Coralie Clement

I just felt like posting this song. Because it is just taking far too long before the next album by beautiful Coralie is coming out. Her MySpace-blog says it will be released next year, but I'm guessing this is a typo and that she means the fall of this year. I hope I'm guessing right.

Coralie Clement - Ta Révérerance

Yelle, Catherine

Two of my favourite French electropopgirls have new songs out. Sweet little Yelle makes you wanna jump up and down thanks to A Cause de Garçons. The regular versions great, but the Booster-remix has more drive. Like a powerboost, you said it. Also new (to me) is the Club-Club version of her first hit Je Veux te Voir.
That cassette-single (yes, a tape, see picture) of Catherine Ferroyer-Blanchard has hit all the hippest shops in Paris. Not on that tape, but on CF-B's Myspace ánd ofcourse on this blog is her new song Tu Fais Le Malin. Dirty electrosounds, bored voice, excited cries, the works! See the video for Catherine's cassette-single here.

Yelle - A Cause De Garçons
Yelle - A Cause de Garçons (Booster remix)
Yelle - Je Veux te Voir (Club-Club remix)

Catherine Ferroyer-Blanchard - Tu Fais Le Malin

Virginie Ledoyen

If you're Adam Cohen, the son of the living legend Leonard Cohen, who just wrote a couple of French songs for his second album Melancolista (2004), one of them being a Serge-and-Brigitte-pastiche, well, who you gonna call for the female singing part? If she can whisper like Brigitte or Jane, ánd look as good, she's in. Adam thought of Virginie Ledoyen. Good thinking.

Adam Cohen & Virginie Ledoyen - Happiness

Voilà L'été Mix 2007

It's June 21, summer has officially started. What better way to kick off with a new Filles Sourires mix? Thought so. Here it is, enjoy!
Tracklist:
Vanessa Paradis - Divine Idylle
Michel Polnareff - La Mouche
Babet - Le Marin dans ma chambre
Austine - Leitmotiv
Hiripsime - Tu Me Manques
Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg - Raccrochez c'est une horreur
Été 67 - Le quartier de la Gare
Zoé & Arno - Amant Comptant
Alfa Rococo - Les Jours de pluie
Benjamin Biolay - Little Darlin'
Gruppo Sportivo - Côte D'Azur
Arthur H - Les Pieds-Nickelés
Jim Murple Memorial - Du Bout de Lèvres
Axelle Red - Changer ma vie
Charline Rose - Une Seule Erreur Suffit (Alex Callier rmx)
Andrea Lindsay - Porque te vas
April March - Laisse tomber les Filles
Souvenir - Accident à Londres
Christophe - Double Je

Download here

UPDATE:
Jaime from Souvenir e-mailed to thank me that I included them in this mix, but also to tell me (and y'all) that they put a free mp3 on the Jabalina-website. You can download the very Vive La Fête-ish Si Tu Sais Pas from there, but also by right-clickin' here.

Dutch Radio asks for your help!

The Tour de France is about to start, which is good news for lovers of French music in Holland. It's about the only period in which French music can be heard on the radio - give or take a few shows. This year, Radio Tour de France (the sportsshow on Dutch national radio), asks it's listener to vote for their Tour Artist. This artist gets special treatment during a day of reporting on the Tour. In the list a lot of Dutch, British and American artists, but also Frenchies and Belgians.
So, to help the playlist get more French, your help is needed. Go to this page, and go the three Keuze-options (you'll see the bars, where it says '10CC'). Then vote for either Vanessa Paradis, France Gall, Françoise Hardy, Axelle Red or Serge Gainsbourg. You do not need to leave your email or anything, after you made your choice, click on 'Verstuur'. then click on France Gall (the only real good option left). When you see the red button, click on that too.

Polnareff

Gainsbourg is a major figure on this blog, but Michel Polnareff should be one as well. (Well, this is not the first time MP appears on FS, see here and here) When it comes to great songs, outrageous behaviour, beautiful women, writing soundtracks, high drama (suicide of his best friend, war with the taxman) or tributes, Michel is on par with Serge. Thanks to René, I just received an update of the Polnareff-tribute that was released in 1993, re-released in 2001 and again updated just recently. Artists like Pulp (yes, Jarvis sings French), Alain Chamfort, Gentle People, Emily Loizeau, Nick Cave and tribute-overseer Bertrand Burgalat pay hommage to the curly genius. Hear some examples:

Emily Loizeau - Ca N'Arrive Qu'Aux Autres
Gentle People - La Mouche (link works fine now)
Beverly Jo Scott - La Poupée Qui Fait Non (not on A Tribute to Polnareff, but a great version)
Michel Polnareff - Ca N'Arrive Qu'Aux Autres (Live @ the Roxy)
Michel Polnareff - La Mouche
Michel Polnareff - La Poupée Qui Fait Non

Watoo Watoo

"Felt is still an obsession but Serge Gainsbourg also is one. I also discovered a lot of new music in the last few years thanks to the internet, so bossa beats or jazz chords sometimes subconsciously appear when I write a new song", says Michaël on Watoo Watoo's MySpace. Michaël and his wife Pascale form Watoo Watoo, and it is about time they made an appearance on Filles Sourires. The duo makes music for about ten years, they started off as an indiepopband but, as the quote shows, shifted to jazz, bossa and gentle electronics. New album La Fuite is just out, a great lazy summer album, with nods to Bebel Gilberto and St. Etienne. Perdu is the best song on the album, a perfect pop song that lights up every room.
In the past WW covered a few Gainsbourg-songs - I think they're the only ones who made their own version of Raccrochez C'est Une Horreur.

Watoo Watoo - Perdu
Watoo Watoo - Lpb
Watoo Watoo & Gypso - Appareil à Sous (Gainsbourg-cover)
Watoo Watoo - Raccrochez C'est une Horreur (Gainsbourg-cover)

Elisa Tovati

It's Father's Day today, so for all dad's, mom's and parents-to-be, here's gorgeous Elisa Tovati with the superfunny 9 Mois. See a live rendition here. Lyrics here.

Elisa Tovati - 9 Mois

Justice vs. France Gall

Men of the moment are Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, better known as Justice. Heirs to the glitzy throne Daft Punk left vacant a couple of years ago. Their album † (dagger) is a big hit among dancers and bloggers, single D.A.N.C.E. (an ode to Michael Jackson, apparently) should become the soundtrack of this summer. Gaspard and Xavier recently made a 2 hour Essential Mix for BBC Radio. And yes, that mix features a famous fille: France Gall. They put her infectious eighties-pophit Musique in the melange, see tracklist here, download a radiorip of that mix here (megaupload).
Back in the 80s Michel Berger wrote another disco-y song for France with 'musique' in the title: Tout Pour La Musique. See the video for that one here.
The Justice-guys also worked with a beautiful girl on their own album, Anna-Catherine Hartley, better known as foul-mouthed Uffie.

France Gall - Musique
France Gall - Tout Pour La Musique
Justice & Uffie - The Party

Serge sampled

Serge has been covered a lot (see this incredibly long, but not complete list), and his songs have been sampled as well. Especially the Melody Nelson album proved and proves to be a fine source for big name-artists like Massive Attack, David Holmes and Beck. Recently I read that even De La Soul sampled Serge. For their brilliant De La Soul Is Dead album, two short songs nick from Serge-chansons, En Melody and Les Oubliettes.
I also bumped into this interesting site, filing the sample-art by a fella called Chenard Walcker (something tells me this is not his real name). Chenard used Serge's music for two projects, one ep (under the Nelson moniker, see picture) with songs constructed totally from his music, and a mash-up featuring the voice of jazz singer Oscar Brown jr. See here and here.

En Melody-sample:
De La Soul - Not Over Til The Fat Lady Plays The Demo
Nelson - Le Poinconneur
Serge Gainsbourg - En Melody

Cargo Culte-sample:
Mirwais - VI (The Last Words She Said Before Leaving)
David Holmes - Don't Die Just Yet
Massive Attack - Karmcoma (Portishead remix)
Beck - Paper Tiger
Serge Gainsbourg - Cargo Culte

Jim Murple Memorial

If it rains, it pours here in AMS. So the sunny sounds of Jim Murple Memorial are greatly appreciated! This all-white band from Montreuil make rhythm 'n blues and bluebeat like they did in the late fifties/early sixties on Jamaice. Their female singer is called Nanou. They sound very convincing, like they're the bastard children of The Skatalites. Real R&B was, as you might know, the basis for reggae, rocksteady and ska - back in the fifties and sixties the first soundsystems played this music, and radio's picked up the stronger southern Louisiana radiostations. So far, JMM made six albums, Put Things Right was released in May. They do covers (mostly sixties soul) and play their own song, some in French. Music like JMM's can't be heard on Jamaica nowadays (at least, that's what people tell me), the best rootsreggaebands are European, and mostly Caucasian. Funny, eh. But hey, I'm not complaining, I just turn up the volume. Oh, and just who is this Jim Murple that's being memorialized via this band, you ask? Story goes he was a musician from New Orleans who moved to Paris, met some local musicians who he taught everything he knows. And for that he will forever be remembered.

Jim Murple Memorial - Du bout dès levres
Jim Murple Memorial - Pour Être Heureux

Jil Caplan

Guess who's back? Jil Caplan, that's who. An icon from the eighties, as you can read in an earlier post about the darkhaired beauty. After three years of silence and finally reteaming with her former musical buddy Jay Alanski (he who brought us Lio, and for that alone he deserves eternal gratitude and praise), this month new album Derrière La Porte was released. A great album, featuring gentle electronics, bossanova-influences (like in first single Des Toutes Petites Choses ) and sad-but-sultry-lyrics. In my opinion, she looks better than when she became famous, more feminin.

Jil Caplan - Des Toutes Petites Choses
Jil Caplan - A La Fenêtre

Axelle Red

I got a request from a German reader who saw the movie Le Cousin (directed by Alain Corneau), that features the beautiful song A Quoi Ca Sert by Axelle Red. He was so enchanted by this chanson, that he wanted to hear it over and over again. If I could help. But ofcourse.

Axelle Red - A Quoi Ca Sert

Vive La Fête

Jour de Chance is the new album by Belgian electrorock-duo Vive La Fête, who were featured here before because of their Lio- and Gainsbourg-covers. This time they chose to cover Michel Polnareff's Love Me Please Love Me (from 1966). Don't be fooled by the title, it is a French song. Jour de Chance is more rock than electro, but the lyrics sung by the gorgeous blonde Els Pynoo are as stupid as ever. Heck, one song is even called Stupid Femme. But in VLF-land, stupid means fun.

Vive La Fête - Je Suis Fâchée Avec Toi
Vive La Fête - Love Me Please Love Me (version 1)
Vive La Fête - Love Me Please Love Me (bonus version)
Michel Polnareff - Love Me Please Love Me

Oshen

Don't confuse Oshen with O-shen, for they differ enormously. The Oshen I like to introduce worked with Vincent Segal who, as you might know, also worked with FS-fave Jeanne Cherhal. Oshen's music is in the same vein as Cherhal's: folksy, jazzy, laidback, sunny, with some electronic dots and loops. Singer Océane Michel (what a great name) has a more mature voice than Jeanne, but both like to add some humour in their song. Oceane was born in Paris, but made a name for herself in Marseille. She's friends with Anaïs, who gueststars on Oshen's second album Je ne suis pas celle (2007). Debut Don Juan was released in 2005 and features the minor hit Chanson Fantôme. Oceane loves Cocorosie, Stina Nordenstamm and Cat Power, voted for Segolène, reads books by Brautigan and Roth and considers herself to be a young lion. Hear her roar.

Oshen - Chanson Fantôme
Oshen & Anaïs - Baratineur

Clip: Oshen & Anaïs - Faith (George Michael-cover)