Mystified

  • Posted on 10/11/2010
  • /Under Musique

Never thought I’d ever post an INXS track on this blog, let alone one with John Mayer on guitar. But when certified fragile fille Loane is singing… bring it on! Mystify, the track with Loane on vocals and Mayer on guitar, is on Original Sin. A new album by the Australian rockband that were left devastated when singer Michael Hutchence hung himself in 1997. Original Sin is an odd album, it features re-recorded old tracks with guestvocalists like Tricky, Nikka Costa, Ben Harper & Mylene Farmer (a partly French version of Never Tear Us Apart), Rob Thomas and a batch of unknown singers (unless you know who Dan Sultan or Deborah de Corral are).
These projects almost always turn out to be disastrous. I was an INXS-fan in the 90s (Listen Like Thieves is a classic rock album) and legacies like that are best left alone. But with Loane singing like she does… ooh lala.

INXS – Mystify (featuring Loane and John Mayer)

FS Rerun: The Other Serge

  • Posted on 09/11/2010
  • /Under Musique

Casque d’or, La ronde, Le doulos, L’armée des ombres: Serge Reggiani  was already a highly acclaimed star of the French silver screen when he – encouraged by Simone Signoret and Yves Montand – turned to singing in 1965 with SR chante Boris Vian. His chef d’œuvre may well be Rupture (1971; see right) – a brilliant album oscillating between grand melancholy, mild cynicism and mature knowledge unsurpassed in the history of French song. La putain combines Reggiani’s unique phrasing with a perfectly arranged composition by Michel Legrand and the classy poetic imagery of lyricist Jean-Loup Dabadie – a 3:42 min short story about the lost bird of youth and those secrets behind the jalousies.

Serge Reggiani – La putain

Bonus: Serge G. with his seldom-played take on whores from the soundtrack of Just Jaeckin’s 1977 soft-porn flick Madame Claude (PG recommended), with a wink and a sneer towards Bach’s Jésus, que ma joie demeure.

Serge Gainsbourg – Putain que ma joie demeure

Nouvelle Vague

  • Posted on 09/11/2010
  • /Under Musique

Couleurs sur Paris, the new Nouvelle Vague album is out now in France and Belgium (should be out in Europe and overseas next week, god willin’), and it’s a beauty! I haven’t been that enthusiastic in the past about NV, because the concept stopped working after the second album. For me. But this time, Marc and the girls (and a few guys) really really outdid themselves. French new wave hits from the 80s worked over by the creme de la creme of les filles fragiles of today, why didn’t I think of that?! I’m sooo happy that Coeur de Pirate, Jeanne Cherhal, Olivia Ruiz and of course our guardian angel Coralie Clément are on board. CC’s version of Taxi Girl‘s Je suis déjà partie (video) is amazing.
I’ve posted about the 4th NV-album before. See tracklist here. Here you can find a zip with all the original versions.
Nouvelle Vague feat. Coralie Clément – Je suis déjà partie

Ooh Canada II: Nikki Darling

  • Posted on 08/11/2010
  • /Under Musique

When Nikki Yanofsky appeared at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2006, she was twelve years old; the following year, she was the youngest singer ever to appear on a Verve record, and showroom schmaltzmeister Tony Bennett regards her as the reincarnation of Judy Garland. No surprise that Barry Manilow producer Phil Ramone and Norah Jones associate Jesse Harris took over for her studio debut „Nikki“, another one of those sleek Fräuleinwunder sedatives that are played at my hairdresser’s all the time. Actually, Nikki’s album is quite well-perfumed, featuring even a few lines in French on the perfectly arranged Bienvenue dans ma vie, including an Art van Damme meets Amélie format accordion and un peu de scat vocal showoff. If you’re into more spoiled Nikkis, check the classic below.

Nikki Yanofsky – Bienvenue dans ma vie

Prince – Nikki Darling

Ooh Canada

  • Posted on 08/11/2010
  • /Under Musique

Coeur de Pirate made an iTunes Canada-exclusive live-EP, that features songs that we all know so well (Fondu au noir, Infidèle). But the most interesting song is a cover. Again, because that was the case also on her NRJ-session earlier this year. Then, she covered Air’s Playground Love. This time she made a gorgeous version of Etienne d’Aout, by Montreal’s finest Malajube. Here’s a fine video of Béatrice doing the song (in Canada).
Melanie Guay is a young Quebecoise, who debuts with a very fine EP. She hardened herself on the piano bar circuit, did some theater and took part of various concours. You know, the things young artists do. Love this gentile ballad.

Coeur de Pirate – Etienne d’aout
Malajube – Etienne d’aout
Melanie Guay – Pépite d’ame

Tahiti Breeze: L’étoile oubliée de Vaea Sylvain

  • Posted on 07/11/2010
  • /Under Musique

At age 16, Vaea Sylvain (see right in 1970) became Polynesian slalom waterskiing champion in 1966. Close kin to the sea, she was the ideal collaborator for film composer and avid diver François de Roubaix. Together, they recorded the title song for Robert Enrico’s 1968 movie Un Peu, Beaucoup, Passionnément … – a très jolie, tenderly floating song with an alluring touch of Rio, available on François de Roubaix: Chansons de Films. Today, Vaea, who began painting in 1972, is an acclaimed artist living in Tahiti again, highly praised by the likes of Robert Bolt, Roland Topor, or the late 60s ladies connaisseur Roger Vadim, who obviously fell for her right away: „Vaea is beautiful. Her long legs, slender waist, captivating blue-green eyes, her androgynous bust are proof that beauty blends with talent, courage, and intelligence.“ Don’t miss Vaea’s extensive website including its huge photo gallery, surely a Who’s Who of the last fifty years.

Vaea Sylvain – Un peu, beaucoup, passionnément …

Travelling 2

  • Posted on 05/11/2010
  • /Under Musique

A rule of the thumb when it comes to singing actors; if they’re not French, stay away! Travelling 2 is, yes, the second compilation of French singing actors, ranging from Yves Montand (en duo with Marilyn Monroe, one of the few non-French exceptions who recorded acceptable songs) to Vanessa Paradis, Virginie Ledoyen and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It features gems like Charlotte’s L’un part, l’autre reste and the very funny Chanson des chats from Michel Gondry’s Science of Sleep movie. With two songs from ultra-vixen Ludivine Sagnier and a very sultry version of Singin’ in the Rain, Travelling 2 is very FillesSourires-friendly.

Nora Arnezeder & Feloche – Singin’ in the rain (orig. from this movie, the cover was used for this perfume ad)
Ludivine Sagnier – Si Tard (from the movie Love Songs)

FS Rerun: Todd Bishop

  • Posted on 04/11/2010
  • /Under Musique

Still sexy after a whole year. On 69 Année Erotique: Todd Bishop’s Pop Art 4 Plays the Music of SG, Portland-based drummer Bishop and his crew reinvent the title track as an Andy Williams lounge showtune finally evolving into a lysergic spacescape, transform Le Walkie Talkie into a fusion orgy, and resurrect Initials B.B. with surf guitar reverb, funky licks, raucous sax and the whispered vocals of Casey Scott, otherwise singer of Portland’s Red Venus Love Army – Miss Sexy Voice 2009 for sure. Actually, American jazz reviewers were so intoxicated by the album that they began to improvise about „Jane Birken“ and „Bridgette Bardot“; they really have some cool scribes over there.

Todd Bishop – 69 Année Erotique

Todd Bishop w/ Casey Scott – Initials B.B.

Lilian on video

  • Posted on 04/11/2010
  • /Under Video

Remember this post? It got MFA-student Taylor Hubbard very inspired. He contacted Lilian Hak, and received permission to use her track for an assignment. This is what he made:

Taylor writes: ‘It’s footage of Baltimore’s Howard Street, the old nightclub/theater district and now sort of a fading Antiques Row.  It’s populated by a lot of strange and wonderful creatures on the decaying billboards and in the shop windows.  Billie Holiday (who grew up in Baltimore), Frank Sinatra – all the greats – performed in its theaters, which are now shells; in fact it is home to the Eubie Blake Historic Cultural Center. Frankly, every out of town guest I’ve toured Howard Street remarks it looks like it’s been blitzed after a war – which it hasn’t of course, but neglect and apathy have taken their toll on the once thriving boulevard.  Think Dresden. Nonetheless it maintains a soulful character and ramshackle glamour.
‘I happened to catch with camera Baltimore’s first ever French festival and that where the dancers and the overlaid film come from.’

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