Pépé goes Français

Key elements in French music are wordplay, double entendres and melancholy, but also kitsch, humour and satire. Quebec native Pépé knows that, he made four albums already playing the latter cards. Natasha brought his last album from a trip to Canada, and now I want to bring him over. What a thrill it must be to have this guy and his band rock the sh*t out of French popclassics like Gerard Lenorman's Ballade des Gens Heureux or Nino Ferrer's Mirza. There are more bands doing what he does, like The Lost Fingers and to some extent Nous Non Plus , but I'd rather have Pépé on my party. Sing along and dance, that's the motto! Here's two examples of just how fun Pépé can be:

Pépé Goes Français - Laisse tomber les filles
Pépé Goes Français - La ballade des gens heureux

R.I.P. Jacno

Sad but true: Denis Quillard, better known as Jacno, has lost his battle against cancer last night. He was 52 years old. Jacno was, together with Elli Medeiros, one of the key members of Stinky Toys. One of the first punks in France, he became a prolific musician, producer and songwriter. He worked with Elli, Lio and Mareva Galanter, among others. RIP.

Mareva Galanter & Jacno - Bang Bang

Clara, Isabelle, Berry

Time for some new music, after a week of looking back. There's a new single (album coming up) from Isabelle Boulay, dedicated to the fall. Chanson pour les mois d'hiver isn't Les feuilles mortes (there's a tad more sunlight), but a grown-up, solid song that steers on the right side of mainstream to appeal to me.
Clara plume (pictured) is, like Luciole for instance, a slammeuse (a young poet that likes to perform inna hiphop-stylee) who made an album on which she sings too. Catherine Ringer, Zazie, Lily Allen and good old Jacques Brel are references, I'd add Jeanne Cherhal and Clarike. Les p'tits plaisirs is an upbeat single, a better song on her debutalbum is the sultry L'heure de l'amour.
Berry's debutalbum is updated again. Instead of making a new album, Universal keeps adding bonustracks. None as great as Chanson d'Helène, but on Mon Automobile Berry again shows just how lovely she can sound.

Isabelle Boulay - Chanson pour les mois d'hiver
Clara plume - L'heure de l'amour
Berry - Mon automobile

Gainsbourg, The Movie: The Music.

GAINSBOURG - La musique (making-of) sélectionné dans Bandes annonces

Wax Poetic

Yessss! Pure vinyl baby! Juicebox b/w Les Spinshots playing their Gainsbourg-covers on seven iches of wax, it's out now! Me and the mrs and the little sprout went to Record Industry to pick up the boxes. We got a grand tour (thanks Ton!) in one of the last, and certainly one of the best pressing plants in the world. They made 35 million (yes, that's right) copies of Michael Jackson's Thriller in that plant. They also cut Benjamin Biolay's last superb lp. Dutch downtempo-hero Floris had his video shot @ Record Industry.
You can buy the Gainsnord-single, you can also apply for one of the THREE free copies I'm giving away. What to do? Send me a picture of yourself with your favourite vinyl record, and tell me why this record is so special to you. It can be any record, 12inch, single, picturedisc, French, German, Australian, it doesn't matter. I will post your pic and story on my other blog. Entries to Guuzbourg(a)gmail(dot)com.

10/10: La Musique

The ten best French albums of the decade were round up by ten (twelve, actually) FS-contributors, -regulars and -friends. You might have checked out the websites of the artists. Here are songs from the ten (twelve, actually) Number One choices. Here's to another ten years of great French music!

NOTE: All Files Are Down!

Lina - Redevenir Modeste (2003) (Sky's top ten)

Coralie Clément - Salle des pas perdus (2002) (Guuzbourg's top ten)

Arno - Lola, etc. (2002) (Maks' top ten)

Calogero - Pomme C (2007) (Mordi's top ten)

Encre - En ciel ouvert (2002) (Jan-Willem's top ten)

Coeur de Pirate - C'était salement romantique (2008) (Frans' top ten)

Vanessa Paradis - Divinidylle (2007) (Anna maria's top ten)

Barbara Carlotti - Cannes (2006) (Pierre Faa's top ten)

Keren Ann - Que n'ai-je (2004) (SOM's top ten)

Benjamin Biolay - Rose Kennedy (2002) (Thomas' top ten)
--
EXTRA:
Pauline Croze - Jeunesse Affamée (2005) (Sami's top ten)

Bertrand Burgalat - Ma rencontre (2000) (DJ trouble's top ten)

And if one (FransS, in this case) would make a top ten of all these top tens, you'll get:

01 Coralie Clément-Salle des Pas Perdues
02 Coeur de Pirate-Coeur de Pirate
03 Benjamin Biolay-La Superbe
04 Keren Ann-La Disparition
05 Camille-Le Fil
06 Vanessa Paradis-Divinidylle
07 Carla Bruni-Comme Si De Rien N'etait
08 Vincent Delerm-Vincent Delerm
09 Guy Chambers & Sophie Hunter-The Isis Project
10 Marianne Dissard-L'entredeux

10/10: Best French albums of the decade (10)

And finally, the list of Thomas Bohnet. He's a dj, a promotor, a cd-compiler and a nice guy. Pictured is Keren Ann (no. 4). More lists? See here.

1 Benjamin Biolay - Rose Kennedy (2002)
Biolay`s fantastic debut, with songs between Chanson and Pop. Elegant and with international flair.

2 Noir Desir - Des visages des figures (2001)
The most important rockband. With the big hit Le vent nous portera.

3 Dionysos - La mécanique du coeur (2008)
One of the best live bands, I`ve ever seen. This is their masterpiece, a concept album with may guest stars like Olivia Ruiz, Emily Loizeau, Arthur H, Football star Eric Cantona and movie legend Jean Rochefort

4 Keren Ann - La Disparition (2002)
My favorite young female singer. She started writing songs together with Benjamin Biolay, This is her second album.

5 Sanseverino - Exactement (2006)
Neo-Swing at high speed. Good lyrics and fantastic music. Stéphane Sanservino used to be an actor before he`s got an musician. He mixes Gypsy Swing with chanson and influences from all over the world. Breakthrough 2001 with his hit Frida.

6 Cali - L`amour parfait (2004)
This ex-rugbyplayer is the sunnyboy of French pop from the south of France. This debut of Bruno Caliciuri is a classic with big hits Elle m`a dit and C`est quand le bonheur.

7 Mickey 3D - Tu vas pas mourir de rire (2003)
Together with Dionyos the best indierock-band from France. Singer Mickael Mickey Furnon writes also songs for others (we wrote the hit J´ai demandé à la lune for old wavers Indochine) . This third album remarks their breakthrough in France.

8 Benjamin Biolay - La superbe (2009)
His recently released double album is a masterpiece. Chanson and rock, jazzy, elegant, international flair. Good lyrics

9 Ridan - Le rève ou la vie (2008)
Ridan used to be a rapper before he changed to the chanson genre. There he mixes chanson with rai, reggae , pop and a little rap. Fantastic debut album. Also his other 2 albums are highly recommended.

10 Francoiz Breut - Vingt à trent mille jours (2001)
Her songs are fine and a little rough, her voice is really unique. She`s not the average fille fragile. Her self-named debut from 1997 is a fine record, but I prefer this second album from 2000 with one of my favorite songs ever Si tu disais.