Je Suis France takes surrounds itself with as much myth and humor as the acts many might suggest it sounds like.  The group’s off kilter experimentalist Ween-ish melodies roll hand in hand with its peculiar history.  With the group’s Mind Zappa release it attempted to construct renditions of Frank Zappa songs that the band had never before heard using only tabs.  The band’s members jokingly call each other names straight out of The Big Book of Bad Norwegian Death Metal Names like Iceberg, The Darkness and Crogers.  There’s roughly ten years of this stuff and a solid discussion would cover the ins and outs of the entire history but the music might then be overlooked; a shame as it’s as entertaining and charming as the group’s history.

“That Don’t Work Well For Us” and “Whalebone” come from the band’s upcoming Afrikan Majik release and ring true to any introduction laid forth by the spaciest of Flaming Lips songs.  They’re gentle, warm and funny all at the same time.  “Je Suis France is Playing at My House” is a fantastic drunken parody of the LCD Soundsystem hit, it’s sloppy, falls in and out of time and is simply hilarious.  Je Suis France is music.

July 14: Atlanta, GA - the Drunken Unicorn
July 15: North Carolinaesque - TBA
July 16: Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall
July 17: Boston, MA - Great Scott
July 18: New York, NY - Cake Shop
July 19: Washington DC - DC Nine
July 20: Lexington, KY - The Icehouse
July 21: Athens, GA - Caledonia

Je Suis France “Je Suis France is Playing at My House (LCD Soundsystem cover)”
Je Suis France “That Don’t Work That Well For Us”
Je Suis France “Whalebone”

Additional Je Suis France Audio Here

Je Suis France - Official Site
Je Suis France - MySpace Site

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 11:40 am and is filed under Artists To Watch, Audio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.