As you may now know, I have got something against french variety (variété) music. It’s probably the most depressing genre one can come across. It is saturated with songs from around five major artists. Each one of them pooping a new track every week. French love that. An obvious example would be Johnny Halliday : and I can hear you say, “but he’s got to be anything but french with a name like this“, that’s exactly it. He’s dead fake, and you can smell it from miles. And France loves him to bits. He’s a huge rock star here. It’s bad fellas, it’s bad.
Anyway, sometime good things happen in France. Good things occur in various shapes. Like it’s nearly summer here in Paris. Like there’s a new band out lately that brakes the whole “french music sucks” slogan. Mum came back from work the other day and triggered this conversation :
– Hiya Yaya (thats how she calls me > don’t laugh, I can almost hear you !), how are you ?
– Fine momma, how are you ?
– Ace darling, listen, I’ve got something for you to download (the word buy as totally disappeared from our family’s vocabulary)
-What is it ?
– It’s music, it’s a french band.
– Mum, you know me, it’s against my principles…
– Yaya when will you understand that good music can be produced by French Citizens ??!
– Momma, you know as well as I do that 96% of what French make music-wise is totally worthless. They even have to import Celine Dion and make her french so that people here buy flippin’ CDs…
– Just bare with me a second and download ‘The Do’, it’s a Franco-Finnish band and they hitting high at the mo. believe me you won’t regret it.
– Ok, only because it’s half Finnish!
So I did, I downloaded a track from this band, and there it is :
It’s a Parisian act with a unique sound and burgeoning buzz are the half-Finnish, half-Parisian husband-wife duo The Dø. Their excellent debut album, A Mouthful, dropped in France last week, “On My Shoulders” has carried the album into the Top 20 in France with its massive success as a single. It forfeits the playful bounce of many of the record’s standout tracks in favor of a darker, more dramatic vibe, but it’s a hell of a song and is just another reason to get very excited about the Dø in ‘08.
[audio:http://240plan.ovh.net/~redcandy/airboy/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/03-on-my-shoulders.mp3] The Dø – On My Shoulders[youtube:http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=2v0L3RU2gaE]
Come on. Johnny Hallyday does not taste like indie rock’n’roll. But he’s a legend and you cannot say anything against him. Everybody likes him. Nobody can turn him down.
How do I get a version of the do’s record in America? I saw them in France and need their album. Great band. Thanks.