Salut Les Copains

Angry songs.
We all have them, don't we?
Actually, I'm not really sure if anyone else does or not, but for this post I'm pretending they do. I know a great deal of people have those songs they listen to when happy/sad/in-the-mood-for-dancing**, but songs you crank up when your mood is riled don't seem to get as much mention.

My angry song is 'Salut Les Copains' by Eux Autres.


Eux Autres was originally brother and sister, Nicholas and Heather Larimer. Now they've added Yoshi Nakamoto on drums, and "Ethan" as bassist. (Presumably, he has a last name, I just can't find mention of it anywhere!)
The thing I love about Eux Autres is that they sing in French just because they can. Their band name is even French! (Translated without idiom, it means "them others".) Also, they describe their music as "the unrequited love song Doug Martsch would have penned for Françoise Hardy, had the time/space continuum conveniently collapsed."
I dig that.

While most of the time Eux Autres is a rollicking indie-pop band with French influence, they sometimes really let 'er rip. Such as in 'Salut Les Copains', which is from their 2003 debut album, Hell is Eux Autres. Mainly being a folkie, a lot of my favourite songs don't even have drums let alone loud guitars and raucous vocals. But I think most everyone has at least a couple of songs that are out of place in their usual and preferred musical fare. Keeps life interesting, non?

So, this, my friends, is the song I turn up and listen to with furrowed brow and stormy eyes when I'm especially irritated with life and/or people. Enjoy!






**No, I will not tell you my happy/dancing mood songs because... I don't have any. Sad songs, on the other hand, I have a plethora of!


(And I realize it's rather incongruous to tag this under "la langue française est belle", but oh well.)

Chère Françoise

I cannot comprehend how it is December already! Not only did November speed by... the whole year did! And guess what? I have now been selecting artists of the month for a year!
{If you'll see, I have taken the past artists off my sidebar and have given them their own little page! The reason they are arranged in such a *coughcough* "artistic, varied manner" is because the page editor is really difficult to work with. Or maybe I'm just stupid. Either way, I'm just not going to mess with it too much cause I finally got them in the right, chronological order!}

And speaking of artists of the month, this December's "chosen one" is Chère Françoise!

Chère Françoise is Franziska Beeler {as well as Shawn Jurek and Graydon James}. Originally from Switzerland, she sings in English, French, and German!
So far, she only has an EP entitled Departures. In my experience, I've found that EPs tend to have one amazing song and the rest are good but seem to weaken in light of the best song. Well, that is not the case with Departures. Each song is excellent! Indeed, I have trouble picking a favourite.
It is a pretty straightforward folk/french pop album, mostly it's just guitar with Franziska's charming vocals. {Though, if her new songs on myspace are any indication, she is leaning towards a more Electronica sound.} Half the songs on the EP are in French and the other half are in English.
As I mentioned before, I have trouble picking a favourite. Which turned out to be a problem when trying to decide what song to post. I got it narrowed down to three songs: 'Milupa, the Cat' {a song about her cat who was "named after an infant nutrition brand"}, 'Les Démons' {I'm not sure what this song is about since I can only catch every third sentence or so, but it is just lovely}, and 'I am Chère Françoise' which is the song I ended up picking. But I would definitely recommend checking out the rest of the EP!

Listen to 'I am Chère Françoise':




{You may have noticed the time durations skipping around on some songs. Files off emusic do that for some reason... I used to fix them in this long, tedious way but it was too time-consuming and messed with the quality of the song. Overall, the numbers changing around shouldn't affect the song. But let me know if it does.}

Message personnel

I'm excited -- I've been finding lots of great new music!! But alas, posting about it all must wait.
Til then, I'll post an "old" favourite of mine: 'Message personnel' by Françoise Hardy.



Around this time last year, I started listening to Françoise Hardy and other such artists. It's very strange to think that last year I had not heard about most of the artists I have posted about on this blog... This has certainly been a year of "musical enlightenment". ;)

Anyhow, 'Message personnel' is my favourite Françoise Hardy song! The interesting thing about it is that the first minute and a half is a monologue that leads up to the song. I really love the lyrics! {If you wish to know the basic concept of what she's saying there is a version of her singing it in English here. It's not the same thing as an exact translation, but almost!}

Listen:


{Be forewarned, the sound starts out really quiet and then gets louder as the song progresses.}

Les jours de neige en ville

They are calling for SNOW here!! Quite a bit of it too!!! (Where I live, it gets bitter cold, but snows very little. At most it flurries and sometimes we get a covering of snow on the ground in January.)
So, I am very excited... but still a bit doubtful.

It's very fitting that I have been listening a lot lately to Amélie-les-crayons' song, 'Les jours de neige en ville' {'Snowy days in town'}.
Amélie is very quirky, lyrically and personally speaking. But this lovely song is a little more serious. From what I gather, reading different sites, Amélie wrote this song after the tsunami in Indonesia, while in Lyon, France, everything was covered with snow. The contrast between horror and peacefulness was so astonishing that she wrote this song. Apparently the lyrics are about the contradiction between the rumble of an ordinary town and its quietness when it's covered with snow.




{Click here to download.}


*looks out the window* IT'S SNOWING!!!!!! =D

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

"Why is absence so heavy to bear? Why is Guy fading away from me? I would have died for him. Why aren't I dead...?"

Because of our mutual love for it, my new friend, Sarah, suggested I do a post about "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg". And since it's a musical I think that works perfectly!

When most people hear the premise of "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" they instantly assume the worst about it. {"I mean, come on! It's a film that's all in French? And every, single word is SUNG?!?! Sounds kind of stupid..."}
Ah, but they have never heard Legrand's moving score, seen Demy's brilliant colours, or watched the heart-wrenching story.

Undoubtedly, one of the best parts of the movie is the main, musical theme. (Mainly known as "I Will Wait for You".)



This song is absolute perfection. It doesn't need words. The melody speaks for itself.

It's a film you do not want to miss. I am no good at summing up stories, so just go watch it if you already haven't.

...and don't blame me if after you watch it you feel the need to sing, in French, everything you say for the rest of the day! :)


(The scene where Guy is leaving is my favourite. Because it's so... sad...)

"Mon amour...."


"Je t'aime, je t'aime!"

Again, watch it if you haven't. I think I'm going to go watch it now. *blissful sigh*

{By the way, I turned the video into an mp3! Click here to dowload.}

Quel Mal y a-t-Il À Ça?

Today I pretended to do my French while in actuality I was making my blog header! Yes I'm a wicked, wayward child... ;)
But I am rather proud of my header. It's not gorgeous or professional looking, but it looks better than I though it would! :)
So, in honour of my uncompleted French homework I am posting Françoise Hardy's "Quel Mal y a-t-Il À Ça?"


Listen:




...Now if you'll excuse me, I have some homework to do. :P

Musicamor

"Music is my lover... and lovers are music."

I recently discovered this French singer, Daphné, and sadly I can't find much of her music... But the little I've found I've enjoyed immensly! I'm too tired to ramble right now so I'll let the music video for her song "Musicamor" tell you how wonderful she is. ;)