Message personnel

In 1973, Françoise Hardy was in studio with Michel Berger, recording "Message Personnel" and the eponymous single which immediately became a hit (and now the third installment of our FOG series).

I was only a toddler but this song was so popular that you just couldn't avoid it growing up. It is still played nowadays and can be considered as part of the French psyche: take "8 women" as an example. Anyway, the piece speaks for itself. The change in lexical register in the original French lyrics in particular always makes me melt.

I grew fond of that song, and it always pops back in mind at various intervals, depending obviously on the circumstances. After all, it is well known that standard side-effects of the condition of a pop lover are a taste for sugar, an addiction to predicaments and a tendency to drama-queenhood...

An english translation of the lyrics is available here.

Dolcezza, in bocca al lupo !
Rimaniamo in contatto, chiamami, mi manchi già
Mille baci...

I love me recordshop

Even today, in this age of internet and file sharing, my favorite way to discover new music is to frequent local record stores, the mom and pop kind of operations where you can bring your coffee and chat with the staff for hours at time. Here in Athens, we're blessed with Wuxtry, a true institution since 1976.

I stopped there a few days ago as Mike was working, to show off my shiny new hot pink cellphone and its Wired up ringtone (how tacky is that ?). Mike greeted me with a smile and a "you gonna love that" light in the eyes. And he was right.

Bubblegum Lemonade
According to his official website, Bubblegum Lemonade is the solo project of a Scot from Glasgow, Laz, and his 12-string Brickenbacker. After a first tune released last October on Matinée Hit Parade sampler, Laz gives us his new EP, "Ten Years Younger". That's an understatement: the first 10 seconds drove me instantly back 15 to 20 years ago, at the height of jangly pop, a time where as a teen I was discovering Jesus & Mary Chain, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, Stone Roses, the Velvet Underground and so many many more. You, in your mid-thirties, do you remember those afternoons of ecstasy and wine spent with friends listening to what would become the soundtrack of your lives ? Buy the EP now and get 12 minutes of youth back. And here's a piece of advice for you, the younger ones: get with your significant other(s), put "Ten Years Younger" and make yourselves some memories. This EP is a pure gem, layered vocals, catchy harmonies, subtle feedback, everything's there. I wouldn't be surprised if Laz and I grew up more or less at the same time and with more or less the same record collection...

And if 12 minutes are not enough, do not worry, rejoice ! Laz has a second project:

Strawberry Whiplash is Laz on instruments and Sandra on vocals. Our duo just released their first EP, "Who's in your dreams", once again on Matinée, and once again four little jewels that'll stuck with you all this summer. I know it's only February, but their "feeback wall of sunshine sound" and a song like "It rains on other planets" will disperse winter clouds and make flowers grow around your steps. Like for Bubblegum Lemonade, 10 seconds were enough for me to fall head over heels.

So yes, I'm a sucker for twee and jangle, but I do love heavier stuffs as well, which brings us to

A Place To Bury Strangers, publicized as "the loudest band in NYC". A trio from Brooklyn fronted by the ex-Skywave Oliver Ackermann, APTBS does indeed play some loud, pedal-intensive noisy-pop/shoegaze with some surf music overtones. You'll recognize some influences of Jesus & Mary Chain's "Psychocandy", MBV's "Feed Me With Your Kiss"/"You Made Me Realize", Boo Radleys' "Kaleidoscope", The Cure's "Pornography", I gonna stop there, you should have an idea by now. Not original by any means, but formidably efficient.

Mike also tried to push the reissue of Adorable, but nah. I thought they sucked back in the days (1992, 2 to 5 years too late, mates), I had forgotten about them, and no regret whatsoever. I'll stick to our Glasgow friends for the time being.

MP3s
Bubblegum Lemonade: Ten Years Younger
Strawberry Whiplash: It Rains On Other Planets
A Place To Bury Strangers: She Dies

The "we never made it" week in shows.

Tue. 02/12

A: - Hey, what are you up to tonight ?
B: - Dunno, maybe gonna try to catch a show...
A: - Who's playing ?
B: - Dunno
A: - OK, gimme a call when you're downtown and let's meet.
B: - We have a plan.

Fact Not Fiction - Caledonia
Fact Not Fiction is a 4-dude, generic indie-rock band from Northeastern Georgia, with already two albums behind them. They are tight, they definitely know how to play, but the tunes are plain and insipid. I foresee success, in the tracks of Modern Skirts. Count me out.
MP3: Fact Not Fiction - Stars and UFO

B: - So, where are you ?
A: - Oh, I'm just calling it a night, actually. Stick around Flicker, Bell Hollow are playing, they're supposed to be good.
B: - OK, catch you later.

Bell Hollow - Flicker
Bell Hollow is an all-black clad quartet from NYC, currently touring with their sound engineer. As their outfits hint, they play some guitar-based cold-wave inspired dark music. I wasn't especially impressed by their performance: weak vocals (but we were warned not to pay too much attention to it), music too much in the lines of your generic mid/late-80es band, not enough punk-rock in the goth. They were headlining for Misfortune 500, which should give you an indication. Anyway, touring bands always need gas money, so I purchased their latest EP ("Sons of the Burgess Shale") and album ("Foxgloves"). Still mediocre on CD, eh, but it gives the urge to relisten to Vancouver's now defunct The Organ which is (was) far far superior in the same genre. Bah.
MP3: Bell Hollow : The Bottle tree

__________

Thu. 02/14

B: - Let's go see Blade Runner, there's the final cut at Cine.
A: - Can't do it. Let's meet at Go round 23:00 instead.

I found myself attending the 7PM showing (that was good...), which left me enough time to catch

Sex Robots - Caledonia
Sex Robots are an excellent punk trio from Saint Louis, MO. You may recognize Mario from the famous combo Bunnygrunt. Ah, there's something with the immediacy of pop-punk, the energy, that often leaves me with a smile on my face. And that was the case that night.
MP3: Sex Robots - Take Me Out Dancin'

So it was on springs that I went to Go. Unfortunately, I showed up at 23:15, too late for the electropop-duo of La Chansons, from ATL. Sad, because I'd been told that they were purely adorable (coming from Dan Geller, famous half of Ruby Isle and I'm the World Trade Center, that's a compliment to be trusted), and because I'll never have the answer to the question of whether they don't know enough French grammar or whether their name is a subversive statement. I stuck around for a little while, listening to the tunes of Twin Powers, before leaving for another dance-party at Little Kings where DJ Mahogany was spinning. So many parties, so little time, but always a good one when Mark is behind the tables. And he played some mean Jackson 5...

__________

Sat. 02/16

B: - Hey, there's a show in this new studio, round 21:00. Fancy coming ?
A: - Er, we'll see.
B: - OK, I'll call you.

The Glow studio was founded in January 2007 by Jesse Mangum and Chase Prince in Jacksonville, FL, and is best known for being where the Black Kids recorded their "Wizard of Ahhhs" EP. Jesse and Chase just relocated to Athens a few weeks ago, and were having their grand opening Saturday. Incidentally, Chase also recently joined Spring Tigers on drums, along with Eli (The Goons) on bass. To celebrate their new venue, Jesse and Chase set up a 4-band show:

Zeeg had already played when I showed up, so can't tell.

Manatella (Alissa, Lauren, Nate and Chris) hail from Jacksonville, FL. Chris recently moved to Jax from Gainesville, FL, home of our friends Oh Sanders for whom he still drums. Manatella just released their latest CD, "Fashionable Neighborhood", filled with jangly guitars. The balance that night was rather sub-par, and one of the guitar amps got possessed by the evil ghost of Eric Clapton and had to be bypassed, but being introduced to their music was still a good surprise.
MP3: Manatella - Eye Spy

The Shylights, from Atlanta, GA is the solo project of Josh Blanton. The night was warm on the deck, the beer was cold, I was with some friends that I don't have the luck to meet as often as I wish, so I missed it.

Lazerstar is Chase Capo, from Jax also, and also a solo project with a laptop, keyboards and guitar (occasionally). Imagine that a universe where Kevin Barnes came from Northern Florida and never met Bryan, Derek, Andy, Dottie or Jamie and you'll get a somehow good idea of what it's like: pop-fresh, electro-camp, irresistible. Highly recommended if you're into neon blue spandex bike shorts (or not).
MP3: Lazerstar - My myopic vision (last drop mix)

[Edit 02/18: moved files to fileden]

Just because ...

...it's today, it's one of my favorite movies, and you know, whatever.
Baci a tutte.

FOG#2: les Calamités

FOG#2 : Les Calamités

New Frenchies Oldies but Goodies installment, spurred by a recent post on Skatterbrain...

Early 80es, three chicks from Beaune (a small town in Burgundy), Caroline Augier, Isabelle Petit and Odile Repolt decide to keep boredom at bay and to form a rock band. Les Calamités (the Calamities) are born. After placing a song on a compilation, the girls release a first 9-tracks album in 1984, "A bride abattue", which could be translated as either "Riding like the wind" or "All straps down". Distributed on New Rose in France, the album was released in the US on Posh Boy. About half the songs are covers (The Who, The Troggs, The Dovells, The Isley Brothers), but the original songs in French are cute and refreshing, which prompted many TV shows to invite them. A single was excerpted from the album, "Toutes les Nuits" ("Every Night"), about the predicament of having a sleepwalker for boyfriend. A second 4-track will be released in the same year.

College brought their career to an halt, with Caroline relocating to London (UK), until Isabelle and Odile reformed in 1987 for a last 45, "Les Vélomoteurs" (the Mopeds). More produced than their earlier songs, with a sleeve photographed by the at that time omnipresent Pierre et Gilles, the single will be a huge hit, topping in 13th place. The last one: cooled off by six months of relentless promotion, Odile and Isabelle throw the towel early 1988. A compilation, "C'est complet" will eventually be released in 1997. Rideau.

More info about the Calamités here.

An extract of the clip for "Les Vélomoteurs":


The clip of "Toutes les Nuits":


MP3:
Toutes les Nuits (my boyfriend is a sleepwalker)
Vélomoteurs (screw your car, I prefer mopeds that go papapapa)
Le Supermarché (no malls in France, so kids hang around supermarkets...)

[Edit 02/18: moved files to fileden]

A guilty pleasure

The nice side effect of living under a rock is that you tend to get good surprises when you leave your little shelter.

Let's take the example of Calvin Harris. This young (he turned 24 a few weeks ago) Scot from Dumfries released his first album, the very modestly titled "I Created Disco", in June 2007 in the UK and in September 2007 in the US, and I just heard about it this very morning.

So you know the story, EMI discovered his myspace page in 2006, signed him and sent him in studio with his old Amiga to produce not only his album but also singles for Róisìn Murphy, Kylie Minogue and Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Two EPs and an album in the UK Top 10, a tour of UK and Australia fronting a full live band later, Harris will eventually cross the pond to attend the Winter Music Conference in Miami, FL at the end of next March, and Coachella next April.

OK, the album is not original, it really drags at times, it's a tad childish (yay! drugs! girls! drugs and girls!) and lacks the depth of, say, a LCD Sound System whose influence can be felt throughout the disc (the opening of "Merrymaking..." sounds an awful lot like "Daft Punk is playing..."), but it's a first album by an early twentysomething and it's tongue-in-cheek enough, so we can be forgiving.

In any case, a song like "Acceptable in the 80s" is quite infectious. "I got hugs for you/if you were born in the 80es", that's so totally like my love life. (OK, let's forget about the second half of the 80es, it's enough of a mess as it is that I don't want any legal complications on top of that).

MP3: Acceptable in the 80s (GTI)

This week-end in shows

Fri. 02/08

The Buddy System [40W]
Fifth show of our friends from the Buddy System, and a new animation ! TBS keep their CMYK trademark, but exit the cats, the cute monsters and evil horses. This time, Mat and Lauren's actual profiles appear face-to-face in their respective color, each pronouncing part of the lyrics. Musical departure as well from TBS' usual pop, as the song ends in a tribute to 2-tone (well, with some variations that you can guess). Excellent tune, quite original, one of their best so far. Moremoremore !


Dancer vs. Politician [Flicker]
Sanni Baumgärtner's Dancer vs Politician used to have two incarnations: one in Berlin (EU), and one in Athens, GA. Now that Sanni moved back to Athens for good, she recomposed the band's line up. The emotion is still intact, don't worry, you'll recognize the quiet and soothing ballads of "A City Half-Lost", a highly recommended album that has a very special place in my heart.
MP3: Mach Dich Los
MP3: Justin Fairborn


Sweet teeth [40W]
Sweet Teeth is a super band composed of members of Dark Meat, Long Legged Woman, among others. If you have never seen Sweet Teeth, picture some drony, hypnotic, improv' jam, with a million people on stage. It's actually better than you may fear.
MP3: Improvisation.


Mouser [40W]
I only caught a bit of Mouser, which is OK, as a little goes a long way. There are nights where the chaotic horn section really support the band, other nights where they don't. I can't tell which one was which, I wasn't very attentive.


Knyfe Hyts [40W]
More psychedelic heavy droning with Knyfe Hyts, a trio from Brooklyn, NY, who made me believe I was in the middle of some sun dance.

And then, I had to leave to attend some friends' dance party. And yes, I ruled the floor, thanks to the loveliest help possible. "Daft Punk is playing in my house, my house..."
__________

Sat. 02/09

There should be some kind of law or city ordinance for restaurants to have two waiting lists in parallel, one for kids under 24 (unaccompanied, I won't shoot myself in the foot more than necessary) and another for the rest of us normal people (put ironic smileys where suitable). Else, you'll end up waiting far too long before switching to another place, and you'll eventually be late for the first show of the evening:

Andy From Denver [Flicker]
Andy plays a very short set, so it's easy to miss most of it. I caught only three songs, about half the set, and that's a shame. It seems I missed some episode involving the famous Nintendo power-glove I mentioned in a previous post.

Miwa Gemini [Flicker]
Miwa Gemini, with Brian (on xylophone) and Sasha (her porcelain cat) delivered us her gentle, endearing ballads. Her cover of "Que sera sera" got the whole audience singing. Miwa's new album, "This Is How I Found You", will be released on Mar. 18. It definitely has a Southern feel to it, more so than on "Forgetful Ocean": in a way, it reminds me of Julee Cruise. You want it.
MP3: Crazy Over You
MP3: Forever For Never
MP3: Sad about Joe


Ham 1 [Flicker]
Athens' Ham 1 were headlining. Their shows remind me a family reunion where the cousins grab their instruments and start rocking out (supposing that on top of being great people, your cousins are also very talented musicians). Their first self-titled album had one of the best melancholy pop-folk song ever, "The Gift", that fortunately is now played live on a regular basis. The latest album, the excellent "The Captain's Table", was released last September on Orange Twin. Check the video of "Saluki", a track that would have fitted well on the second half of The Pixies' "Bossanova". A new album has already been recorded, and it should be available online some time next month. For now, there are no plan for the release of an actual CD, which definitely cuts costs, time and worries.
MP3: The Gift
MP3: Hare Lipped Bust
MP3: White Rat


Dark Meat / Face Off [40W]
Special evening at the 40W, organized like the day before by Mercer West. Take a member of the ever-expanding Dark Meat band/collective, pair him or her with another musician not from the band (a "civilian"), and give them 10 minutes. You can end up with some surprising moments. The last piece I managed to catch was disappointing, however, with some naive video made of old and new U.S. propaganda pieces overlaid by some droney keyboards and guitar that could have been interesting if the white-mask-wearing duo that was on stage had actually bothered writing a full tune, and not just an intro. Oh well.
__________

As a friend noticed, between Dark Meat and Ham 1, that was a butcher's delight night. That observation initiated another discussion: we already have several super-bands in Athens (Sweet Teeth, Supercluster...), all connected one way or another to Dark Meat. There's the need for a new one, The Vegan Option. Apply within.

[Edit 02/11: some spelling/grammar corrections]
[Edit 02/12: Go check out Mike White's photos of Friday evening !]