Two Words, One Answer.
Fringants
 La Grand Messe $30.99 As an American living in Quebec for the past four years, I've developed a taste for the sublime artistry of Quebecois music, film, and television. Les Cowboys Fringants are probably the best discovery I've made while here. Les Cowboys Fringants is an extremely popular band in Quebec and apparently has an underground following in Francophone Europe, but like most talented Quebecois artists, they are virtually unknown outside of the Francophone music world. It's a shame since Quebec has many artists, like Les Cowboys Fringants, who have sublime talent and who could potentially revolutionalize the bland popular music scene in the States right now. "La Grand Messe" ("The Big Mass") is their latest album, and it's been one of the top 10 sellers in Quebec since its release in October 2005. What makes their style of music so unique is difficult for an American to describe... it's called neo-traditional Quebecois music which is basically "modernized Quebec folk music with a rock flavour" (thanks, Wikipedia). Quebec folk music can best be described as Amelie soundtrack meets deep-South country music meets fiddling from Ireland and Scotland; certainly fiddles, accordions, and a variety of instruments including the standard rock drums/guitars/keyboards make up their sound. Basically, it has a unique sound that draws on some of the prettiest traditional music styles and makes great use of beautiful string instruments and reworks the overall sound into something unique, modern, and fresh; a sound that is warm, comfortable, yet intriguing. As I listen I feel like I should be sitting in a cafe in the middle of a small Quebecois town somewhere, having a stack of pancakes and some beer surrounded by people chattering away in French. When I'm away from Montreal back in the States, I find myself listening to this CD just to feel like I'm back in Quebec. Les Cowboys Fringants sing with a distinct Quebec accent and make use of Joual (Quebecois patois) words and phrases, so even the singing has a unique sound. The lyrics themselves, I assure you, are just as smart as the music. "Les Cowboys Fringants" are well known for using political themes in their music, yet in a way that is friendly rather than accusatory or angry. They are very leftist and constantly touch upon issues of Quebec separatism, socialism, the environment, the international political climate, etc. These opinions tend to reflect some of the more popular or poignant ideological currents in Quebec society; some of these themes have gradually faded or gone out of style in mainstream Quebec but are making a slight resurgence amongst new generations. This CD is highly recommended for anyone who loves a little something different. Each sound has a slightly different flavour; some you'd swear you were listening to very traditional country music, others are very rock-n-roll, others are sweet and flowery, others sound like they could almost be Sufjan Stevens-meets-Amelie sountrack, and all are completely unique and impossible to properly describe to anyone who hasn't listened to it yet. Since they are a popular and uniquely Quebecois band, this is a CD definitely worth adding to a collection of international or Francophone music. I'd also highly recommend this CD to any French teacher; any French classroom should have some Quebec music, too! This is also the CD for anyone who spent some time in Quebec or vacationed in Montreal (as there are tons of references to places in Quebec and Montreal in this CD... it will bring back happy memories of your summer in Quebec!) Most of all... I'd recommend anyone who is generally discouraged with the music coming out of the States these days and has resigned themselves to looking elsewhere for their music collection. If you're one of those folks: look no further than Quebec!  Attache Ta Tuque $33.98 This group from Quebec is a melange of styles, but certainly have a country and folk element as well as traditional quebecois--which is country and folk after all. The two CD set also comes with a DVD with several music videos and quite a bit of footage from the concert as well as a documentry. The latter is all in very accented Quebec French and, though I speak French, I found it hard to follow--but certainly got the gist of what they said. Their Quebec accented French is "savoreux" if a little hard to understand. One drawback is that the words are not included. There are Internet sources where most of their lyrics can be found. I love it. Toune d'automne is wonderful haunting song and is on the DVD as well as the CD. Their musicianship is terrific. Judging by the way the crowd sang along they have a real following in La Belle Province. If you like tradition mixed with contemporary and a mixture of styles, then you will enjoy Les Cowboys Fringants. |
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