Why no French rock n roll?

Also, who need French rock 'n' roll when you have French pop?

stupid Americans.

Your theory doesn't work too well for Cuba. Why they would want to bother with rock and roll when there are a zillion different forms that have developed locally out of Afro-Latin roots is beyond me. Actually, at the moment hip-hop seems to be pretty big in Cuba. But Cuba's popular music has remained quite vital despite the heavy state centralization. Cuban forms have spread to Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, New York City, etc., among other places, and have gone on to mutate according to local needs. If anything, the Cuban public has been less interested in seeing older traditions conserved than, say Puerto Rico. That's why new hybrids like timba are developing in Cuba.

The french have great rap though.

I suspect that rebellious french yoof imported their music and got super anglo/ameri-philic in the 60s then all went off and got depressed and started listening to/making crap experimental music or withdrawing into resurgent nationalism and their own euro-diva tradition in the 70s after '68 went bust, then the new wave of excitement's been from the immigrant population (Algerian in particular) which has produced its own hybrid forms for years which are now incorporating/merging with rap.

Some of the experimental stuff sounds okay to me. Heldon is not all bad (though I just sold off my only Heldon CD a month or so ago). I am hoping I have not made a mistake by ordering the Etron Fou Leloublan collection. They sound good on Frith's "Speechless," but I can't remember too much of what they sound like alone. And Univers Zero, well, they are pretty blah, I have to admit. Carpe Diem anyone? No. I'm afraid you are more right than wrong, actually.

Jacques Dutronc, Antoine et Ses Problemes, Les Sinners, Les Sultans, all those YehYeh girls.

MBV, surely. But that works too.

i was so dumb

What did you learn?

Anyway, there's plenty of French rnr. It's just that most of it is not exported

It's not exported because it's not very good, though. The fact remains that the French are good at pop, not so good at rock. (Yes, vast generalisation, of course there must be good French rock bands out there etc. etc. Still.)

There's enough homegrown not-very-good rock to go round

hooray!

um..

well if you do a ratio good-bad rnr and you add the difficulty of exporting music in a foreign language, i think you'll fidn that the situation isn't that different.

Anyway, I guess I could accept the idea that the whole grittiness that's implied in rnr does not come off as cool to the french psyche as in the UK or in the US

I thought they loved the rnr in France?

yes. Doesn't make it french tho.

what kind of rnr are we talking about though?

All that leather jackets/ sunglasses/ fag hangin' out corner of mouth/ Keef bollocks. Or is that just the French habitués of ye olde Camden Town?

The "difficulty of exporting music in a foreign language" argument works for the mainstream, less so for the kind of people who read ILM, who may well listen to a lot of French stuff from Gainsbourg to Daft Punk but not to any French rock.

Tattoos, tight jeans, earrings, motorcycle boots, kerchiefs... dunno about the music mind you

i. the french love anything that is developed, structured, refined and practiced by experts, i.e. tennis, rugby, disco, wine, the plastic arts, painting, jazz, prostitution

ii. on the other hand, they love to be contrary and rub your nose in shit

iii. french people do not enjoy the minutemen or husker du

One day I will own that 150-odd disc Johnny Halliday singles box.

make sure you also get the johnny hallYday singles box

actually don't

France has become a big hotspot for Black Metal in recent times. They love Rock'n'Roll too.

interesting

yup!

Anyway, there isn't much French rock, not much Italian rock, and not much Spanish rock ... but you get some crazy rock from the UK, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, etc. You get the best pop and dance from France and Italy. Maybe rock is more of a Germanic rather than Latinate thing.

The last Phoenix lp was kinda rock

there are LOADS of french rock bands. especially at the moment. all the kids play in bands nowadays. they all suck though...

Pink Panzers?

Last year I was dropping of the other Redds and Blecchs at the airport and I saw some dudes who were clearly a band, although they had distinct mismatching styles, including one skinny George Michael-looking guy and one short Don Was-looking guy. I asked Don Was what the name of his band was and he said "Rock and Roll!" I said "no, the NAME of your band." He said "Rock and Roll!" again and pointed to another guys guitar case which had a bumper sticker on it that said "Rock and Roll." When I got home I tried to look them up online and thought: this must be the stupidest band name ever-they are ungoogleable. I finally found out who they were- they are French- when somebody told me one one of the guys showed up on the Gilmore Girls sequel.

There was another musician I recognized at the airport that day with a white cello case, he was much less ridiculous.

Magma were pretty damn great. But, significantly, they did not sing in French.

CRASH NORMAL, bootches!

Cheveu album less rock than hoped but give 'er a shot

there are lots of french rock bands, but they all sound like ersatz Kaiser Chiefs, who are already ersatz-ersatz ________.

it pisses me off that they don't sing in french, though. at least, none of my friends' bands sing in french: the midnight vultures, this is the hello monster!, bumble bees (last two are not really rnr)

Magma were pretty damn great. But, significantly, they did not sing in French.

Not terribly rock and roll either, to be frank

Magma were pretty damn great. But, significantly, they did not sing in French.
Haha. I think JW started a thread in that language once, but I can't find it.

why do european bands choose to write and perform songs in english?

doesn't anybody remember trust? chuck, maybe. man, now I really wanna hear some trust.

What about that indie pop band Autour de Lucie? Does that count? Probably not.

Trust

xpost
ahah, no baaderonixx, I wasn't talking about pkpz (who don't exist anymore, remember ? great loss for music, I must say !).

As for the bands I was talking about, most of them do sing in french. the scene has been tagged "les baby rockeurs".

and you all forgot two of the most famous french rock bands : rita mitsouko and noir desir !

i revived this because of hearing "andy" last weekend!

i think the case was being made that les rita mitsouko were more pop than rock, AleXTC, though i'm not sure i buy the distinction

i think there is something about the entire swathe of noisy, non-danceable post-punk, extending into hardcore and 90s indie rock, which just completely bypasses french people

... apart from Metal Urbain

yeah maybe this is changing though, or maybe i'm wrong

am fascinated by the concept of "baby rockeurs" and the embrace of indie more completely by the french in that it possibly points to the end of rock, at least in the form many of us are interested in it, i.e. as a constantly-becoming machine, rather than a finished product to be endlessly refined, turned over, polished (realize i'm veering dangerously close to s. reynolds territory here)

"miniscule hey" from bordeaux -

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=86920608

No mention of Alcest on this thread??

(I just did a quick search so could be wrong. They rock though.)

"it pisses me off that they don't sing in french, though. at least, none of my friends' bands sing in french"

its pretty difficult to sing r'n'r in french (or italian, by the way): english is the its natural language, just like melodrama sounds more convincing when sung in italian. "che gelida manina" isn't the same thing of "what an icy little hand".

that said there are tons of great (not necessarily "rock") french bands.

Alcest sings in French!

well, I was wondering about les rita but "c'est comme ca for instance" is clearly rock. but I don't see clearly the distinction between rock and pop, especially for acts who have a wide range of compositions.
as for post-punk, many bands went the electropop/cold/novo disco way, in France (reminds me of the "des jeunes gens modernes" exposition at the agnes b gallery in paris these days).
and metal urbain are friends of mine ! (but i'm not too fond of their music...)

i think there is something about the entire swathe of noisy, non-danceable post-punk, extending into hardcore and 90s indie rock, which just completely bypasses french people

I'm not sure that's true. I did a term of school in France in 1980, and the 12-year-olds were listening to rock (well they were listening to Kiss). Then in the 80s there was a lot of worship of the usual suspects, Velvet Underground, Doors etc. I don't think it's a question of French people then not appreciating rock or non-dance guitar music, it's a question of what transplants well into French culture. Rock is more of an alien form than pop, which is more easily related to a broad history of French popular music, with lots of French performers crossing over from chanson to pop in the 60s and 70s.

xpost: i. Metal Urbain played at the Hundred Club Festival where Sid put a girl's eye out by throwing a beerglass = THEY ARE PUNK HURRAH = not rock'n'roll obv

Mais non! The French punk rockers at the 100 Club festival were the Stinky Toys.

http://www.myspace.com/wauylosarrrghs

not french. still good.

Kiss weren't rock, they were a circus act that happen to play music!

Little Bob Story!

yeah zelda a lot of older generation frenchies (many many younger-gen) love creedence, the doors, zeppelin, etc. but i feel like this sort of proves my point - none of those bands were really "becoming" they were more "now that rock's got to this point, let's consolidate and perfect"

granted this is all WILD generalization about an entire country

Looks like you're starting to think like a Frenchman already, Tracer.

I'd classify Les Rita Mitsouko as dance-rock -- like, um, B-52s or somebody. (Actually, every time I heard Santogold's "L.E.S. Artists" these days, I think of Les Rita Mistouko, but maybe that's just my ears playing tricks on me.) But Noir Desir are definitely rock -- hard rock. With a very evil singer, apparently. I also like Elmer Foodbeat, Niagara, Les Negresses Vertes, Guesch Patti (well, the one song I heard by her), La Muerte, Metal Urbain (also repeatedly mentioned above), Um Pah Pah (Basque -- that counts right?), and some other bands I'll probably remember a few minutes after I type this. French rock is fine!

xxpost

Yes, I see your point. It does feel that french rock bands are copy-paste clones of whatever is rocking the anglo-saxon world at a given time (rather than naturally evolving phenomena)

Where's the Heavy Metal?

Trust is kind of metal

Not a lot to show tho, hasn't every country got shitloads of metal bands?

french rock bands are copy-paste clones of whatever is rocking the anglo-saxon world

I don't hear that at all -- at least, not the bands I mentioned. They mostly sound nothing like UK and US bands; if anything, I'd say they're closer to the weird rock that comes out of Mexico and other Spanish language countries. (For one thing, they seem to have kept new wave dance rhythms and, in some cases, Afro-Caribbean beats in their music in the late '80s and '90s long after most Anglo bands had stiffened up.) (Mano Negra, who were also great, may have done this more than anybody else, really.)

And yeah, Trust were very metal (with a bit of disco stuck in there.) And they were good, too. And Shakin Street (two late '70s albums) were metal, too, and completely awesome; Fabienne Shine has a solo career these days, and she still sounds pretty good.

But Noir Desir are definitely rock -- hard rock.

Yep. But they never crossed over into the Anglosphere, did they? Another theory: maybe it's just a perception issue after all. We don't want to think of the French as rock. It doesn't fit into our stereotype, so we don't bother to listen to any of their rock.

re. language issue - why did Stereolab manage to get a pretty respectable audience?

oh and streaming last.fm radio of french metal

For those who want to know more about the "baby rockeurs" scene in Paris, there's the documentary "paris sans pitié nous appartient". gives you a fairly good idea of the paris indie/rock scene over the last years.

funny thing about it is that most of the people who despise the baby rockeurs and shit on them in the documentary are (old) people who, for years, have been idolizing this scene... pretty pathetic... (not for criticizing since all these bands are awful but for liking them in the first place!)

As for "rock n roll", speaking of "metal urbain", eric debris produced and helped them a lot. they still suck.

It doesn't fit into our stereotype, so we don't bother to listen to any of their rock.

Very possible.

French rock on CDbaby!:

http://cdbaby.com/places/5FR0/rock

they seem to have kept new wave dance rhythms... in their music in the late '80s and '90s

Another great example of this would be Indochine! Who were remembering what bands like the Cars and Police sounded like long after everybody in the UK and US had forgotten -- and long before far less interesting Anglo indie hipster bands started trying to remember again, starting in the early '00s or so.

ah Indochine...

Telephone in the '80s

...are also said to have been quite rocking, though I'm not sure I've ever actually heard them myself.

i think there is something about the entire swathe of noisy, non-danceable post-punk, extending into hardcore and 90s indie rock, which just completely bypasses french people
-- Tracer Hand

I gather there's a whole lot of French post-rock (Sincabeza, Absinthe Provisoire, to name some I remember liking out of many more I've forgotten) and math-rock (Duracell, Cheval de Frise, Chevreuil, Pneu) out there. Still, most of that is instrumental.

As far as French lyrics go, the only band this rosbif recalls hearing in the past year or so is Steeple Remove, who I guess are slightly krautish rock, like a more guitarry Fujiya and Miyagi, maybe.

I don't know many French people but the twenty- and thirty-somethings I've met over here have included a lot of metalheads, if that means anything.

Albini-produced French hardcore-ish indie rock cult heroes from early 90s: Sloy - Pop

re. language issue - why did Stereolab manage to get a pretty respectable audience?

- didn't come from/live in France
- 'Frenchness' inherent to their music is delivered through a sort of filter of acceptability ie chanson or whatever you call it

Don't know most of the bands spacecadet just listed but FWIW Duracell is a Welsh dude who moved to France. As a result of putting him on a few years ago I get quite a few emails from French punk/posthardcore bands looking to book UK tourdates. Don't recall any awesome ones but there was a band called NED who were OK.

Monarch are a French doom metal band and are pretty killer. They have some compadres around the country I think - Year Of No Light spring to mind

I am listening to these Steeple Remove right now and they're surprisingly good

tho more shoegazy than Krautish I'd say

lot of great french rock, the fatals, sonic chicken 4, magnetix, the feeling of love, volt, mighty go go players, jack of heart, etc.

Duracell is a Welsh dude who moved to France

Didn't know this! Interesting move.

Yeah, I guess Steeple Remove on the whole aren't too krautrocking; the tracks I heard before I got the album were more so and I got excited for the album, and then I was a bit disappointed and haven't played it for a while. But anyone who calls a track Desorient Express is fine by me.

ye ye was as R&R as any american pre-beatles twist act

Telephone seems to have been missed. Utterly rock and roll band on Virgin. Debut album had an AC/DC influence but the Stones seemed their biggest inspiration. Had one album produced by Bob Ezrin and were very big in their native country. Took one stab at touring in the US and were unfairly slaughtered in small dives sometimes in the mid-Eighties. The debut is very good. Crache ton Venin -- "Spit Venom" loosely, their second, was uniformly excellent. All the records span fair to great.

Shakin' Street were French, too. Made a debut on an overseas imprint of CBS, were brought to San Francisco and managed by Sandy Pearlman who attached Ross the Boss to them. One domestic album resulted -- a good one. Not necessarily better than their debut sans Ross the Boss and Pearlman. Sang their lyrics in English, as opposed to Telephone, who sang in their native language. Telephone was, however, also much better than Shakin' Street.

Monarch rock.

Deathspell Omega for more French metal.

And Bernard Szjaner, who invented the laser harp, and did some Zeuhly sort of proto-techno. Check out side B of his Some Deaths Take Forever LP.

There's a great quote on his website from a critic who said 'If you prefer music to McDonald's, try this'. Can't argue with that, really.

"MacDo"

a whole lot of French people have no patience for anything they see as qualitatively inferior (like MacDonald's), whereas a lot of Americans (and Brits) take a pride in bog-standard crap (but it's OUR crap) that maybe started as perverse but gradually became ingrained, i.e. "i'd rather drink budweiser than some fancy microbrewed bullshit". this latter attitude simply doesn't exist in France or is so marginal as to be practically nonexistent, regardless of class; yet it's this attitude that has grounded a lot of rock and roll, isn't it? "we may not be very good, but dammit we rock"

It always startled me that Telephone found no fans in the US. Even despite the general American animosity toward Frenchmen. They seemed natural for NYC, yet they failed miserably. They definitely rocked and wrote very good hooks. If you went to the trouble to find out what they were singing about, there was a warmness as much as their was rebellion in much of what they did. They could not have made records with English lyrics and achieved the same.

i'll check it out, i've never knowingly heard a single note!

was kind of surprised by m83 on their first tour: 2 guitars, bass and drums and only one keyboard.

The first Blut Aus Nord is amazing, almost Goblin-esque synths. Not feeling the later stuff so much.

how has this thread gone on so long with no mention of the CHICO MAGNETIC BAND!!

Which is the 1st Blut Aus Nord? Ultima Thulée? I enjoy Mort and the Goblin comparison intrigues me.

There are better zeuhl bands than Magma?

Koenjihyakkei! Not from France, tho.

Yes, Ultima Thulée is the first from BAN. Quite different to their later stuff, though definitely BM. I don't know if anyone else would hear the Goblin comparison - maybe I'm just saying "prog but in a good way" + creepy - but there are some stunning atmospheric keyboards.

Oh yeah, have been meaning to check that out.
Oh yeah, have been meaning to check this out

Many times on here I feel like I'm missing the point- the in joke.

Why has nobody mentioned Les Thugs?

Oh and that first Stinky Toys single was great.

Alcest are not rock n roll but a decent French bit of action

M83 are great rock n roll driving music. I've done them on the M1, M62, A15, A63 and the B1500 but never jived on the M83. Where is it?

Tracer's posts on this thread regarding Gallic cultural tendencies are edifying

that being said, I will echo whoever upthread vouched for Phoenix's last release as evidence that French ppl like to and can rock

how has this thread gone on so long with no mention of the CHICO MAGNETIC BAND!!
Oh yeah, have been meaning to check this out
I R an idiot

love trust... how great is préfabriqués, song + video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaPEZNnb5OQ

they spraypaint "societe" on a piece of corrugated tin and then BEAT IT with LEAD PIPES

and they continue to inspire a current generation of french rockers to carry on the tradition, look they're even in a garage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IntuU7XFLg

(neither of those videos actually feature trust)

Why has nobody mentioned Les Thugs?

thanks dell although i feel i'm on shaky ground - there are surely specific exceptions to everything i've said

maybe a better way to look at this is what rock and pop becomes mainstream in france - what's loved by a big cross-section of french society? what becomes so loved that it spawns legions of french imitators? eddy mitchell, for instance, is/was one of the biggest french musicians ever, and he made his name doing straight up copies of nashville country records with a slightly rockin, eddie rabbit feel to them. emo will never inspire the same thing but i wonder if that's just because everything is nichified these days

Present day Indochine is as emo as it gets and they are huge in France.

the biggest band amongst the emo kids in france nowadays is german though !

but to get back to the subject, it's been a while since french youth hasn't been that fond of rock. even alizee rocks now !

xpost

Eddy Mitchell started out as a straight up rock'n'roller didn't he, along with Hallyday? I think he belonged to that category of Elvis clones that seemingly all European countries threw up in the late 50s/early 60s. Actually one of the things that surprised me when I first went to France was how popular all that 50s rock still was there, and how everyone seemed to know how to "danser le rock" (I'm talking 1980s here).

there are emo kids in France??

yeah Zelda, dancing with someone else i.e. hand on shoulder, spinning them around etc is even now called "dancing rock and roll"

Clair Obscur = France's answer to Joy Division - explosive post-punk coldwave

experience it:

CLAIR OBSCUR - Statues - 1983
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khPydYdNx6k

yeah, you're right. actually, most of the bigs music stars in france started out as rockers : eddy, johnny, dick, jean jacques goldman, renaud...
and indeed most of the babyboomers know how to "danser le rock". amongst the youngest generation, it's more a bourgeois thing.

(ok, dick rivers is not really a "star"...)
oh, and one of the most famous rock journalist (philippe manoeuvre) IS a star now (he was in the jury of a tv pop star contest) !

so, this thread shows that there actually IS french rock n roll !

bang uptodate in 2008, a superb post-punk band from France: No Tears

No Tears
http://www.myspace.com/spaceofnotears

Descendants from french cold wave scene (Little Nemo, Neutral Project, Marquis de Sade, Opera de Nuit..) and admirers of creative post-punk bands such as early The Cure, Joy Division, Psychedelic Furs, Tuxedomoon, The Names and Sad Lovers and Giants... No Tears assert their melancholic and grazed music with a powerful second album. When Love seems to merge with Hate...

I finally found out who they were- they are French- when somebody told me one one of the guys showed up on the Gilmore Girls sequel.

Très rock'n'roll I dare say.

No mention of Treponem Pal at any point? I'll mention them now then, first two albums are brilliant.

France's answer to Joy Division

I just googled that phrase to see if anything would come up and it did: a band called Trisomie 21. Never heard of them though. Never heard of Clair Obscur either, I'll check them out.

French Coldwave music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldwave_(France)

Coldwave or "ColdPop" initially referred to a French style [1] of post-punk and early Dark Wave music in the 1980s, taking its cue from bands like Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Cure,Siouxsie & The Banshees and the dreamy style of The Chameleons, Sad Lovers and Giants and And Also The Trees. The French style, also called "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave), manifested in music by artists such as KaS Product, Martin Dupont, Asylum Party, Norma Loy, Clair Obscur, Opera Multi Steel and Trisomie 21.

If you're interested in that whole scene you should check out the compilation that accompanied that recent French post-punk exhibit in France:
http://www.myspace.com/desjeunesgensmodernes

tracklisting

CD 1

1 Perspective Nevski – "Moment Of Hate"

2 Mécanique Rythmique – "Extase"

3 Guerre Froide – "Ersatz"

4 Artefact – "Sex Computer"

5 Modern Guy – "Electrique Sylvie"

6 Marquis de Sade – "Cancer & Drugs"

7 Suicide Romeo – "Moderne Romance"

8 Etienne Daho – "Il ne dira pas"

9 Lizzy Mercier Descloux – "Torso Corso"

10 Medikao – "Détective"

11 Tokow Boys – "Elle hotesse"

12 Henriette Coulouvrat – "Can’t You Take A Joke? "

13 Charles de Goal – "Exposition"

14 Procédé – "D. Moments"

15 Seconde Chambre – "Victoires prochaines"

16 Les Provisoires – "So Much More"

17 Taxi Girl – "V2 sur mes souvenirs"

18 Marie et les Garçons – "24 fois par seconde"

19 Les Fils de Joie – "Adieu paris"

20 Masoch – "Des poils sur moi"

CD 2

1 Elli & Jacno – "Main dans la main"

2 Ruth – "Mots"

3 International Sin – "The Bal"

4 End Of Data – "Jungle Soho"

5 Kas Product – "man of time"

6 MKB Fraction Provisoire – "Fights In Technonights"

7 Metal Boys – "Tokio Airport"

8 Mathématiques Modernes feat. Henry Flesh – "Manekine"

9 Visible – "Essor assuré"

10 Norma Loy – "Romance"

11 Martin Dupont – "Just because"

12 Tanit – "Eyes Scream"

13 Casino Music – "Burger City" (alternative mix)

14 Electric Callas feat. Patrick Vidal – "W. S. B." (version 2008)

15 Poni Hoax – "Wanda’s Loving Boy" (Marquis de Sade cover)

16 DC Shell – "Chercher le garçon" (Taxi Girl cover)

17 The Penelopes feat. Chloé Delaume – "Je t’aime tant" (Elli & Jacno cover)

18 Sandy trash – "Fier de ne rien faire" (Les Olivensteins cover)

19 Dry Monopole – "Elégante solution" (Octobre cover)

20 Toma Feat. Henning – "Moment Of hate" (Perspective Nevski cover)

La compilation Des Jeunes Gens Mödernes associe les groupes incontournables
de la scène new & cold wave française (Marquis de Sade, Elli et Jacno,
Taxi Girl, Marie et les garçons, Artefact, Suicide Roméo, Mathématiques
Modernes, Charles de Goal…) à diverses formations beaucoup plus obscures,
aux noms évocateurs et aux carrières souvent météoriques, qui n’ont pour la
plupart sorti qu’un ou deux 45 tours, souvent autoproduits, quelques titres
sur des compilations régionales ou, au mieux, un unique album (Guerre
froide, Ruth, Les provisoires, End of data, Perspective Nevski, Masoch, Les
Fils de Joie…).
Sur les 40 morceaux que rassemble cette compilation beaucoup n’ont jamais
été réédités et certains, disponibles uniquement en vinyle, sont devenus
aujourd’hui très difficiles à trouver.
Visant à dépasser les frontières du cercle restreint des collectionneurs
avertis, ce projet est l’occasion de faire accéder un plus large public à
toute une partie du patrimoine musical pop français (finalement assez
méconnue en dehors d’une poignée de groupes marquants qui ont fait carrière
ou qui, du fait de leur succès ponctuel à l’époque, sont restés dans les
mémoires au fil des années).
On y retrouve en outre 4 titres totalement inédits : le « 24 fois par
seconde » de Marie et les garçons, enregistré live lors du concert organisé
pour les 10 ans du label New Rose en 1990 (pour la petite histoire, les
membres de ce combo lyonnais culte et précurseur n’avaient pas rejoué
ensemble depuis 15 ans avant cet événement, et leur reformation du groupe
pour cette unique date fut le dernier concert officiel de Marie et les
garçons). Autre inédit, « Manekine », morceau créé en1979 par la formation éphémère (composée d’Edwige Belmore, Claude Arto et Henry Flesh) qui
précéda Mathématiques Modernes. Toujours inédit et resté jusque là à l’état
de démo au fond d’un carton, le « Jungle Soho » de End Of Data, trio
rennais avant-gardiste, actif de 1983 à 1986, qui a brillamment préfiguré
toute la vague electro/minimal synth. Et enfin, une version alternative du
« Burger City » de Casino Music, groupe phare du label ZE Records, qui
enregistre dès 1978 son premier single autoproclamé after punk, et dont un
des membres, Gilles Riberolles, collaborera notamment avec David Bowie,
Blondie et James Chance.
Opérant avec l’élégance et la sophistication qui lui sont propres la
transition entre le passé (1978) et le présent (2008), Jangil Callas, avec
la complicité de Patrick Vidal, nous livre par ailleurs une version
réactualisée de « W.S.B. », le morceau culte d’Electric Callas, qui évoque
si bien à travers ses lyrics énigmatiques et futuristes un des auteurs les
plus sulfureux de la contre culture américaine.
Le dernier quart du track list regroupe quant à lui des reprises de titres
de l’époque par des groupes actuels qui revendiquent chacun à leur manière
cet héritage musical. Ainsi Poni Hoax reprend « Wanda’s loving boy » de
Marquis de Sade, The Penelopes featuring Chloé Delaume revisite « je t’aime
tant » d’Elli et jacno, Sandy Trash s’attaque à « Fier de ne rien faire »
des Olivensteins, Toma featuring Henning nous livre sa version du « Moment
of Hate » de Perspective Nevski, DC Shell réinterprète « chercher le garçon
» de Taxi girl et Dry Monopole rend hommage à Octobre à travers une reprise
groovy d’« Elégante solution ».

yeah they just like that stuff cause it seems nihilistic

i want to hear more about french emo kids!!

May I shamelessly plug my very good friends from "Housse de racket" here ?
There first album will be released in October and I wouldn't be surprised if they become very popular - at least in France...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5HtGwVVUpvI

one of my faves from this decade:

Mystic Forest
http://www.myspace.com/mysticforestband

atmospheric avant-garde melodic black metal

Mystic Forest is a romantic black metal band with classical and folk influences. The band hails from France, and was formed in 1997.

French emo= http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=5yQV0IAvmpA&feature=related

and some more: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=HZLmczqPTC8

Killer Man by Gasoline urgent and key!

btw Asylum Party are the shit

Ladies and gentleman, SOGGY.

p.s. killer man = killer song

no mention of gojira. how sad

Also these guys:
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:YkgCuKqySm6BLM:http://bp0.blogger.com/_pkDNJyttaOE/R-BulhxsSjI/AAAAAAAAAEg/M-MAh7QvULY/s320/Dogs%252B-%252BDifferent%252B-%252BFront.jpg

I came here to mention Metal Urbain but they've already been mentioned over and over! Jello Biafra produced their last album I believe. Are they rock and roll? To close the case once and for all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJx80Q6FZaE&feature=related

Trop cool, as the top comment says.

BTW that clip is NSFW

The Encyclopaedia Metallum lists 2,824 bands under France. I guess some people there do dig the Rock.

http://www.metal-archives.com

OK:
i. Metal Urbain played at the Hundred Club Festival where Sid put a girl's eye out by throwing a beerglass = THEY ARE PUNK HURRAH = not rock'n'roll obv
ii. Jerry Lewis is GRATE
iii. Isn't the point abt Sweden that they are SO socialist that they subsidise you ANYWAY? In France you have to jump over a qualifying bar, in Sweden you can just blunder under it.
iv. I always heard N.'s lingistic theory also, tho it appears it wd apply in Belgium just as badly-uh. Helenfordsdale: punXoR or rock& roll?
v. Il y'a pas de cinq.
vi. French yoot picked up on rad-pop topsyturvy "critical theory" via film — Godard on Hawkes and Truffaut on Hitchcock = Ewing on Britney and Ned on er Tool — which is unfortunately not a medium where the audience clamber up ovah the footlights when they are fucked off with how it's done. Unless you think The Fifth Element is an answer record to Les Chinoises.
vii. Léon *is* an answer record to Jules et Jim.
viii. Jerry Lewis is GRATE but Eddy Murphy is BETTAH
xi. This is where you come in.
-- mark s,

Wow!!

Hand: did you end up marrying this mysterious French person?

anyway, it's a typical question for you to ask, with you virtually being FRENCH or something.

i. is wrong tho (xp)

I did! I have French in-laws! My father-in-law loves the Doors.

And Dee Dee Bridgewater.

I was eating dinner with them the night James Brown died. The whole table had something to say, mainly naming James Brown songs and nodding gravely, much the way different varieties of foie gras might be discussed. "SEX MACHINE!" one would say, which would set the rest of the table off, "Ouai, ouai, 'Sex Machine'."

wow. that's beautiful. and it belongs in a deadpan french farce of a movie.

um, that would be me, scott, not maria.

:D

Clair Obscur = France's answer to Joy Division - explosive post-punk coldwave

experience it:

CLAIR OBSCUR - Statues - 1983
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khPydYdNx6k
-- djmartian, Wednesday, 25 June 2008

EXPERIENCE IT

CLAIR OBSCUR
There's a thread in this name, which I might have tried to start a few years ago- Bands Whose Names Can Be Split Into Two Parts That Are Antonyms Of Each Other. As it is, the only other example I can think of right now is Was (Not Was).

Yo, Francophiles, what's a good shortlist of quality French 80s pop kinda shit? Synth pop, minimal pop, electro pop, regular pop, whatever. Doesn't seem like much has ever been discussed of it.

French language particularly

Bands Whose Names Can Be Split Into Two Parts That Are Antonyms Of Each Other. As it is, the only other example I can think of right now is Was (Not Was).

Hello Goodbye are pretty big these days, I think (though sadly not French).

Also (the also not French) Biggie Smalls.

And Fatboy Slim -- okay, I'll save these for an actual thread from now on.

French 80s pop kinda shit? Synth pop, minimal pop, electro pop

This comp looks kinda promising:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bippp

My aunt lived in France during the 80s and she forced French crap circa that period on my developing brain when she came back, so I have a weird affection for it.

Yeah, that compilation sounds pretty cool

get the Les Rita Mitsouko "Bestov" and take it from there

here's an awesome compilation of french rock

France is the center of rock n roll these days. The thing is it can be summed up in two words, "Ed" and "Banger", and a lot of people here apparently don't like it.

Burt, I made a list in the "rough guide thread" of 80's french synth poo. I'll try to dig it out

But you might already wanna start with 80's Etienne Daho, Indochine and Mylene Farmer

Stanton, why do you use the words 'shit' and 'crap' to denote things you like or want to hear?

Why does the word "bad" mean "good"? I mean really.

Ah, found it:

The Rough Guide to 80's French Pop:

1. Mylene Farmer - Libertine
2. Partenaire Particulier - Partenaire Particulier
3. Etienne Daho - Week-End a Rome
4. Vanessa Paradis - Maxou
5. Alain Souchon - Quand Je Serai K.O.
6. Caroline Loeb - C'est la Ouatte
7. Alain Bashung - Gaby
8. Rita Mitsouko - Marcia Baila
9. Negresses Vertes - Sous le Soleil
10. Indochine - L'Aventurier
11. Jeanne Mas - Coeur en Stereo
12. Desireless - Voyage, Voyage
13. Guesh Patti - Etienne
14. France Gall - Debranche
15. Marc Lavoine - Les Yeux Revolver

Yeah, all this stuff is perfect. Thanks

i can't really stand Daho except for one song i've never been able to find again that sounded almost like Felt!!

Does French people ever want to rock?

This comp looks kinda promising:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bippp

=======

Christ on a pointed stick. Yeah, synth rock -- rock out, Claudette, rock out.

I'm listening to Illimite -- a deluxe Telephone thing that came out on EMI France in 2006. Two CDs, one a "best of," the other a live shot. Centerpiece of live stuff is a show at CBGBs in 1980, apparently in front of about a dozen, where the band tore up the floorboards. Segment of show from Montreal, one year earlier, has them sounding -- tone and attackwise -- like Metallic KO for 15 minutes of material, only more polite than Iggy. Well, they could have been impolite, but I don't know French.

Just way too early for anyone in the US to get their brains around Frenchmen, singing in French, who had a rhythm section and two guitar players who knew roots rock and hard rock better than a lot of people prowling big stages in '80. 'Course, it seems not to have been too early for their countrymen who bought their albums by the bagload, so much so the badn retired around the mid-80's.

I kick myself for having missed them at some dive in Philly.

Seconding and thirding SOGGY. Holy crap this album is great!

Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o49KyJQl-Og

^^^SERIOUSLY JUST LOOKIT THAT GUY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_rock

Other notes: There's a French series of psych comps called Freakout Totale that are pretty good, though they're francophone (so include Quebec etc.).

Once I get home, I'll be able to drag through the huge archive I found on SLSK from some user named Docteur Stein, which was all a bunch of 7"s in French, with a good half of them rock and roll (bands like Alex et les Lizards).

Bérurier Noir are pretty fun, though they're on the goofy quasi-political new wave tip, at least as I've been able to figure out. I had a pal send me a mixtape of their stuff once and I've downloaded a bit over the years.

2100-ish words on Les Rita Mitsouko, Niagara, Elmer Food Beat, Indochine, Les Négresses Vertes, Mylene Farmer, Noir Désir, Les Hatepinks.

http://www.spin.com/articles/french-modern-rock-essentials-phoenix-daft-punk/