn't get a call-up either. So, here's a look at this year's shortlist of ten, in reverse order of likely winner. Sorry, Birdy Nam Nam and Diving With Andy - there's more than one of you, you don't have a word of French on your album and you got great praise from us. Don't go clearing space on the mantelpiece. Facetiousness apart, the pleasant '60s pop of Diving With Andy might be a good long-odds bet but it's hard to see this prize going to BNN out on left-field. Controversial rapper Orelsan made international headlines during the summer festival season. Local politicians objected to him performing his track 'Sale Pute' (which translates as 'dirty whore'), allegedly glorifying violence against women, at events supported by public funding. His name on the shortlist will gain media attention for both Orelsan and the Prix Constantin and that'll probably be that. This leaves us with the depressing fact that seven of the ten shortlisted albums for the Prix Constantin can be filed with the coffee-table folk-pop that's popular these days among the Paris bourgeois bohemian set. Amazingly, there are THREE male English singer-songers on the list. The likeable Fredo Viola brings electronica and a slight indieness to the table. Piers Faccini, drawing on world sounds, also has his charms, while Hugh Coltman's acoustic jazz-pop is fairly bland. But the French will hardly give the goodies to an Englishman... right? Back to the home contenders: Babx and Yodelice - it must have been a windy day at the baptism font - are up-and-coming male artists in the chanson française genre that prizes wordplay over melodies. Their more established peer Dominique A, familiar to Stephin Merritt fans from his appearance on The 6ths' 'Hyacinths And Thistles', ploughs a deeper furrow of dark, poetic expression that does without fripperies like catchy tunes. Hugely popular and respected in France, he's worth a few bob down the bookies. And so we come to the only other woman included, besides Diving With Andy's singer Juliette Pacquereau, on a list featuring a rapper accused of misogyny. Now, Emily Loizeau is someone your blogger has raved about fairly often so you'd think she'd be a no-hoper. Ha! In a move of daring ingenuity, she made 'Pays Sauvage' - a rather ordinary album of bandwagonesque folk-pop mostly in French. Solo artist; mainstream sound; lyrics mainly en français - isn't this exactly where the Prix Constantin tends to go? Genius! So, Emily Loizeau for the win, which would make up for her fantastic 'L'Autre Bout Du Monde' losing in 2006. Each way bets to cover your derrière: Diving With Andy and Dominique A. But we'd really like to see Birdy Nam Nam somehow win this. The full list of runners and riders, with MySpace links for each, is: Babx  - 'Cristal Ballroom' [sic] Birdy Nam Nam - 'Manual For Successful Rioting' Hugh Coltman - 'Stories From The Safe House' Diving With Andy - 'Sugar Sugar' Dominique A - 'La Musique' Piers Faccini - 'Two Grains Of Sand' Emily Loizeau - 'Pays Sauvage' Orelsan - 'Perdu d'Avance' Fredo Viola - 'The Turn' Yodelice - 'Tree of Life'   And here's Emily Loizeau, the favourite in the parade ring, with 'Sister':  More ... Aidan Curran Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3972 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3973/Plastiscines-come-unstuck#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=3973 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=3973&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/3973/Plastiscines-come-unstuck You might recall, if you've been around here long enough, that in 2006 we featured the 'Paris Calling' compilation of new young French garage rock bands. A surprisingly high proportion of them seemed to have attended the 2003 Paris concert by The Libertines and copied the London band's scuzzy retro-punk sound. Mainly middle-class teenagers from comfortable suburbs, they were lumped together by a cynical French music media as 'babyrockers' - which betrays the middle-age status and mentality of many in the music press here. ("Young people being in bands! Not in my day they were!") One of these bands actually met and formed at that Libertines gig. However, Plastiscines (right) immediately distinguished themselves from their Doherty-worshipping peers. For one thing, they were a group of four girls: the other bands were mostly young lads in thrall to the immature and cliched Ramones-style gang image. Also, they were happy to play at being glamorous pop stars, appearing in photoshoots for fashion glossies as well as music mags. And they sounded nothing like the other bands - their reference points were The B-52s, Sleater Kinney and such U.S. punk-pop, with a hint of '60s Frenchness for local colour. Most importantly, Plastiscines did it very well: their 2007 debut 'LP1' was crammed with snappy, catchy, charismatic songs befitting independent-minded young people. Unfortunately for them, heavy promotion for the record's French release seemed to weary the mainstream public and embolden the band's humourless muso critics. Their drummer quit and so did her replacement. This bad luck at home was tempered by well-received shows in North America, naturally more receptive than conservative France to girls playing electric guitars. So, their second album has just come out and feels like it's aimed at a U.S. market: 11 of the 12 songs are in English and the band recently appeared in two episodes of hit series 'Gossip Girl'. However, 'About Love' is seriously disappointing - it feels like merchandise rather than music and that's always a symptom of the dreaded second album syndrome. Many songs here sound like formulaic rehashes of familiar alt-rock. For instance, first single 'Barcelona' has hints of The White Stripes' 'Seven Nation Army' about it. Other tracks are half-ideas and quarter-ideas stretched beyond breaking: a song called 'Bitch', where singer Katty Besnard lists various ways in which she is the eponymous disagreeable female, is particularly dumb and depressing in this regard. But the most unpleasant surprise about this record is how lifeless and boring it sounds. The charm, personality and swagger of their debut songs have disappeared. This could be any band, any uninspired or derivative guitar group: Plastiscines seem to have come down to the level of their 2006 babyrocker peers. Oh well. You can check for yourself on Plastiscines' MySpace page. Here's the video for 'Barcelona': More ... Aidan Curran Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:3973