Saturday 2 April 2011

Sweden To London Of A Summer Evening (via France & Japan)...

Two summers ago, my friends Sasha and Felix were over from Stockholm.  On the Saturday, the 4th of July, we went to see The Indelicates (my favourite band of recent years, more on them later) play an amazing gig.  It was on this night that the Eiscafe song "Slag To Love" began (free if you want it, just type in 0).  Sunday was a day of much-needed recuperation and on Monday evening we reconvened, made an incredibly spicy meal, drank some beer and listened to A LOT of ace music.  I had never seen the Serge Gainsbourg - D'Autres Nouvelles Des Etoiles DVD collection before.  And hadn't heard the amazing "Dents De Lait, Dents De Loup" duet with France Gall.  WOW!  Tragically there seems to never have been a proper recording of this song.  I can't find out much information about it either.  It seems "Dents De Lait, Dents De Loup" was some sort of French music television show in 1967, this possibly being its theme song.  That lovely slinky mod guitar sliding into bouncy major key pop.



They also introduced me to Alizée and this wonderful song:






As this glorious summer evening rounded midnight, my friends began to put on some Japanese psychpop/rock, introducing me to Yura Yura Teikoku whose "Hoshi Ni Nareta" is just beautiful, a perfect latenight soundtrack.  I was told that it roughly translates as "I Turned Into A Star".  It is the last song on their excellent "Memai" album.  I can't find a video of that but here's some other good ones:







And then at the other, darker, end of the pop spectrum came The Jacks whose fantastic first LP, "Vacant World", would a few weeks later soundtrack my hourlong attempt to find a highway, being lost on the unlit backroads of rural New Hampshire late at night.  I rather like this one:


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