Les Sans Culottes
Faux Realism
© 2003 Aeronaut Records (654807001526)
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They all virtually eat, sleep and breathe the Left Bank, making kitschy retro Franco-pop. They regularly sell out dates in NYC, where downtown hipsters think they're the cat's meow.
tracks
- 1 Sa Sabine
- 2 Balzac 7502
- 3 SOS Elephants
- 4 Les Sauvages
- 5 Ecole de Merde
- 6 The Tongue of Romance
- 7 Demimonde
- 8 Non Merci Oncle Sam
- 9 Apollinaire
- 10 Le Coq Sportif
- 11 Funky Peripherique
- 12 #11 bert boden remix
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Les Sans Culottes are an international mélange of musicians now based in Brooklyn, New York. Influenced by 1960's French ye-ye pop, Les Sans Culottes filter those sounds through their own garage-hewn pop sensibility. Known for their furious, attitude drenched Grand Guignol live shows, the New York Daily News recently noted, "Over the last six years, the Brooklyn-based septet has earned a reputation for excessively fabulous performances and intoxicatingly catchy pop in the mold of Serge Gainsbourg and Jacques Dutronc." (NY Daily News, 2/22/02)
Les Sans Culottes (which translates to "those without undergarments") borrowed their name from the "ill-clad and ill-equipped volunteers of the French Revolutionary army."
Having wowed numerous left-leaning French intellectual cultural critics in the boites of St. Germain-des-Pres, Les Sans Culottes brought their unfiltered swagger to New York City in 1996. Leader Clermont Ferrand hand-selected friends and other musicians from home and abroad to play the music he had grown up with: the music of Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall, Jacques Dutronc, and Jacques Brel.
After several incarnations, the band finally locked down its lineup with sexy chanteuses Kit Kat le Noir and Celine Dijon singing backup and taking the microphone for their own songs. Propelled by the rhythm section of Jean Luc Retard on bass (Les Nonchalants) and Harry Covert on drums (ex Les Refusals), Morris "Mars" Chevrolet on keyboards and Cal D'Hommage on guitar (ex Café Top Super) the band is truly an assemblage of "Parisian Superstars"(OUI magazine, Sept. 2000).
Winter 2002 found Les Sans Culottes on a short tour of the Cote Gauche, blowing audiences away at LA's Spaceland, the Venus Room at Vegas's Venetian hotel, and San Diego's Casbah. They also laid down a couple of new tracks with LA film composer and music producer, Michael Andrews (Orange County, Out Cold, Donnie Darko) for their Aeronaut Records release for Fall 2002.
Les Sans Culottes' first label release in the United States, FAUX REALISM, came out this past fall on AERONAUT RECORDS. The album contains eleven original Les Sans Culottes tracks including "Les Sauvages" (now getting repeated airplay on Los Angeles radio station, KCRW) and the mind-numbing "Ecole de Merde."
LSC originally began putting out their New York-based recordings on their own label, Escargo-go. Their eponymous American debut release, was a collection of favorite songs of the 60's French pop era, from Gainsbourg's "Dr. Jekyll et Mr. Hyde" to Dutronc's "Les Cactus." Their second CD on Escargo-go was the spectacular, The Ennui and The Ecstacy. Les Sans Culottes have been praised by Le Press Americain in The Village Voice, The New Yorker, and The New York Times.
2002/2003 press
Les Sans Culottes show themselves to be more than just a high-kitsch send-up, and deliver something real. CMJ -NY
...LSC's cabaret-style act - complete with mod get-ups, sex-kitten frivolity, and outlandish wigs - transcends language barriers. SAN FRANCISCO WEEKLY
Incroyable! Borrowing heavily from '60s icons like Jacques Dutronc and Serge Gainsbourg, this campy posse has been blowing the proverbial roof off le mother B-52's style for over two years. FLAVOR PILL -SAN FRANCISCO ONLINE
Francophiles rejoice! Les Sans Culottes, the hippest pop combo this side of the Seine, swing by T. T. the Bear's Place tonight at 9 for a show of sparkling retro rock en francais. Any band that features a singer named Celine Dijon is tops in Go!'s world. BOSTON GLOBE
...they all virtually eat, sleep and breathe the Left Bank, making kitschy retro Franco-pop. They regularly sell out dates in NYC, where downtown hipsters think they're the cat's meow. The Examiner -San Francisco
Not just for Francophiles -...Even the translation of the group's name is amusing - "those without underwear," or something like that. Just say oui. NEWSDAY -NY
The melodies on "Balzac 7502" and "The Tongue of Romance" are downright gorgeous, as is the singing, courtesy of chanteuses Kit Kat le Noir and Celine Dijon. WEEKLY DIG -BOSTON
Cool French pop with plenty of tricky twists. BABY SUE -ONLINE
...while Les Sans might be a large tongue in the collective French ass cheek, their garage rock guitar, bouncy pop, and organ-laced rave-ups are seriously infectious. SAN DIEGO CITY BEAT
The album's guitar tones, bridges, hooks, backing vocals and even choice of bass guitars invokes some hardcore nostalgia. LSC really did their homework, too -- in addition to collecting the appropriate elements, they've learned how to use them well. SPLENDID E-ZINE
It's to the mutual benefit of LSC and fun culture that NYC tolerates such 60s-sounding eclecticism. This is a band that works really hard to sound as different as their personalities must be. Grab a watusi beat and leave behind the years of the B-52s and grab something young. MUSIC DISH -E-JOURNAL
Tout le monde se lève - standing ovation - pour... « Les Sans Culottes ». FRANCE-AMERIQUE -LE FIGARO INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Compared to the rest of the New York buzz bands, that fromage-swinging, chain-bedecked, bell-bottom and op art print cocktail dress smell is like a breath of fresh air. DELUSIONS OF ADEQUACY
reviews
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60s French Pop in all its glory
author: Brad DerManouelianThis record is a good solid assortment of songs that span many styles withing the neo-French-60's revival genre. Highly recommended to anyone looking for some good old fashioned party music. The one or two sleepers are slipped between all-out dance extrazaganzas. Put this on and be prepared to sing along with words that probably sound a lot better not knowing the French language. If this record is put together as a tribute to the tunes from which the genre is borrowed, nice job! If it is meant to be some sort of ironic hipster move, shame on you for putting so much effort into it. The songs are executed in such a way that would suggest the former, even though the band hails from New York and may or may not have even been to any European countrry.