Baby pop

  • Posted on 08/05/2011
  • /Under Musique

A Dutch version of France Gall’s Baby Pop, a song written by Gainsbourg. A pleasant surprise, I wasn’t aware it existed. It was the b-side to the only single Eindhoven-born Leontien Snel made in the 60s. See ReadySteadyGirls for some background. Many thanks to @LatoUno and of course @Frans_s for unearthing this gem. Anyone who saw the Gainsbourg-Vie Héroique movie (and if you’re a regular visitor, I’m sure you saw it), remembers the kind of cruel scene with Sara Forestier playing France Gall, singing Baby Pop totally out of tune to a bemused Gainsbourg, played by Eric Elmosnino. The only other cover of Baby Pop that I know of, was made by French singer Antoinette. If you know of other versions, please send me (guuzbourg (a) gmail) an mp3!

France Gall – Baby pop
Sara Forestier (as France Gall) – Baby pop
Leontien Snel – Baby pop
Antoinette – Baby pop

Little Majorette

  • Posted on 05/05/2011
  • /Under Musique

Whilst making a Spotify-playlist with Scandinavian filles (who do not sing in English, see here), FS-regular André introduced me to Little Majorette. A band of Swedes who got together in 2007 and made a couple of EP’s. Their album Rifle Heart is out now. On the last EP there’s one song with a French title that’s partly sung in French too. Zoe Durrant has a gorgeous voice, I’m very much into that electronic-kitschpop sound. What I’ve heard so far is very, very sultry. Hope Little Majorette will sing in French some more.

Little Majorette – Sous les étoiles

Oh La La!

  • Posted on 05/05/2011
  • /Under Musique

I’m surprised Oh La La! is the first French band (former A.S. Dragon-singer Natasha Le Jeune, Clément Fonio and Antoine Boistelle) to actually name themselves after one of France’s best known catchphrases. I’m not surprised professional weirdo Philippe Katerine pops up on the OLL!-album, for a duet. Their music is an update of A.S. Dragon and Elli & Jacno/Catherine Ringer & Fred ChinChin-styled new wave-pop, with electronic touches, heavy bass and sometimes lyrics in English. Single Oser has a great video (see here, and while you’re at it, see a riotious RUN-DMC cover here), but I’m more in favour of the RitaMitsouko-fied Nu Dans Ton Jeans. This waaaaaaay better than the disappointing solo-effort by Catherine Ringer. As Natasha stated on my Facebook, Catherine without Fred is like Serge without Jane. Sad, but true.

Oh La La! – Nu dans ton jeans

DJ Set

  • Posted on 03/05/2011
  • /Under Podcast

Last Sunday, the homies of Wicked Jazz Sounds asked me to do a dj-set in their weekly show on Dutch Radio 6. Much obliged! You can listen and/or download my set (great songs, no dj-trickery) HERE

In other news, go HERE to download a remix of Serge Gainsbourg’s Hold Up by Manu El Chino.

Siobhan Wilson II

  • Posted on 02/05/2011
  • /Under Musique

The reason why Siobhan Wilson’s soberly titled album Songs slipped under the FS radar last year might be due to the fact that it contains all English-language songs but one, a luminous adaptation of Jacques Brel’s Voir un ami pleurer – as simple as intimately gripping, as quietly lyrical as vibrant, the work of a Scottish-French fille fragile to boot. If you haven’t listened to her gorgeous version of La Javanaise, click here. Other videos here, here, and here.

Siobhan Wilson – Voir un ami pleurer
Jacques Brel – Voir un ami pleurer

Miss Wilson’s English-language side is decidedly folky, with some twists, especially when combining a hip-hop/ r&b rhythm with a minimalistic cello, as featured on Getting Me Down. Extra: DJ Anoraak’s remix of the song with a sweeping disco-pop beat. Jolie one.

Siobhan Wilson – Getting Me Down

Siobhan Wilson – Getting Me Down (Anoraak Remix)

Like Bashung

  • Posted on 02/05/2011
  • /Under Musique

Tels Alain Bashung is a just-released tribute to the great French rocker, who passed away in 2009. He left a discography that, for the non-French listener, has as much turn-ons as turn-offs. He wasn’t a fantastic singer, technically. He had, as Sky said already in the post below, a tendency for pumped up stadium-rock and yes, he was obsessed by Dylan. Yet, albums like Play Blessures, Fantaisie Militaire and Osez Joséphine are still very listenable, and songs like La nuit je mens or Madame rêve lost nothing of their emotional value. Plus, he played in a few very good videos (like Volutes). On Tels Alain Bashung, FS-faves like Keren Ann, Vanessa Paradis, M, Dionysos and Benjamin Biolay make his songs their own. No stinkers here (ok, well, Christophe maybe channels some bad stadiumrock-vibes). On the dvd that accompanies the cd, almost all artists tell melancholic stories about Bashung, his songs and their memories. Oddly, rock-trio Mustang is also featured, yet they’re not the album. Shame. Their approach to rock ‘n roll is very much in the vein of another of Bashungs heroes, Gene Vincent.

Keren Ann – Je fume pur oublier que tu bois
Alain Bashung – Je fume pour oublier que tu bois

Note from Sky’s editorial desk: I beg to differ, Guuz — Christophe’s cover of Bashung’s Alcaline has class and haute tension.

Christophe – Alcaline
Alain Bashung – Alcaline.mp3

FS Rerun: Alain Bashung

  • Posted on 01/05/2011
  • /Under Musique

When Alain Bashung hit it big in 1981 – Gaby oh Gaby was in the French charts for 54 weeks and sold a million copies –, they called him the „Johnny Hallyday de la New Wave“. Actually, the Gallic super-antistar who garnered eleven Victoires de la Musiques awards between 1985 and 2009, sounded all-too-often more like Paolo Conte merging David Bowie attitude with an unhealthy Dylan obsession, stadium rock style – including a whole lot of obnoxious Frenchican rock bummers (especially the Tom Waits/ Michel Sardou amalgam of 2008’s Bleu Pétrole), but also some significantly dazzling results, especially on 82’s Play Blessures, then teaming up with lyricist Serge Gainsbourg who probably would have liked to inflict these wounds himself: Combining lupine lamentos with No Wave splinters, this is French Rock’s Metallic K.O., with unmistakably hypnotic qualities.

Alain Bashung – J’envisage

Alain Bashung – Bistouri scalpel

Alain Bashung – Trompé d’érection

Face/ Off

  • Posted on 30/04/2011
  • /Under Musique

On his brand-new album I Wish I Was Someone Else, German singer Patrick Zimmer alias Finn employs a well-tried, though not very well-worn concept when covering mostly so-called classic radio smash hits from the 70s and 80s, Lo-fi production style. Flogging braindead horses like I Shot the Sheriff or Tina Turner’s Private Dancer bare bones folkie-style doesn’t make them the slightest bit more thrilling … in short, it’s all going nowhere in a hurry. With the exception of a quite upbeat cover of Ne dis rien, originally rendered by Serge G. and Godard favorite Anna Karina in 1967, in some studio booth Serge mistook for a boudoir again. Finn’s partner in crime is a sweetly knowing, sadly anonymous, and surely German female voice. Must be the way she walks: Who’s that girl?

Finn – Ne dis rien

Serge & Anna Karina – Ne dis rien

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