Inventing Situations - 5/2 show

One of the new albums in the studio is by the New Zealand parodists Flight of the Conchords. Humor bands can get tiresome, but these guys seem pretty good. The song I played is a parody of a French 60's pop, and features the kind of French dialogue that you can understand if you've ever studied French, ever, even for just a year. It's a funny song (with a funny video).

Anyway, this inspired me to play a full set of French songs. In the 80's, the French pop music scene was a bit of a wasteland, but now they are producing a lot of good stuff. Everyone knows Air by now; they made the soundtrack to the movie The Virgin Suicides, and last year's Pocket Symphony was one of my favorite albums of the year. So, what else is there?

Camille came recommended to me by my friend Graziella. Her music is reminiscent of afropop, with overdubbed harmonies that sound like Zap Mama. I picked Le Fil up last spring (2007), but it's a couple of years older than that.

Les Négresses Vertes started in the late 80's mixing rock with bal musette; sometime in the 90's they shifted their sound to something much more electronic and dancey. I picked up Trabendo in 1999.

Stereo Total is band that's also gotten some international attention. The duo do not sing well, but it's good rock music, and good singing is not required.

I've been trying to think of other French bands I know, that I could have played — Louise Attaque, Les Innocents, Olivia Ruiz, Superbus, L'Affaire Louis Trio, Orwell, Justice, Paris Combo, Uztaglote. Am I missing anything?

(Not to mention Quebecois bands and artists like Ghislain Poirier and Les Sequelles. Really, that's a whole other scene.)

*: new stuff
(r): requests

artist	song	album	label
Talking Heads	Found a Job	More Songs about Buildings and Food	Sire
Bebel Gilberto	Bring Back the Love (Bombay Dub Orchestra Remix)	Bring Back the Love Remixes	Six Degrees
*Pomegranates	Thunder Meadow	Everything's Alive	Lujo
*Jamie Lidell	A Little Bit of Feel Good	Jim	Warp
Universal Jubileers	Childhood Days	Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal	Numero Group
*Portishead	The Rip	Third	Island
Nina Simone	You Better Know It	My Baby Just Cares for Me	Duchesse
The Zincs	Burdensome Son	Black Pompadour	Thrill Jockey
Antony & the Johnsons	Deeper than Love	Antony & the Johnsons	Secretly Canadian
*REM	Mr. Richards	Accelerate	Warner Brothers
The Red Krayola	Born in Flames	Singles (1968 - 2002)	Drag City
Canasta	Microphone Song	We Were Set Up	Broken Middle C
*Tokyo Police Club	Your English is Good	Elephant Shell	Saddle Creek
The Smiths	Hand in Glove	Hatful of Hollow	Sire
The London Suede	Can't Get Enough	Headmusic	nude/Columbia
*(r)The Foals	Cassius	Antidotes	Sub Pop
*Flight of the Conchords	Foux de Fafa	Flight of the Conchords	Sub Pop
Camille	La jeune fille aux cheveux blancs	Le fil	Virgin
Les Négresses Vertes	Les mégots	Trabendo	Virgin France
Stereo Total	Miss Rébellion	Paris-Berlin	Kill Rock Stars
*Haale	No Ceiling	No Ceiling	Channel A
*Why?	Simeon's Dilemma	Alopecia	Anticon
Paper Airplane Pilots	Helium Balloon	Western Automatic Music	Spade Kitty
*Zerostars	Sleeping In	Basement Stories	Self-released zerostars.com
Shy Child	Break Your Neck	One with the Sun	Say Hey Records
*Man Man	The Ballad of Butter Beans	Rabbit Habits	Anti-
Astrud Gilberto	Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)	Jazz Masters 9	Verve

Labels: music, playlists

posted by Tony at 10:38 AM