Velvet Underground

Liminanas

If Serge Gainsbourg had written songs with The Velvet Underground, it might have sounded like The Liminanas. Somebody else wrote that, but it’s a great way to describe the sultry, fuzz-drenched basement-sound of the trio from Perpignan. Their second album Crystal Anis is out, and the second you hear the bass in Ballade pour Clive, you’ll get the Gainsbourg-reference. This is music to listen to with darkdarkdark-shades on, while Super8-porn is being shown on the screen in the humid cellar, the leather-clad crowd is getting anxious yet you’re keeping it cool. You might dance. Horizontally or vertical, maybe both. Gimme another shot, barkeep!
See a video for an English track from their debut album here.
Listen to their Beach Boys cover here

The Liminanas – Ballade pour Clive

Allez Vanessa!

  • Posted on 20/01/2011
  • /Under Musique

Vanessa Contenay-QuinonesNo extensive introduction on Vanessa Contenay-Quinones here at FS anymore. Regular visitors already know the cool seduction on high heels with the beautiful, sultry voice and misty eyes for a while now. Her 60’s influenced French popmusic was already around here a few times. Same goes for the music of her band Vanessa and the O’s (about to release a new album soon too, the site stated), but we never had a topic on her first band Espiritu, with whom she recorded two albums from 1993 to 1997. The best was then yet to come.
Inbetween 2008 and 2010 Vanessa recorded several tracks for her project called Allez Pop! Some of them ended up on compilation albums like Filles Fragiles 2 and Musique Fantastique, one track (Bon Bon Bon) even made it to the OST of the action-comedy Killers with Ashton Kutcher, Tom Selleck and Katherine Heigl. So it was about time to put all the recordings together and release Allez Pop! A superb idea. The tracks are seductive, fresh, quirky and tributary of course to Gainsbourg and Bardot, Dutronc and Hardy to name but a few. An unpretentious candy with attitude. Highly recommended.

And for those who might start thinking that Vanessa can’t do any wrong… just wait and see her with a bizarre performance as Vanessa St. James in collaboration with Lou Reed (!) on a weird kinda dance version of Velvet Undergrounds ‘Sunday Morning’. Not even a sin of her youth, as this Italian show (starts at 02.30) is from 2004. But some can’t do wrong, right?

Vanessa Contenay-Quinones – Odyssée (see the video)

In memory of Nico: longing and loneliness

  • Posted on 16/10/2010
  • /Under Musique

Guestpost by Roger Grund, on Christa Päffgen, best know as Nico.

Liebes kleines Mütterlein

Nun darf ich endlich bei Dir sein
Die Sehnsucht und die Einsamkeit
Erlösen sich in Seeligkeit.

(Mütterlein, from Desertshore, 1971)

The model, actress and singer Nico was born as Christa Päffgen on October 16th 1938 in Cologne and died on Ibiza in 1988. Nico was intimate with the emerging cinema and rock aristocracy of her days in Paris, Rome, London and New York. Andy Warhol deemed her as one of his superstars. Nico sang on the first Velvet Underground album. She inspired Lou Reed to write ‘Berlin’. Nico recorded acclaimed and highly original albums, often with John Cale lending a helping hand. All this is well known and has become part of  rock mythology.

Reading about Nico, the adjective mysterious dominates the word count. Nico remains at a distance even in her more personal, often German-spoken songs. As befits a model the surface is shiny and made-up, but the inside stays out of view. The distance reflects the longing and loneliness of her world view. And this is what resonates still today. It is as if she questions: ‘’What place is there for love? What matters is finding that place, if it exists.’’

If it exists, indeed.

Nico – Eulogy to Lenny Bruce (Roger Grund remix)
Nico – Das Lied Vom Einsamen Mädchen
Nico – Mutterlein
BONUS: Video for Nico singing Serge Gainsbourg’s Strip-Tease.