Flavio, I hope you'll excuse me. It was impossible for me not to make this reference
"What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?"
If you talked to me last week, it would have been hard to convince me that there is anything beyond Air, a few Noir Desir songs, Laetitia Sadier and something like 10 electro tracks worth listening to in recent French pop music. The Rita Mitsouko were never my thing, Daft Punk got old really quickly, Telephone ends up being a family classic (and that just ruins it - plus they've been inactive for at least a decade), and I believe I've made my point.
But this week, my hopes are a bit higher for contemporary French rock music (or just French music in general). That's because of a band called Rien, which means literally nothing(haha - sorry...).
Why do you need to like this band (or at least listen to it)?
Because knowing cool French bands other than Phoenix, Air and Daft Punk will make you successful with the ladies abroad.
More seriously (because it won't), Rien is a band from Grenoble, a medium sized French city like many others near the Mediterranean and the Alps. Useless info, you might say, but I like settings for stories.
In that city of Grenoble is an association called l'Amicale Underground (translatable as Underground Friends Union, or something like that, feel free to suggest better), which also serves as record label for Rien. First reason why you need to take a look at this is the Amicale's website in its lo-fi awesomeness:
The second reason: everything that comes out on the aforementioned label is FREE TO DOWNLOAD. I really appreciate that and I don't see why anyone wouldn't give this a try after such a move.
The third reason: if you buy one of the 500 copies of Rien's EP "3" (for 10 €, shipping included, which is a very fair price compared to what some people do), not only do you get a collectible item, you get A VERY FREAKIN' NICE collectible piece of art you can look at for a while. Designed by fellow Grenoble design firm PNTS, here's a few pictures courtesy of their website:
Seriously worth buying if you like the music (that, again, you can get for free - it's like they guilt trip you in buying the best CD package of the year! And did I mention the CD is the most epic slab of black plastic ever?), PNST also did a flabbergasting packaging for Rien's previous LP, Il Ne Peut Y Avoir De Prédiction Sans Avenir (loving the elongated titles à la Godspeed You! Black Emperor - but IN FRENCH). Pictures still courtesy of the PNTS website - awesome people, I'm telling you!):
Unfortunately, this record is out of print. Still good though, and still freely downloadable on the label's website - consider donating (shameless advertisement for other people, yes - least I can do after getting all their records and borrowing pictures).
The fourth reason, and the most important one: "3" contains pretty damn good sounds. It's not at all your usual post-rock record - these people are willing to experiment with sounds as much as motorik-ly repeating one with minimalist style. On this EP, Rien plays with layers, which, if they sometimes seem conflicting or clashing with the foundation of the song at first, are completely integrated and natural by the end of it. You will come to damn these people, because this record, at 25 minutes and 18 seconds, is about a third of what it should be. Then you will remember what you read on the label's website: 3 is the first of three records, that will come out until 2014, when the band Rien will end (in Japan, apparently?).
What I'm wondering is: How the hell am I going to wait?
JNCT
...
PS: bonus reason: you can make so many puns with this band's name. It's like the fun never stops.
edit: reading my own post makes me feel like I wrote an ad for that record. I tried changing a few things to make this purely subjective post seem more nuanced, but I did really love "3". Considering you can listen to it for free, you shouldn't read any of my nonsense and go directly to the label's website to make you own opinion.
Ride's Nowhere appears to me as a masterpiece, mingling melody with violence in a glorious crash of cymbals, acoustic guitar strumming, overdrive & reverb drenched electrics and a powerhouse rhythm section. The noise sister to Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space and pop brother of Loveless is of course English, and obliterates any recent attempt to make something "in the same style but better". This record is in fact so good I can't write anything more than providing you with means to listen to it and a high-res picture of the cover. Which was rapidly taken by yours truly in blatant disregard for copyright laws but never ending admiration for the artist, unknown to me.
another awesome artwork for another awesome record
Ah, maybe one thing to say before I end this article: If that wave on the cover is the start of a 30 meter high tsunami, then it's a pretty good equivalent to the music that's about to crash in your ears, leaving no survivors when it washes out in a foam of goodness.
It's not like I've been really active lately, but I'm leaving for a sunnier place (why would ever do that?). Since Flavio's already gone building little boxes, that leaves exactly zero people to write for this blog in the next two weeks. That's unless I miss ESS so much I'll ditch my friends and go to internet cafe. Which could happen.
Australia has always been a land of finely-crafted music and compositions.
AC/DC
Buffalo
Today, Mammoth Mammoth valiantly carries the task of being awesome. How do I know that?
Because of this (from their website):
"WE ARE THE LOUDEST AND GREATEST BAND IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. WE ROCK SO HARD THAT SOMETIMES IT CONFUSES US. WE THINK, "JESUS H CHRIST! WHAT WAS THAT?!" BECAUSE THE SIZE OF THE ROCK THAT WE MANAGE TO PRODUCE TRANSCENDS WHAT THE HUMAN BRAIN CAN MENTALLY TAKE IN. THE CEREBRAL CORTEX SHUTS DOWN.
WHERE AS SOME PEOPLE MIGHT SEE THIS AS A PROBLEM. WE, MAMMOTH MAMMOTH SEE IT AS THE ULTIMATE POSITIVE. IT IS WHAT SETS US APART FROM THE MEL & KIMS, SLAYERS AND MIDNIGHT OILS. IT IS WHAT MAKES US TRULY MAMMOTH.
FOR TO BE TRULY MAMMOTH BOTH IN SIZE AND IN SOUND, EACH MEMBER OF THE UNITED FORCE THAT IS MAMMOTH MAMMOTH MUST BE TRULY WILLING TO BLEED. BLEED FROM THE FINGERS, FACE AND GOAT BAG. THEY MUST BE WILLING TO PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY PUNISH THEMSLEVES IN ORDER TO BRING OUT THE INNER MAMMOTH.
WE ARE MAMMOTH. FUCKING MAMMOTH. WE WILL DESTROY. WE HAVE IN THE PAST (666BC) AND WE SHALL DO SO AGAIN IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE.
WHETHER THE WORLD IS READY FOR US IS A DIFFERENT STORY.
They have an EP and an LP out, both of which I have the utmost inexplicable admiration for. They're respectively called "Mammoth Mammoth" and "Mammoth". How could you not like that?
