Articles Written By: Sky

Martini Ad of the Week

  • Posted on 17/09/2013
  • /Under Musique

pinkcoverOf course they are as much an American band as Grand Funk once were. Nonetheless Portland, Oregon’s »little orchestra« Pink Martini will always be identified with their postmodernist faux French smash hit Sympathique, also known as Je ne veux pas travailler, which sold a few million copies around the globe. On their brand new album Get Happy, they broaden their ‘ollywood swing nostalgia world music style with lyrics in Japanese, Turkish, Mandarin and Romanian; they even start with a German lingo opener. You might’ve already guessed there’s also a wink and a smile towards France: Je ne t’aime plus is finest understated Gallic bossa easy listening. Even better, it features neo-chanson legend and enfant terrible Philippe Katerine on vocals, and goodness gracious, it doesn’t sound faux at all.

Pink Martini – Je ne t’aime plus

Bâtard Pop XXV: Preparing the Duff

Even a tame mainstream ditty like Duffy’s Warwick Avenue suddenly works when fused with Serge’s Je t’aime. Kleptomaniac: Phil RetroSpector. Art form: Mash-up, of course. Verdict: Perfect crime. Check his site for more.

Perverse Manon, Country Style

  • Posted on 10/09/2013
  • /Under Musique

volecovThough being one of the finest bands ever to follow the paths of the Byrds and especially Gram Parsons into so many jingle jangle evenings, Motor City’s Volebeats are still virtually unknown even to most country rock aficionados. On their 2004 outing Country Favorites they also proved a surreal kind of humour covering songs by Parliament, Abba, Slayer or Barry White twangy-style. Their version of Serge G’s Manon, erstwhile title song of the stylish Deneuve flick Manon 70, transports the original’s ragged ambiguity clandestinely to the Seen It All Bar – that place where all the pale riders gather when they come to Paris, Texas.

Volebeats – Manon

Bonus: Serge’s original, of course, plus Marina Celeste’s breezy, ultra-sexy Brazil style version from her Cinéma Enchanté album. Hush, hush, sweet Manon.

Serge Gainsbourg – Manon
Marina Celeste – Manon

Extrabonus:
Giovanni Mirabassi – Manon
Lulu Gainsbourg & Marianne Faithfull – Manon

Un uomo di 76 anni

  • Posted on 09/09/2013
  • /Under Musique

paolo_conteSmoke a dozen packages of Morte Sicuro per day, and maybe you’ll sound like Italian cantautore Paolo Conte someday. The former lawyer with the gravelly voice wrote Italy’s not-all-too secret national anthem Azzurro in 1968 for Adriano Celentano, before he became a superstar himself with Gelato al limon and, of course, Via con me (»s’wonderful, good luck, my babe«) in the early Eighties, combining jazz and cabaret style with melanconia, eleganza, senso and disinvoltura. Occasionally, Conte also sings in French, as on his 2010 album Nelson – a true padrone of chanson.

Paolo Conte w/ Laura Conti – C’est beau
Paolo Conte – Enfant prodige

Lui et Léa

lealui

»It’s the whim of a spoiled kid.« French writer Frédéric Beigbeder (»Mémoires d’un jeune homme dérangé«, »99 francs«) is editorial director of the freshly relaunched LUI, the unmistakably Parisian pendant to Playboy and »Le magazine de l’homme moderne«, as it was called way back in the 60s to 80s. Then, they had Romy Schneider, Mireille Darc, Sylvia Kristel or Jane Birkin. Now, the brand new first volume of the mag, offered for the dumping price of 2,90 Euros, features actress Léa Seydoux, along with a lot of worthwhile reading. And Beigbeder has a new byname you’ve already guessed: L’homme qui amait des femmes.

Cocoboy – La Playmate de Samedi Soir

Mood Vibrations

  • Posted on 26/08/2013
  • /Under Musique

lottchTraveling Birds is the second album by Swiss-Belgian duo Lottchen, jazz singer Eva Buchmann & vibraphonist Sonja Huber (plays marimba, too), oscillating between super laid-back poise and fluffy end-of-summer dreamscapes. Though off and on a bit too artsy for their own good, there’s undoubtedly a master touch to feel here. Lottchen’s version of Camille’s Quand je marche effortlessly beats the pants off the chichi original, and the album’s opener, a spellbinding interpretation of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s classic Waters of March, is nothing but pure class. And, gee, that’s some cool egg shaker at the end of the song.

Lottchen – Quand je marche
Lottchen – Waters of March

Honky Tonk Serge

  • Posted on 25/08/2013
  • /Under Musique

A lot of red dust swirling in the air while you’re riding into Redemption, TX, pop. 234. Actually feels like a ghost town, but some nutty old timer points his finger to the saloon, as if you hadn’t heard the tinkling in the breeze. Sergio Gainsborough is playin’ the friggin’ black and whites again, and it sounds like you’ve been knowing each other for a goddamn hundred years.
Kudos to mel-rockabilly, whoever she is.

Twang!

Rockabilly from Switzerland with a Serge twist? Check out Hillbilly Moon Explosion from Zurich with a sexy version of Gainsbourg’s Chick Habit a.k.a. Laisse Tomber Les Filles, originally composed for France Gall. Video garnished with some pics feat. Betty P.  – parental guidance recommended.

EXTRA: Hillbilly Moon do a mean version of Poupée de cire as well. HERE

The Blithe Spirit of Charles Trenet

  • Posted on 18/05/2013
  • /Under Musique

chtren»Without him, we all would have become accounting clerks«, Jacques Brel once said about Charles Trenet, the godfather of French song who invented modern chanson with his stunning blend of surrealism, nostalgia, buoyancy and joie de vivre. Born exactly 100 years ago, on May 18, 1913, the so-called Fou chantant first pursued a career as a writer: In his early novel Dodo Manières his alter ego feels downright enchanted while listening to Louis Armstrong’s Hobo You Can’t Ride This Train, and jazz was what made him turn to song. Portrayed by Jean Cocteau as an angel on a famous poster, Trenet wrote about 850 songs, among them superb stuff like Je chante, J’ai ta main, Y’a d’la joie, Que reste-t-il des nos amours, Douce France, La route enchantée, of course La mer, and the magnificent L’âme des poètes, a simple, soft-spoken discourse about poets, poetry and immortality.

Charles Trenet – L’âme des poètes

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