Verlaine, Baudelaire and the Girls

  • Posted on 09/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Here’s an idea: let gorgeous filles like Claire Keim, Jenifer and Camelia Jordana sing poems by Verlaine, Baudelaire, Elouard and Carême. Add some garçons (Arthur H, Marc Lavoine, Babx), some unsinkable legends (Ferré, Hardy, Nougarro) and you have La Bande des Mots. A compilation to raise money for handicapped students, and to help popularize the great French poets. Not every poem is fit to be sung, to be honest. But Verlaine’s Il pleure dans mon coeur by Claire Keim sure makes excellent FS-material. She’s certainly not the first to sing Verlaine’s poem, many classical soprano’s did it before her, but it never sounded this sexy.

Claire Keim – Il pleure dans mon coeur
Camelia Jordana – Spleen

Do Your Math

  • Posted on 08/02/2012
  • /Under Video

In 1965, comic illustrator Jean-Claude Forest created futuristic heroine Marie Mathématique for French TV, kind of a little sister of Bébé Cyanure (Baby Cyanide) and 60s icon Barbarella who brought Forest world fame and was played by Jane Fonda in Roger Vadim’s masturbation blockbuster. Venusian Marie, “la jeune fille comme il faut”, appeared in six all-too short episodes within ORTF’s Dim Dam Dom tv magazine — a pop art kitten sexed up additionally by the low-pitched cool of singer/ storyteller Serge Gainsbourg. Extraordinary stuff, not to be missed. Giggles and chuckles by another outlandish creature: France Gall.

Marie-Pierre Arthur: Aux Alentours

  • Posted on 07/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Problem with Jan/ Feb releases is that they usually are forgotten by the end of the year. Not this one. We already fell in love with Québecoise singer Marie-Pierre Arthur after discovering her on Buck 65’s brilliant 20 Odd Years and her first, self-titled solo effort featuring the lovely folk-pop gem Pourquoi in 2009. Her brand new album, Aux Alentours, features finest eclectic fille pop all the way, combining shades of 70s glam rock, intricate touches of 80s dream pop and glimpses of retro attitude: Her voice encompasses the raw and the smooth perfectly, the tunes changing effortlessly between catchy melodies, gritty riffs and sweet, at times angelic moods. Marie-Pierre has claimed somewhere that originality does not exist, but proves herself wrong with almost every single song: Aux Alentours may start in Reference Alley, but heads straight to Reinvention Boulevard in that Grand State of the Art.

Marie-Pierre Arthur – Pour une fois
Marie-Pierre Arthur – Les infidèles

Buck 65 w/ Marie-Pierre Arthur – Final Approach

David Giguère

  • Posted on 06/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Last year was a French-Canadian fille fest, this year the guys put in some weight. Well, one guy, and David Giguère gets help from one of our alltime fave Quebecoises (Ariane Moffatt, who produced), from Fanny Bloom (who sings a too short duet) and Camille Poliquin as his choriste. Giguere, also known as an actor is Canada, made quite an impression with his first single L’Atelier. His debut album is a folktronic affair, with breezy melodies, heartfelt lyrics and modern soundscapes. His voice is a bit lazy, offbeat, a bit like fellow Canadians Damien Robitaille and Pierre Lapointe. At times, like in Madame M, the late Bashung springs to mind.
David Giguere – Madame M

Luciana Mello

  • Posted on 06/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Brazilian singer Luciana Mello recorded a French version of Serge Gainsbourg’s latinized ode to coffee-coloured beauties Couleur Café on her 6th album (called 6 Solo). In the video above you don’t see French singer Corneille, but he’s on the album version. Luciana comes from a musical family, her dad’s Brazilian funk pioneer Jair Rodrigues, her brother Jair Oliviera is a music producer. Not sure if Luciana recorded in French before, but this sure’s convincing.
Listen to more Luciana via Soundcloud.
(Merci to Under Paris blog for the tip)

Luciana Mello – Couleur Café

Anaïs

  • Posted on 05/02/2012
  • /Under Musique

Quirky French singer Anaïs new single is a cover (see original version here), the first track from a new covers album. Though we love covers at FS, we’re also sceptical. The reason you didn’t find a post about the new Olivia Ruiz-EP is that her swing covers are average, not to say below average. And Olivia in English…I don’t know. On her upcoming album A l’eau de javel, Anaïs sings tracks by Edith Piaf, Rina Ketty and other 40s singers, whom she prefers over, say, Madonna and Mylene Farmer (good choice). I also heard a version of Tina Turner’s Private Dancer by Anaïs, but I sure hope that’s not on the album for it’s baaaaad. But this new single is very, very promising. And danceable.

Anais – Je n’embrasse pas les garçons

Initiales D.D.

  • Posted on 03/02/2012
  • /Under Video

Last song on Diane Dufresne’s Turbulences, 1982. Written by Monsieur G., and definitely not a virgin suicide.

Le Groove Socialiste de Monsieur Krug

  • Posted on 30/01/2012
  • /Under Musique

Before ex-GDR superstar actor and chanteur Manfred Krug performed ultimately dreadful versions of old swing standards in Germany’s never-ending Tatort crime show, he was nothing less than the greatest soul man between Rostock and Karl-Marx-Stadt. With Ein Hauch von Frühling (1973) he transformed East German record label Amiga into Erich Honecker’s Motown for some serious moments. The éminence grise behind him was pianist and band leader Günther Fischer, who composed and arranged those intricate funky grooves that were tailor-made for Krug’s seemingly feeble tenor voice. Inbetween they explored some other genres, as on 74’s Greens, an international song collection featuring a sweeping version of Jean Lenoir’s all-time classic Parlez moi d’amour, originally penned for Lucienne Boyer in 1930.

Manfred Krug – Parlez moi d’amour

Extra: Sexy background singers and fat horn arrangements refine Krug’s 1973 socialist soul classic Komm und spiel mit mir (Come and Play With Me). Six years later, already in West Germany then, he fused melancholy and irony perfectly in Früh war der Tag erwacht (Dawn Arrived Early That Day) – the tune’s mood reminiscent of the late Dutch filmmuziek genius Rogier van Otterloo.

Manfred Krug – Komm und spiel mit mir
Manfred Krug – Früh war der Tag erwacht

Bâtard Pop XXII: Beat Serge

Jolie mash-up of Jacko’s Beat It and SG’s Comic Strip by the prolific DJ ComaR who already contributed to the superb Je Deteste Serge compilation in 2010. Two tunes obviously made for each other.

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