Oh La La!

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

Joyeux Noel (1969 Slight Return)

Today, you buy the New Yorker, GQ, or Entertainment Weekly, but once upon a time, you had those poptastic magazines in which you found great stories by, let’s say, Romain Gary, Henry Miller, Alain Robbe-Grillet, or William Faulkner alongside with cool, though not too glossy shots of the most beautiful women of the world – of course naked, but nobody called it sexist then. Those were the Seventies, and actually, I once worked for LUI, cranking out literary reviews in my small bureau until my senior editor showed up in the evening to take me to those risqué parties on the second floor where I met some of the gals from the photo sessions … and, knowing that they were doing their job exclusively for the advancement of culture, they listened to us breathlessly while we were quoting from Verlaine and Mallarmé poems. Just a few years earlier, in December 1969, LUI even had had Jane on the cover, today still a perfect pic for Boxing Day. And while you’re watching, you might even be in for a little sermon by Cardinal Katerine.

Katerine – Jesus Christ Mon Amour