sound of the suburbs

Ever since starting the blog back in February my friends here in France have been trying to persuade be to write in their native tongue, the problem is that the language of Moliere is far from easy and as the expression here goes I write like a Spanish cow! What I have decided to to is to post more French music, this decision has been also motivated in part by the recent increase in American and English readers. My intention is to post music from French artists that maybe old, new, famous, unknown, in French, in Arabic, or in English but what most of these artists will have in common is that the majority of my readers will not know them. I do urge you to to is give them a listen as for me this is one of the important roles that musical blogging plays: sharing and exposing new music. It is always possible that you will discover something that you like, should this be the case and you are tempted to buy one of their albums they can be found on the three main French on line stores, Alapage, Amazon, FNAC.

Stuck In The Sound
This Paris based four piece formed in 2002 and wasted no time in starting to play locally where they quickly made friends with an up to date indie sound that paid homage to their influences, R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins and Pixies. They released an auto-produced album in 2005 that won them friends in the French media. They are back with a new album 'Never Mind The Living Dead' to be released 6 November from which 'Never On The Radio' is taken, I would suggest that they deserve a place on the airwaves with this nervous energetic three minutes of modern pop, as French magazine Les Inrockuptibles said of the album "electro-rock with melodies to take your breath away". The band will be playing at Manchester's In The City festival 31 October, so why not check them out if you're there. The bands My Space can be found here, where of course there are other songs you can listen to.

Kaolin
This four piece are themselves real pop fans who have managed to live their dream. In 2002 they released 'Allez' a first album than won over many people with it's melodies influenced from the other side of the Atlantic and it's hooks so typical of French music. A second album in 2004 'De Retour Dans Nos Criques' produced by Dave Fridmann who has also been responsible for albums from Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, took them further along the same road. They have recently released their third album 'Melanger Les Couleurs' produced this time by Hip Hop producer Philippe Weiss the results are more than pleasing taking the big romantic sound of Coldplay and the play on words so typical of artists such as Miossec that makes this album a success, check out 'Je Reviens'. The band's web site is here.

Bikini Machine
My personal favorite from today's bunch is this band from Rennes in northern France that have managed to come up with a sound that is reminiscent of the 60's, not that surprising really considering their use of good old valve amps and a Farfissa, while managing to sound fresh and urgent, it's place is firmly in the 21st century. Check out 'La Pharmacie Anglaise' that can be found on their album 'Daily Music Cooking With Bikini Machine', this song has been on heavy rotation here since I discovered it a few days back and with good reason as it has shades of le grand Serge along with a hint of the Rolling Stones circa 'Sympathy For The Devil'. The song has had my feet tapping like mad no surprise really as apparently they are good on stage with a reputation for getting a crowd moving. The Bands My Space can be found here.