Icky: Poisseux
Thump: Bruit lourd
IckyThump: Sixth album by The White Stripes, released in 2007.
IckyThump: Ecky Thump
EckyThump: Exclamation of surprise from Northern England
Access to videos and photos of concerts, interviews, backstage and video clip previews. But also, and above all, news, competitions and lots of other things. Add this thing on Facebook while you wait for the December site (that thing is me):
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Contents:
Pony Pony Run Run
I Am Un Chien
Greg Cerrone
By Margounnette
CD
Livre
C’est quoi le rock?
The Guru’s Matchbox
Pony Pony Run Run
(c) Mathieu Zazzo
Pony Pony Run Run, or PPRR, a French pop group formed in Nantes and Angers in 2005.
These three guys don’t have much in the way of charisma, and their music is as naive as you could wish. What’s more, Frédéric Rivière, the drummer who accompanied them in concert, is pursuing his solo project, the very good Anoraak. Not much to satisfy me! Yet, yes, the tunes stick in your head, and you find yourself whistling Hey You, buying the album, and finally enjoying it. So it’s time to see them live on stage, but everyone can see what they’re capable of: just watch the video from the Victoires de la Musique awards to see them in full force. A Victoire they won in the category: Groupe ou Artiste Révélation Du Public.
My criticism may be a little acerbic at first glance, but that’s not how it should be interpreted. This music and this stage show are very good, and remind me of certain artists signed to Kitsuné, the label that turned me into a 60s groupie.
Moving on to the stage, I opted for a PPRR dj set: you never know, electro madness can free these boys with their over-clean image.
We get there, me and two buddies, one gets turned away, no ID, no entry, no matter how many times you come, how many times you’re on the list, how much money you’ve got, how much coke you’ve got… Here, the gorillo-branleurs at the entrance don’t give a damn. The one for all and all for one is just a children’s story, isn’t it?
Once inside, we’re in a bad American teen movie, a hundred bitches per square metre, isn’t that Pony Pony Run Run? Well, depending on the clientele, we’ll fall back on beers, one, two, three, four,…
The PPRRs arrive, the dancefloor fills up with real and fake blond chicks, the dancefloor empties out with real and fake blond chicks, the stairs bear the weight of real and fake blond chicks, the upstairs room chokes with real and fake blond chicks, the main dancefloor swells with electro fans! Ah…
The PPRR set over, Robin and I put our feet up on a table, a gorilla “scolds” us, we take our feet off. He leaves, we put them back on, he comes back, yells at us, we move to the smoking room.
Once in the smoke-filled room, two guys sit down, talk to us, then the taller one sends a question:
“Are you gay? No, are you?! Is your buddy gay? No ?!! Well, looks can be deceiving… Too bad, bye.” The two guys cut each other (probably something else later in the night too), Robin and I just stand there staring at each other. Are we gay?
Since then, I have come to see PPRR as a good French group, with hidden talents that revolve around two essential issues: ”Are you gay? Is your friend gay?
I Am A Dog
(c) Pierre Lapin
(c) Pierre Lapin
I Am Un Chien, I’m not going to talk too much about it for fear of getting carried away, and there’s a video of the concert on my Facebook.
What’s more, if you look on Luxsure, you’ll find an interview I did with Les Chiens in October 2009.
There you go, you’ve got two things to do: watch the video, and look for the itw!
Let’s get on with the story. Wednesday Green Room Session, an evening I’ll be talking more about in Icky #2, with guests The Shoes and I Am Un Chien.
I go to the concert and come across The Guru’s Matchbox*, a new band made up of friends. We get in and enjoy The Shoes 100%.
The Dogs come next, and then a whole mechanism is set in motion inside me.
Here’s the explanation:
For almost two years I’ve been living under a real curse with I Am Un Chien, having been invited to a total of five concerts, and on Wednesday alone I finally broke the spell! I’ve seen the Dogs!
Result:
After two years of videos of their International Tours, and clips on their myspace, which I squatted like a virgin with a burning wrist on YouPorn. I finally got laid, er, went to a Les Chiens concert, and holy shit, what an orgy of bastards, some big South-East Asian brothel.
For a canine depucelage, we’re into numbers and sweat. There’s a lot of hustle and bustle, jumping, pogoing, arms in the air, head bobbing up and down in pain, and my god(s) it’s good!
In life, there are two things to do: fuck and go to an I Am Un Chienconcert. I don’t know which is better, so do your best to reconcile the two.
(By the way, there are girls at their concert! I’m just saying…)
http://www.pierrelapin.fr/
Greg Cerrone
A- Me
G-Greg Cerrone
G- Sunday and Monday the weather’s fine, yeah, no, tomorrow’s Saturday, meeerrrde, it’s raining,…
A- Yes, that’s what I said, tomorrow’s going to be shit
G- Oh, it’s going to be rock’n’roll!
A- How many people are they expecting tomorrow?
G- Look, the cops say 300,000, the organizers say 600,000.
A- Yeah, in 2007, you were there, there were quite a few people…
G- No, it’s fine, but if it rains, it’s going to be a pain!
A- Yeah
G- Well listen, let’s go, I’m going to attack soon,…
A- Let’s start with the news, because you released an album last year?
G- I released an album last year, then I released some extracts, I released another track three months ago, I released a track this summer, and another track two weeks ago, and that’s it.
A- Yes, it’s still going on
G- Yes, it’s still going on, a little more internationally actually,…
A- Well, two weeks ago you were in New York, weren’t you?
G- Now I’ve been in New York for almost three weeks, I just got back yesterday.
A- I was there not so long ago too.
G- It’s cool eh!
A- Yeah, it’s not bad…
G- So life’s good, everything’s fine.
A- Yeah, and I saw that you were originally interested in cinema?
G- At first, yeah! I went to theater school for three years, and I wanted to do theater because I couldn’t see what I was going to do in music. And finally I started doing music, and I made up my mind, really, after a while, and it was, I don’t know, I was 19/20, and now it’s been 11 years,…
A- You were my age.
G- Yeah, I was 19/20/21.
G- No, I’ve always had this, I’ve always wanted to do music, but I couldn’t see what I was going to do with it.
A- But in Dj, or did you start out in a band?
G- Nah, I’ve played a bit of drums, I’ve played a bit of guitar, really a tiny bit of piano. But I don’t consider myself a pianist at all. I make all my own music, but it’ll take me three hours to make a chord, whereas a real pianist will take ten minutes. I’ve always loved music, but I’ve always dreamed about it, never thought I’d try.
A- What about scoring a film?
G- I’d love to, it’s my dream!
A- I went to see Romain Gavras’ film, Notre jour viendra,…
G- Yeah, how is it?
A- With SebastiAn’s music. It’s not bad, I was expecting, with the M.I.A. clip, something more violent,…
G- Yeah, it would kind of tie in with what I wanted to do before. I find that having the image,… I mean, you intensify, you take the audience in a direction. Because when you watch a film and there’s no music, it’s 50%. You may not realize it, but there you go! I don’t know if you’ve seen Inception?
A- Yes, yes, with Leo DiCaprio.
G- You see the music, you don’t think about it, but it creates a crazy atmosphere!
A- Yes, I know that in Cronenberg’s first films there was no music, they’re good, but this is
G- Yeah, there’s another atmosphere.
A- How do you see the future of music with the return of the 70s, 80s…? The same for 90?
G- Yeah, that’s already the case with the Haddaway remixes, which I don’t like… It’s not really my thing. But we’ve had a panoply of remixes from the 90s
A- I grew up in the 90’s and I’m wondering what we could have.
G- Nothing, it’s going to be remixes when we’ve already had plenty. I’m not a big fan, especially as we could still do a lot of new things, and mixing styles, electro dance style, yes that’s cool. But you really do have a wealth of creative talent today that’s not out in front enough. But if you look around, there’s a lot of stuff out there that’s really, really well done. Because a remix is well done one time out of ten. Dance and electro in the broadest sense has taken on a truly enormous dimension in the United States, Asia and all the emerging countries. There are more and more clubs. I’m working even harder. And you see, when I go to China, I’ve been there three times, and every time I go it’s even stronger!
A- You were talking about Latin America too
G- Yeah, Brazil for example.
A- And what does that give you, because it’s an area I don’t know at all.
G- Well, I’ve got an example, it’s New Year’s Eve. It started at 10pm and finished at 11am, and it was packed. Then, if you like, all electro music in the world is managed by England. In Ibiza, 70% of the audience is English. They love this music and are helping to make it international. If you walk in England, you walk in the world.
A- Didn’t you mix in Toronto recently?
G- Toronto no, I did Montreal,…
A- Yeah, because when I was in Toronto, it was crazy…
G- Yeah, Toronto’s on the move, China’s on the move, Brazil, Argentina, the USA, LA. I know, I lived there as a child and I go there very, very often. Five years ago it was all RnB, now it’s five electro clubs.
A- And in France I have the impression that this style is very much shared, promoted as if left to its own devices. All the festivals I’ve been to this summer, the DJs who are playing, who’s there? There’s Vitalic, but there aren’t many others, it’s boring in the long run. I love Vitalic but, well, I’ve seen him three times this summer and…
G- And it’s always the same?
A- It’s not always the same, but there comes a time when you’d like to see someone else on stage.
G- Well, there’s that thing too. In France, we’ve got a cluster of five people, well ten or so DJs, who are so enormously important in the world that everything revolves around them. And that’s great, I have the utmost respect for them.
A- Well, you’re not far behind
G- That’s true, but unfortunately the big guys are maybe a bit too present, and people don’t look the other way. It’s not to criticize them, it’s just to tell the public that there are some very good djs in the world who only play three dates in France a year.
A- But why?
G- Because it’s quite centered, and there are a lot of difficult laws in France, hiring is difficult, cigarettes… A- But you can’t afford cigarettes, because look at Quentin Dupieux, he comes on stage, lights up his fag and doesn’t give a damn.
G- Well, there are plenty of clubs where I still smoke, I hide. Because I’m a smoker and it’s very difficult not to smoke while mixing. But then, when I have no choice, I have no choice. And in addition to the laws, some club owners don’t make enough effort on air conditioning, reception and cleanliness. Have you seen New York?
A- Yes, I was under the Empire State Building, on a rooftop, and…
G- Yeah, you go five meters and a guy comes to clean up on the ground, it’s maybe a little too much. But I think there’s some effort to be made,…
A- Even the price of drinks, I know my father is in the alcohol business and it’s impressive the margins they take.
G- The price of drinks doesn’t bother me, what bothers me is paying so much for a welcome that’s not worth it. Maybe that’s why we’re running out of steam in France.
A- And the French Touch?
G- We don’t talk about the French Touch abroad anymore, but you have a lot of French people abroad who never play in France. Why? That’s the question.
A- And your future news?
G- Well, I’ve got lots of tracks that I’ve finished. I’ve done short versions of remixes, I’ve got a remix coming out on Yobot, a track coming out on Yobot. I’ve just released a record on an English label. A track with Da Fresh came out two weeks ago, and a track with singer Shawnee Taylor before the end of the year. All in all, I’ve got seven or eight finished tracks coming out on different labels, including my own.
A- But weren’t you a resident Dj in Russia at one point?
G- Yes, something called First Mention burned down.
A- Oh yeah, so you’re not there anymore
G- I’m not there anymore, then I did another club called Famous which also burned down. They like to burn clubs in Russia. In one year, I went there every two months, and it lasted a year. Well…
A- You’re going to go mix,…
G- Yeah, I’m going to say hi to my brother.
A- Bah bon set !
Shooting
Rest your eyes!
This week only, the shoot will not be done by us.
However, we’re replacing it with the By Margounnette brand!
Mikka de Goom Radio en Mode
Mikka de Goom Radio en Mode
Mikka de Goom Radio en Mode
Mikka de Goom Radio en Mode
Quelques Robes By Margounnette
Quelques Robes By Margounnette
Quelques Robes By Margounnette
Une belle photo de classe (avec entre autres, les I Am Un Chien)
CD
YOU!
The album of the month is You! by You!
You! is the first album from the eponymous group, You!
A little jewel in the crown, both sonically and visually (cf. video clips), emerging from the encounter between Romuald Boivin and José Reis Fontao of Stuck in the Sound. Accompanied on stage by the two Dogs, David Fontao and Douglas Cavanna ( I Am Un Chien).
One sentence perfectly describes the You! effect: “A schizophrenic voice that calls for both debauchery and romance.”
Book
What does Keith Richards think? by Mark Blake
Translated by Nicolas Richard
A little book about sex, drugs and rock’n’roll… And a little Mick Jagger!
To be read on a train on the way to a festival.
For just €12, these 200 pages by Keith Richards are the best value for money cam on the market.
“I’ve had at least three doctors tell me: ‘If you go on like this, I won’t give you six months’, and I’ve been to the funerals of all three.
“There’s a knock on the dressing room door. Our manager, shouting: Keith, Ron, Police, it’s for you! We panicked, throwing everything into the toilet. The door opened, and who do we see coming in? Sting and Stewart Copeland!
“Weirdest thing I’ve snorted? My father. He was cremated and I couldn’t resist mixing it with a little powder. Knowing him, my dad wouldn’t have cared.”
What is Rock?
Fanny Twin
“the best thing that ever happened to my parents”.
Fanny Twin / DJ
The Guru’s MatchBox
Video clip from the first repet’ on Facebook
Icky Thump #1 October 2010
Alexandre Fisselier
Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)
