like a deer in the headlights 7"
[2009, born bad]

not to take anything away from canada or the united kingdom (or to be a nationalist), but in my opinion, france has the most interesting garage rock scene outside of these united states. i make that claim not solely based on the quality of the bands, but more because of the stylistic variety found there. naturally, all of your standard fare is present; bluesy garage (king custer, thundercrack, the weakends, king automatic, the feeling of love), noisy lo-fi (les hulks, subtle turnhips, tunnel of love, fatals, creteens, kung-fu escalator), 60s pandering (the splash four, cécilia et ses ennuis, the yolks, crusaders of love), (more) straight-forward garage rock (jack of heart, steve & the jerks, shake shake bolino, the normals, anteenagers m.c., the magnetix, sonic chicken 4) as well as new wave and punk-inspired (operation s, the no-talents, t.v. killers). oh yeah, surf rock's covered too, well... you get the idea. now, where the schism comes in is with the increasing use of inorganic instrumentation (drum machines, synthesizers) which distances bands like crash normal, volt, crack und ultra eczema, frustration, lili z., the feeling of love, cheveu as well as newer bands like the liminanas and pierre & bastien from their peers. even within this particular idiom there are deviations as the music ranges from dark, abstract, experimental to catchy and fun.

the parisian trio of cheveu (david lemoîne, etienne nicolas (who also puts in extra work in shake shake bolino and bosom divine) and olivier demeaux) seemed to take their cues from the earlier paradigm created by crash normal (rather appropriately, olivier is in an experimental electronic duo, accident du travail, with julie pierrejean of that group). while they certainly didn't start the electro-garage trend they have wound up taking it to a more logical extreme than their predecessors did, mostly by de-emphasizing the rock (or rawk) and crafting something more lulling and spatial. mind you, their first album was really uptempo, but i don't know what happened in the one year since then, as the group has taken quite a great leap forward in terms of trying out new things. the results have been marvelous, so far. this seven inch was issued several months prior to their second album and actually manages to split the difference between their two albums fairly nicely. it also has one of 2009's best songs on it.

side a's titular track gets off to an immediately wonderful start with a superb guitar melody, which ends with a twinkling cascade of chords, before picking back up again. lemoîne follows that by echoing that melody with his gruff chorus, "like a deer in the headlights, i like to watch the sun rise". it turns out to be a deceptive bit of lyricism. immediately following the chorus things take a turn towards the darker. the guitar is low, distorted and dirty (eschewing the melody), sawing away in the background. the cymbal heavy percussion kicks up the speed, considerably, as david goes into spoken word raving about.. god knows what. something about fighting and bloodbaths. once that's over cheveu will revert to the melodious chorus before getting back in it.. led by david's repeated issuing of "status quo is forever burning flesh". i have no fucking clue as to what lyrical insight is to be gained from this song, but who cares. it sounds amazing. following that second verse the song will change once more, to a slowed down groove with a little bit of keyboards before finally transforming into an ominous dirge, driven by staccato snare hits and eerie ambiance. for being all of three minutes long, it's damn ambitious, while also being the band's most immediate effort.
the record's other track, (the french sung) c'est ça l'amour, takes things in a decidedly opposite direction. it's quite darker, and lacks the killer melody that its counterpart had, but doesn't disappoint at all. it may just take repeated listens to ultimately appreciate how good it is. it starts off with simplistic guitar chords which quickly see-saw back and forth (set to droning synth waves in the background). shortly after the plainly spoken vocals enter, we're treated to a brilliant second layer of guitar, which i could listen to forever, but the most dominant aspect of the song belongs to olivier and his drum machine. the beats are akin to pistons pumping and go from a slow cadence to a machine-gun-like vigor, slowing up and speeding up seemingly at random. obvious rhythmic properties aside, the continual shifting of it (as well as stops and starts), in combination with the spoken word vocals, threatens to throw the track off-kilter, but never does. the guitars do a remarkable job of keeping everything grounded, even as another layer of droning organ is added later on. there's a ton to absorb with this and it's even shorter than like a deer in the headlights, at two minutes. it's impressive that despite everything that went into c'est ça l'amour, it never seemed hurried, given such a short time frame.

if, somehow, this 7" eluded you last year, do yourself a huge favor and get it. if this band has eluded you so far, i'd recommend fixing that, too. starting with their first album would be the best way to go.

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clara venus (from cheveu (2008))