Miami Nights

ATTENTION:

Your regular Wednesday Auditory Orgasm has been commandeered by your friendly local Jessica. 

To make the drastic switch easier on you, today you will get both! Hooray. But count your mp3s now, by next week you'll be stuck with me. All alone. In a sticky basement filled with moldy records.

The point of the Wednesday Auditory Orgasm was to educate you with new - and hopefully good - music that you might not otherwise know about. The purpose of the new and improved Wednesday post is to broaden your horizons just a little bit more, and give you something new that you might like, and --if i feel like it-- to give you something old that could have inspired it. I get quite a lot of stupid requests while DJing and my goal here is to equip you with requests that are...well, not stupid. 

So for the first edition of Stupid Requests with Jessica Who? we're takin' it back to the old school. Real old school. And since everyone seems to be such a superfan of our French friends across the pond, what with this 'fa-rench eh-lectro cah-raaaze' that's been haunting me for the past two years, we're going tres hip!

I came across this Ca$hmere track somewhere on the interbrain (Ca$hmere's not French, I know, Can I finish??) the title of which made me stop and go "ce qui?" 

'Le France Gall' is a catchy little number with roots reaching back to 1964. The title of this track takes its name from one of the most popular so-called 'ye-ye girls' of 1960's France. While the United States was engulfed in the 'British Invasion' of the early 60's, the youth of Europe was simultaneously engulfed in all things American. Film, fashion and music inspired the boom that is somewhat comparable to the modern street culture of Japan, although significantly less over the top.

Out of this period came a musical explosion based on pure whimsical campiness and naive sexiness, called 'ye-ye'. Along with Bridgette Bardot and Francoise Hardy, France Gall was one of the biggest stars of the 60's in Europe. And in 1964, legendary poet/songwriter/actor/singer/sex addict Serge Gainsbourg wrote the song 'Laisse Tomber Les Filles' for her. Ca$hmere's updated take on the track is pretty damn good, and if I didn't already know it was written in 1964, I wouldn't think twice to hear it nuzzled in between a couple of those Fahrench Ehlectro songs at your neighborhood Ehlectro Partay. 

I've also included an English remake of the song by April March. This version of the track was the first one I heard, thanks to a good friend of mine who was awesome enough to include it on a cd for me. "Chick Habit" recorded in 1995, is somewhat of a more bangin' version of the original. It has new lyrics written by April and for all its over the top comic effect her lyrics are surprisingly true to Gainsbourg's original French version. 

maintenant la partie comme elle est 1964!