Thomas Dutronc in Amsterdam

  • Posted on 23/05/2014
  • /Under Musique

10363134_10152420446884573_8577959409999538824_nYesterday, Thomas Dutronc (yes, son of Jacques Dutronc, and Françoise Hardy) played Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. That’s a new venue on the shores of the IJ-river. About 50 people showed up, mostly female French ex-pats. Who flocked the stage when invited by Thomas. They, like me, enjoyed T’s manouche-sound, played with a superb band, including stellar gypsy-guitarist Rocky Gresset. Thomas is an endearing artist, who speaks English ‘Allo-‘Allo-style, can really hold his own on the guitar next to Gresset and, to my surprise, did a brilliant reprise of Gainsbourg’s Chez Les Yeye’s (see a version filmed by a fan at an earlier show). Excellent show. Hits like Je aime plus Paris and Comme un manouche sans guitare were very much appreciated. Picture was taken by FS-friend Sylvester Hoogmoed.
TD was a pleasant appetizer for more French(-themed) shows coming up, like Mick Harvey’s Gainsbourg-tribute in Tilburg (14-6) and of course Vanessa Paradis in Paradiso (19-6).

Isolde et les Bens

  • Posted on 20/05/2014
  • /Under Musique

1621894_625184150895894_966156128_nHoney-voiced Isolde Lasoen is the lovely drummer of Belgian superstar Daan, together with her own band Les Bens she plays breezy jazz with a Brazilian flavour. With the Belgian football team, nicknamed The Red Devils, playing the world cup (been a while since that happened), one could make a connection between Isolde’s new single and the soccer team. She says there’s none, though the idea for this song grew after the important qualification game against Croatia. Here’s Isolde’s earlier single. Here’s a playlist of her favourite bossa nova tunes.

Video!

MP3: Isolde et Les Bens – Samba Des Diables

Kebous covers Gainsbourg

  • Posted on 20/05/2014
  • /Under Musique

French rock band Kebous cover Gainsbourg’s L’hôtel particulier on their new album. It’s a loud version, with fx and piercing organ. THIS is the original version

Juliette Armanet

Françaises who coo over synthetic beats – ever since Elli & Jacno decided to go electronic, this combination kept up its appeal. Lio! Niagara! Agathe! Mikado! Ah, les 80s! This year, we already had DyE, Cléa Vincent and Exotica, now Parisienne Juliette Armanet steps into the neon light. If you google her, you find four videos on Vimeo, with kooky indie songs in the vein of duo Brigitte. L’amour en solitaire (surely a reference to Lio, no?) is different, more France Gall meets Sebastien Tellier. The track was produced by Yuksek.
And if you look closely to the cover picture, you’ll see a variation on the girl with a beard theme…

More Coeur

Mark writes:

As well as the stunning music of ‘Child of Light’, Coeur de Pirate has recorded a new interpretation of Renaud’s 1986 classic ‘Mistral gagnant’. (History of song is here…)

Béatrice was specially chosen by the veteran writer and singer to lead the album of modern covers of his compositions (by Carla Bruni, Elodie Frégé, Nolwenn Leroy, and more) with this song:

The unusual lyrics, and an English translation, can be found below the Youtube film of CdP’s version. The full album will be issued in June.

A live 1988 interpretation of ‘Mistral gagnant’ by Renaud himself is here

La Grande Sophie was the last top singer to tackle this classic, in 2012. She sang it both solo on France Inter, and in duet with Matthieu Boogaerts on ‘Taratata’.

However it is not (yet) on an LGS album, so Filles Sourires gives the best links to her covers of the song.

More proof of Béatrice’s outstanding skill has come with the release onto the web of her full ‘Taratata’ appearance on 28 February last. The 2014 ‘Taratata’ format is a short programme, still with a duet in the middle. Remarkably, CdP performed four songs – two from ‘Trauma’ in English, ‘You know I’m no good’ and ‘Dead Flowers’, one duet with a male artiste, Tété, and ‘Place de la République’ –all at the piano. See HERE

Béatrice is off the stage only between 18m00s and 24m00s in the 33-minute programme. Don’t miss the standing ovation she receives after ‘You know I’m no good’ which brings her to tears; and an interesting interview with the presenter Nagui, where she speaks ‘Parisian’ French as Canadians call it (and so can be understood). Her appearance and poise show how she has changed from the little blonde girl of 2009 to a striking woman, 25 this September, with all the style in hair and dress that Paris offers!

Also good is ‘Dead Flowers’ sung with guitar on ice-rink in Paris with skaters swirling around her.

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