Filles Sourires

Vanessa Paradis

2009-11-23T21:10:00.008+01:00

V's Best Of-album is out now. Yesterday, she gave an intimate concert in Paris. Where she played this absolutely gorgeous version of Joe le Taxi. If, like Sky, never liked that song, you will now. See the original version here. Thank SOM!

Vanessa Paradis - Joe le Taxi (acoustic)

YES! we have video

Want to download the full concert? Go here

Sélection de Lundi: The Big Racket

2009-11-23T11:26:00.005+01:00

When three-years-old Ilie Nastase watched a tennis match for the first time from the roof of Romania’s biggest stadium, he was so fascinated by the flying ball that he forgot about his bladder functions: „At first, people below thought it was raining“, he recalls in his autobiography. After quitting the racket circus, the Transsylvanian tennis enfant terrible („Nasty but nice“) didn’t only write two thrillers, but also recorded his only 45 tours, Globe Trotter Lover which reached #2 in the French pop charts in 1987. The b-side, Pour etre un homme, is a soft-spoken, tender slice of cheese – a charmer all the way.

Ilie Nastase – Pour etre un homme

Extra 1: Four years after Ilie, John McEnroe and Pat Cash teamed up with Who frontman Roger Daltrey for a, well, serve-and-volley version of Led Zep’s Rock’n’Roll:

John McEnroe & Pat Cash w/ Roger Daltrey – Rock’n’Roll

Extra 2: The only ex-tennis player to rival Ilie in the French charts was Yannick Noah doing a not too bad soul-popper impersonation. From his eighth longplayer, Charango (2006):

Yannick Noah – C’est toi

Extra 3: Only Delerm can sing about Steffi Graf in a way that breaks your heart. And Dr. House makes you grin again.

Vincent Delerm – Les jambes de Steffi Graf
Hugh Laurie – I’m in Love with Steffi Graf (video)

You wanted the best, you got the best

2009-11-20T10:55:00.003+01:00

Yep, it's time for the round-up of the year. Lists, people, lists! What are the ten best French language albums of 2009 - No compilations, except for Gainsnord of course, no re-issues. Send me your top tens (you can wait after you heard Charlotte's album), you have until December 10. I will make a Final Top Ten before Christmas. That email address again: guuzbourg(at)gmail(dot)com

Beck & Charlotte Gainsbourg video

2009-11-19T17:50:00.001+01:00

Charlotte Gainsbourg "Heaven Can Wait" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Gainsnord (slight return)

2009-11-18T12:34:00.001+01:00

Another video of the Gainsnord-presentation in Paradiso. You can see me hosting the night, see Serge van Duijnhoven performing his great (Dutch) poem about Gainsbourg and the lovely, lovely Geraldine singing Chatterton with West Hell 5.

Plastiscines

2009-11-17T20:42:00.003+01:00

Here at FS headquarters, we like some screaming guitars. The combination of roaring amplifiers and good looking women is heavenly - French rock brought us Dolly, Manu, Vive la Fete and, earlier, Les Calamités. Plastiscines is an update of the latter, featuring four gorgeous women, singing in French and making music inspired by Ramones, Strokes and Libertines. On their new (second) album About Love, Katty Besnard and her friends sing mostly in English. Shame, for now they sound like Shampoo - a novelty act. The new cd sports three songs in French, Camera is the strongest. It's like a Yelle song without the electronica.

Plastiscines - Camera

see video for Barcelona here.

Cover art

2009-11-16T15:30:00.001+01:00

Sélection de Lundi: Vanessa, 12 ans

2009-11-15T22:03:00.007+01:00

Or was she already thirteen? 24 years ago, Vanessa Chantal Paradis recorded her first 45 tours, a post-La Boum ten-candy-bars nostalgia piece with nods to Little Richard and Gene Vincent, boogie piano and bap-shoo-ap chorus. The mastermind behind it was Jean-Louis Bergerin who’s still active in lots of nuits de rock’n’roll, but probably too modest to mention his association with the later superstar on his website. And though Vanessa indeed looked super sympa, not too many kids joined her surprise party that went more or less unheard down the drain in 1985. Even my niece (9) asked me how to get the aaaaawful song off her iPod. Tomorrow I’ll try with her younger sister again.

Vanessa Paradis – La magie des surprises parties

Serge meets the Wooden Shjips

2009-11-14T18:27:00.002+01:00

Serge's Contact, written for Ms. Bardot, in a grand, highly spaced-out version by San Francisco's Wooden Shjips. "Take it." (Nino Ferrer)

Marianne Dissard (plus the boys on the bus)

2009-11-14T12:14:00.006+01:00

Last night, I had the pleasure of spending some time with my favourite country-noir angel Marianne Dissard. She played the Paris Appelle festival in The Hague, her first concert in Holland (if I'm not mistaken), and also the first time we met. Four years after I put a song of hers on my first French compilation, and experiencing the advantages of social media (twitter, Myspace). But nothing beats a real kiss from Marianne. She played with a new band, last night was the first show of the tour. Bemused, me and the mrs saw Marianne explaining to guitarplayer Brian Lopez how to pronounce several French words from her songs (Brian also sings harmony) at dinner. I for one would be terribly nervous when I had to explain my songs to my band an hour before showtime (of course Brian, Geoff, Olivier and Sergio heard and played her songs before), but Marianne was carefree. She told me the story about how she came to Liverpool for three shows, and on the way to the venue the guy from the label told her that the duo she was supposed to play with, well, they broke up. So she had to do all shows with just an accoreon player. 'And it went great!', Marianne said.
Just as her show in The Hague was great. If you know her album L'Entredeux (if you don't, get it now! Heck, it's one of the greatest French albums of the decade!), you might expect a quiet, shy girl. None of that! Mrs Guuzbourg compared her to Edith Piaf, and there's some truth in that. Marianne's very expressive, communicative and (again, mrs Guuzbourg talking here) 'you get the feeling she has an urge to perform.'
So there. Find all dates for Marianne's European tour here. Below is a live track (with her former band) plus tracks by other projecst of most of her bandmembers.

Marianne Dissard - Les Draps Sourds (live in Tucson AZ)
Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta - Las Calles de Tuscon (More on Sergio here)
B.Lopez - The Killing Moon (Echo & the Bunnymen cover) (More on B.Lopez here)
Mostly Bears - Melancholyism (More on MB here)

Dionysos/ Gainsbourg

2009-11-12T22:16:00.005+01:00

Quite energetic version of Serge's Docteur Jekyll by French favorites Dionysos. Murder Rock + interview.

Daniel Bélanger

2009-11-12T09:33:00.004+01:00

In January, I posted a lot songs by Canadian artists. Because I was struck by the number of great singers and great songs coming from that country. In the months that followed, more and more Canadians (from Quebec mostly, but also from other ~~states~~ provinces) came to my attention. And I loved that. Recently, the new album by veteran Daniel Bélanger was released. A very good cd, my introduction to this artist. My Canadian friend, dj-partner and musical conscience Natasha wrote this guestpost on Bélanger:

Born and raised in Montréal, Daniel Bélanger dropped like a bomb onto the Québec music scène in 1990, winning prizes and breaking records left and right. He writes eloquent songs that every guitarist plays at parties (guilty as charged) and on stage he seems shy, making him even more intriguing. The story goes that Bélanger had written tons of songs and had to be convinced by his brother Michel to finally pursue a musical career. Lucky for him, his brother owns Audiogram, Québec’s major French language label.
On Bélanger’s brand new album Nous, Filles Fragiles-favourites such as Amylie and Caracol have joined in, with the male end being held up by Damien Robitaille and Julien Mineau of rock band Malajube. Ariane Moffat toured with Bélanger in 2001 as a keyboardist for his fourth album Rêver mieux and other singers such as Luce Dufault and Isabelle Boulay sing songs by Bélanger, already considered Québécois standards.
Nous is more extroverted and funky, less ethereal and more of a collective affair. Bélanger has always loved funk, but has said he can’t imagine himself trying to imitate African-Americans. 'Funk is directly related to the body. It’s as if your ass is thinking, because your ass can’t think the way your brain does.' That’s probably a revelation coming from an artist who has been living inside his head for more than two decades.
One of my personal favourites is Sèche tes pleurs from the 1993 album Les insomniaques s’amusent, which in my books comes in second to Jacques Brel’s Ne me quitte pas in the pain and desperation felt when your ass gets dumped.

Daniel Bélanger - Sèche tes pleurs
Daniel Bélanger - L'équivalence des contraires

Marina Celeste

2009-11-11T22:58:00.006+01:00

Marina Celeste is one of those filles that make me feel completely defenseless. I cannot resist her charm. That face, that singing voice, the reason Filles Fragiles #1 kicked off with a Marina-track, was because she's the embodiment (in many ways) of what a fille fragile/zuchtmeisje is. Acidulé and Cinema Enchantée both are solid albums, her work with Nouvelle Vague (esp. on the first album) is great. A third album is in the works, The Angel Pop. An EP is out now, and that features mostly English songs. I'm not against French artists singing in English. But I do think part of the attraction, the mystery even, of filles like her lays in the French language. In English, it's kinda bland. That sole French song on the new EP is great. The Buzzcocks-cover's too Vague, the rest unintentionally funny, mostly because of that accent. That said, I will try and see he play live in Utrecht, in December. And I am genuinely curious about the upcoming album (next year), though I do hope she won't pull an Emilie Simon on us. See a making of-video here.

~~Marina Celeste - La corde raide~~

Pomplamoose

2009-11-11T10:23:00.006+01:00

Biographies. They can be pages long. They can be short: 'Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn started making music together in the summer of '08, and decided to form a band. Pomplamoose thus represents the collaborative efforts of the two afore-mentioned musicians. It also means grapefruit in French.' Pomplamoose hails from California, they do covers (ranging from Beyonce to Simon & Garfunkel) and write their own stuff, mostly in English. Nataly has a sultry voice with added ennui, a bit like Feist. No wonder do cover Leslie's Gatekeeper. Their French song Le Commun des Mortels is excellent, with those little bells and choirs. Hope they will write in French some more. (Thanks Lewis!)

Pomplamoose - Le commun des mortels
Pomplamoose - Single ladies (Beyonce cover)
SEE their cover of Piaf's La vie en rose here.

Gainsbourg the movie (new trailer)

2009-11-10T10:17:00.001+01:00

Voulez-vous dansez avec moi?

2009-11-09T15:24:00.001+01:00

Where? Here!

Single play

2009-11-09T10:27:00.002+01:00

From http://twitter.com/Draaikolk: Just received this one thanks to @Guuzbourg & @natashenka007, love it, especially the Spinshots track!

Oh, and we have a first winner of a FREE Gainsnord-7". See here.

Sélection de Lundi: Pet Sounds

2009-11-08T22:04:00.013+01:00

In this video, already posted by Guuzbourg a few days ago, you can catch a glimpse at Mathias Malzieu and French indie artists Dionysos playing the immortal Nazi Rock for the upcoming Serge Gainsbourg, vie héroïque movie. Malzieu is also a talented writer: In his dark fantasy novel + accompanying album La mécanique du cœur young, cuckoo-clock hearted Jack is taught several things by the prostitute Luna (voice by Spanish actress Rossy de Palma), among them the nice Latin word Cunnilingus – for innocent Jack just the right choice for naming his ... hamster, and now imagine all those kids doing the same when the announced film adaptation comes out. Which would have been Serge’s idea of fun for sure, as well as our Monday morning extra track.

Dionysos w/ Babet & Rossy de Palma – Cunnilingus mon amour

Connie Lingus – Fuck Me Forever

Pépé goes Français

2009-11-08T12:33:00.005+01:00

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

2009-11-07T14:19:00.003+01:00

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

2009-11-07T09:58:00.006+01:00

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.

2009-11-06T17:19:00.001+01:00

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

Wax Poetic

2009-11-06T13:48:00.007+01:00

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

2009-11-06T05:23:00.006+01:00

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)

2009-11-05T22:32:00.001+01:00

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.