Sélection de Lundi: Antoine's Musings

Before there were them videos, they had scopitones. Antoine's Les elucubrations was the Gallic answer to British R&B in 1966 - move over, Pretty Things. More here.

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Covers Deluxe: How Sad Venice Can Be

Charles Aznavour? Wasn’t that the somewhat square old entertainer in the grey suit you saw on dozens of awful tv shows all those years ago? Maybe. Aznavour also was Charlie, the forlorn dude in Truffaut’s Tirez sur le pianiste (see pic) who smoked all those cigarettes like nobody had done it before, shared the bed with Michèle Mercier and Nicole Berger, and murmured some of the coolest lines ever to be uttered between love and loneliness („Silence is amorous complicity“). Sadness was also one of the keywords in his chansons, as well in Que c’est triste Venise, a sentimental kitsch masterpiece remade by the equally great Bobby Darin in 1965, U.S. grand scope showroom heartbreak style.

Charles Aznavour – Que c’est triste Venise
Bobby Darin – Venice Blue

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Pop Bâtard XI: I Despise Serge

In case you don’t read our comments section: Here you can download the complete „Je deteste Gainsbourg“ project, Serge mixed, combined, and melted with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Soul II Soul, Sugarhill Gang, Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, and others. Strikingly artistic intertextual killer tracks by mash-up entrepreneurs Yold, PhatBastard, Mighty Mike, Grandpamini, DJ Gaston, DJ Y alias JY, DJ BC, and ComaR. Highly recommended.

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Agnes Jaoui

One of the most powerful musical experiences I ever had as a dj, was when I played an Amalia Rodrigues track in an Amsterdam café, one winter's day. This older man, sitting a few tables from the dj-booth, instantly began to sob like a baby. Afterwards, he told me he was from Porto, was going through a hard time and missed his family terribly in a cold, rainy country. This track, it could've been any track, was just too much.
I thought about this incident when playing Agnes Jaoui's second album. The French actress and sometime director recorded covers of Mercedes Sosa, Chico Buarque and Raul Paz (among others), with just a few songs in French. It's an album baked under a southern sun, like beautiful reddish pottery. Saudade is not an easy to explain term, but probably the only way to label Jaoui's Dans mon pays album.

Agnes Jaoui - Sur le pont de l'alma mia

Pop Bâtard X: Serge Gang Bang

While Guuz watched Serge Gainsbourg, vie héroïque at the fine, fine Tuschinsky in Amsterdam – honestly, the Enfants admis tag makes me a bit suspicious regarding the movie – and sipped champagne with Joann and Eric E. à Bruxelles afterwards, a quintet of French bootleg conspirators celebrated the première in their own special way under the surely ironic motto ‚Je deteste Serge’, beaming SG right to parallel dimensions with Nine Inch Nails, Fatboy Slim, Dead Prez, Tiga, and Princess Superstar (see tiger milk pic), soixante-neuf style – every single track poptastically inspired, the latter two probably being my personal favorites. For detailed fusion info see the mp3 notes.

DJ Y alias JY – Requiem pour un clou
Gaston – Weapon of Coffee
Yold – Hip Hop Culcul
PhatBastard – Hot Comment
ComaR – 69 Perfect Year

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Pop Bâtard IX: Antoine & Mighty Mike

Not every mash-up works as seamlessly as this one: A perfect blend of Blind Melon’s No Rain and Antoine’s Les élucubrations, intricately woven together by another French bastard pop master, Epernay-based Mighty Mike – recommended by Sugamotor to us, his colleague and brother in arms. Les élucubrations, recorded in 1966, was the first (and biggest) smash hit of Antoine’s oeuvre, a rollicking meltdown of Donovanesque folk, Dylan feel, Adamo tears, and Nino Ferrer fun, culminating in Métamorphoses exceptionnelles, a frenetic garage punk freakout foreshadowing the grande gueule gesture of Plastic Bertrand – Dementia treize!

Mighty Mike – Antoine is Blind

Antoine – Les élucubrations
Antoine – Métamorphoses exceptionnelles

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Charlotte Gainsbourg @ Letterman

Review of her concert in New York (where she played Serge's Sorry Angel. Interesting, because she told me in an interview she'd never play a song of her father)

Marie's

They're both named Marie, they're both dark haired, they have folk and country-influences in their music and do sing in French all the time. How do you keep 'm apart? Marie Daguerre rocks slightly harder (without turning it up to 11), and she's the one singing in Spanish too. Still, her songs and her voice are too mediocre to really take note. I like Ta Gueule because of that 50s sf-movie organ-sound.
Marie Espinosa (pictured) is an actress turned singer, she even starred in an American production. Her voice is a deadringer for Jane Birkin, and when you hear La Chanson sans refrain it gets uncanny - this is a Gainsbourg-song Birkin never recorded. She's also very much into Brazilian music, that is probably why she sings the last song on her album partly in Portuguese. I like it better that Marie Daguerre's, it's sweeter, more springtime then fall, more cocktail than coffee.

Marie Daguerre - Ta gueule
Marie Espinosa - La Chanson sans refrain

Sélection de Lundi: Clare Torry

„I think she only did one take. And we all said, ‚Wow, that’s that done. Here’s your sixty quid’“, Roger Waters remembered quite ungentlemanlike about Clare Torry, the sadly unsung chanteuse who did the orgasmic wordless vocals on Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky – arguably the best song on 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon. Soon after Clare was hired to do background vocals for Serge G., as well on the acridly funny Rock Around the Bunker as on L’homme à tête de chou, his histoire maudit of a sadistic murderer, including Ma Lou Marilou, with Clare adding a few moments of big-eyed innocence to Serge’s half-erection porn funk.

Serge Gainsbourg w/ Clare Torry – Ma Lou Marilou
Serge Gainsbourg w/ Clare Torry – Eva

Pink Floyd feat. Clare Torry– The Great Gig in the Sky

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Serge sings Charles

In the upcoming (if you live outside of France, that is) Gainsbourg movie Vie Heroique, you see Eric Elmosnino in his superbe role as Serge sing Parce Que a few times. He uses this song by Aznavour to seduce his first wife Elisabeth, and later on to impress Juliette Gréco (one of the many brilliant scenes in the movie). Many scenes in the movie are based on theory (and Serge's exaggerated stories) rather than historical facts, but his use of Parce Que doesn't seem odd to me. He sang the song later in his life on tv, and that version ended up on a Inédits-compilation. I just found out there's a video on YT:



Serge Gainsbourg - Parce Que
Eric Elmosnino - Parce Que
Charles Aznavour - Parce Que

Seigner, Biolay, Luke

On 2/8 the new album by Emmanuelle Seigner is officially released - let's hope it's not postponed again because what I heard do far did not disappoint at all. As you know, the orginal releasedate (Nov 2, '09) was rescheduled because of Roman Polanski's extradition-troubles. A song from the new album was on a Rock & Folk-compilation I picked up yesterday in Bruxelles. Femme Fatale is a better song imho then first single Dingue. Lyrics and music by Doriand and Keren Ann.

Emmanuelle Seigner - Femme Fatale

Benjamin Biolay posted some inédits of his latest masterpiece La Superbe on his Myspace. Mostly songs en duo with gorgeous sounding filles. Like this one:

Benjamin Biolay & Alka - Je partirai comme on revient

From a Les Inrocks-compilation I ripped this track by Luke, as I understand one of the bright young stars in France nowadays. Don't know who the girl is who sings, but she sure adds to the charm of this poprocktrack.

Luke - Pense a moi

When Franz met Marion

It did not go like this, but I like to think it did:
Big Fashion Label Exec: 'Hi Krizz, glad to see you. Look, me and the other guys want something really special for the marketing of our new bag, right. Something that would make waves in hip circles, that appeals to the cool people. Who, naturally, cannot afford our products, but that's beside the point. Any ideas?'
Advertising Guy: 'Sure. Why not include one of the bestest photographers in the world, a star among stars. With financial troubles, so not that expensive anymore. And take one of the most gorgeous women out there.'
Big Fashion Label Exec: 'Err...isn't that what we always do?'
Advertising Guy: 'But here's the catch: we have the gorgeous girl sing. She would not be known as a singer, she just plays one in a movie.'
Big Fashion Label Exec: 'Warming up to your idea. We're talking Marion Cotillard, right? Excellent. And would she sing a Piaf song?'
Advertising Guy: 'Mais non! We ask one of the coolest bands, who are related to one of your top designers, to write a special song.'
Big Fashion Label Exec: 'Ah, that would be Franz Ferdinand, right, friends of Hedi Slimane. Would Marion sing in French?'
Advertising Guy: 'Nah. Nobody would get that, who's interested in French singing women anyway?'
Big Fashion Label Exec: 'Nicolas Sarkozy, for one, but you're probably right. Let's do it!' {Thanks JW}

Marion Cotillard + Franz Ferdinand - Eyes of Mars

Poplin

'What makes a song sound French, besides the words? What is it that makes certain French pop music sound sophisticated or classy? Is it possible to write a French-sounding song without employing the usual clichés? Or even beyond the music itself – can one actually impart a metropolitan French character into the song – for instance their fashion and aesthetic sense, their joie d'vivre, or their knack for blending the classic and the modern?'

When someone poses these questions, an answer lies in either buying/downloading an extraordinary amount of French music (like me), or actually make the music. Guy Poplin from Singapore (no, it's not strange at all that someone from South-East Asia loves and makes this music, ever been here?) send me a link to an EP of his project, featuring four very elegant popsongs that refer to Francis Lai as much as Keren Ann.
Read Poplins musing about the production process on his site.
About the song posted here, he writes:

The EP's title track was born of a convoluted development of ideas. The first two verses were written almost eighteen months before the words for the rest of the song. The Cinderella motif proved to be the cornerstone, which lead to the concept of a Débutante ball, and finally the whole metaphor of a beginner's fumbling moves in the game of love. The switch to a 3rd-person speech in the chorus was meant as her inner demons voicing her insecurities. Beneath the seemingly mocking tone, the song is actually a tribute to the touching artlessness of a young woman in love for the first time. The idea to name the EP after this song became a no-brainer when it became obvious that the Débutante's story was already all over the four songs before the character was even conceived.

In an email to me, Guy (or Koi) writes: 'FS has been instrumental in helping me research on french pop music past and present for the past 3-4 years! Do keep it going!' Glad I could help, keep doing what you're doing too, Koi!

Poplin - Une Débutante Au Jeu (feat. Bridget Low)

Jeanne Cherhal

Charade is the new album from Jeanne Cherhal, to be released in March. No musicians play on the cd 'cept for Jeanne, interestingly enough. En toute amitié is the first single, a poppy yet layered song. From a children's music album (released a few years ago) is this bonustrack about frogs giving a concert.

Jeanne Cherhal - En Toute Amitié
Jeanne Cherhal - Le Concert Des Grenouilles

Sélection de Lundi: Le Plop en Duo

Paranormal Activity: Jodie Foster and Claude Francois doing Serge's Comic Strip.

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Pop Bâtard VIII: Rapping It Up

Of all Serge songs, Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais probably is my least favorite; my little niece even claims he sounds like a moist tissue on that one. French master mash-up whiz ToToM rescued the song for her, using vocals by west coast G-funkster Snoop Dogg and Cypress Hill’s B-Real and underlying the beat from OutKast’s So Fresh So Clean – a unique blend, and at least as sharp as the stiletto pictured on the right.


ToToM – Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vato

Serge G. – Je suis venu te dire ...
Snoop Dogg ft. B-Real – Vato
OutKast – So Fresh So Clean

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Pop Bâtard VII: Alain Chamfort classé X

French bootlegging artist Sugamotor has a posh site, a special taste and a peculiar kind of humour. As for his mash-up of Moonbootica’s Bulldog Beats and Alain Chamfort’s Clara veut la lune, he explains for non-native speakers: „The title means ‚Clara wants some beats’. The girl (see pic) is Clara Morgane, a French porn star. You’re here, wondering why a porn star would want ‚beats’ in such a posture ... unless you know ‚beat’ sounds like the French equivalent for ‚cock’.“ Well ... glad to have learnt something this Sunday afternoon.

Sugamotor – Clara veut des beats

Similarly dubious: Sugamotor combining H-Blockx’ teutonic boof-tah rock hymn Countdown to Insanity with the sadomasochistic Fais-moi mal, Johnny by Magali Noel & Boris Vian from 1956. Bonus: A delirious fusion of 50 Cent and Carla B. with big beat rapper Sarko-Z.

Sugamotor – Fais-moi mal, Johnny Insane
Sugamotor – Quelqu’un m’ayo Sarkology

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Pop Bâtard VI: Sacha’s Bootleg Bonanza

While Renan Luce is seen by many as the indie reincarnation of Georges Brassens, Sacha Distel went a long way from 50s high-class jazz guitarist to Mr. Cheese. Mixed together – the sound of Sacha’s classic Ma Première Guitare meets the vocals of Renan’s huge 2007 hit La Lettre – they sound like the perfect match, blended by ToToM, French bootlegger extraordinaire. And should you feel in the mood for more merged Sacha, this is undoubtedly the right spot for you.

ToToM – Ma première lettre

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Arabian Beauties

When listening to the very gentle and subtle album by Hindi Zahra (born in Morocco, living in Paris) I was thinking of other female singers of Arabian descent who sing (partly) in French. Hindi only uses a few French words (alas) and sings mostly in English or berber, but singers like Algerian Souad Massi (pictured), Moroccan Sapho and Natacha Atlas (born in Bruxelles, but with North-African roots) recorded songs completely in French. Covers, but also original material. The mysterious and melancholic qualities of Arabian music mix great with French chanson (or pop), you can even sing a classic like Ferré's Avec le Temps in Arabian, like Sapho did. Or turn Francoise Hardy's Mon amie la rose into arabesque (danceable Arabian pop).

I guess there are more (recent) examples, please drop suggestions in the comments.


Hindi Zahra - Beautiful Tango (demo version)
Natacha Atlas - Mon amie la rose
Souad Massi & Marc Lavoine - Paris
Sapho - Avec le temps (Arabian version)

Oh La La Podcast

Hear me & Natasha Oh-La-La rave about Serge, and the upcoming movie. Here.

Okou

Okou consists of two culture clashes: Tatiana Heinz has an Ivorian mother, and French father. Gilbert Trefzeger's mom is Egyptian, his dad's Swiss. They played with various artists (from Mick Jagger to Nitin Sawhney), wrote their album Serpentine in Basel and Berlin and recorded it in America. Talkin''bout saving airmiles! I'm not very enthousiastic about the Okou-album, largely because Tatiana's voice is too theatrical, as if she's acting instead of singing. When it comes to connecting folk and blues to (North-)African music, I choose Hindi Zahra. But the latter doesn't sing in French (well, only a little) and Okou recorded a very sensual, petite NewOrleans-ish track called A L'Aurore. And that I want to share.

Okou - A L'Aurore

Raymon Lazer

Very danceable breakbeat tune inna Minimatic or Black Market Audio-stylee with French (movie?) samples by Raymon Lazer Trio. Does anyone recognise the intro?

Raymon Lazer Trio - L'amour

RIP Mano Solo

Bas Dekker wrote a small IM for French singer-songwriter Mano Solo:



On 10 January 2010, French singer Mano Solo passed away at age 46. HIV positive since Christmas 1986, he continued to practice the Holy Trinity of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Although Solo never wanted to be considered 'the AIDS singer' and avoided that label in all his interviews, his lyrics were full of a violent plea for life, addressing death directly without any compromise, from his first hit album in 1993 La Marmaille nue, until his last one Rentrer au Port in 2009.

Whether it was punk, African rhythms, soul or funk, Mano Solo found musical inspiration anywhere he could. He liked to combine electric sounds with strings and brass, and his multiple musical personalities could even be compared to those of Serge Gainsbourg who also liked to combine different types of music. Besides singing, Solo also developed his skills at drawing and painting, again much like Gainsbourg did.

Look at some of Mano Solo’s work here

New Lisa Wisznia video

Marie Tout Court

Bands like Vampire Weekend, Local Natives and Yeasayer are all the rage nowadays, because of the way they mix African music into their rock. Great bands, yes, but mixing traditional African sounds with folk and/or rock is something French artists have been (and are) doing for quite some time. Newest loot is Marie Tout Court, a redhead from Paris who's debut-album was just released. Gentle songs, with subtle African influences (guitar sounds, mostly) who takes the stage as if posessed (see?) - something she picked up from entertaining patients at psychiatric wards? Clarika, Jeanne Cherhal and Andreanne Alain are referencs, but Marie certainly has an own sound. Welcome in our world!

Marie Tout Court - Mon jardinier

Au revoir Eric

„To put it bluntly, I have to admit that I do not like music. I try very hard to eliminate it from my life and from my films. It irritates me, it annoys me, it tires me, and despite the old saying, it neither improves my morals nor sweetens my temper. I find myself quite at ease in silence.“ (Eric Rohmer)

In Arthur Penn's Night Moves, Gene Hackman says the famous lines: „I saw a Rohmer film once. It was kind of like watching paint dry.“ There’s some truth to it, but it isn’t true. And Rohmer himself (see quote above) also was a dear old liar, at least in terms of silence. His movies are all about talk, parlance, and palaver ... an incessant cascade of endless chitchat at Maude’s flat or on Pauline’s beach. Language has a melody as well, and maybe that’s why Rohmer usually abstained from soundtracks, though he worked with some pop filles – the irresistible Zouzou in L’amour après-midi (1972) or Arielle Dombasle in Le beau mariage (1982). Eric Rohmer died today, aged 89. He went away without asking, as Zouzou once sang.

Zouzou – Il est parti comme il était venu

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Sélection de Lundi: Gérard Does Serge

Great haircut, too. Excerpt from Xavier Giannoli's Quand j'étais chanteur (2006).

The movie, the blog

Everything (and more) you'll want to know about Vie Héroïque, the film about Serge Gainsbourg, you can find here. Webmaster Adam is the cousin of the boy who plays young Serge, no less.

And this blog tells us Charlotte is going to play the American East Coast (Montreal, Philly, NYC, Boston) this month. If you're going to see her, please write a review for FillesSourires!

UPDATE:
On January 23, Canal+ in France will broadcast a live concert of Charlotte (just like they did with Vanessa Paradis). Any French readers able to record this concert?

Can You Withstand?

We already wrote about Ödland here and here, and now their first album is due this spring. Loads of teasers on their MySpace site, plus Alizée speaking. Other voices, other rooms, sexy, too. Here's the title song of their 2009 debut EP:

Ödland - The Caterpillar

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Charlotte remix

LA's Nosaj Thing made an excellent electronics remix of Heaven Can Wait. Find NT's site here, his Myspace here.

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Heaven can wait (Nosaj Thing remix)

Pop Bâtard V: 50 Serge

There's another Fiddie/Gainsbourg mash up (this one), but mixing Initials BB with Many Men is better, more aggressive, ballsy. Youtube has lots and lots of great Serge-mashups by the way. Take this one. Or this one. This is one of the bestest remixes on YT. Grandmaster Pierre Elitair gave me a cd with some of his own mashups. Here's two fine ones.

Serge Gainsbourg vs 50 Cent - Initials 50 C
Roxanne Shanté vs Anna Karina vs Serge Gainsbourg - Roxanne Girl
Dr Dre vs Serge Gainsbourg - Les locataires de Dr Dre

Pop Bâtard IV: The Unusual Suspects

Million Dollar Allstar Lineup: Serge’s 1969 fille fragile hymn Jane B. complemented with the voices and lyrics of Eminem, Kathy Brown, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey ... a 5:53 min loop climaxing with incorporating a snippet of Bono’s (!) version of All You Need is Love - which shouldn't turn you off. Leastwise as poststructurally sexy as the modernist bra pictured, though with a difference: The thing works, perfectly.

Unknown Artist – Jane B. Mash-up

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Pop Bâtard III: Trou du cul

A quite special and downright excellent tongue-in-cheek dancefloor mash-up: The voices of Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli (from Godard’s Le Mépris) using foul language of the worst kind plus Salvador Dali in his own surreal words – cut together by French DJ Le Clown and underlain with a murderously fat groove reminiscent of Dimitri from Paris. Also available as video; in both cases, adults only, s’il vous plaît.

DJ Le Clown – Trou du cul

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Pop Bâtard II: Serge vs. Geraldine

DJ Le Clown combining Ford Mustang w/ Geraldine of The Dodoz. Girlie Meltdown!

DJ Le Clown - Middle of the Mustang

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J'aime les φ

Danou & the Midinettes, you won't find them on MySpace, on iTunes or in your local recordstore. In fact, it's not even a real band. 'The Midinettes' are, as Danou writes me, 'a bunch of sexy, but virtual MIDI-slaves'. This loungey cover of J'aime les Filles, the official anthem of this blog and originally sung by Jacques Dutronc, is the first and only track of D&tM. He even tweaked the lyrics (see the comments) to fit to his own objects of adoration. That's why it's called J'aime les φ. Loving it! Danou is part of an existing band, this one.

Danou & the Midinettes - J'aime les filles

Pop Bâtard: Serge Goes South London

When interviewed about his Slime & Reason album in 2008, South London rapper Rodney Hylton Smith a.k.a. Roots Manuva said: „I wanted to capture a particular movement of drums and basslines ... It was like trying to bring out a peculiarness, like say Phil Spector, or Serge Gainsbourg, very sophisticated and very beautiful.“ A few months later, record store impresarios Paris DJs Soundsystem took him by the word and fused the instrumental version of Serge’s Requiem pour un con with the a capella from Roots Manuva’s Witness: Two tunes made for each other, late 60s funk hypno beat (originally composed for Georges Lautner's crime flick Le Pacha) meeting a raw, splendid flow Serge probably anticipated, though never knew.

Serge G. vs. Roots Manuva – Requiem for a Witness

Serge Gainsbourg – Requiem pour un con
Roots Manuva – Witness (1 Hope)

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The year ahead

The following artists will release new albums in 2010. If you know more (releasedates, titles, etc) please drop in the commments!
Jeanne Cherhal - Charade (March, pictured on the right). New song on her Myspace.
Alizée - Une enfant du siècle. No releasedate yet, but supposedly this year.
Christophe Mae. Snippet of first single Dingue Dingue Dingue now on Myspace. Album drops March 22.
Marina Celeste - The Angel Pop. Release March/April.
Françoise Hardy. No title or release date. Expected in April.
Zazie. No releasedate or title, but it's an album with duets.
Keren Ann. The soundtrack for the movie Thelma, Louise et Chantal drops this month (Keren Ann wrote the music), and so should Emmanuelle Seigner's album (Keren wrote the lyrics). A new KA-album should be in the works.
Marianne Dissard - L'Abandon, probably end of this year.
Elodie Frégé. Supposedly this month, but no real confirmation so far. This track is on it.
Pierre Faa. Aka Pierre Peppermoon. An album is recorded, a releasedate not yet given. Hopefully Erica Buettner will release a disque too this year.
Jacques Higelin. His boy and girls released albums in the past years, now it's daddy's turn. No releasedate or title.
La Fiancée. No releasedate or title, but boy, do we want this album!
Noir Desir. This year, no date, no title yet. Same goes for Adrienne Pauly, Daphné, Zaza Fournier, Raphaël.
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Lhasa, rip

Canadian singer Lhasa de Sela lost her battle against cancer on January 1. She sang in Spanish, English and occasionaly, but beautifully, in French.

Sélection de Lundi: Bluebeard's Wonderland

In August of 67, British prog traders Soft Machine were heavily en vogue in France, touring the Côte d’Azur including a legendary gig taking place in the village square of Saint-Tropez – which led to an invitation to one of them then-fashionable Parisian Nuits Psychédéliques of producer Eddie „Bluebeard“ Barclay’s (the man had nine wives) and eventually to an unforgotten performance at the Paris Biennale in October of the Été d’Amour. Their first album, recorded in NYC the following year, features Plus belle qu’une poubelle (More beautiful than a garbage can), a short, superior and considerably trippy reminiscence of those intoxicated Riviera days.

Soft Machine – Plus belle qu’une poubelle

The same SM album contains So Boot if at All, a frenetic wonderland of a song that was sampled by Scottish Bluebeard relative Momus for Frenchanese Kahimi Karie’s smash hit Good Morning World in 1995 – double genius.

Soft Machine – So Boot if at All
Kahimi Karie – Good Morning World

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Gainsbourg, the movie

More clips from the upcoming movie are available, and so is the soundtrack.



Eric Elmosnino & Laetitia Casta - Bonnie & Clyde

Marie Kasatchok Style

Watch out for the male dancers. Happy New Year.