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New Giant Sand in September
Since "All over the map" in 2004, Howe Gelb has, as usual, released many records under many monikers, including the Arizona Amp And Alternator album and his "'Sno angel like you" with a Canadian choir. This time, he chose the Giant Sand banner for "proVISIONS", an album that, from what can be heard on the song available on his new label Yep Roc's site (and also in our radio selection this month), is in direct line to the masterpiece "Chore of enchantment".

A comic book you can read while listening to Radio Vivonzeureux!
If you can read some French, "Lock groove comix n°1" is a great little comic book with JC Menu sharing his passion for all things rock and roll and vinyl.

Stay on the scene, like a sex machine
Sadly, I only learn about it after the fact, though I probably wouldn't have made the trip, but Pascal Comelade directed yesterday in Barcelona a marathon 3 hour show in tribute to James Brown with 22 musicians and singers taking turns to play "Sex machine". It reminds me of the Bel Canto Orquestra show in Reims in 1986, which actually ended with a cover of "Sex machine" with all the musicians and guests of the band standing, attempting to dance, sing and play at the same time.
Infos : www.festamajordegracia.cat/actes/pascal-comelade

In our monthly radio selection, a rare but excellent song by Sttellla (but it's better to understand French to enjoy it !), a song from the first Homer and Jethro record (in 1949 !), with on this occasion June Carter singing, who was then 20 and maybe not so obsessed by religion as later. The brave Billy Nash tries to tame a lion with his saxophone. Chuck Berry and Marino Marini are both featured on our "Testament du rock vol. 4", but if "Buona sera" is indeed on the record, it is not "Soul rockin'", recorded in 1968, but "Thirty days", from 1955, which is on it. Still, "Soul rockin'" is an overlooked gem in Chuck's crown.
"Regret" by Emile Volel is an excellent caribbean song from the early seventies, which is good company with the occitan song by André Minvielle from the late nineties.
The main reason why I don't do end-of-the-year best-of lists anymore is that, very often, there are many good records that I only get to hear much later?. Such is the case with the very beauitful "A picture of our torn up praise" by Phosphorescent, released last year on their "Pride" album.

The other records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! this month are : PERE UBU : Folly of youth see dee + - TESTAMENT DU ROCK - MELO : L'oiseau tombé du nid - JONATHAN RICHMAN & THE MODERN LOVERS : Abdul & Cleopatra - THICK PIGEON : Subway - BOB BROZMAN : Slide a go-go - ZANINI : Le camping - LES BREASTFEEDERS : Les matins de grands soirs - AN DER SCHONEN BLAUEN DONAU - CHUCK BERRY : St. Louie to Frisco to Memphis - SUPERFLU : La chance - SOFT DRINKS : Pop stars in their pyjamas - RICHARD JESSUP : Chanteur de choc - D. HOOK & THE MEDICINE SHOW : La madre de Silvia - ARTHUR (GUITAR BOOGIE) SMITH : Guitar boogie - GUILLOTINE (30 cm) - GUILLOTINE (25 cm) - LOOK DE BOUK : Bec et ongles - THE RUMOUR : Emotional traffic - RIP RIG + PANIC : You're my kind of climate.

Signorina, il y a un lion dehors !

Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley, one of the greatest among the pioneers of rock, died this month. As a consequence, I finished up a post on Blogonzeureux! I had been grooming up for several weeks, about a compilation covering his underappreciated production of the first half of the seventies.
The more I listen to fifties music, the more I realize that the date of birth of rock'n'roll, more or less officially set at 1955 (The year when, among others, the first singles by Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry were released) is too conservative. As a proof, you can listen this month in our selction to "Overboard", recorded as a demo by James "Sugarboy" Crawford for his first session for Chess in 1953 and released on a 78 rpm record that same year. On listening, it's impossible not to believe you're listening to rock'n'roll...!
Infos : http://vivonzeureux.blogspot.com/2008/06/bo-diddley-drive-by-tales-from-funk.html

Jonathan Richman, bis !
Bo Diddley must have meant a lot for Jonathan Richman, and not only beacause they both have penned a classic titled "Roadrunner" ! Jonathan has been known to perform a live cover of "I'm a man", transforming it into "I'm a jerk"...
Less than two months after the release of "Because her beauty is raw and wild", a new album by Jonathan Richman rather discreetly on his friends' label APC. Titled, "¿ A qué venimos sino a caer ?", the record collects songs mostly sung in Spanish and Italian, but also in french and even in English. It's a bit of a letdown to realize that most of the songs were previoulsy released on the latest Jonathan Richman albums, but I had the great pleasure to find on it the previously unreleased "Silence, alors silence", the song that captivated me most at his concert in Paris last April, the lyrics of which are adapted from the sufi poet Rûmî.
Infos : www.apc.fr

Les Incohérents
It will probably the event of the season in Reims : Swiss underground band Les Incohérents will perform on July 29 songs from their "L'abolition du fox-trot" CD, accaompanied on stage by the author of the lyrics, L'Incohérent himself.
Infos : http://lesincoherents.ch et www.myspace.com/impayableincoherent

In our radio selection this month, some synth music from the early eighties (Eurythmics) and some synth music from the early 21st century (Prototypes), some carribean music that sounds very African (Les Maxel's) and a girl group that goes vroom vroom (The Storey Sisters).
June Carter proves with her twisting lesson that she could be funny before she turned all preachy on us, while Terry Hall, who's still with us today, was already pushing up the daisies over twenty years ago. As for David Berman, the Silver Jews who sometimes makesour ears and jukeboxes suffer with his approximative singing had the good idea to place his bassist-wife's vocals at the forefront on the chorus of "Suffering jukebox"...

The other records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! this month are : : NO RIGHTS GIVEN OR IMPLIED — THE ORIGINAL SAMPLERS - GONTHIER : Ô, Chauny comme tu es jolie ! - LOW : Christmas - BILLY NASH : Brutus (Le lion) - MARINO MARINI ET SON QUARTETTE : Buona sera - THE PHONES SPORTSMAN BAND : I really love you - POLYPHONIC SIZE : Nagasaki mon amour - SUMMER FACTORY : Little pad - HENRI GENES : La vaca maladiva - ORANGE JUICE : Texas fever - HARPO : Moviestar - MAX'S KANSAS CITY - NEW YORK NEW WAVE - IDOL FODDER : Bäbytalk.

Désordre musical

Lewis Furey to perform on stage !
Lewis Furey will perform on July 3rd and 4th as part of the "intimate concerts" of the Festival International de Jazz in Montreal.
It is a particular event because, as far as I know, Lewis Furey has not performed on stage as the main act since his very elaborate shows with Carole Laure between 1977 and 1982. Now, it's announced he will perform songs from his first two albums (Lewis Furey in 1975 and The humours of Lewis Furey en 1976) with three musicians-singers.
I doubt I'll make it to Montreal, but I do hope with all my heart that Lewis Furey will also play a few concerts in France with this set-up !

Idol and Family Fodder
Lots of news for Alig Fodder with the release of More great hits, a double 42-track compilation very comprehensive Family Fodder compilation, for once rather easy to find and cheap, which follows hot on the heels of the new mini-album Bäbytalk by Idol Fodder.

Les Truffauts are not François, but still Francophile
The Truffauts have just released their 9th album, To your heart. A record in a sort-of power pop vein, including Your favourite author (programmed this month on our radio-blog), a cover of Husker Dü's Don't want to know if you're lonely and, once again, three songs in French. It's a pity these Francophile Germans haven't yet been embraced by the French !

Some news from the world over

• L'Opération Kangourou, the famous radio show hosted these days by my friends Le Colonel and Le Dérailleur Fou is now available in MP3 form on their site featuring a May 68 special, "METS SOIXANTE LITRES ou un toast à la révolution".
• I've been trying for a while to buy the long out-of-print book Young and foolish by Alistair Fitchett, a collection of articles, including some about Felt. Fortunately, to commemorate the 10th birthday of its publication du livre, Alistair had the bright idea to give it as a free download on his Unpopular blog. Cool !
• The WFMU blog remains one of the essential stops on the web. And not only for the improbable music you download from it. Proof : this story by Mark Allen, Just say no(t really), the tale of a memorable arrest in 1987 by some hillbilly cops, featuring a stupid bet (drive stark naked), some grass, James Dean's grave, a Morrisseyt-shirt and Andy Warhol. And the best thing about it is that it's obvioulsy auto-biographical ! Anyway, fiction or not, some publisher should should show an interest in this story...
  
• Devo ripped off by McDonald ! In the USA, the fast-food chain distributes with its Happy Meals some American Idol action figures. One of these is called New wave Nigel, and McDo probably haven't sought permission from XTC to use this name in this context and what's sure is that Devo hasn't given the OK for the use of their trademark energy dome nor for the parody of their music for the sound produced by this object.

In our radio selection this month, apart from the most electric track on Jonathan Richman's latest album and three songs by The Truffauts, Idol Fodder and Family Fodder, we have an excellent Billy Childish cover by Pete Molinari, available on his second album, a track by Mates Of State (when, 6 months apart, I keep 2 MP3s by a band unknown from me, it means that I must keep an ear for this band !), an old live track by The Human League and an intriguing song, L'androgyne by NY:NA Valès. But the most intriguing about it was the ad that appeared when I visited their MySpace page looking for info about the band. I suppose you're meant to know what you're doing when you open a page at Rupert Murdoch's, but you don't always realize what might happen when you have no control on the ads that appear on your page : on that day, their page displayed an ad for Scientology !

The other records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! this month are : JONATHAN RICHMAN & THE MODERN LOVERS : Buzz buzz buzz - LES MAXEL'S : Désordre musical - LES WAMPAS : Chirac en prison - OTIS REDDING : Shake - WC3 : Moderne musique - JESUS LOVES YOU : After the love - THE BAND OF... BLACKY RANCHETTE : Heartland - GERARD PALAPRAT : Ô France - MEAT WHIPLASH : Don't slip up - PATTI SMITH : Hey Joe - THE JUSTIFIED ANCIENTS OF MU MU : It's grim up North.

Je n'aime pas l'androgyne que je suis

Vic Chesnutt & Jonathan Richman
Three days after his concert in Reims, which marked the end of his European tour with the Canadians featured on his "North star deserter" album, Vic Chesnutt was in his Athens, Georgia hometown to start a new solo tour opening for Jonathan Richman. There's a detailed account of this concert in the blog dedicated to Jonathan Richman and the recording can be found on Southern Shelter. Vic Chesnutt is much more talkative than in Reims, and he starts his concert with what mmmust be a specially-written song "Opening for Jonathan Richman" !
Infos : http://jojofiles.blogspot.com/2008/03/of-mere-being-vic-chesnutt.html - http://southernshelter.com/2008/03/vic-chesnutt-40-wattearl-31-208.html

Mikey Dread
Mikey Dread died at 54 on March 15th, in the USA where he'd been living for years. I reviewed on Blogonzeureux! two records he had a hand in, his first album "Dread at the controls" and the Clash single "Train in vain" with "Bankrobber" on the B side, produced and with Mikey Dread. His "World war III" album is a reggae classic that I strongly recommend you to listen. You will realize then that, even though he's gone, he shall remain the "King in the ring" and the "Jumping master".
Infos : http://vivonzeureux.blogspot.com/2007/08/mikey-dread-dread-at-controls.html - http://vivonzeureux.blogspot.com/2008/01/clash-train-in-vain.html

M. Ward
Thanks to Philippe Dumez for pointing me to I am fuel you are friends who have made available some early demos recorded by M. Ward when he was still touring with the band Rodriguez. The recordings stem from a cassette bought by a fan in 1997 but the sound is pristine and the performance excellent. The atmosphere is close to that of his first album, even though none of the 9 tracks ended up on it. There are two songs recorded by Rodriguez ("Must be waiting" and the Sonic Youth cover "Tom Violence"), a cover of "Bye bye love" by The Everly Brothers and some unreleased songs.
Infos : http://fuelfriends.blogspot.com/2007/01/before-they-were-blogged-m-ward-demo.html.

The highlight this month is a track by Bo Diddley released in 1970 on "The black gladiator". An album said to be funk-blues when it's simply from end to end somecexcellent diddley beat with a hellish sound, someorgan and this "I don't like you", a rock opera duet in which Bo quarrels with his missus. Another excellent oldie is "A teenager in love" by Dion & the Belmonts.
"Headbutts" and "Attack of the 60 ft lesbian octopus" are two tracks picked recently on the net, one old with vocals, the other instrumenta and recent.
"I love you" is a good Lou Reed cover recorded some time ago for a tribute album by Silent4, a band which featured Alan Edwards, one of the founders of the Jojofiles blog, who died recently.
The records by Buba & The Shop Assistants, MOSKDL and Marcel Bianchi are reviewed on Blogonzeureux!.
The other records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! recently are : THE B-52'S : Planet Claire - GILLES VIGNEAULT : I went to the market - FELT : Compilation - DOMENICO MODUGNO : Piove - LD BEGHTOL : 69 love songs - A field guide - JOE JACKSON : Is she really going out with him ? - SABO : 8 saisons à l'ombre - FOUR TOPS : It's the same old song.

I don't like you !

Lots of news this month that are mostly of interest for people in France, except for the five new songs by Le Vieux Thorax available for download here.
And if you are really curious you can visit my new, very opinionated blog, Le POLémiste.

This month, you can listen on our radio-blog to songs from two new wave records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! (Devo and The Feelies) and also, from the same period, Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias' "Fuck you", plus one of the new songs by Le Vieux Thorax, "Cordon blues".
I was rather surprised by Sabo's first album, which sounds very different from their old band Sloy. Theirs is a sound of wide spaces, more South of France than Calexico's Arizona though. Nicholson's track is titled "The Strokes (And to cap it all you'd like me to dress like)". The Fleiss are an American band that I discovered thanks to a compilation by the excellent Magnet Magazine.
Vincent Malone's releases are classified as children's records. "L'ours qui pète et qui rote" ("The bear that farts and burps") should have both young and old laughing together, even if they don't get the lyrics !

The other records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! this month are : THE MONOCHROME SET : Jacob's ladder -- THE BREEDERS : Safari -- SNAKEFINGER : Chewing hides the sound -- MARCEL AMONT : La polygamie -- SUPERMARKET : Supermarket -- ALB : Mange-disque -- GRANDADDY : Machines are not she.

Le prout en train

Monday january 21 2008

Back to 78, the new wave year
January 1978 : The Sex Pistols split. Post-punk can be said to start there and then. Thirty years later, the Epernay library will stage an exhibition from March 3 through 15 to celebrate this fruitful musical era and I, Pol Dodu, will give a talk on march 14 at 7 pm under the banner "Back to 78 - the new wave year".
Those who can't make it to Epernay, or would like to brush up their new wave before that, can look up my 1995 List of new wave classics, or browse the 78 reviews of records labelled as new wave on Blogonzeureux !

La Cartonnerie celebrates its 3rd birthday
La Cartonnerie is the main Reims "rock" venue. Its 3rd birthday means that, in the same last week of February, locals will be able to attend concerts by Caribou and Alb, a Reims group who have just released their first album, "Mange-disque", Vic Chesnutt and Noël Akchoté, and then again Pascal Comelade !
Infos : www.cartonnerie.fr

Andre Williams in Nancy, with a talk by Ignatus and DJ Bob Morlock !
The week before Reims, L'Autre Canal, the "rock" venue in Nancy, will welcome a host of stars on February 21 : first, a talk by Ignatus on soul music, rhythm'n'blues and funk, then a concert by the legendary Andre Williams, and all trhough the evening DJ Bob Morlock, from the famous Boum Bomo's, will handle the decks at the bar !
Infos : www.lautrecanal.fr

Family & Idol Fodder
Jungle Records in the UK is meant to have released recently a double album compilation with unreleased tracks by Family Fodder titled "Great hits : Anthology". But Alig Fodder himself i sstill very active musically and he's just released "Bäbytalk", a new 7 song album under the Idol Fodder banner, in US label Slender Means Society.
Infos : www.slendermeanssociety.com/babytalk.html

You can now listen to our radio selection while reading Blogonzeureux! : our radio-blog is now available in the right column of each of the pages of the blog, as well as on Vivonzeureux!
This month, you can listen to songs from records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! (Otto, Little Wings, Hank Snow, Brigitte Fontaine & Areski Belkacem), an excellent title in memory of Ike Turner and another soul-rhythm'n'blues nugget with Little Anthony & the Imperials's "I'm alright" , which shows that you didn't have to wait until the Stones' "I'm alright" for Bo Diddley's "She's alright" to inspire other musicians.
The song by the ever excellent David Byrne is a Fiery Furnaces cover, available on a 7" singles box set released by the Thrill Jockey to celebrate its 15th birthday.
Chris Bathgate is a young singer-songwriter. I discovered completely by chance by downloading one of his songs, thinking it was by Chris Knox's bandmate in The Tall Dwarfs, Alec Bathgate !
Actress Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward first collaborated on the soundtrack for the film "Go getter". Since then, they have toured together, recorded radio sessions, and will release an album together in March as She and Him.

The other records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! this month are : THE CLASH : Train in vain - FELT : Me and a monkey on the moon - ALAIN SOUCHON : S'asseoir par terre - LISA TUCKER : The song reader - DICK ANNEGARN : Accordons - TOM WAITS : In the neighborhood - OTTO : Mon pied sur une chaise - BIFF BANG POW ! : There must be a better life - LITTLE WINGS : Light green leaves - PSYCHIC TV : The magickal mystery D tour E.P. - KEVIN AYERS : The unfairground - CARTE DE SEJOUR : Halouf nar - THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO : Pop history vol. 12.

L'éternel ex-gourou

Saturday december 22 2007

Country fuzz
Who invented fuzz guitar ? Like many, I would have guessed a rocker. Someone like Link Wray, for instance. Anyway, I'd never have associated fuzz with country music. Wrong, as evidenced in the rermarkable post by Greg G. on WFMU's blog. He grants the paternity of fuzz to Nashville session guitarist Grady Martin and provides an overview of fuzz in country with an impressive selection of MP3s recorded between 1960 and 1977.
Read and download at : http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/11/country-fuzz-sp.html

Musique de Traverses
Les Musiques de Traverses were an innovative festival that took place in Reims in the 1980s. On the Planeta site, you can listen to radio programs made at the time with, among others, festival supervisor Patrick Plunier, AYAA's Dominique Diebold or Ptôse Production.
A écouter sur : http://www.audiorama.org/planeta/planetas

Active friends
Their site being down, I thought Les Beaux Bizarres had called it a day. Wrong, since they've just released a digital single, Skin & sand / Marie Bethania (I prefer the second one), that you can listen to on their MySpace page.
Le Vieux Thorax has a new website hosted by Davduf and has also launched Le Blogothorax, in which he reviews some ofn his records. He also has a selection of videos of local Reims bands up on Youtube.
As for the Hinah label and more, they regularly often us presents, the latest being an unreleased Laura Gibson session, available here.

In our radio selection radio this month, a thought for two recently departed country figures, Hank Thompson and Porter Wagoner; a track taken from the come-back album of Stewart Lupton, the Jonathan Fire*Eater singer, with his band The Child Ballads; a track by Mark Sultan, who recently played in Nancy, more well-known under the BBQ moniker and for his collaborations with King Khan; an excellent satire of disco picked up on WFMU's blog ("D'ya think I'm disco"), two tracks from recent releases, the first album by Marnie Stern, whom I first heard of last Summer on the front page of Plan B magazine, and the second album by Tender Forever, released by K Records like the first one. And finally, three blues linked with the Blogonzeureux! reviews, both "Space blues", Felt's and Primal Scream's tribute, and the excellent "Juarez blues" by Juan & Maria, aka JJ Cale and Christine Lakeland.

The other records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! this month are : ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI : Places like this - WOODHEAD MONROE : Identify - WARUM JOE : Chloro Fluoro Carbone - ELMORE JAMES : The great Elmore James - 1000 MEXICANS : The last pop song - BRIAN WILSON : Good vibrations - THE RICH.R.TONE STORY - THE EARLY DAYS OF BLUEGRASS VOL. 5 - ARAB STRAP : There is no ending - RODRIGUEZ : Swing like a metronome - THE TRIFFIDS : Wide open road - THE SKATALITES : Hi-bop ska ! - IGNATUS : Les p'tits chiens.

L'amour s'est barré bien avant elle

Saturday november 10 2007

Robert Wyatt saved her life
Still concerning Family Fodder, it is Media Fodder who tells the story of the bearded saviour in the latest épisode of "La vie secrète de Media Fodder". As for Robert Wyatt, he has just released a new album, "Comicopera", and his old pal Kevin Ayers had done the same a few weeks earlier with his "The unfairground". Except that, for Ayers, his previous album of new songs dated back to 1992, and "The unfairground" had already been announced here as "being prepared for release" as far back as 18 months ago ! !.
Pascal Comelade, who has collaborated with Robert Wyatt and covered Kevin Ayers, released his "Métode de rocanrol" last week on Because Music.

Noël Belmondo & The Richards
After Bingo Bill Orchestra and the Chicken Belmondos, and while he's still playing bass with Les Frères Nubuck, Noël Belmondo/Henri Bingo has just released his new album on Sorry But Home Recording, "Fever, lost friends and Italian movies", recorded with, among others, Rémi Chante and Nicolas Castagne from the Nubucks. From "Things" to "Two chairs", including "My special K" and "Not down", the album features a serie of power pop-rock nuggest like "You and me", featured in our monthly playlist.
You can also watch the video for "Getting better".

A Georges Jouvin sighting
Without looking for it, we have heard news of Georges Jouvin, the famous man with the golden trumpet. Fifty years after his first show in town for the local parade, he was the guest of honour at a special evening put on by a local group in Pertuis en Provence. Read more about it here.

The National in Reims
The American band The National, who released the excellent album "The boxer" earlier this year, will play La Cartonnerie in Reims on november 13, with Canadian singer Hayden opening.

In our radio playlist this month, some of our recent musical discoveries, offered by friends (Lavender Diamond, Ramblin' Jack Elliott), found at a jumble sale (The Four Knights) or pointed at by online fans, like the collaboration between Scout Niblett (who has a new album out) and Howe Gelb (who I guess probably has a new record lined up since the latest one is already six months old !) recorded for a benefit compilation for Hurricane Katrina relief, and also a Felt B-side, taken from a 12inch reviewed on Blogonzeureux! recently, as well as their "A declaration" DVD.

The other records reviewed recently on Blogonzeureux! are : BRIGITTE FONTAINE - ARESKI BELKACEM : Les églantines sont peut-être formidables - THE CRAMPS : Gravest hits - THE FLYING WIZARDS MOVE TO PARIS - FRANK ZAPPA / MOTHERS : Roxy & elsewhere - PATRIK FITZGERALD & ATTILA THE STOCKBROKER : Spirit of the revolution - TRACEY THORN : Plain sailing - THE TRUFFAUTS : French songs - JAN ROHDE & THE WILD ONES : Letkiss = Jenka - IF I COULD WRITE POETRY - A TRIBUTE TO TELEVISION PERSONALITIES.

Tu m'as brisé le coeur

Wednesday 3 october 2007

This month, a selection of some of our favourite songs from comparatively recent releases, taken from the albums by Okkervil River, Architecture in Helsinki, LCD Soundsystem (worthy of The Fall) and The National (live on tuesday 13 november in Reims with Hayden supporting).
Mendelson have just released a new double-album, "Personne ne le fera pour nous", on sale exclusively on their site, but their excellent cover in French of Talking Heads'"Crosseyed and painless" is not from this record, it's one of the unreleased MP3s available on their site too. Another online discovery, the famous "The Ostrich" by The Primitives (Lou Reed before The Velvet Underground in 1964 when he was paid to record music by the hour in a music factory). I'd read tons of stuff about this single before listening to it, but I never thought it could be so good !
Thanks to Bob Morlock for making us discover "After laughter (Comes tears)" by Wendy Rene, a real soul nugget worthy of the greatest classics, available on a few compilations, a couple of film soundtracks and even sampled in its time by The Wu-Tang Clan.
As for the excellent New Orleans jazz record by Dave Bartholomew, a long-time associate of Fats Domino, it is reviewed in details on Blogonzeureux!

J'attends toujours mon 4 heures de gloire

Saturday 1 september 2007

Holidays are already over. In my neighbourhood, you can catch 70-yeard old French chanteur Pierre Perret live at the local big fair for a mere 5 €. It might be easier for you to listen on our online radio to the excellent 1973 live version, with near Leonard Cohen-esque tones, of his Quand le soleil song.
It makes you feel your age...! : A soundbite on national radio news, early in the morning, of 40-ish 50-ish rock fans enthusing about the come-back of their idols. When it's about The Stones or Santana, it does nothing to me, but when the band in question is The Jesus and Mary Chain, a band I saw live at one of their very first gigs in june 1984, it rings a strange bell...
In the come-back series, Young Marble Giants, whose Final day you can listen to in our monthly playlist, are scheduled to play at the BB Mix festival in Boulogne-Billancourt on october 28.
Radio Vivonzeureux! is back online on this page. To celebrate, all the songs in the new playlist are from records reviewed on Blogonzeureux.
Jon Langford, of whom we have reviewed a book plus CD, will soon release a brand new Mekons album, Natural.
Jonathan Richman played live yesterday in San Francisco for the premiere of Revolution Summer, the soundtrack of which we have reviewed. Closer to us, he will tour Europe in september-october.
Bonnie 'Blue' Billy, who has an old single reviewed on Blogonzeureux!, was funnily featured this Summer in a video for Kanye West's Can't tell me nothing.

Je fais ce que je veux

Friday 13 july 2007

Pascal Comelade has signed with a Feench label for the first time in years. To celebrate, "Monofonicoram", compililing his output over the last fifteen years, has just been released, with unreleased and rare tracks (including this "Pim Pam Poum al concepte") before a new album, "Mètode de rocanrol", set for release in September.
That's when "The unfairground" should come out, the first Kevin Ayers album in fifteen years. It is a philosophical musing by Ayers on French TV in 1970 that we have selected.
I had wanted for a long time to listen to the song "Jonathan Richman" by France-Angleterre, first haerd years ago at RockoMondo's. That's achieved thanks to Double Biétry, and it's quite a surprize to realize they have a style and tone close to Dianologum, only near ten years beforehand.
Glitterhouse Records continues to consistently release interesting records. Their latest releases are compiled on "The empire strikes back", on which you can find this previously unreleased cover of "Goodnite Irene" by Timesbold and this track off Mark Olson's solo album.
I've known Dr Feelgood's live cover of "Stupidity" forover thirty years, but until recently I never had the opportunity to listen to Solomon Burke's excellent original !!
El Vez toured Europe this Spring, giving an excellent concert in Nantes, I'm told. His intelligent version of "Suspicious minds" under the title "Immigration time" is one of his master strokes.
Kyle Field, of Little Wings, is keen on variations. The songs on his 2002 album, "Light green leaves", were suppllied as three different recordings, depending on whether you bought the CD, vinyl or cassette version of the album. "What wonder" was on the album, but I think this 7" single version is yet again different from those on the album !

C'est important d'avoir des idées

Monday 4 june 2007

A few weeks after his "Villepin'occhio" 7", Le Vieux Thorax is already back with a new album, "Echantillons légèrement modifiés" ("Slightly modified samples"). Slightly, maybe, but in any way superbly assembled technically to transform them into bouncy and exhilarating new songs such as "Sources d'inspiration".
Another record by a friend (though I've never met Jon Bernson, the leader of the band, we have been corresponding for a few years), is Ray's Vast Basement's,"Starvation under orange trees", reviewed in Blogonzeureux! in advance of its release in early July.
Our selection this month is dominated by records reviewed in Blogonzeureux!, be they recent finds on jumble sales, like the one by Pharoah Sanders, a return to Seb Adam's excellent song "Objet du décor", one year after its first airing, recent reviews (Sprung Aus Den Wolken) or some that are already older (Marcel Bianchi, Jacques Higelin).
The Les Robots-Music track is here to celebrate their come-back on stage at the Museum fuer Kommunication in Berlin, from April 5 to 15 avril 2007, as part of the "Die Roboter kommen!" exhibition. You can see them perform "La paloma" here.
In the "I wish..." series, the Herman Düne song is the excellent B side of the "I wish that I could see you soon" single. Unfortunately, it is the only B side on the CD. But, to listen to "Song of Samuel", in a version not as good as the one David had posted on his MySpace page, you have to buy the 7" single as well...

L'obscure source d'inspiration

Saturday 5 May 2007

To celebrate the new chronicle published in Vivonzeureux!, "Media Fodder's secret life", we have selected "Tender words", a rare and comparatively recent song by Family Fodder with Dominique Media Fodder on vocals, rreleased on a mini-CD by Dark Beloved Cloud in 2002.
Le Vieux Thorax has been kind enough to put on his Myspace page the very rare mix of "Le dernier des curés", recorded with Dorian Feller on vocals. The opriginal version is on the B side of his 7" single released last month, and he his quite active these days since he's announced the release later this month of a new album, "Echantillons légèrement modifiés".
Among the favourite new releases of the moment, an apeased song by Shannon Wright, and the excellent "Japan" by CocoRosie, that led me to dig out "I would like to see Egypt..." by The Moonflowers, a song in a kindred spirit.
Discovered online this month are an early version of 'I'll come running" by Brian Eno recorded in 1974 for a Peel Session and a genial tribute to Ed Wood by Prewar Yardsale.
We're a little late with "Hey guys ! It's Christmas time" by Sufjan Stevens, but hey, he's released a 5 CD box sets of Christmas songs, so they take a while to sink in.
The records by Marcel Azzola and Helen Love have been reviewd in Blogonzeureux! this month.

J'accourrerai pour lacer tes chaussures

Sunday 1 april 2007

MP3 blogs are justified when they're not content with just churning out tracks from new releases, but allow us to discover rare or unreleased documents. Once again this month, these documents were the source for great musical pleasure, often more than the new stuff.
There are two of these in this selection. First, a Tiny Tim concert at the height of his fame in 1968 in Vancouver. The tapes of this unreleased recording were nearly destgroyed to be use as wrapping tape for presents ! It took me a while to reallize that it was actually Tiny Tim singing the two voices of this excellent cover of "I got you babe", the low one and the high one.
The other is a Bonnie "Prince" Billy concert from 2006 broadcast by BBC Radio Scotland. Drummer Alex Neilson and Scottish band Harem Scarem are playing with him. It is magestic, and it makes me wish that his recent concert in Reims, like the whole of the non-British leg of his current Eureopean tour, had not been completely solo, although the evening was nice and Mr. Oldham was very sympathetic and talkative (in French !) to his audience.
Blogs are not the only source for unreleased stuff. Up until recently, you could find on David-Ivar Herman Düne's Myspace page the excellent "On the Shabbath". This song is unreleased on record, but Herman Düne it on stage yesterday in Nancy. The tour goes on all through Europe at least until the end of July (!), but once again one could wish the line-up included horns and backing vocalists as on the latest album, but more importantly, it's the pity the band does not interact more with its audience beyond the obligatory "Thank you".
Among the new releases this month, one is very special, "Home/Fame", the 5 year anniversary compilation of Sorry But Home Recording Records. There's a full review on Blogonzeureux!, but I must warn you that a certain Pol Dodu occupies 59 seconds of this double album...
Our friend Le Vieux Thorax is present on "Home/Fame", but he's also just released his very first 7" single, with a new song, "Villepin'occhio", and an oldie from 1995, "Le dernier des curés". You can order it online at Close Up Prod.

Je vois l'obscurité : Merci la minuterie

Saturday 24 february 2007

A very reggae-tinted selection this month, reflecting the Blogonzeureux! chronicles. First, there was "Tenement yard", the Jacob Miller classic taken from the "Rockers" soundtrack, then came "L'affront national" by Catch 22, a political raggamuffin from nearly twenty years ago that is still relevant today. As a consequence, because Catch 22 sampled them, I put the spotlight on Basement 5, the band that released all its records (4) the same year (1980), whose first single remains unreleased on CD (but thanks to Vivonzeureux! you can now listen to it on the band's official MySpace page, not just on Radio Vivonzeureux!). Then we added The Zulums! to round it up. They actually made just this one record, but whoever is in search of a good love song also dealing with the question of illegal immigration needs not search any further.
The Paul Roland is also reviewed on the blog this month.
The Felt if from the latest entry in the Vivonzeureux! Records catalogue, "The EPictorial Jackson Review", a reformatted version reformatée of the first side of one of Felt's albums.
The excellent song by Eleni Mandell is from her brand new album, and it makes you want to hear more of it. The one by Bobby Bare Jr confirms that his "The longest meow", released last year, really is excellent. And by the way, you'll fin don the blog the review of a record Bobby Bare Jr made over thirty years ago (he was 5) with his father and all his family.
It is thanks to a CD found inside a magazine (the French "Rolling Stone") that I discovered this early version of "Coney Island baby", a bonus on the reissue of the album of the same title, that I prefer to the album version. But on Blogonzeureux!, it is another Lou Reed album, "Street hassle", that you can read about.
Once again, thank you to the WFMU for pointing me to this cover of "96 tears" by Big Maybelle, her last hit in 1967, five years before her death. With its easily recognizable organ line, I guess it is relatively easy to cover the classic that "96 tears" is, but musically, with its soul/rhythm'n'blues atmosphere, this version has got something special, especially vocally, as Big Maybelle takes hold of the song very impressively and never lets up. When she sings "I'm gonna get you, yes I am. Ah ah ah ah", you think the guy she's probably singing about will not only cry 96 tears, but probably also piss himself !

Nourseries larmes

Sunday 21 january 2007

Here is our usual monthly pick of new music. But what is new music ? To me, it's not, or not anymore, or not only anymore, recent recordings or recently released recordings. No, it'sm uch simpler than that. My new music is just the lmusic I am listening to at the moment !
So, the songs from the first Felt concert in France in Reims over twenty yers ago are in the news since I wrote about it recently on Blogonzeureux! and so I dug them up in my cassette collection. Same for Elvis Costello's first album, recorded exactly thirty years ago. As for the excellent live recording of Leonard Cohen for the BBC in 1968, I wasn'at all aware of its existence until I stumbled upon a blog that put it up fpr download.
There are proper new recordings in this selection, but then again everything is relative. The records by my friends Brodé Tango and Jim Jasmine have just been released, but the recordings dateback respectively to 1986-1989 and 2002 ! As for Kevin Ayers, the song is from a rather recent concert (may 2006) to keep us waiting for a new album hopefully to be releasaed in may 2007, but the song was first relased on his first album in 1969 !
The real new discovery this month is Rambling Nicholas Heron. I became aware of this Swede thanks to my Google alert on "Jonathan Richman", whom he ciites as one of his influences. And sure enough, "Fair and true to me", the first song I listened to, starts with a typically Richmanesque guitar riff, but "The chain of pop music" reminds memuch more of Jeffrey Lewis, with lyrics in line with what I was telling you about : "There's no end to the rings in the chain of pop music...As I sit in my room I feel like singing a new song someone younger will pick up when I'm gone".

The chain of pop music

Monday 22 december 2006

I am not a big fan of seasonal playlists, but with all these blogs supplying Christmas specials or end-of-year best-ofs, you're bound to end up discovering some great music, and that's what matters in the end. It's the case for instance with the Buck Owens song, 'Santa looked a lot like daddy", sung with a heavy hillbilly accent. As for Herman Düne's "Giant" album, it is indeed one of my favourite records of the year.
The "Living in stereo" blog has published a superb series of eight posts to celebrate Chuck Berry's 80th birthday, and went on to reflect on the birth of the "Nashville sound", including in one post this send-up of "Heartbreak Hotel" by Stan Freeberg, released in 1956, only a few months after Elvis's Version.
The Truffauts, it's thanks to Rockomondo that I heard of them. Ass a rule, I tend to appreciate songs in French sung by people for whom French is not the first language...
No particular news about Essential Logic, except I've just discovered their "No more fiction", a song recorded after reforming in 2001, rereleased a few years ago in the Unioted States.
As for Ash, Jonathan Richman and Elliott Murphy, their records have been reviewed recently on Blogonzeureux!. Also on Blogonzeureux!, for the first time there's a post about a book, "45", by Bill Drummond. Thanks to a translating software, non-French speakers can now attempt to read a tentative comic translation into French of all the posts !
The other records reviewed this month on Blogonzeureux! are : HANK SNOW : Tracks & trains - FALL OF SAIGON - FELT : Ignite the seven cannons - GANG OF FOUR & FIVE OR SIX : Vinyl flexidisc - THE FEELINGS : Especially for you - LIZZY MERCIER DESCLOUX : Maïta - ALAIN BASHUNG : Live tour 85 - A HOUSE : I am the greatest - FELT : The splendour of fear - SUBSONIC 2 : Addicted to music - THE BORDER BOYS : Tribute - PLASTIC BERTRAND : Jacques Cousteau - PLASTIC BERTRAND : J'te fais un plan.

No more fiction

monday november 13 2006

Not to be missed if ever you have the opportunity to pass through Reims until december 22 is the "Phonographie" exhibition at La Cartonnerie, curated by the No-B organization. There you can see all sorts of vinyl records covers from artists based in Champagne-Ardenne.
As we're in the middle of the hunting season, it was the right time to unearth André Popp's little gem (promise : no dog was harmed during this recording).
In keeping with the gun theme, there's La Position Du Tireur Couché. Their albumhas been out for sometime, but it's only recently that I have listened to it. They're trying a little too much to emulate/mock Brigitte Bardot and Vincent Delerm but, as evidenced by "Steve Austin", it's a fun record.
It's on Bernard Lenoir's radio show that I first heard Regina Spektor's excellent song, and it's also on his show that Herman Düne will play live on november 27 novembre for a Black Session.

Years after the already classic "Shoot out at the OK Chinese restaurant", one could wonder whether Ramsay Midwood would one day follow it up. "Popular delusions and the madness of cows" has just been released in the USA, and a version of "Planet Nixon" is on it.
Blogonzeureux! is now a year old. Over 200 have been reviewed, including those by Nick Lowe, Giant Sand and The Raincoats. To celebrate, we have selected, dubbed from an old cassette copy, a track from a live radio session of Elvis Presley covers by Bill Drummond, the famous Teardrop Explodes and Echo & the Bunnymen manager, and especially one half of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and The KLF.
The other records reviewed this month on Blogonzeureux! are : SEX PISTOLS : Anarchy in the UK & God sav the Queen... - THE MONOCHROME SET : Cast a long shadow - CROOKED FINGERS : Dignity and shame - QUEEN LATIFAH & DE LA SOUL : Yaourt EP - THE BODINES : God bless - BELLE AND SEBASTIAN : Legal man - THE SLITS : Return of the giant slits - GERARD JACQUET & PASCAL COMELADE : Pop-songs del Rossello - XTC : This is pop - THE WHITE STRIPES : Hotel Yorba - HERMAN DÜNE : Between the little houses - TOM LUCY : Paris, France.

Lonesome cowboy Bill

Saturday october 14 2006

After several months without touring, Jonathan Richman is back on the road. Only one date in France (Tuesday October 17 in Paris, www.trabendo.fr), but many more for his European tour pour sa tournée européenne. The Paris gig is extremely expensive (over 27 €), but to witness a Jonathan Richman concert generally means that you'll live through a priceless moment !
No new album in sight for Jonathan, just a brand new song, "Our dog is getting older now", that you can find on a Belle & Sebastian-endorsed children charity compilation. There's a little dinosaur on the cover, but the tone of this song is much less jaunty than the one of "I'm a little dinosaur" !
As for Howe Gelb, the only French date on his October European tour is in Nantes, on Sunday 29 (other dates : www.giantsand.com/shows/shows.htm).
On the radio-blog side this month, a few enjoyable discoveries, such as Jimmy et les Kingbees, Patrick Zabé who covers Creedence Clearwater Revival (thank you Henri Cording !) or Cars Can Be Blue.
We are also happy to introduce you to "C'est d'l'extra", a bock-opera by Le Ball-Trap des Incohérents, a major work unveiled after years of toiling by L'Incohérent, from L'Opération Kangourou, and Saint-Zou.
The Bill Drummond and Daniel Johnston songs are culled from records reviewed on Blogonzeureux!.
The other records reviewed this month on Blogonzeureux! are : FIVE OR SIX : Another reason - FELT : Penelope Treee - ETE 67 : EP - THE TRIFFIDS : Wide open road - JONATHAN FIRE EATER : When the curtain calls for you - THE LOFT : Up the hill and down the slope - The shambolic birth and early life of THE FLAMING LIPS.

Il ne faudra pas

Wednesday september 13 2006

Hats off this month to John Otway, the British singer unknown in France, who came upon the scene in 1977, and often played in duet with Wild Billy Barrett : when he's got a project on his mind he doesn't let up before he's pursued it, even if it's not ecologically sound. He's set up a world tour for his 260 most dedicated fans, he will take them aboard a private airplane for two weeks, taking off in Liverpool and stopping in places like Australia, China and Dubai ! Departure is set for october 28. Last I heard (I know it all sounds like a joke, but I read about this in The Independent, a proper English newspaper !), a few seats are left... priced £ 4000.
Another peculiar performance is the one Pascal Comelade gave in Barcelona on september 11 : if my understanding has been impaired by my very limited knowledge of catalan and castillan, he played the national catalan piano "Els segadors" on the piano, with the Escolania de Montserrat choir singing, in front of 20000 people, on a day of official celebrations in Catalonia.
This summer, at the request of Stéphane, I made up a homemade compilation which will be broadcast later this year on his new radio show in Montréal. The first of these shows has just been on the air and a blog, Les mixtapes de mes amis, gives the playlists and allows you to listen to podcasts of the show.
As for Etienne Charry, he is making available Salon Cerveau, a new collection of 50 pieces of music at the pace of one a day.
The most rejoicing tune of the month is without doubt "I wish that I could see you soon", the first song taken from "Giant", the forthcoming new Herman Düne album. They are dedicated Jonathan Richman fans, and here they've accomplished the feat, without veering into plagiarism, to make good use of the main ingredients of the Modern Lovers productions of the early eighties on the albums "Jonathan sings", "Rockin' and romance" and "It's time for", especially the female backing vocals, to produce a song as magic, enthusing, energetic and merry as "Not yet three" or "I'm just beginning to live" can be. Well done !
What I've heard of the new Bonnie "Prince" Billy album is good, if not surprising, but strangely, what I prefer for now is the very short song that I call "Hey little bird" tucked at the end of the track "No bad news".
The Patrik Fitzgerald song has just been made available for the first time on the CD released to tie in with his recent European tour. It was recorded in 1992 and is about the feeling of insecurity felt in London in the eighties at the time of the Irish bomb threats but, but if you didn't know the context you could very well think it was written recently...
Among the recent musical joys, I include The Handsome Family and Bobby Bare Jr, and for the not so recent, there are Johnny Dowd and Howe Gelb.
The Five Go Down To The Sea ? song was recorded on cassette in 1984. Their first single is reviewed on Blogonzeureux!, as is Noise Addict's paean to Evan Dando. Among the other records reviewed this month, there are THE PASTELS : I wonder why - GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI : Sweet Johnny - HUGH CORNWELL + ROBERT WILLIAMS in Nosferatu - DANIEL JOHNSTON : Happy time - DEE NASTY : Dee Nasty - ORSON WELLES : I know what it is to be young (but you don't know what it is to be old) - INDOOR LIFE : Indoor life - PERE UBU : Oh Catherine - METAL URBAIN : Paris maquis - ST. THOMAS : Mysterious walks - PILLOWS AND PRAYERS (CHERRY RED 1982-1983) - JUKE BOX CLASSICS - THE WANDERERS - THE TIMES : Septième ciel.

J'aimerais te voir bientôt

Thursday august 10 2006

This month, our guest of honour is Pauline Easy, who's just been added to the Vivonzeureux! Records catalogue with "Haikukulélé", a selection of some of the instrumental covers that she released on her blog last Winter. Apart from the two songs listed here, the Nick Cave classic "Mercy seat", forever possessed by the presence of Johnny Cash, and the best-ever acoustic version of a Jean-Michel Jarre tune, you'll also find on the radio-blog, by scrolling down the list, her version of The Clash's "Jimmy jazz".
Sometimes, you only need a title to catch your eye to discover a song. That's what happened with "Je retiens ton souffle" ("I catch your breath"), that I downloaded only because of its title, whereas the band's moniker, Novö, would rather have put me off. They sounf like Les Frères Nubuck mixed with the best of the electronic New Order, and we can wait with interest for the release of their forthcoming "Now:here" album.
Also discovered while musing on the network is "Car car" by Donovan, though ot dates back to his first album in 1965. A 1'30" song perfectly in the spirit of Jonathan Richman. It's only later that I learnt that it's actually a cover of a Woody Guthrie song released on an album of songs for children in the fifties. Talking about cars, the more I listen to it and the more I like the light-hearted song by Jean-Pierre et Nathalie, titled "Whenever we can afford an automobile...", a testimony of the mad beatific consumerism of the 60's (and the 70's, 80's, 90's, 2000's...). This record is reviewed on Blogonzeureux!, as are the ones by The Nits and Marcel Bianchi.

As for interecenting records, we'll pint you to Lisa Germano's and Jenny Lewis's albums, with this excellent cover of The Travelling Wilburys (!), produced by and with M. Ward, whose "Post-war" album will be released very soon. And among the not-so-recent records, there are the five remastered albums The Jesus and Mary Chain made for Warner, including "Psychocandy" of course.
Among the records reviewed this month on Blogonzeureux! are M. WARD : Scene from #12 EP - ULTRAVOX : Quiet men - WIRE : Our swimmer - MANO NEGRA : Pas assez de toi + Live à la Cigale - ELVIS COSTELLO : This year's model - JOHN FAHEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA : After the ball - THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS : Don't let's start - LES ENDIMANCHES chantent Le jardin potager et La maréchaussée - GIANT SAND : Stromausfall - BIFF BANG POW ! : The whole world's turning Brouchard ! - STEREO MC'S : 33 45 78.

Je retiens ton souffle

Friday july 14 2006

The small pleasure of the month it's watching, thanks to a post on the excellent Ordet Blog an amateur document capturing Jonathan Richman "doing" the little dinosaur on a Berkeley plaza in California in Summer 1981, before playing a version of "The new teller". Those two songs, "I'm a little dinosaur" and "The new teller", are among my favourite by Jonathan Richman, and I've never seen him play them live. So you can imagine how much pleasure I had watching this document. Those who have never seen him in concert will have here in the course of a few minutes the gist of what makes Jonathan Richman's concerts unique !
The small surprise of the month is to discover, through a link in a Spanish newspaper article, that Pascal Comelade now has what looks like an official site ! Oh, it's only a flash technology site unknown of Google, without a version in English, but there's still a little piece of music, 17 images and a detailed discography (so we'll have to update ours). The concert of the month will undoubtedly be on Monday July 24 in Toulouse (ALaPlage, 49 rue de la Concorde, 05 61 63 78 68, 3 €). Michel Cloup (Experience) and Dogbowl will be on stage together once more. The previous time was last year in Poitiers. If you scroll down the list of our radio blog, you'll come across the very short and excellent "Citroën" by Dogbowl and Peter Parker (aka Michel Cloup), from their first joint-venture on record, a double single on Lithium in 1995. Wherever they are, Herman Düne make music, together and with their friends. So that's what they did during their residency in Colmar in 2004, with among others Red, Jack Lewis and Turner Cody. Pop News told us about the release of "The Colmar Tapes", a testimony from these sessions. It's a 16 track CD book with a 52 page booklet available here. In it, you'll find a text by Philippe Dumez, who also made us discover Jeanette this month, via an article in famed music site La Blogothèque. Philippe also honoured me by writing a piece about me on the same site. Go have a look : you'll find me pictured next to Jonathan Richman. A nice way to wrap things up this month !!
On the radio blog side, you'll find notably a song very much in the style of Dogbowl, "Cheesecake truck". Not surprising as it's by his old band, King Missile, but as far as I know Dogbowl is not featured on this recording.
Also a very beautiful instrumental by Jim Jasmine (aka Jim Shepherd from The Jasmine Minks, aka Sandy Burnett) pinched from his MySpace page. There is also a cover by Petra haden & Bill Frisell of a Tom Waits song, on its way to become a classic as it's already been covered by The Ramones, and several tracks from records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! : those by Au-Pairs, Bingo Bill Orchestra, T. Tex Edwards, Mr. Partridge and Anthony More.
Among the other records reviewd on Blogonzeureux! this month, there is DEVO : (I can't get me no) Satisfaction — JEAN-PIERRE ET NATHALIE : Quand on pourra s'payer une auto... — LAURENT VOULZY : Rockollection — PORTISHEAD : Glory box — MAGAZINE : Rhythm of cruelty — LEWIS FUREY : Lewis is crazy — PRIMAL SCREAM : Higher than the sun — JOHNNY PAYCHECK : The real Mr. Heartache - The Little Darlin' years — THE UNDERTONES : All wrapped up — EDITH NYLON : Femmes sous cellophane — GIVE PEACE A DANCE : A CND COMPILATION.

Why you live

Wednesday june 7 2006

By nosing around on the net, you really can find some unexpected gems. Just this month, I first found news on Kevin Ayers, whose first album in about 15 years, "The unfairground", is expected this year. Well, while we wait, we can enjoy a concert recording made last month at a performance for a charity. Half an hour, a best-of in all but name, with just his guitar and the one of his colleague Max La Villa. Or Jason Lytle, who finds himself in the strange position of p^romoting the new album of a band that has just split. So, he travels the world playing Grandaddy songs, alone or with the other original member of the band, drummer Aaron Burtch, and recorded testimonies of these performances can be found here and there. As for Herman Düne, who release less records these days because they have signed a new contract with Source and are readying a new album for release, all this hasn't kept them from touring and recording a live session for the "Selon l'humeur du chef" podcast.
Pauline Easy has left the Champagne region to go back to her native Polynesia. But The Pauline Easy Project duo pays tribute to her by playing instrumental ukulele covers in her style. The audience in Reims was happy to cheer them for their first ever performance. Other concerts are scheduled in June and this summer, including one in paris on June 23 (Chocomix at the Café de la Plage) and on June 24 in Rouen (Ukulele Festival on the Bâteau Ivre).
Tiny Tim, another famous ukulele player, was decidedly real gone, as "Tiptoe to the gas pumps" shows. Released in 1979, in the midst of a gas price crisis in the USA, he managed to have this single endorsed by an oil company who gave it to its clients at service stations ! French professional provocateur Jean-Louis Costes is bordering on the mainstream after nearly twenty years : he is invited for talks in bookshops about a book he's just published. Most of the stuff he's recorded is not of my liking, but his version of "On the road again" makes me still laugh as much, even after so many years.
The songs by The Bongos, The Passions and Jona Lewie are from records reviewed on Blogonzeureux! Among the other records reviewed this month, you can find MOMUS : The poison boyfriend, THE HALO BENDERS : Don't touch my bikini, MR. PARTRIDGE : Take away / The Lure of salvage, THE MARQUIS DE TREN & BONNY "PRINCE" BILLY : Get on jolly, KATHRYN WILLIAMS : Exclusive album sampler, THE TAPES : Life in the new city, JONATHAN RICHMAN & THE MODERN LOVERS : Egyptian reggae, LETKISS PARTY & VARIETES CHANTEES N° 1, ALIVE IN THE LIVING ROOM, LA VARIETE : Je déteste la variété, THE SPECIALS : Specials plus, THE SHAMEN : Phorward, FAD GADGET : Incontinent, 3 MUSTAPHAS 3 : Si vous passez par là, RAINER : Live at the Performance Center, PETER ASTOR AND THE HOLY ROAD : Almost falling in love, LA RAGE AGAINST LES QUOTAS.

A tatons vers la station

Friday may 5 2006

It is a month of short songs (all 2'35 or less, except the Fiery Furnaces one). I am not alone in this case, but blogs and group sites have been my main source for discovering new music these last few months. It is the case this month for Le Club Des Chats, whose song from the next single was made available by David F, or the Dutch Zea, whose catchy "I am searching for an MP3" (available on floppy disc !) was pointed to us by RockoMondo.
Tous les films ont la même fin are on our playlist for the second month running with "Les présidents", as well as Les Boum Bomo's (watch out if you understand french, this song is so funny you could shit yourself, one of the meanings of "courante" being "diarrhoea" !).
Le Vieux Thorax has now got a MySpace page. There you can listen to "30 seconds over Paris", his contribution to the "Amazon grace" compilation.
For a few months now, They Might Be Giants have been doing a podcast choke full of rarities and unreleased stuff. That's where we dug out this excellent cover of a Jonathan Richman song originally found on the "Modern Lovers Live !" album in 1977 (I think this song was used in a "Sesame Street" clip. If someone has it on video, i'd love to watch it !).
Until now, I found the Fiery Furnaces songs I'd heard of variable quality, but what I've heard from the new "Bitter tea" album is uniformly excellent, as are the extracts from "In case we die" by Architecture In Helsinki that make for very pleasurable listening. The "Nevers" the Furnaces refer to seems to actually be the French town I am thinking about. The lyrics play on the meanings of the names of different cities, and they also make mention of one Renault and one Citroën...
Shotgun & Jaybird are Canadians who have invited Julie Doiron to guest on their new record, and who are now on tour with her. As for Stephin Merritt, from The Magnetic Fields among others, I seem to prefer his "Show tunes" to his previous "I" album.

I find MP3s

Wednesday April 5 2006

Les Frères Nubuck have just launched their "Leader d'opinion tour". Please don't hesitate to contact them for a booking. If all goes well, I'll have the chance to see them this Friday April 7 at E.V.E. in Grenoble, with Bela opening.
After several years of playing solo, Seb Adam played with a band for the first time on April 1st in Reims. His "Objet du décor", with its nice synth line in a Tom Tom Club style, is my personal fave of the moment, and the live arrangement, incorporating reggae stylings, was even better !
Tous les films ont la même fin is a Parisian band that I got to know through an MP3 blog. This excellent "Rendez-vous normal" features probably among the twenty tracks on their album, on sale on their site. As for "20 fingers 20 toes", the hook-filled ditty by Finnish band Goodnight Monsters, we were pointed to it by RockoMondo.
Eleven years after "I was a mod before you was a mod", The Television Personalities have just released a new album. To celebrate this event, we have programmed a track from it, as well as the first version of another track from the album, that they released as an MP3 last year. The TVP's are also on "Still unravished", a tribute compilation to The June Brides, a band who probably opened for them at some point in the 80's. Also present on this record are The Jasmine Minks. last May, we had playlisted in advance their excellent version of "The instrumental", that we've pulled out of our hat once again this month as it's now a new release !!
On Blogonzeureux!, you'lle find a detailed review of the Television Personalities album. And also, to celebrate the 100th post of the blog, a presentation of the 12" released by Rock Feller in Reims in 1983.
While on tour in the USA, Billy Bragg recorded a cover of "Bourgeois blues" on a radio session, with a cunning new title, "Bush war blues". He has chosen to make this version available as an MP3 under an alias that's even more striking : Johnny Clash !!
Finally, please note that our friends Les Boum Bomo's, who haven't yet got an official site, are now up to date with technology and trends as they are on MySpace www.myspace.com/lesboumbomos ! There you can download four songs from their various releases.

Rendez-vous normal

Saturday March 11 2006

We have a new weekly chronicle on La Radio Primitive in Reims, replacing "Si vous passez par là". Derived from our blog Blogonzeureux!, it gives us the opportunity to broadcast records reviewed on the blog. Two of these records also feature in our monthly playlist on the radio-blog, The Gum Drops and The Murphy Federation.
Also, our friends from l'Opération Kangourou have regrouped for a special week-end of DJ madness, which will see them perform on two consecutive nights in Reims on march 24 and 25.
And some more of our friends, the Boum Bomo's, have just released "Punk en kit" ("IKEA punk", as they put it). The sound of this release is, of course, more punky, but we have selected one of the bonus tracks, "Je suis punk", which sounds, contrarily, less punk !
The Boum Bomo's cover Nono Futur on their album, and the same Nono Futur is on the front page of the first issue of Les Improductibles, a fanzine started by Le Pierre Tornade Sound System and his friends. Imagine that there are still people around committed enough to launch a printed fanzine !
I don't know if it's part of the Mozart year celebrations, but the Magic RPM magazine is giving us the rare opportunity of a French concert by Lawrence (ex-Felt and Denim) and his band Go-Kart Mozart. It will be at La Flèche d'Or on march 27, and admission is free (102 bis rue de Bagnolet, 75020 Paris). To celebrate, we have exhumed a song from the first Felt concert in France, in Reims on June 21 1986, on the night of an overheated Fete de la musique. It is a cover of Wire's "Outdoor miner", a song that has been played live by the band several times, without being released on one of their records.
As for Albert Marcoeur, he rounds off his tour on march 28 in Rezé, near Nantes. Check out his latest album, "L' ", to compensate for not being able to make it there...
Patrick Fitzgerald, the star of one of our virtual label releases, is now on MySpace (www.myspace.com/patrikfitzgerald). There you'll find rare songs and enlightening blog entries.
Tow of the bands playlisted this month (Damer and Bobby Baby) were discovered through the excellent Rockomondo blog. But Jean-Pierre Moya tricked me with Damer as he resorted to a (quite justified) Jonathan Richman reference !
As promised, you can listen this month to two tracks from the albums Pascal Comelade has just released. The one recorded with poet Enric Casassès features on a good half of it an electric rock band (bass, drums, guitar and organ), as for "Espontex sinfonia", parts of it were originally scores for shows, but there is also a Gun Club cover, "Mother of earth".
As for the new Howe Gelb album, it will be released later this month. "'Sno angel like you" distinguishes itself by being recorded with a Canadian gospel choir !

Je suis punk

Samedi February 11 2006

The non-French speaking have probably never heard of Albert Marcoeur, but I was overwhelmed by the show I saw last week in Lyons. You can listen to a track from his latest album on the radio-blog this month. "L' " is on sale at www.marcoeur.com (You can also view a video by clicking on the "gift" icon next to the "L'environnementeuse" track title).
The two new Pascal Comelade albums we told you about last month, "Espontex sinfonia" and "La manera més salvatge" (with Enric Casasses), are already out !(available on www.discmedi.com). We'll play some extracts next month once we've received the records. There's also a book available in French and Catalan, "Pascal Comelade et Arsène Lupin : Les preuves irréfutables d'une ingénieuse mystification", a short text by Joan-Lluis Lluis. (More info).
After more than thirty years, the de-evolution Devo has been fighting for may have overcome, or maybe Devo has just given up ? The question is open after the announcement by Disney that they'll soon be releasing an album by Devo 2.0, that is Devo fronted by clean-cut teenagers who sing and mime to the music of Devo's greatest hits ! If it was not on Disney, it would sound like a joke, especially as Devo has already played this joke on us in 1990 with The Visiting kids, a family band made up of kids and close relatives of the band. but at the time the mini-album was released in France on New Rose. Disney, that's not the same scale ! Anyway, there's little chance that Devo 2.0 will cover "Penetration in the centerfold" !!! (More info)
Our friend Monsieur Untel has just released a new album, "Bureau des affaires animales, Vol. 1". What is surprising is that a good quarter of the songs featured already in his live sets over ten years ago, but that's not in question since the songs in question, like "L'éléphant" or "Les insectes", are among his best and had never been released. You can listen to the album and buy it at www.polystyrenetv.com.
One of the good pieces of news this month is that the three compilations released by Sorry But Home Recording these last few years are now available for free download. Download, listen and come back to buy an album of your favourite band at no more than 6 €...
Our friend Gamover has recently broken his silence. He starts the year with a good resolution : release a virtual album, "Affect effect", on his new website. Five songs are already available, including "Right man dub", after a track by Dynamo, and old band which included Gamover and Le Vieux Thorax among others.
The song from one of the records reviewed on the blog this month is by Gretschen Hofner, a single that was released on two different labels. "The lost weekend" is not supposed two be one of the better Monochrome Set albums, but every time I listen to it I find it quite nice. There's a CD issue with some previously unreleased tracks, including "Cilla Black", which has more to do with her role as a TV host in the 80's than with her singing career. As for American songwriter Dan Bern, he makes us laugh with this song that tells how difficult it is for an artist to have someone from his label attend one of his shows !

Beaucoup d'chant, pas beaucoup d'son

Monday january 2 2006

To start off the year, two selections from the lastest virtual release on Vivonzeureux! Records,"Georges, viens souffler le rock", a selction of titles from the rock songbook covered by Georges Jouvin, the man with the golden trumpet. "Let's go" made famous by The Ventures, and "Let's do't" is an unsashamed rip-off of that song, credited to Georges Jouvin and his pal Jo Moutet, and sung here by Dominique.
For some time now, we have been interested in Tahitian 1950's songs and in young ukulele players, like Junkie Brewster or Yayahoni Herman Düne, but now Polynesia comes to us, or rather Pauline Easy, a ukulele player who has recently settled in the Champagne region. She records exquisite miniature covers of songs from the sixties to the eighties, and you only have to ask to get her to send you one song a day. With her, even a rendez-vous with Jean-Michel Jarre sounds exciting ! And since we're on islands, we can prove you tha the bamboos of the Pynolasa Bamboo Band, from the Bougainville island, are punchy and swing terribly.
It is inevitable that our radio selection influences our blog, and the other way around. So you'll find here every month some records that are reviewed in the blog, like the new Frères Nubuck album, the first Wasted Youth single, the colloboration between Dr Sean Berg from Berg Sans Nipple and Ya Ya Herman Düne, or the album that Barbara Manning recorded with Stuart Moxham. "When I dream" sounds no more and no less thant an unreleased track from the "Colossal youth" sessions !
As for the Reines Prochaines, they're the kind of discovery you can make while surfing on MP3 blogs. In this case, it's the French name of the band that drew my attention while reading an American blog. Yet, this cover of "Wicked game" is not new. It starts very quietly, but after that there's an amazing job done with the vocals ! Go and have a look at their site too, and you'll see that the Reines have a very flashy look !

Let's sacrifice this song

Thursday 8 december 2005

Blogonzeureux ! has been keeping its stride since our last post, with nearly one post a day about one of Pol Dodu's records. From Le Camembert Radioactif to Jack Hammer, there's something for all tastes and you can easily try to translate theses small posts with some software : you're sure to be in for some fun !
It's on the blog that you'll find mini-reviews of this month's new records, like the Doctor Sean Berg & Ya Ya Herman Düne album, " A trip to Tripville", and also the new Frères Nubuck album, "Chaque vivant est un mort en puissance" , which we particularly recommend. The song we're playing has this great line : "Listen to the Modern Lovers and you'll fall for me"
As part of a tribute album, Sheetah et les Weissmuller do a very good cover of an obscure 1966 Nino Ferrer song. After the riots, French justice is now suing rappers like Mr R. about songs like "La FranSSe" or "Nique la police" (which means the same as that old NWA song). Sure, Mr. R's lyrics are strong, but ther's surely not enough in there to drag him in front of a court ! This has reminded us of Mr. R,'s first album, particularly "R III", an excellent song based on a classical music sample which has aged very well.
Sneezes in China... Deaths in Paris you've probably never heard of. It's no surprise, since they've only done a handful of gigs in the early 80's and split up without ever releasing one record. Still, this band made up mainly of Mark Beer, Anton Loach and Arnold Lane would have deserved a better fate. We got hold of some vintage recordings,including this "Forty one red hearts"which might have come directly from Eno's "Taking tiger mountain" sessions ! Also playing is an outtake from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's live album, "Summer in the Southeast".
Christmas specials are not our thing usually, but this year, through an MP3 blog, we chanced upon a 1985 Tiny Tim single, "Santa Claus has got the AIDS", and it inspired us. So, we dug up an extract from a Beatles fan-club single, also starring Tiny Tim, and a few other fun things, including Loretta Lynn sending Santa Claus to hell !
This month, we recommend issue 6 of record collecting ezine Endless Groove, dedicated to new wave singles cover art. You can enjoy more than 300 of them !

L'éducation sentimentale

Monday 7 november 2005

Many friends are playing in the radio-blog this month. Poney are first. They're a Belgian band close to 62TV Records, who at one point backed up Dogbowl. They have just released a split CD with Danish band Talking To Teapots.
We also come back to the Beaux Bizarres' second album froma a few months back, with "Elliptique". After all, "the year of the fair-play" (that's the album title) is not over. The year of Chris Gontard is far from being over too, since the new album by his band Les Frères Nubuck has just been released. We haven't got it yet, but to keep us waiting, there's an album of demos availbale for free download from the site of his label, Sorry But Home Recording Records.
It's Citoyen Lambda, from Les Beaux Bizarres, who drew our attention to Mansfield Tya, a duet of two girls from Nantes. "Pour oublier je dors" is a little masterpiece, but I don't like the songs I've heard by them sung in English...! Another feminine duet, CocoRosie, has just released its second album. The surprise caused by "La maison de mon rêve" is not here anymore, but it's not a good reason to ignore this album.
A while ago, Hinah Records launched a big project, a tribute to the "Anthology of American folk music" : they are asking artists to cover tracks from the anthology and make them available online for free. On this track, singer Anamude is backed up notably by Jon Bernson, the leader of Ray's Vast Basement, whose work we've been following closely for a while now.
Les Volfonis are a rock band from Reims who have been playing the pubs of the city for nigh on twenty years. Their album, and particularly this tribute to Jeffrey Lee Pierce, shows that they're still going strong. It is more than twenty years after the release of their best records that the influence of Gang of Four has become all pervasive. So, they've reformed and have just released an album of rerecordings of their old songs. Surprisingly, "Return the gift" is not bad at all, it's just pointless. If you want to sample Gang of Four, you'd better go for the best-of "A brief history of the 20th century" (it's cheaper, as well) or even better the rereleases of the first two albums, "Entertainment !" and "Solid gold". Strangely, the good song we're playing, "Lord make me a cowboy", released in 82 on a flexi with a Dutch magazine, still hasn't been rereleased. Maybe the label has forgotten about its existence !
We round up this month's selection with a track from the Arizona Amp And Alternator album : another excellent Howe Gelb record !

Pour oublier je dors

Lundi 3 octobre 2005

I had announced it last month, but I didn't think it would happen so fast ! A radio blog is now set up directly on Vivonzeureux! (see above). Now, you can surf the internet while listening to our playlist. No more ads, the possibility to choose the song you want to listen to, no player to be installed, there seem to be only plus sides compared to the former version of Radio Vivonzeureux ! All of this was made possible thanks to an open source software, Radio Blog installed in a non php version following the tips you can find here. If you feel like it, go ahead and launch one on your site : of course, you need to get a little inside the data code, but I was happily surprised to be able to set it up in just one go !!
You may remember Junkie Brewster, the ukulele player who as featured on our virtual compilation "On a tous des défauts" at the and of last year. Well, she's just embarked on a world tour that will take her to Belgium and Thaïland !! It's a mad story she'll probably tell on her site when her computer is repaired, but she has been invited to take part in a blues and reggae festival organized by a billionaire on his Thai island, and she was performing there this week-end, sharing a stage with The Wailers and UB 40, with three pals on stage as she was allowed four plane tickets !!
For the parisians, or those who have the opportunity to go to Paris, there are two collective exhibitions this month centered around the record as an artefact : "Abreuver les sillons", 78 painted-on 78 rpm records at the Sound Gallery until roughly october 15 (104 quai de Jemmapes) and "Dites 33", 333 record covers imagined by 33 visual artists, at the Glazart, from october 5 to 31 (7-15 avenue de la Porte de la Villette).
Also, you can dream of holidays just after they're over : the Periferias festival will take place in Huesca in Spain from october 21 to 30 themed on agit prop. On october 30, there will be a night of tribute to Robert Wyatt with Pascal Comelade and also a band named Dondestan, with Karen Mantler and John Greaves, which means it will be a sequel to the concert premiered in France two years ago...
As for our monthly playlist, we start with a rarity from the becoming-legendary Les Combinaisons. You can find this at reimsmusique.free.fr, a site dedicated to MP3s by old bands from Reims, including Brodé Tango, Aldo Magic Band and many more.
Like Les Combinaisons, Shel Silverstein was a funny one, a multi-faceted one at that as he was a songwriter, illustrator, spoken word artust and even a singer. "A boy named Sue" by Johnny Cash, that's him, and many others by himself, Bobby Bare, Dr. Hook or Kris Kristofferson that you'll find on a recently releasde best of. The song I picked, originally a single B side, tells the story of a guy ready to resort to anything to get a front row ticket to hear one Johnny. If you listen closely, you'll realize the song is not about the French Johnny Hallyday !
Yayahoni (David-Ivar Herman Düne) still puts new ukulele covers online. As for "Suburbs with you", this excellent Herman Düne song is on "Jackson Heights", their latest EP, but our version comes form a BBC session, supplied by the Perfumed Garden blog, where we also picked up the track from the first Jesus & Mary Chain Peel session.
The Suns of Arqa tracks may bring to your mind the thought of Calexico being recorded in Kingston. but bear in mind that these recordings date back to 1979. As for the excellent live version of Indoor Life's first single, one of the rare early 80's bands not yet out of oblivion, you must thank an old cassette for being able to listen to it !

Un billet pour du Cash ?

Monday, september 12 2005

Not much new stuff on the Vivonzeureux! site this month, except the fact that you can now listen to our weekly radio chronicle, "Si vous passez par là", made for La Radio Primitive (92.4 FM) in Reims. But it's told in French... Also, we have decided to stop by late october the hosting of Radio Vivonzeureux! on Live365, mostly because there's way too much advertising inserted when you listen, and it's also complicated to set up on the first visit... We will still send you our monthly playlist, and we're looking into other technical possibilities, which will probably be some sort of radio blog...
An audio-blog, we've got one to strongly recommend you, it's Rocko Mondo's. For years, Jean-Pierre Moya has been introducing Radio Primitive listeners to bands from all over the word. Now, thanks to his blog, you can also enjoy this music, wherever you are.
Also recommended is the new 4 track CD by Le Pierre Tornade Sound System, with two tracks previously released on compilations and two new ones. LPTSS are proudly influenced by Le Vieux Thorax, and were featured on a Vivonzeureux! compilation last year.
As for our monthly playlist, there's Gomm, a band from Northern France who recorded their album near Reims. The Vic Chesnutt song comes not from the enw album but from the one before, but we couldn't miss such a song title ! (Falala is the name of the ex-mayor of Reims !). Also, this is one of our favourite songs on the record.
Yayahoni (David-Ivar Herman Düne) extends his series of ukulele-powered covers. He recorded this Dylan song originally featured on "Blood on the tracks on Bastille day. And this time you can download not just the sound but the whole video from his site.
On the excellent Polyphonic Size site, we found two excellent MP3s. The Taxidermists cover a rare Polyphonic Size song mixed with "I wanna be your dog", and two of the original members of Polyphonic Size, Kloot per W and Roger-Marc Van de Voorde joined together for a Kraftwerk remix. To our ears, the second Go-Kart Mozart sounds really like Denim, Lawrence's previous band. But the title we have selected is clearly a reference to the original guitar player in Felt, his first band ! As for the Teenage Filmstars, it is as early as 1979 that they recorded their "John Peel march". I'd be surprised if anyone had thought of playing this song at his funeral last year. Unfortunately, you won't find this track on the brand new Ed Ball compilation, "Here’s To Old England – An Artpop sampler".

Accordons-nous
listen to it on Radio Vivonzeureux!

Saturday, August 13 2005

Another month, and another release on Vivonzeureux! Records, our virtual label (though it woud be surprising if we kept going at this pace !).
This month, it's a record by Pascal Comelade and his Bel Canto Orquestra, who perform sardanes (a popular Catalan dance) live in Vernet-les-Bains, that's why the record is called "Sardanes à Vernet-les-Bains" ! So, we've playlisted on Radio Vivonzeureux! the original version of "Festa a Vernet lès Bans", one of the songs they have covered, and our favourite version of "Sardana dels desemparats". On September 9, Pascal Comelade & the Bel Canto Orquestra will be on the same bill as guitarist Paco Ibanez at the La Bâtie festival in Geneva (www.batie.ch).
Hallo Kosmo is the project of the bass player in Girls In Hawaii and his as yet unreleased song "La pression commerciale" has won us. Melodium and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah ! are part of the young bands whose recent releases we liked. Arizona Amp & Alternator is the latest incarnation of Howe Gelb and, fromwhat we've heard, this record, to be released in september, seems to be of a particularly great vintage. It features among others M. Ward et Grandaddy.
The Loft, one of the great bands from Creation Records' early days, join the long list of reforming 70's and 80's bands. Funny when yyou remember that they split in public right in the middle of a concert 20 years ago ! Officiallly, it' on the occasion of the release of the "Magpie eyes" compilation on Cherry Red that they will be playing two concert in Brighton (24/8) and London (1/9), but they also might be working on new material.
For some people, Summer is a great time for reading. We can suggest you volume 1 of Bob Dylan's "Chronicles" : for once, you an read something interesting about him without any go-between. There's also the book written by Franklin Bruno about Costello's album "Armed forces", although it's sometimes a bit messy. So we've lined up a good Dylan track, recorded for a tribute to Sun Records, and a version of a Brinsley Schwarz song that Costello covered at the time of "Armed forces".
The Otto song is an oldie that's still very funny (in French) after ten years, while the Honeymoon Killers / Tueurs de la Lune de Miel is a curiosity recorded by Yvon Vromman as part of a school project.

Souvenir de Vernet-les-Bains
listen to it on Radio Vivonzeureux!

Sunday, July 10 2005

The main piece of news this month is the new entry in the catalogue of our virtual label. A French band from the 50's-60's, Les Robots-Music, is brought back to life thanks to Kraftwerk ! The 4 song Kraftwerk covers EP, "Ils jouent des succès de Kraftwerk", plus an extra original song, should be a landmark !! (We have also opened a special souvenir page to gather reminiscences from people who attended Robots-Music shows).
So, a large chunk of our monthly radio selection is related to this event. Apart from both robotic bands, you'll be able to listen to Supermarket, the Kraftwerk tribute/send-up released by Lawrence from Felt-Denim in the early 90's (the second album of his band Go-Kart Mozart is released any day now) and to Les Beaux-Bizarres, who have just released their second album, on which you can find the very Kraftwerkian "Metaleurop Nord".
Les Beaux Bizarres are also on the "Raffarin is not dead" compilation, but this month we have chosen the track from the guy who compiled this record, Le Vieux Thorax. Gamover is also on it, but we have found an MP3 of one of his old songs on his site, with l'Incohérent on vocals. This must be from the same sessions as "L'alerte au gros rouge", which featured on a Vivonzeureux! compilation some years ago.
Nocturne had the good idea to release a compilation by Melody Four, the iconoclast trio from the Nato label who recorded in the 80's. Their version of 30's song "Papa n'a pas voulu" was a favourite of my radio shows then, and it has aged very gracefully !
David-Ivar Herman Düne gave a very good concert in Reims recently as part of the Elektricity festival. The two albums he's just released, solo and with his band, are just as good.
We have finally tracked down "Zeppelin", the Dogbowl cover by Fred Poulet, which allowed us to learn that it's sung by Rodolphe Burger, who used to be in Kat Onoma.
The former manager of WC3, an eighties French new wave band, has dedicated a site to them. We found there an unreleased MP3 of a song originally titled "Three together in the toilet" (which was also the band's moniker before the label made them shorten it !).

Wir sind die Roboter
à écouter sur Radio Vivonzeureux!

Sunday May 29th 2005

Whatever the result of the French European vote today, our Prime Minister Raffarin won't be dead (we wish him to stay in godd health), but politically he will be destroyed. It is purely a coincidence that the "Raffarin is not dead" compilation, curated by Le Vieux Thorax, is released this week. On it are sevral Vivonzeureux! old pals (from Brodé Tango to Les Beaux Bizarres, including Gamover and Les Boum Bomo's). Three songs from the compilation are featured in our monthly radio playlist.
A launching event for the compilation will be held this Friday June 3rd in Paris at the Planète Mars bar (21 rue Keller).
Our review : http://perso.wanadoo.fr/vivonzeureux/Pages/breves.html
Compilation info : www.citoyenlambda.net/raf/rind.php
Yayahoni (Yaya Herman Düne and his friends), who entertained us last year with his covers played on the ukulele, play live in on June 4th Reims (3 pm at the Colibri (gratuit) as part of the Elektricity festival (www.elektricity.org).
Another compilation being prepared for release is a tribute to The June Brides, an 80's British band. You can listen on our radio to the song The Jasmine Minks have recorded especially for this releases. There will be a lot of great names on this tribute, as I seem to remember that I've read somewhere that Television Personalities will also be on it (these three bands, June Brides, Jasmine Minks and TVPs often shared the same bill in 84...).
As for the remainder of our radio playlist, there are two oldies, a rock version of "La Marseillaise" by Jean Yanne and a rare version of one of Devo's best singles. And also a song each from four albums released in 2005, those by John Wayne Shot Me, Superwolf (Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy), M. Ward and Dogbowl, with his excellent Kinks cover.

Allons enfants de la batterie
à écouter sur Radio Vivonzeureux!

Wednesday May 4th 2005

Giant Sand return to Europe next month, calling in France at :
• Lille (L'Aeronef) on June 1st
• Paris (Trabendo) on June 2nd
• Bordeaux (Le 4 Sans) on June 3rd
• Lyon on June 9th (venue tbcc)

Before that, we will have had the pleasure to welcome again M. Ward in Europe.
The concerts threaten to be as good as his excellent new album "Transistor radio", and I think Matt will be accompanied on stage with members of Norfolk & Western.
M. Ward, first dates in Europe in :

• Paris (Café de la Danse) on May 10th
• Brussels (Botanique) on May 11th
• Lyon (Sirius) on Mays 12th, with Calc and Morning Star

"Songs for Narcisse", the Dogbowl album we told you about last month, is now available on his label website. Please rush for it, it is excellent, as proven by the two tracks we play on the radio this month (also available on the Dogbowl site on MP3). It is a limited edition, and you can pay with Paypal.

Apart from these three artists, to complete our monthly playlist we have Andrew Bird, with a live duo (probably with Nora O'Connor) and a very good song from his new album.
Laura Veirs doesn't stop touring. By the way, she's just toured in the USA on the same bill as Andrew Bird. Still, she's had the time to get her new album ready for release. The live cut we play is from a CD that came with British magazine Comes with a smile last year.
I don't like evrything I've listened to by The Fiery Furnaces, but I think "Single again" is excellent (really as a single, pointedly, last year in Britain, and more recently as an EP in the USA), and it mixes quite well with the old tune by Stereo Total, chosen to tell you about their new album, "Do the Bambi".
We remind you that the texts of "Si vous passez par là" (our weekly radio chornicle broadcast on La Radio Primitive in Reims), are online, in French, on this site. For this chronicle, we haven't yet traveled to the Solomon Islands, but if so, we could have brought back a recording of these strange local pan pipes, like this one, recorded by a scientific team in the 1970s.

Palindromes se mord ni la p...
à écouter sur Radio Vivonzeureux!

Thursday, April 7th 2005

New on Vivonzeureux! : a summary Pascal Comelade discography. He's written one himself in his excellent book "Ecrits monophoniques submergés" ("Monophonic submerged writings") for his records released up to 1999. We've done the "Stereophonic post-flood discography" for all his releases since then...
To celebrate this, we've included on Radio Vivonzeureux! a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover by Comelade, available only on the Spanish reissue of "Cent regards".
Two songs to follow the release last month on our virtual label of "All the years of trying", the Patrik Fitzgerald retrospective : his first single from 1977, "Safety pin stuck in my heart", and a demo of "Little fishes" (both currently available on his best-of CD).
Last month, we played a special selection of M. Ward songs on the event of the release of "Transistor radio", his new album. After a month in the company of this record, we can confirm that this is an excellent record, and we strongly recommend it to you ! Matt is currently on an extensive world tour, that will call in Paris (10/5, Café de la danse), Brussels (11/5, Botanique) and Lyons (12/5, Sirius).
Brother Roger is the new Sorry But Home Recording Records signing. A guy from Southern France tackling some kind of Americana music, sung in English... that didn't bode well ! But he pulls it off, rather nicely with his "Weekend lovers" album !
Latest news : Dogbowl has just announced the forthcoming release of his new album, "Songs for Narcisse", written for the stage production in New-York of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau play "Narcisse". More about it next month, but in the meantime you cann visit www.dogbowl.com to learn more about it and taste some of the songs in mp3...

One life away
listen to it on Radio Vivonzeureux!

Saturday February 25th 2005

This month, first a long sequence dedicated to M. Ward, on the occasion of the release of his fourth studio album, "Transistor radio", with one track from this album (an instrumental cover of an a cappella original by The Beach Boys !), the original version of "I'll be yr bird", reprised on the new album, and two collaborative songs picked on the web, taken from some of the many concerts Matt played in 2004 in the USA.
Last year, Daniel Treacy, of Television Personalities, wrote the world a letter, more sad than pathetic, from the prison boat on which he was finishing a jail term that was not the first one. This provoked many people to help him, which in turn pushed him to reform the band, play some gigs, and record a new album. The new song we provide here, available for free download, is rather very good, and allows us to expect a quality new album.
Fred Poulet has just released his new album, "Milan Athletic Club", on which there is a very good Kat Onoma-like cover of "Zeppelin always crashing" by Dogbowl, that's why we've unearthed the original version. Moreover, this Fred Poulet version uses the "French" lyrics of the Dogbowl concert at the Botanique in Brussels, as documented on the live record "Le chien lunatic" (on sale at www.dogbowl.com). Speaking of the Botanique, the live Tindersticks song with The Walkabouts' Carla Torgerson as a guest, has also been recorded there.
It's always fun to program songs from before 1950, on the sole condition that they still provide great listening pleasure. Knowing that the 1947 Ernest Tubb cover of Jimmie Rodgers's "Waitin' for a train" was recorded 19 years after the original, have fun trying to guess how old was your grandfather (or great grandfather if the grandfather was not born) when Jimmie Rodgers recorded his version !
Jean-Luc Le Ténia, the best French singer in the world, records at home. It's something when he gets mad at the elder statesman of French chanson (Henri Salvador to you) !! Listen, and you'll see what I mean (especially if you understand French)...

Je serai tn oiseau
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Monday February 1st 2005

Thanks to a box set only available in one chain of French Wal-Mart like superstores, we have discovered a great number of unknnown 50's rhythm'n'blues (from before rock's official birth). More than 50 years later, Rufus Thomas's "Bear cat" meeows manage to wake my cat from his sleep every time I listen to the song !
The Slits didn't wait for the latest tsunamis to show an interest for the beating of the earth. Still, this version in Japanese of their "Earthbeat", only availbale on a Japanese CD issue, has taken on a peculiar tone these days...
Our friend Le Vieux Thorax's latest tracks makes fun of a propaganda message made by the French govenrment against illegal downloadings, featuring the voice of Ariel Wizman, a French DJ who should have know better !
Among the newer stuff, there's a track from the first record by young Canadian artist Codie Prevost, and one from the latest Low records, probably one of the albums of the moment, along with the Bonnie Prince Billly/Matt Sweeney one (but I haven't listened to these records entirely yet).
Among the older stuff, I was lucky enough to track down a relatively recent Patrik Fitzgerald record. I had already found last year "Pillow Tension", a rather disappointing 90's album released on a Greek label. With "Room service", released I don't know when by a micro-label, Beat Bedsit, which seems to be already defunct, he reverts to his old guise of lo-fi acoustic punk poet. As for the Devo demo, it is taken from a double album released by Rhino a few years ago in a limited edition of 5OOO, but it's not sold out yet...

Earthbeat
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Sunday january 2nd 2005

We pursue this month the exploration of Sorry But Home Recording Records' "Les banlieusards" compilation, with two songs taken from it and and the reprisal of a report made for La Radio Primitive by Paulette Dodu. The double Daniel Johnston best-of/tribute album is a success : the tribute album is better than most of its kind, while the best-of makes available some songs that go back to its cassette releases years, including this chilling song on the condition of the artist. In a rather far-out style, two songs from the Danielson galaxy, including one of the many Christmas songs recorded by Sufjan Stevens.
Like many others recently, we discover many musical nuggets on the MP3 blogs (notably La Blogothèque and David F presents) : among these, we've selected an amazing song by Nina Simone, recorded in 1967, and the already nearly classic madonna cover on the ukulele by Junkie Brewster.
On the reissue front, musical DVDs are the fashion. Wire have had the very good idea to release a 1979 concert, from before the recording of their 3rd album, made for a German TV program. And they supply the audio CD with it, an excellent live album which balances at last the bad 1981 "Document and eyewitness" album . As for Devo, they have released a double DVD. "The complete truth about de-evolution", all of their legendary videos, is a must. The "Devo live" from 1996 is superfluous, but the whole is rather cheaply priced.

Story of an artist
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November 11th 2004

Lots of stuff this month starting with 86's "What you whistle when you walk home after you've thrown up in front of your friends" (!), followed by a track by Bingo Bill Orchestra, from "Les banlieusards", the new compilation from Sorry But Home Recording Records. Our friends from 62TV records in Belgium have just released in France and Benelux the 4th St. Thomas album : we play one track from it to celebrate ! CocoRosie is on tour in France for the second month running : we'll go and check, but if the concerts are as good as the record, it promises well !
The songs by Tom Waits and Jim White are both excellent. Waits had the good idea to put his on his album, while the Jim White track, better than anything on his album, is only available on the CDs that come with the more recent issues by excellent fanzines Abus Dangereux and Comes With A Smile, and on the Japanese version of the album.
"La filosofia del plat combinat" is Pascal Comelade's latest album, an excellent anthology of live tracks, rare studio stuff, including covers of some of his songs by marching bands, and beautiful Hervé Di Rosa cover art. This record was only released in Spain, and has been largely ignored in France as a consequence : this is not a good enough resaon for you to pass this album : look for it on the internet, that's how we got hold of it !
One guy had the smart idea to dedicate a website to Belgian new wave band Polyphonic Size, well known for its Jean-Jacques Burnel connections. What's more, a few rarities are available as mp3s on the site, including "Nagazaki mon amour", a rare single released before their first album, which has always been a favourite of mine.
Apparently, Le Vieux Thorax and Les Beaux Bizarres are becoming influential, since D.Rick mentions them as such. "Psycho dirty shit", from his forthcoming first record, shows that he learns very quickly.
The end of our program is very folky, including a song by Laura Veirs, who rejoiced us recently at one of her French concerts.

On a tous des défauts
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please show me old playlists