Charlotte Gainsbourg

The just-a-slip-of-a-thing Charlotte is no stranger to the scene.
Singing scandalous melodies with her dear daddy, Serge, barely out of grade school.
Playing dressup in movies like L'effrontée and La science des rêves (The Science of Sleep, you wanted to ride that patchwork pony, too).
Dropping two albums, one of which climbed to the top of the French music charts. All seemingly a magnolia dream until she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 2007.

Two years later, Charlotte collaborates with Beck on her most recent release, IRM. Influenced by her chaotic experience (MRI, ah - now we're up to speed), the two connected on weird levels. We're talking Beck-written lyrics like "drill my head full of holes / to let the memories out" before he even knew what had happened. Makes you want to touch fingertips with your cubicle-mate and zip energies to each other.

IRM is Charlotte retro soul '60s baroque with strokes of Beck's electronic ambience. Sometimes darkly droning and steely, at others layered like tulle. Enjoy a track more on the tutu side.

Charlotte Gainsbourg // Me and Jane Doe

Forest Fire

A post from two musings:

1. Skyped with an ex-pat bestie yesterday - whenever I talk to her, (by that meaning I try not to look at myself in the small corner screen and wince over my flourescent-washed complexion. C'mon, you do it, too.), I consider the finger on the collective cultural pulse. What the Old Country thinks of the music scene of the New Country.
2. Mood rings came up in a morning conversation - makes me nostalgic for lost pieces of 7th grade jewelry and aura readings.

And so, "Fortune Teller" comes off the '08 album "Survival" that the French music review La Blogotechque rated above "For Emma, Forever Ago" and "Fleet Foxes." A Brooklyn quartet favoring lo-fi garage ramshackle ramblings, the instrumentation makes me think dissonance and dark burning embers. Recorded mostly live in less than five takes between Brooklyn and Portland, the nonchalant approach may be a shoulder shrug as to why they haven't broken through like better bearded, tightly produced counterparts. The tracks are a little looser, the mortar between shellacked not so thick.
Not that I don't dig it! Clearly, I do. And if the French like you, hell, who cares? They don't like much of anyone.

Forest Fire // Fortune Teller

SoKo - I’ll Kill Her

Thanks to my dear friend Rexy for turning me onto this adorable French gem. I realize this video is almost 2 years old and already very popular (I can’t be on top of everything), but that doesn’t make it any less awesome. Besides, after watching, I feel it’s my obligation, my duty, to promote the death of this boyfriend stealer SoKo is referring to. She’s obviously a whore.

The Teenagers

Two French guys and a Londoner, the Teenagers raised for a lot of people this year the question of bad art/taking the piss. Is this what happens when a band forms as a joke? (They did.) And if so, is it worthwhile? Sort of a J.T. LeRoy issue I guess.

In particular, the song "Homecoming" tells the story of a young English man who travels to visit his step-aunt in California and sleeps with her virgin-whore daughter. One of the French guys sings the dialog of the English character, an American woman the valley-girl step-cousin responses. Bayside stereotypes + dirty language = fun with national identity and sexual politics. Bad art, whatevski.

The "Homecoming" remix by Gentlemen Drivers also wins for its choice of vocal sample.




Gross 7" cover posted in lieu of dirty hipster photo.

Most of the standout tracks from the full-length, Reality Check, are up on their Myspace. But my favorite's not. Hear below.


Streets of Paris

Thieves Like Us

Proud Factory Records knock-off. That's why they named themselves after a New Order song. 2 Swedes and a New Yorker; met in Berlin, "exiled" in Paris. Go figure.



"Drugs in My Body" has been kicking around since 2006, but their album Play Music just came out this year. This song and another good one you can descargar free from RCRD LBL.

Zombie Zombie

I would have been way more demure when I met these dudes if I had realized they're famous in Europe. When I went to see them during Pop Montreal, I thought they were just a cool band on Myspace. Turns out they played at several of the Euro silly-season festivals this year, and NME featured them in June.



Etienne Jaumet plays synths, and Cosmic Neman drums. That's it; that's the whole band. And that's all they need... to just keep right on inducing trancey prog-seizures.

I don't know Neman's last name, but Etienne later told me over Facebook that his bandmate is also the drummer for Herman Dune. Neman confirmed this via Myspace.

A Land For Renegades = one of the remarkable releases of 2008. On Versatile records.


"Driving this road until death sets you free." The video is a remake of John Carpenter's movie The Thing.