| CD REVIEW Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now! |
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Band : Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now! In order for you to comprehend what this “band” is about, you need to know something about its protagonists, Eddie Argos and Dyan Valdès, respectively lead singer of UK’s Art Brut and pianist/ backing singer of Los Angeles based The Blood Arm, but also a couple! Argos’ real name is Kevin Macklin and as the lead singer for UK Rock band Art Brut he’s known for his wacky stage show, having played the vacuum, skipped with his microphone wire, escaped from a sack, danced with the audience, and stopping songs halfway through to tell the audience his thoughts about a variety of topics, including even his difficulties to perform sexually. In his humorous lyrics (which he apparrently often “writes” on his phone while walking around drunk) he talks mostly about his family, how he’s embarrassed himself or his past love interests. Empassioned with cartoons (DC comics in general and Black Mamba Booster Gold in particular) he writes his awn comic books called The Weekly Adventures Of Lex Steele and writes a bi-weekly column called Pow! To The People about comic books for http://www.playbackstl.com. Valdès is originally from the Bay Area, is a graduate from UCLA, and has been playing the piano keyboards with The Blood Arm (also providing backing vocals) since their formation in 2003. The band’s 2004 debut album Bomb Romantics earned ‘em a nomination for the LA Weelky Music Award in the “Best New Artist” category that same year, and 2006’s Lie Lover Lie got positive reviews in UK press as well (The Guardian giving it 5/5, NME giving it 8/10, and Artrocker calling it “the best debut album of the year”). Evidently, a UK tour ensued! Somewhere, somehow, the two got to know each other, and became a couple. While on a car journey from San Fransisco to Los Angeles, the car radio was playing ”Jimmy Mack” by Martha Reeves And The Vandellas. Now Eddie’s always had a problem with the lyrics of the song, as he finds it’s cruel to sing a song to your boyfriend telling him you’re planning to cheat on him. He felt someone ought to defend poor Jimmy (whom, seen the song was released in 1967, was probably sent off to Vietnam), and finding Dyan agree with him, the couple started writing a response song from Jimmy’s perspective, as soon as they got home. They soon got thinking about other Pop songs with which they disagreed, set about “fixin’ them”, and eventually demoed a total of 12 songs at their home in LA. Then they decided to make a proper record and travelled out to Joshua Tree to record the songs with The Blood Arm producer/ engineer David Newton (former guitarist/ songwriter for Mighty Lemon Drops, now playing with Little Ones). About the songs (in chronological order as on the album) (I’m giving you this here, as the info is only available from the info we got along with our download promo copy of the album): 1) “Creeque Allies” is a response to “Creeque Alley” by The Mamas And The Papas. Originally the story is about the late ‘60s West Coast Folk scene and their own formation in the midst of it, EWITFR…Now! brings a story of the early ‘40s French resistance scene and the formation of the freedom fighters whom eventually drove the Nazis out of France. 2) “G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. (You Know I’ve Got A)” is a response to the “girl steals other girl’s boyfriend” attitude as displayed in “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne. 3) “(I’m So) Waldo P. Emerson Jones” is a response to the hit song “Waldo P. Emerson Jones” by The Archies, in which the band can’t figure out this new bloke on the block that’s impressing their girlfriends and making a fool of all of ‘em. In the EWITFR…Now! version, you get the answer: the guy was the little-known nerd at their school, whom spent a Summer re-inventing himself and emerging with added confidence, a new haircut, and a much cooler name. 4) “The Scarborough Affaire” is a response to traditional song “Scarborough Fair”, also made a hit by Simon And Garfunkel, in which the writer incites the listener to look up his former lover and charge her with a series of impossible tasks. The response takes these unreasonable demandss to their logical conclusion. 5) “Billie’s Genes” is a response to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” with as only remark by the band: The kid is your son! 6) “Think Twice (It’s Not Alright)” is a response to Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”. In the original song Dylan displays a very cool attitude about his lover leaving him. EWITFR…Now! reads between the lines, re-wrote the song to reflect how Dylan more likely felt. 7) “Hey! It’s Jimmy Mack”: Jimmy heard Martha’s song, and he ain’t coming back! 8) “He’s A “Rebel”” is a response to The Crystals’ song “He’s A Rebel”, which was a love song to a “dangerous” man. The response opens a conversation to other men who see through the “rebel” schtick and argue that it’s all just an art. 9) “Coal Digger” is the response to “Gold Digger” by Kayne West. In his song, West patronizes the chip-chop janitor who’s working his way towards cooking the fries…in fact, the man is simply working to make ends meet until he can get his shit together and release a hit record. 10) “My Way (Isn’t Always The Best Way)” is a response to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”, and shows a less confident person, needing to take in account other people’s opinions. 11) “Superglue” is a response to Elastica’s “Vaseline”, and in EWITFR…Now!’s opinion, Elastica might’ve stuck together if they’d superglue instead of vaseline! 12) “Walk Alone” is a response to the hit song “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, made infamous by both Gerry And The Pacemakers and the Liverpool Football Club. EWITFR…Now!, in contrast to Gerry And The Pacemakers and most of Liverpool, aree apparently quite confortable with their own company! Well, the chit-chat passed, it’s time to talk a bit more about the music itself, eh? Vocally, you get a mixture of song and spoken word, and occasional conversation bits between Eddie and Dyan. Obviously, Dyan gives the vocal backing when needed, but she’s also occasionally pushed in a lead position (for only a short while in a song). A protagonist on the keyboards, she is said to be a multi-instrumentalist, and therefore must’ve been instrumental in completing the band’s sound on these recordings (besides keyboards I hear, evidently, bass and drums, the occasional guitar (?), and some horns here and there). It’s Pop, by all means, but Eddie’s typical British accent really màkes this project! That, and the band’s pespective against the original tunes, of course! Oh, and by the way, do nót expect too many musical copy-catting! Except for the occasional melody line (vocally), the music on this album is completely original! At myspace.com/fixingthecharts, you can currently not only find mp3 files for the songs “G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. (You Know I’ve Got A)” and “Hey! It’s Jimmy Mack”, but also the lyrics to the songs (as well as those from “Walk Alone” and “Scarborough Affaire”)in the page’s blog section. Additionally, there’s a song titled “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” (a cover this time, and the B-side to the G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. single). Enough to get charmed by this duo, I’m sure! 89/100 Tony.
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