"it pisses me off that they don't sing in french, though. at least, none of my friends' bands sing in french"
its pretty difficult to sing r'n'r in french (or italian, by the way): english is the its natural language, just like melodrama sounds more convincing when sung in italian. "che gelida manina" isn't the same thing of "what an icy little hand".
that said there are tons of great (not necessarily "rock") french bands.
― Marco Damiani, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:04 (fifteen years ago) link
Alcest sings in French!
― Sundar, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:09 (fifteen years ago) link
well, I was wondering about les rita but "c'est comme ca for instance" is clearly rock. but I don't see clearly the distinction between rock and pop, especially for acts who have a wide range of compositions. as for post-punk, many bands went the electropop/cold/novo disco way, in France (reminds me of the "des jeunes gens modernes" exposition at the agnes b gallery in paris these days). and metal urbain are friends of mine ! (but i'm not too fond of their music...)
― AleXTC, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:12 (fifteen years ago) link
i think there is something about the entire swathe of noisy, non-danceable post-punk, extending into hardcore and 90s indie rock, which just completely bypasses french people
I'm not sure that's true. I did a term of school in France in 1980, and the 12-year-olds were listening to rock (well they were listening to Kiss). Then in the 80s there was a lot of worship of the usual suspects, Velvet Underground, Doors etc. I don't think it's a question of French people then not appreciating rock or non-dance guitar music, it's a question of what transplants well into French culture. Rock is more of an alien form than pop, which is more easily related to a broad history of French popular music, with lots of French performers crossing over from chanson to pop in the 60s and 70s.
― Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:15 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost: i. Metal Urbain played at the Hundred Club Festival where Sid put a girl's eye out by throwing a beerglass = THEY ARE PUNK HURRAH = not rock'n'roll obv
Mais non! The French punk rockers at the 100 Club festival were the Stinky Toys.
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:16 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.myspace.com/wauylosarrrghs
not french. still good.
― the next grozart, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Kiss weren't rock, they were a circus act that happen to play music!
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:19 (fifteen years ago) link
Little Bob Story!
― Tom D., Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:20 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah zelda a lot of older generation frenchies (many many younger-gen) love creedence, the doors, zeppelin, etc. but i feel like this sort of proves my point - none of those bands were really "becoming" they were more "now that rock's got to this point, let's consolidate and perfect"
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:21 (fifteen years ago) link
granted this is all WILD generalization about an entire country
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Looks like you're starting to think like a Frenchman already, Tracer.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:24 (fifteen years ago) link
I'd classify Les Rita Mitsouko as dance-rock -- like, um, B-52s or somebody. (Actually, every time I heard Santogold's "L.E.S. Artists" these days, I think of Les Rita Mistouko, but maybe that's just my ears playing tricks on me.) But Noir Desir are definitely rock -- hard rock. With a very evil singer, apparently. I also like Elmer Foodbeat, Niagara, Les Negresses Vertes, Guesch Patti (well, the one song I heard by her), La Muerte, Metal Urbain (also repeatedly mentioned above), Um Pah Pah (Basque -- that counts right?), and some other bands I'll probably remember a few minutes after I type this. French rock is fine!
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:24 (fifteen years ago) link
xxpost
Yes, I see your point. It does feel that french rock bands are copy-paste clones of whatever is rocking the anglo-saxon world at a given time (rather than naturally evolving phenomena)
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Where's the Heavy Metal?
― Tom D., Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:26 (fifteen years ago) link
Trust is kind of metal
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Not a lot to show tho, hasn't every country got shitloads of metal bands?
― Tom D., Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:31 (fifteen years ago) link
french rock bands are copy-paste clones of whatever is rocking the anglo-saxon world
I don't hear that at all -- at least, not the bands I mentioned. They mostly sound nothing like UK and US bands; if anything, I'd say they're closer to the weird rock that comes out of Mexico and other Spanish language countries. (For one thing, they seem to have kept new wave dance rhythms and, in some cases, Afro-Caribbean beats in their music in the late '80s and '90s long after most Anglo bands had stiffened up.) (Mano Negra, who were also great, may have done this more than anybody else, really.)
And yeah, Trust were very metal (with a bit of disco stuck in there.) And they were good, too. And Shakin Street (two late '70s albums) were metal, too, and completely awesome; Fabienne Shine has a solo career these days, and she still sounds pretty good.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:32 (fifteen years ago) link
But Noir Desir are definitely rock -- hard rock.
Yep. But they never crossed over into the Anglosphere, did they? Another theory: maybe it's just a perception issue after all. We don't want to think of the French as rock. It doesn't fit into our stereotype, so we don't bother to listen to any of their rock.
― Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:33 (fifteen years ago) link
re. language issue - why did Stereolab manage to get a pretty respectable audience?
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:35 (fifteen years ago) link
oh and streaming last.fm radio of french metal
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:37 (fifteen years ago) link
For those who want to know more about the "baby rockeurs" scene in Paris, there's the documentary "paris sans pitié nous appartient". gives you a fairly good idea of the paris indie/rock scene over the last years.
funny thing about it is that most of the people who despise the baby rockeurs and shit on them in the documentary are (old) people who, for years, have been idolizing this scene... pretty pathetic... (not for criticizing since all these bands are awful but for liking them in the first place!)
As for "rock n roll", speaking of "metal urbain", eric debris produced and helped them a lot. they still suck.
― AleXTC, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:37 (fifteen years ago) link
It doesn't fit into our stereotype, so we don't bother to listen to any of their rock.
Very possible.
― Michael White, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:45 (fifteen years ago) link
French rock on CDbaby!:
http://cdbaby.com/places/5FR0/rock
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:48 (fifteen years ago) link
they seem to have kept new wave dance rhythms... in their music in the late '80s and '90s
Another great example of this would be Indochine! Who were remembering what bands like the Cars and Police sounded like long after everybody in the UK and US had forgotten -- and long before far less interesting Anglo indie hipster bands started trying to remember again, starting in the early '00s or so.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:01 (fifteen years ago) link
ah Indochine...
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Telephone in the '80s
...are also said to have been quite rocking, though I'm not sure I've ever actually heard them myself.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:08 (fifteen years ago) link
i think there is something about the entire swathe of noisy, non-danceable post-punk, extending into hardcore and 90s indie rock, which just completely bypasses french people -- Tracer Hand
I gather there's a whole lot of French post-rock (Sincabeza, Absinthe Provisoire, to name some I remember liking out of many more I've forgotten) and math-rock (Duracell, Cheval de Frise, Chevreuil, Pneu) out there. Still, most of that is instrumental.
As far as French lyrics go, the only band this rosbif recalls hearing in the past year or so is Steeple Remove, who I guess are slightly krautish rock, like a more guitarry Fujiya and Miyagi, maybe.
I don't know many French people but the twenty- and thirty-somethings I've met over here have included a lot of metalheads, if that means anything.
Albini-produced French hardcore-ish indie rock cult heroes from early 90s: Sloy - Pop
― a passing spacecadet, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:12 (fifteen years ago) link
- didn't come from/live in France - 'Frenchness' inherent to their music is delivered through a sort of filter of acceptability ie chanson or whatever you call it
― DJ Mencap, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Don't know most of the bands spacecadet just listed but FWIW Duracell is a Welsh dude who moved to France. As a result of putting him on a few years ago I get quite a few emails from French punk/posthardcore bands looking to book UK tourdates. Don't recall any awesome ones but there was a band called NED who were OK.
Monarch are a French doom metal band and are pretty killer. They have some compadres around the country I think - Year Of No Light spring to mind
― DJ Mencap, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:23 (fifteen years ago) link
I am listening to these Steeple Remove right now and they're surprisingly good
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:27 (fifteen years ago) link
tho more shoegazy than Krautish I'd say
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:29 (fifteen years ago) link
lot of great french rock, the fatals, sonic chicken 4, magnetix, the feeling of love, volt, mighty go go players, jack of heart, etc.
― chicago kevin, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:29 (fifteen years ago) link
Duracell is a Welsh dude who moved to France
Didn't know this! Interesting move.
Yeah, I guess Steeple Remove on the whole aren't too krautrocking; the tracks I heard before I got the album were more so and I got excited for the album, and then I was a bit disappointed and haven't played it for a while. But anyone who calls a track Desorient Express is fine by me.
― a passing spacecadet, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:34 (fifteen years ago) link
ye ye was as R&R as any american pre-beatles twist act
― PappaWheelie V, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 16:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Telephone seems to have been missed. Utterly rock and roll band on Virgin. Debut album had an AC/DC influence but the Stones seemed their biggest inspiration. Had one album produced by Bob Ezrin and were very big in their native country. Took one stab at touring in the US and were unfairly slaughtered in small dives sometimes in the mid-Eighties. The debut is very good. Crache ton Venin -- "Spit Venom" loosely, their second, was uniformly excellent. All the records span fair to great.
Shakin' Street were French, too. Made a debut on an overseas imprint of CBS, were brought to San Francisco and managed by Sandy Pearlman who attached Ross the Boss to them. One domestic album resulted -- a good one. Not necessarily better than their debut sans Ross the Boss and Pearlman. Sang their lyrics in English, as opposed to Telephone, who sang in their native language. Telephone was, however, also much better than Shakin' Street.
― Gorge, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 16:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Monarch rock.
― Herman G. Neuname, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 16:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Deathspell Omega for more French metal.
And Bernard Szjaner, who invented the laser harp, and did some Zeuhly sort of proto-techno. Check out side B of his Some Deaths Take Forever LP.
There's a great quote on his website from a critic who said 'If you prefer music to McDonald's, try this'. Can't argue with that, really.
― gnarly sceptre, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 17:01 (fifteen years ago) link
"MacDo"
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 17:01 (fifteen years ago) link
a whole lot of French people have no patience for anything they see as qualitatively inferior (like MacDonald's), whereas a lot of Americans (and Brits) take a pride in bog-standard crap (but it's OUR crap) that maybe started as perverse but gradually became ingrained, i.e. "i'd rather drink budweiser than some fancy microbrewed bullshit". this latter attitude simply doesn't exist in France or is so marginal as to be practically nonexistent, regardless of class; yet it's this attitude that has grounded a lot of rock and roll, isn't it? "we may not be very good, but dammit we rock"
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 17:06 (fifteen years ago) link
It always startled me that Telephone found no fans in the US. Even despite the general American animosity toward Frenchmen. They seemed natural for NYC, yet they failed miserably. They definitely rocked and wrote very good hooks. If you went to the trouble to find out what they were singing about, there was a warmness as much as their was rebellion in much of what they did. They could not have made records with English lyrics and achieved the same.
― Gorge, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 17:11 (fifteen years ago) link
i'll check it out, i've never knowingly heard a single note!
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 17:14 (fifteen years ago) link
was kind of surprised by m83 on their first tour: 2 guitars, bass and drums and only one keyboard.
― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 17:24 (fifteen years ago) link
The first Blut Aus Nord is amazing, almost Goblin-esque synths. Not feeling the later stuff so much.
― Soukesian, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 19:40 (fifteen years ago) link
how has this thread gone on so long with no mention of the CHICO MAGNETIC BAND!!
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 19:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Which is the 1st Blut Aus Nord? Ultima Thulée? I enjoy Mort and the Goblin comparison intrigues me.
― Sundar, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 20:21 (fifteen years ago) link
There are better zeuhl bands than Magma?
Koenjihyakkei! Not from France, tho.
― original bgm, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 20:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Yes, Ultima Thulée is the first from BAN. Quite different to their later stuff, though definitely BM. I don't know if anyone else would hear the Goblin comparison - maybe I'm just saying "prog but in a good way" + creepy - but there are some stunning atmospheric keyboards.
― Soukesian, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 20:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh yeah, have been meaning to check that out. Oh yeah, have been meaning to check this out
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 20:35 (fifteen years ago) link
Many times on here I feel like I'm missing the point- the in joke.
Why has nobody mentioned Les Thugs?
Oh and that first Stinky Toys single was great.
Alcest are not rock n roll but a decent French bit of action
― Fer Ark, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 22:06 (fifteen years ago) link
M83 are great rock n roll driving music. I've done them on the M1, M62, A15, A63 and the B1500 but never jived on the M83. Where is it?
― Fer Ark, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 22:10 (fifteen years ago) link