one-sided 7″, Pedigree Dolls Ltd, 1964

Guess what we got for Christmas…

Cheesy but seriously cute ye-ye pop promo aimed at toy shops for “the doll they’ll ask for by name”, namely the Brit rival to Barbie. A worthy companion to our Rolf, I’d say. Now to track down that Sindy & the Dollybeats single!

Note: this comes on very special “much loved” vinyl. Either that or the studio engineer was frying himself a lovely bacon sandwich that morning.

A. The Doll You Love to Dress (2:01)

Link | Discogs

Charlotte Gainsbourg; image courtesy of loudersoft.com

A little while ago, my friend Alex forwarded me a press release from a rep at Atlantic Records for Charlotte Gainsbourg’s new album IRM. As a fan, he had wondered if I had considered writing about her, an interest apparently motivated by reading an earlier post I did on Scarlett Johansson. When we saw each other at a mutual friend’s dissertation proposal party, we talked a bit more about it, wherein he basically outlined an entry’s worth of critical inquiry.

1. Like Johansson, Gainsbourg works almost exclusively with men, whether they be film directors like Michel Gondry and Todd Haynes or music producers like Nigel Godrich. Thus, she often occupies something of a muse position for male creative types, perhaps further enforcing masculinist notions of auteurism. Gainsbourg’s previous work with Air and Jarvis Cocker from Pulp and her recent collaborations with Beck on her new album further illustrate the point.

Beck and Gainsbourg at work; image courtesy of pitchforkmedia.com

1A. Gainsbourg has occupied this role for some time, as her father is beloved French yé-yé chanteur Serge Gainsbourg, with whom she sang the controversial “Lemon Incest” in 1984 when she was about 13.

1B. Before casting Charlotte as an artistic man’s (or father’s) plaything, I’d point out that her mother British actress-model-artist Jane Birkin, who was pretty liberated in her views on gender, sexuality, and monogamy. However, she may also be cast in something of a muse position. Like her daughter, she’s also worked with Serge and Beck. And like her daughter, who will be representing bestie Nicolas Ghesquière as the spokeswoman for Balenciaga’s new fragrance next February, Birkin inspired numerous fashion trends and clothiers (why yes, she is the namesake for the famous and expensive over-sized Hermès tote.)

Gainsbourg with husband Yvan Ittal, wearing Balenciaga to the Metropolitan Costume Ball; image courtesy of style.com

Unlike her daughter, Birkin also had a predilection for posing nude on camera, sometimes while in the act of coitus, perhaps with multiple partners. I’ll leave you to Google. I’ll also leave you to speculate if her daughter is relatively modest about her sexuality as a result of having such . . . “open” parents.

2. Thinking about our friend Annie’s post on Rachel McAdams, Gainsbourg is something of a thinking man’s pin-up, a cultural figure already saddled with normative ideals around race, class, gender, and sexuality. Given that she was recently featured with her half-sister Lou Doillon as the archtype for ”thin” in Vogue’s size issue, I’d add body type to the list of norms she represents. 

3. Gainsbourg doesn’t sing so much as talk in her songs. She intimates her way through songs in a breathy, sensual monotone, perhaps made more exotic by her British lilt or her occasional dalliances with French.

So, I’ll bring myself into the discussion. I like Gainsbourg but am probably too casual about her work be considered a fan. I’ve listened to 5:55 and IRM a bit, and have seen some of her more recent movies, in which she is often my favorite aspect. While I haven’t seen Antichrist (or any other Lars Von Trier movies) and am nervous about just how wanting it seems to be of a psychoanalytic or auteurist read, her turn as a mother rendered destructive by the death of her son has peaked my curiosity.

That poster is so NSFW; image courtesy of iwatchstuff.com

In addition, I thought her emotionally mature performance as Clair, Robbie Clark’s long-suffering ex-wife in I’m Not There deserved an Oscar nomination. I also liked her cover of “Just Like a Woman.”

I also liked her quiet, discreet turn as Stéphanie, the protagonist’s disinterested object of affection in Science of Sleep, a movie I otherwise hated. This is perhaps in part because the majority of filmgoers at the screening I attended found Gael García Bernal’s Stéphane to be charming, whereas I found him infuriatingly petulant and wanted to smack him with his own disasterology calendar. But I quite liked her. The only parts of her performance that felt disingenuous were when she wears an uncharacteristically skimpy sweater dress to Stéphane’s calendar launch party (which I’m pretty sure was a figment of the protagonist’s puerile imagination) and at the end, when she’s cries about how Stéphane won’t leave her alone. He’s not worth your tears, girl.

Oh, and I enjoy her vocal cameo in Madonna’s “What It Feels Like For a Girl.” Her confrontational monologue about male gender-bending comes from The Cement Garden, a 1993 film adaptation of Ian McEwen’s 1978 novel that was directed by her uncle Andrew Birkin.  

But let’s go back to her voice and problematize the idea of whether or not it’s okay for Gainsbourg to talk through her songs. Pitchfork’s Marc Hogan was really critical of 5:55 particularly for this reason, arguing that her vocal style suggests that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I’d counter with two things.

For one, is making such a display of singing really necessary? Phrasing and expressiveness are just as important as vocal range for singers, if not more so to those with more limitations. And isn’t talking through songs how Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Patti Smith developed mythic rock poet status? 

Bob Dylan and Patti Smith; image courtesy of brooklynvegan.com

For another, um, you could easily make the same argument for any of Gainsbourg’s male collaborators’ work. Something tells me that Jarvis Cocker, Beck, and Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air were probably all influenced by her father’s barely-sung approach to documenting his own erotic misadventures. I only hope they were just as interested working with Charlotte Gainsbourg as they were working with Serge Gainsbourg’s daughter.

That said, it might be easy to overemphasize or project notions of what French sensuality might be onto Gainsbourg and her songs (something her character in I’m Not There bristles at during her first date with her future ex-husband, as well as something Air have gotten a lot of critical mileage on from certain online publications with hipster cache until recently). While her second album was adorned with breathy vocals, acoustic instrumentation, and sumptuous production that may have lent itself well to such an essentialist reading, the lyrics to songs like “The Operation” and “Little Monsters” document both the wonder and terror of bodies and childhood, suggesting what might have drawn Von Trier to cast her in Antichrist. Her new album, which was inspired by working on her latest movie, gives way to more lyrical abstraction, while at the same time emphasizing a harder sound.

In short, Gainsbourg may make male-appointed bedroom music. But that isn’t all that’s going on, if you give a closer listen.

La cantautora, modelo y actriz francesa Françoise Hardy todo un icono del yé-yé.

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El yé-yé es un estilo de música pop, popularizado en Francia y en España en la década de los años 1960. Suele estar representado en Europa por chicas jóvenes con un productor artístico en la sombra y con canciones influenciadas por el soul, el rhythm & blues y el pop; y en América por los llamados girl groups (grupos de chicas) como The Ronettes, The Shirelles, The Shangri-Las…

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C3%A9-y%C3%A9

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

… además del Ye-Ye institucionalizado por la industria discográfica de los años 60, hubo también un eje paralelo que se situó en el underground. Aqui la palabra no ha de tomarse literalmente, tal como podríamos aplicarla a otros estilos musicales. Más bien ha de referirse a la desubicación de algunas cantantes femeninas que adoptaron en sus canciones una estilística impar, entresacada principalmente de la música garaje y la psicodelia.

http://carnabys.blogspot.com/2009/08/del-ye-ye-institucionalizado-al-ye-ye.html

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The only thing more attractive to a man than demonstrating for him your lax gag reflex is doing so with a negative pregnancy test. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Love it.

Anna Karina as Angéla with Jean-Claude Brialy as Émile in Une femme est une femme, 1961, directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

A naughty cabaret dancer/singer—one of these days I will track down a scene on youtube and put it up here, she does this one in a sailor outfit that is hilarious—wants a baby (cause you know us women), but her boyfriend is not going for it, so she decides to hook it up with his friend Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo), who is always claiming to be in love with her, and sort-of hijinks ensue. It’s actually very witty and offbeat, and it has some fun music in it, too.

Alfred: Answer yes, and I owe you 100₣. Answer no, and you owe me 100₣, okay?
Bar Owner: Okay.
Alfred: Okay. Here’s the question: Can you loan me 100₣?

Ye-yé go-go el Jerk!! (60’s)

Lista de Temas:
1.- Bule bule – Los Rockin Devils
2.- Loco te patina el coco – Juan El Matemático
3.- La Moska – Las Moskas
4.- La Pelea – Los Matemáticos
5.- Mary, Mary – Los Ovnis
6.- Tú y tus botas
7.- Pedro el conejo – Los Hooligans
8.- Veo la luz – Los Fakirs
9.- 96 lágrimas – Carlos Guzmán y sus Fabulosos Cuatro
10.- Jerk – Los Rebeldes del rock
11.- Azúcar, azúcar – Los Sucarylitos
12.- Bikini amarillo – Los Boopers
13.- La niña Bu -Los Matemáticos
14.- Fiebre – Los Johnny Jets
15.- Yuyu-mata-juyu-jen – Los Rockin Devils
16.- El juego de Simón – Los Sonámbulos
17.- Shains a go-gó – Los Shains
18.- Estoy clavado – Los Apson
19.- Yo tengo un gato – Los brujos
20.- Donkey – Los Beta
21.- El gato loco – Los Johnny Jets
22.- Cul Jerk – Los Johnny Jets
23.- La ley del hielo – Juan El Matemático
24.- Bájate de mi nube – Los Johnny Jets
25.- Hanky Panky – Los Hitters
26.- El juego de Simón – Las Moskas
27.- Lupe – Los Freddys
28.- Mary, Mary – Los Cinco Soles
29.- No puedo comprender – Los Solitarios
30.- Gloria – Los Rockin Devils

Éste tampoco está remasterizado, lástima…

llegó el jerk

Here at TWBITW, we have very strict criteria for weirdness. Start a fake French garage-rock band in New York? Not weird enough. Start a fake version of the fake French garage-rock band, using the same name? Now you’re talkin!

Details of what exactly went down are a bit sketchy, but we know this: at some point, various members of fake French band #1, Les Sans Culottes, got fed up with the band’s lead singer and ringleader, Clermont Ferrand, and decided to start their own fake French band instead. The problems arose when they decided to keep using the name Les Sans Culottes, even though Ferrand had already assembled a new band and was also performing around town as Les Sans Culottes. Ferrand (real name: Bill Carney) eventually took his old bandmates to court, where we can only imagine the judge was tempted to bitch-slap the whole fake French lot of them. The melee was ultimately resolved, however, with Ferrand able to keep calling his band Les Sans Culottes and the second crew of fake Frenchies rechristening themselves Nous Non Plus (which means something like “us no more”).

To make matters even more confusing, there’s also a NYC restaurant called Les Sans Culottes. The phrase, which literally translates to “those without underpants” or, more archaically, “those without knee-breeches,” was apparently originally coined to describe the poorly equipped conscripts of the French Revolutionary army in the late 1700’s.

Anyhoo, although we were bummed that the original incarnation of Les Sans Culottes broke up (we saw them live a few times and they were pretty great), it’s kinda nice to now have not one, but two fake French bands to choose from. Les Sans Culottes 2.0 still sounds like a cross between the B-52’s and a French Ramones; Nous Non Plus, for their part, have taken the music in more of a power-pop direction, but the silly Franglish lyrics still take center stage.

Links:

• Nous Non Plus official site
• Nous Non Plus MySpace
• Les Sans Culottes official site
• Les Sans Culottes MySpace

France offers many of the best goods of capitalism and some of the most ridiculous displays of nationalism. Bastille day, 14th of July, in Paris. It was fairly quiet, but unlike the last few times I was in town, it wasn’t because of a general strike, though a couple of hundreds of cars did burn. At a cost to the tax payer of about 20 million euros, the military marched down the prestigious Champs d’Élysées, with president Sarkozy, and err the Indian army. By the time they got to the Eiffel Tower there was Johnny Hallyday, I don’t know who he is either, well I do know, but I’d prefer to forget about that yé-yé remnant. To end the night, after the concert there were fireworks, which illuminated the Eiffel Towel. The event is not far from a Madonna concert, except in that case you have the option of not buying the ticket. The new addition to the circus was the Indian army, apparently each year there will be a different guest nation, so that jointly they can celebrate nationalism. The festivities will not end with the fireworks, expect more public spectacles, trade tariffs and travel restrictions.

Above: tuna poke (pronounced poh-keh) and Laetitia Estate Pinot Noir by the glass at Hayashi in Cedar Park, Austin.

Hayashi
1335 E Whitestone Blvd # T140
Cedar Park TX 78613
512-986-7176

Georgetown location:

1019 W University Ave # 205
Georgetown TX 78628
512-868-9686

Mosaic Wine Group recently visited owner and chef Lin Cheng at Hayashi in Cedar Park, where Laetitia Estate Pinot Noir is proudly poured by the glass. The décor at Hayashi is chic and the music is hip (think 1960s yé-yé) and the sushi is the among the best we’ve ever had. The bright flavors and gorgeous acidity in Laetitia’s Pinot Noir pair brilliantly with the bold spiciness of Lin’s tuna poke.

Above: Chef and owner Lin Cheng — twenty-something successful entrepreneur — may just be Austin’s most eligible bachelor.

Here’s what the winemaker Eric Hickey had to say about the 2007 Laetitia Estate Pinot Noir:

Pinot Noir yields were down in 2007 by 20% as compared to historic averages. As with many low-yielding vintages, the grapes were healthy and the flavors very good. Due to cool weather, this 2007 Estate Pinot Noir has slightly higher acidity. In a true test of the vintage’s merit, this wine did not require fining. All lots of Pinot Noir showed concentrated color upon de-stemming. The cold soak was 3 days and a quick fermentation occurred over a 4-day period. The Estate Pinot was aged for 11 months in an exclusive selection of French barriques, a combination of Francois Freres and Rousseau; with 30% being new oak.

Say hello. Or even ’salut!’

And enjoy this little clip.

Yesterday my friend Missy, who has a radio show on Indie 103, was talking about new music, a dialogue to which I have very little to contribute. But it reminded me of a relatively newish musical guilty pleasure—Carla Bruni. And you know what? Viva la France for having her as their First Lady. She gets my vote for the most chic First Lady, followed by Michelle Obama and Queen Rania of Jordan. Last summer my dad was obsessed with Bruni’s 2008 album, Comme Si de Rien N’Etait, which he thinks is the perfect background music while you cook. Frankly, I think he was obsessed with the liner notes, but the music is really good, too. And he’s right—it’s great to have on in the background while you are stirring a risotto, or some such. I am also loving her album Quelqu’un M’a Dit from 2003. Her voice (and her look) reminds me of two of my all-time favorite style icons and  yé-yé girls… Françoise Hardy and Jane Birkin. Each deserves her own post, coming soon…

Jane Birkin

Françoise Hardy

Me acabo de comprar una televisión nueva, de esas grandes y planas, y qué mejor manera de inmortalizar el momento posteando en mi blog la mejor canción española de la historia.

Yo soy una flamenca ye-yé
Y en mi casa no falta de ná
Pues a Philips mandé de poner
lo mejor pa guipar y escuchá
Tengo dos televisores
Que en el mún no lo hay mejores,
Pues siendo de Philips no cabe el engaño;
Uno pá la nieve fría
y otro pá las calorías
Yo ver la corrías metía en el baño
Familia Philips, familia Philiz.
Tú di conmigo sentrañas, que sí:
Se ven más claros los toros y el gol
cuando es Philips el televisor.

Por eso España repite ya así:
Familia Philips, familia Philiz
A Philips yo me fui de momén
y un radio compré pá bailar
Transistor yo no vi más fetén;
Un portén con frecuencia modulá.
Y me trajo un auto-radio
anteayer mi novio Arcadio,
que como es Philips de lujo es un broche
pa tumbarme a la bartola
Y escuchar la nueva ola
con traje de cola metía en el coche.

Carmen Sevilla – Flamenca ye-yé

Françoise Hardy’s earliest recordings may or may not be too cloyingly syrupy for your tastes, depending on your capacity for children’s music and, well, the French. Not that Hardy is a children’s entertainer. Rather, her earliest songs are steeped in early Europop sensibilities and a general youth-oriented twee-ness (widely known as Yé-yé) that comes across today as  a bit too much to be taken seriously. Regardless, I find her early work highly rewarding and don’t doubt its influence. Its being French can’t be overcome, but we perservere, don’t we?

Shared here is “Oh oh chéri”, one of the more notable tracks from Hardy’s 1962 debut Tous les garçons et les filles. Its bouncy melody–I keep wanting to say effervescent–is too much fun. I can scarcely speak a word of French, but that rarely gets in the way of singing along.

Françoise Hardy “Oh oh chéri”

Vi avslutar Yeye-Mädchen-Woche med mera France Gall.

Gårdagens BASH3 var lyckad, kul att träffa så många tobaksnördar. Flera hade börjat med pipa. Klart skoj. Stort Gracias till arrangörerna som lagt ner mycket arbete. Här en bild på en som vill vara värst…

Men det är inte alltid störst som är godast.

Martin N har varit vänlig och fixat en instruktionsfilm om parallellskivestoppningförfarande. Internet behöver vetskap som det här…

Natürlich, mera France Gall innan BASH3…

Idag presenterar Xnarpom en äkta Yeye-Mädchen. Marie-Louise Pleiss slog igenom som Ria Bartok med fransk Yeye. Här sjunger hon på sitt hemspråk. Låt mig påminna om morgondagen: BASH3.