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Amelie Veille

Guestpost! Dave on yet another beauty from Quebec: Amelie Veille.

One of the nicer things that can happen on any given day is coming across a new album by a favorite artist who you thought had stopped recording. I think I can be forgiven for thinking this, as Amelie’s last CD, “Un Moment ma Folie”, was from six years ago. Amelie’s on the folk side of rock, a pretty singer-songwriter with girl next door looks (well, I wish she was next door, anyway), a soft voice, and an acoustic guitar. Her first two albums were a bit on the melancholy side, from her own description, but even so most of the songs stay upbeat in tempo. Amelie’s new CD, Mon coeur pour te garder, strikes out in a different direction, light-hearted and fun. (Video here, nice article here) Here are three favorites, one from each of her albums.

Now if only Adrienne Pauly would finally, finally come out with a new album.

Amelie Veille – Mon coeur pour te garder (original here)
Amelie Veille – La main sur le carreau
Amelie Veille – Je voudrais te dire

Dawn Landes

A Kentucky-girl with a husky voice who fell in love with France, who learned to speak French by listening to French music and finally released a French EP. Dawn Landes‘ story in a nutshell. The countryfied singer, who released two albums on France-based label Fargo, got help from (among others) Karen Lohier of Katel, Tunde from TV On The Radio and Matthew C. from Nada Surf. With the latter, she sings a pretty duet. The EP closes with a Georges Brassens cover, and features touches of doo-wop, country, jazz and Françoise Hardy-style weepers. Not all songs are great (not a big fan of La Vie Au Lasso), but that duet is just lovely. The EP comes with a book of illustrations by Dawn.

Dawn Landes & Matthew Caws – L’ingénue

Liminanas

If Serge Gainsbourg had written songs with The Velvet Underground, it might have sounded like The Liminanas. Somebody else wrote that, but it’s a great way to describe the sultry, fuzz-drenched basement-sound of the trio from Perpignan. Their second album Crystal Anis is out, and the second you hear the bass in Ballade pour Clive, you’ll get the Gainsbourg-reference. This is music to listen to with darkdarkdark-shades on, while Super8-porn is being shown on the screen in the humid cellar, the leather-clad crowd is getting anxious yet you’re keeping it cool. You might dance. Horizontally or vertical, maybe both. Gimme another shot, barkeep!
See a video for an English track from their debut album here.
Listen to their Beach Boys cover here

The Liminanas – Ballade pour Clive

Granville

Californian fuzz mixed with Normandic charm – that’s Granville. A quartet, Melissa Dubourg is the female singer. They made a few singles, notably Slow (great video), and the just released Jersey b/w La Ville Sauvage (see Bandcamp). They cite Best Coast and Françoise Hardy as influences. Keep an eye on’m! Listen to a Filles & Garçons remix here. Acoustic session here.

Granville – La ville sauvage

Lisa Leblanc

It takes a real woman to write a guestpost on, well, a real woman. Natasha on fellow Canadian Lisa Leblanc:

When singer Lisa Leblanc belts, “Maybe tomorrow will be better, but today my life is shit”, the Acadian-Canadian singer, who accompanies herself on the banjo, is pouring out her guts for real. The first time I saw her in the video of “Aujourd’hui, Ma Vie C’est D’la Marde” (‘marde’ = ‘merde’ in Canadian French), I was like a moose caught in the headlights, bought the physical CD my first day back in Montréal on holiday this summer and played everywhere.

Leblanc calls her music ‘trash-folk’, and her first eponymous album, which came out in March, is catching on like wild fire in French-speaking Canada. Ironically, she says her music is all about trashing the ‘fi-filles’, the very kind of girly girls you’ll find on this blog. The ones that steal her boyfriends because of their perky assets, the ones that sing lovey-dovey ‘Céline Dion’ type songs and can’t write or play an instrument. Leblanc beats the musical crap out of all them, but sleeps alone, as there’s always a price to pay for being a real woman.

What’s an Acadian? Cajun, Acadian, keep pronouncing them until they sound the same. Those people down in Louisiana are descendants of Acadians from Canada’s Eastern province New Brunswick where 40% of the population speaks French, peppered with lots of English nouns, like fellow female singers Marie-Jo Thério and Edith Butler.

Lisa Leblanc – Aujourd’hui, Ma Vie C’est D’la Marde
Lisa Leblanc – Cerveau Ramolli

Barbara Lune video

  • Posted on 25/07/2012
  • /Under Video

Remember to brush your teeth afterwards. It’s bubblegumpop with sugarlevels up to eleven. But, sigh, what a girl.

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