Wanna hear the weirdest “garage” band that’s existed in years? Cheveu showed up a couple years ago with a few great singles that turned heads all over the place and last year they came through big time by putting out one of the best albums of the year. They are one of the weirdest bands that cannot be described without using the “garage” tag about their sound, a descriptor not often used when discussing interestingly and highly creative modern bands. Do they even have garages in Paris? I’d like to say it’s because they’re French, but that country has proven itself to produce plenty of real dull “garage” rock over the years, so while these are three dudes are very very French and that’s a big part of their charm, they obviously tapped into some spring of creativity most are clueless to. So what do they sound like? Well they got this singer who saunters around like a belligerent cro-magnnon desperate to get his rocks off usually mumbling incoherently in broken English about everything from Superman’s cum to James Bond as a model while another dude rips away away at a perfectly distorted guitar seeming to have an endless supply of killer riffs and a third dude who looks confused while tinkering with a blown out drum machine and occasion killer organ hook. A little of something for everyone, no?
Download: Cheveu – S/T
Tags: Cheveu, Francophilia, Lola Langusta, S-S Records
June 18, 2009 at 8:08 pm |
I’m glad there’s something going on in Paris– it seemed like everything was flaccid synth-pop and fashion… Too bad about the drum machine but it probably relates to the fact that there are no garages, just bedrooms… Most of the real music seems to be going down in Marseilles or Lyon or Nice…
June 22, 2009 at 6:55 pm |
i’d like to hear about these prospects in marseilles, lyon and nice…
but otherwise yeah, pretty bland. The Horizontal Action / Victim Of Time crowd even tried to invent a genre called “glue wave” intended to categorize modern french electro punk and garage and whatever. Shitty term that hopefully will never catch on
England seems to be suffering from a similar fate. No good english bands in a real long.
August 30, 2009 at 7:21 pm |
[...] Cheveu Playing at squat/art gallery in Paris (photo: amscott) A french guy comes up to the counter at N&P and says “Hey, I think I met you a Cheveu show at a squat in Paris a couple years ago” and gives me a copy of his new zine. …I have to say that despite the general annoyances of sitting in public all day, it’s pretty cool that it allows for random encounters like this to occur. …Anyone out there know how to read French?? Ha! PS – Check out Cheveu (they’re amazing) over at my buddy Robbie’s excellent music blog Biannu… [...]