― helenfordsdale, Saturday, 9 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Snotty Moore, Saturday, 9 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Danny Hoffmann, Monday, 11 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Curt, Monday, 11 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Robin Carmody, Monday, 11 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
i was so dumb
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 09:21 (fifteen years ago) link
What did you learn?
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Anyway, there's plenty of French rnr. It's just that most of it is not exported
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:17 (fifteen years ago) link
It's not exported because it's not very good, though. The fact remains that the French are good at pop, not so good at rock. (Yes, vast generalisation, of course there must be good French rock bands out there etc. etc. Still.)
― Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:41 (fifteen years ago) link
There's enough homegrown not-very-good rock to go round
― Tom D., Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:42 (fifteen years ago) link
hooray!
um..
― Mark G, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:43 (fifteen years ago) link
well if you do a ratio good-bad rnr and you add the difficulty of exporting music in a foreign language, i think you'll fidn that the situation isn't that different.
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Anyway, I guess I could accept the idea that the whole grittiness that's implied in rnr does not come off as cool to the french psyche as in the UK or in the US
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:47 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought they loved the rnr in France?
― Tom D., Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:48 (fifteen years ago) link
yes. Doesn't make it french tho.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:48 (fifteen years ago) link
what kind of rnr are we talking about though?
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:50 (fifteen years ago) link
All that leather jackets/ sunglasses/ fag hangin' out corner of mouth/ Keef bollocks. Or is that just the French habitués of ye olde Camden Town?
― Tom D., Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:52 (fifteen years ago) link
The "difficulty of exporting music in a foreign language" argument works for the mainstream, less so for the kind of people who read ILM, who may well listen to a lot of French stuff from Gainsbourg to Daft Punk but not to any French rock.
― Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:53 (fifteen years ago) link
Tattoos, tight jeans, earrings, motorcycle boots, kerchiefs... dunno about the music mind you
― Tom D., Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:53 (fifteen years ago) link
i. the french love anything that is developed, structured, refined and practiced by experts, i.e. tennis, rugby, disco, wine, the plastic arts, painting, jazz, prostitution
ii. on the other hand, they love to be contrary and rub your nose in shit
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:58 (fifteen years ago) link
iii. french people do not enjoy the minutemen or husker du
One day I will own that 150-odd disc Johnny Halliday singles box.
― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 11:00 (fifteen years ago) link
make sure you also get the johnny hallYday singles box
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 11:14 (fifteen years ago) link
actually don't
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 11:20 (fifteen years ago) link
France has become a big hotspot for Black Metal in recent times. They love Rock'n'Roll too.
― the next grozart, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 11:23 (fifteen years ago) link
interesting
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 11:52 (fifteen years ago) link
yup!
― the next grozart, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 11:53 (fifteen years ago) link
Anyway, there isn't much French rock, not much Italian rock, and not much Spanish rock ... but you get some crazy rock from the UK, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, etc. You get the best pop and dance from France and Italy. Maybe rock is more of a Germanic rather than Latinate thing.
― burt_stanton, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 11:54 (fifteen years ago) link
The last Phoenix lp was kinda rock
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 12:21 (fifteen years ago) link
there are LOADS of french rock bands. especially at the moment. all the kids play in bands nowadays. they all suck though...
― AleXTC, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 12:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Pink Panzers?
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 12:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Last year I was dropping of the other Redds and Blecchs at the airport and I saw some dudes who were clearly a band, although they had distinct mismatching styles, including one skinny George Michael-looking guy and one short Don Was-looking guy. I asked Don Was what the name of his band was and he said "Rock and Roll!" I said "no, the NAME of your band." He said "Rock and Roll!" again and pointed to another guys guitar case which had a bumper sticker on it that said "Rock and Roll." When I got home I tried to look them up online and thought: this must be the stupidest band name ever-they are ungoogleable. I finally found out who they were- they are French- when somebody told me one one of the guys showed up on the Gilmore Girls sequel.
There was another musician I recognized at the airport that day with a white cello case, he was much less ridiculous.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Magma were pretty damn great. But, significantly, they did not sing in French.
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:22 (fifteen years ago) link
CRASH NORMAL, bootches!
Cheveu album less rock than hoped but give 'er a shot
― Snop Snitchin, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:23 (fifteen years ago) link
there are lots of french rock bands, but they all sound like ersatz Kaiser Chiefs, who are already ersatz-ersatz ________.
it pisses me off that they don't sing in french, though. at least, none of my friends' bands sing in french: the midnight vultures, this is the hello monster!, bumble bees (last two are not really rnr)
― poortheatre, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Not terribly rock and roll either, to be frank
― Tom D., Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Magma were pretty damn great. But, significantly, they did not sing in French. Haha. I think JW started a thread in that language once, but I can't find it.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:26 (fifteen years ago) link
why do european bands choose to write and perform songs in english?
― poortheatre, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:26 (fifteen years ago) link
doesn't anybody remember trust? chuck, maybe. man, now I really wanna hear some trust.
― Edward III, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:33 (fifteen years ago) link
What about that indie pop band Autour de Lucie? Does that count? Probably not.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:37 (fifteen years ago) link
Trust
― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:39 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost ahah, no baaderonixx, I wasn't talking about pkpz (who don't exist anymore, remember ? great loss for music, I must say !).
As for the bands I was talking about, most of them do sing in french. the scene has been tagged "les baby rockeurs".
and you all forgot two of the most famous french rock bands : rita mitsouko and noir desir !
― AleXTC, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:51 (fifteen years ago) link
i revived this because of hearing "andy" last weekend!
i think the case was being made that les rita mitsouko were more pop than rock, AleXTC, though i'm not sure i buy the distinction
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, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:55 (fifteen years ago) link
... apart from Metal Urbain
― Tom D., Tuesday, 24 June 2008 13:57 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah maybe this is changing though, or maybe i'm wrong
am fascinated by the concept of "baby rockeurs" and the embrace of indie more completely by the french in that it possibly points to the end of rock, at least in the form many of us are interested in it, i.e. as a constantly-becoming machine, rather than a finished product to be endlessly refined, turned over, polished (realize i'm veering dangerously close to s. reynolds territory here)
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:01 (fifteen years ago) link
"miniscule hey" from bordeaux -
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=86920608
No mention of Alcest on this thread??
(I just did a quick search so could be wrong. They rock though.)
― Sundar, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 14:02 (fifteen years ago) link
"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
Yeah, all this stuff is perfect. Thanks
― burt_stanton, Thursday, 26 June 2008 21:34 (fifteen years ago) link
i can't really stand Daho except for one song i've never been able to find again that sounded almost like Felt!!
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 26 June 2008 21:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Does French people ever want to rock?
― Geir Hongro, Friday, 27 June 2008 00:44 (fifteen years ago) link
This comp looks kinda promising:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/bippp
=======
Christ on a pointed stick. Yeah, synth rock -- rock out, Claudette, rock out.
I'm listening to Illimite -- a deluxe Telephone thing that came out on EMI France in 2006. Two CDs, one a "best of," the other a live shot. Centerpiece of live stuff is a show at CBGBs in 1980, apparently in front of about a dozen, where the band tore up the floorboards. Segment of show from Montreal, one year earlier, has them sounding -- tone and attackwise -- like Metallic KO for 15 minutes of material, only more polite than Iggy. Well, they could have been impolite, but I don't know French. Just way too early for anyone in the US to get their brains around Frenchmen, singing in French, who had a rhythm section and two guitar players who knew roots rock and hard rock better than a lot of people prowling big stages in '80. 'Course, it seems not to have been too early for their countrymen who bought their albums by the bagload, so much so the badn retired around the mid-80's.
I kick myself for having missed them at some dive in Philly.
― Gorge, Friday, 27 June 2008 03:37 (fifteen years ago) link
Seconding and thirding SOGGY. Holy crap this album is great!
Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o49KyJQl-Og
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 7 July 2008 04:15 (fifteen years ago) link
^^^SERIOUSLY JUST LOOKIT THAT GUY
― RabiesAngentleman, Monday, 7 July 2008 15:31 (fifteen years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_rock
Other notes: There's a French series of psych comps called Freakout Totale that are pretty good, though they're francophone (so include Quebec etc.).
Once I get home, I'll be able to drag through the huge archive I found on SLSK from some user named Docteur Stein, which was all a bunch of 7"s in French, with a good half of them rock and roll (bands like Alex et les Lizards).
Bérurier Noir are pretty fun, though they're on the goofy quasi-political new wave tip, at least as I've been able to figure out. I had a pal send me a mixtape of their stuff once and I've downloaded a bit over the years.
― I eat cannibals, Monday, 7 July 2008 21:35 (fifteen years ago) link
2100-ish words on Les Rita Mitsouko, Niagara, Elmer Food Beat, Indochine, Les Négresses Vertes, Mylene Farmer, Noir Désir, Les Hatepinks.
http://www.spin.com/articles/french-modern-rock-essentials-phoenix-daft-punk/
― xhuxk, Wednesday, 29 May 2013 07:08 (ten years ago) link