- I've been trying to find French music appropriate for the Angry Kid, something in the style of They Might Be Giants. Any suggestions?*
- New Year's Eve, 1997, the Angry Baker and I were wandering around Paris. I can't remember quite where we were. I'm pretty sure we had just come out of Poilâne's bakery and I'm pretty sure it was the Grenelle shop in the 15th arrondissement, but it could have been the one in the 6th. (Or we might not have been in Poilâne's at all. Anyway.) We were wandering around in some strange part of Paris and stumbled upon a lovely large fishmarket in a sort of warehousey building on a side street. Do any of y'all maybe know which market this might have been? (Edited to add: AB remembers it as an open air market. His memory is probably more reliable than mine.)
Thursday, January 07, 2010
In which I make two blegs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
Not exactly "They Might Be Giants", but amusant. Try "Henri Des" http://www.henrides.net/
2: Had a lighthouse next to it? La Halle aux Poissons, 15th. Not far from Poilan's.
1: Not much in the style of They Might Be Giants, but try BB Brune, Benabar, Cali, Camille, Carla Bruni, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Louise Attaque (self titled album), M, Matmatah (album La Ouache)
And if you're after french bands singing in English: Phoenix, Brooklyn, Air.
Might update later if more come to me.
I think Charlotte Gainsbourg is a much better suggestion than MY contribution, which was going to be SERGE Gainsbourg. (Although Petula Clark covered a bunch of Serge in French. (I'm not certain if Petula recorded "Je t'aime... moi non plus" or not!)
I also LOVE Brigitte Bardot's recordings. Very retro. And the engineering has her voice right up front of the music so the lyrics are accessible. The Best of Brigitte Bardot is available on iTunes, but AK might still be a little too young for "Je t'aime... moi non plus" -- Bardot recorded it with Gainsbourg, then their version originally wasn't released because she backed out.
http://wikimapia.org/220476/fr/La-Halle-aux-Poissons
Of course Serge is great too, but that might not be what the Angry Professor wants her kid listening to.
(incidentally, he's buried a brisk 15 minute walk away from that fish market, which is also called La Criée du Phare.)
There's a film on the crooner about to be released in France that looks quite good.
Un CD de Edith Piaf, peut-etre? The reason I recommend her is 1) she's revered in French pop music history, and 2) her voice isn't what you'd expect when listening to music in a foreign language.
If Louisiana French counts, you can buy Beausoleil's version of "La Cravate a Ziggy Zag" from iTunes for 69 cents.
We find Jim Gill's cds witty and listenable. Not sure how old Angry Kid is but this works for us (ages 3, 7, and old enough).
Try Anne Sylvestre. Songs for kids that adults love to listen to.
Plastic Bertrand isn't at all what you're asking for, but fun nonetheless. Back in the day,(early 80's) I used to always spin this during parties
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PITnJAnmjqw
Oops, sorry, now I see "French"-- which Jim Gill is not.
A Portland band which plays internationally inspired music, Pink Martini. Their song "Sympathitique" (on CD of the same name) is an old-fashioned, jazzy tune. The rest of the CD is good too!
Erin
I second the Putamayo French Playground. Its going through my head reight now...
Also probably a bit more grown-up than anything They-Might-Be-Giants-esque, but I spent quite a lot of time listening to Paris Combo as a kid. It's jazzy, creative and surreal; also, I am fluent in French and haven't heard anything R-rated in the lyrics (though they're a little hard to catch sometimes).
http://pariscombo.artistes.universalmusic.fr/
Anything by Claude Bolling. Adult, but kid playful (jazzy music, no singing)
I was looking for free, streaming, online French music today and I found this great list, from which I picked Chante France, which is a contemporary FM radio station! Here's the list:
http://www.listenlive.eu/france.html
You didn't say what aspects of Giants you had in mind, but if you want similarly whimsical lyrics, then you might try Dionysos or Les Satellites (in addition to some of the other suggestions).
Post a Comment