The Skunkeye Consumer Guide

Happy Holidays!

Wanted to wish everyone the best for the holdays and the New Year! I've been down with the flu but I'm off to the Beach House so it isn't all that bad!  See you in in 2006!

The Passion of Saint Jane

Description: blue eyes

Hair: Chestnut

Jane B., Female Englishwoman

Age Between twenty and twenty-one.

A very happy belated 60th birthday to Jane Birkin – my childhood crush - accomplished singer, actress, and eponymous once again due to a rekindling of Hermès handbag fame. I’m still on that same pony (see previous post) and Filles Sourires and Spiked Candy are course ahead of the game and have posted thoughtful tributes and mp3s.

By all means, find and see Gabrielle Crawford’s excellent documentary, Jane Birkin – Mother of All Babes, which is a nice career survey, and also highlights her spirited and dedicated humanitarian work – Jane Birkin did deservedly earn a Legion d'Honneur recently - I posted about it some time back here. UK-born and longtime France resident, Birkin has turned out to be quite the tireless international ambassador – she acknowledged beautifully the global musical influence of her partner Serge Gainsbourg with the North African inflected Arasbesque a few years back and is very active with various relief and educational organizations. Some may cry “colonialism,” but, regardless, Gainsbourg’s music is a huge part of the fabric of the cultural heritage of several generations and regions – including mine – and Birkin is the much beloved keeper of the Gainsbourg flame!

Word is:

"Jane Birkin is recording her upcoming album. Works are sung to a great extent in English. Amongst the artist who will have written for her new album are Rufus Wainwright, Beth Gibbons, Jamie Cullum, Gonzales, Andy Partridge, Ed Harcourt, Neil Hannon, The Magic Numbers. Official release is planned for early 2006. "

Actually, sounds a bit frightening! I kinda wasn't extactly into the last album of duets - despite promising Caetano Veloso, Feist, etc. particpation - see my take here.

Still ....

My Melody Nelson Lovely little bitch You are the Essence Of my senses.

… I’m decidedly old school… Anyways, here’s to one of my first and great loves - Jane B. - on the occasion of her bonne anniversaire and in whose sacred honor I’m posting mp3s on Skunkeye for the first time.

Popping the proverbial cherry - an experiment which might fail miserably…. I’m just a Babe alone in Babylon - so here we go - lemme now if the links don't work - I'm clumsy and new to this! These are kind of obvious Jane Birkin tracks, but essential nonetheless. Télécharger ici!:

Download jane_birkin_jane_b.zip

Download La Decadanse

Crap. I can't figure out how to effectively post mp3s to Typepad - any suggestions are much appreciated!

Ummm...just in case - "le disclaimer:"

MP3s sont signalés ici de temps en temps et sont pour des buts éducatifs et promotionnels seulement. Si vous voyez un MP3 ici que vous voudriez enlevé, faites-nous savoir immédiatement et nous prendrons soin de lui.

So I hit jackpot yesterday when I scored at discount a copy of Les Reed's soundtrack to Girl on a Motorcycle, the 1968 mod classic starring my idol Alain Delon and Marianne Faithfull (who oddly does not contribute vocals). Trippy road-movie beat rock... Brilliant! Early Marielle Mathieu....  Priceless!

I also caught on TCM, by chance, Vincent Minelli’s lurid Technicolor masterpiece, Two Weeks in Another Town, set in 1962 Rome and the studios of Cinecittà – a bizarre tour-de-force of the international cinematic melting pot – or Trevi fountain - that was in vogue at the time (and especially “meta” since it takes place ten years after the schlocker-artiste director’s trashy industry melodrama The Bad and Beautiful and even incorporates scenes from the Lana Turner vehicle in flashback) and starring Kirk Douglas at his peak, Cyd Charrise as the ultimate femme-fatale, Edward G. Robinson as an Orson Welles-type figure…. and a “ravishing, raven-haired ingénue” named Daliah Lavi, who has since vanished into obscurity. A cursory search reveals that the Israeli actress pursued a singing career back in Europe with “little fanfare”. Hmmm, I wonder if my internet copains can dig up more on this particular “foreign import”…

Please allow me to introduce you to my Secret History, un petit l’histoire de Skunkeye, so to speak:

The son of diplomats, I spent my childhood in Paris and Japan, where popular media – the radio, television – were still steeped in the seventies and the sixties. So my early days were spent blessing out to Gainsbourg, Birkin, Jacques Dutronc, and Francoise Hardy in the back seat of our broken-down Peugeot Citroën during our constant roadtrips throughout Europe; the green-bound Michelin guides were my first Bible and the tire-man was my Jesus. Although I can’t stand her voice right now, Chantal Goya was one of my premiere crushes! (She was well into her children’s music phase so it is understandable in retrospect.) And I have fond memories of French pop variety shows and Eurovision contests on our black and white television – I think we got three channels then. Oh, and add to that a healthy stream of Astrid Gilberto, Stan Getz, bossa nova, and Tropicalia on vinyl from my parents' first post in Latin America in the late sixties well before I was born.  So I was carefully taught, or experienced la Mala Educación, depending on the perspective...

When we moved back to Japan (I was actually born there), the broadcast media was also steeped in similar sensibilities – most of the Western programming consisted of vintage UK series like the Avengers, Gerry Anderson’s Captain Scarlet and the Thunderbirds, and films from the golden days of Cinecittà, cross-European-US all-star trashy extravaganzas, obscure Mod period pieces, and Nouvelle Vague classics. They even played Sylvie Varatn, Johnny Halliday, and the Nolans regularly on the radio. (And then God created Kahimi Karie!) I also enjoyed the vintage anime series which, in retrospect, demonstrate the unique cultural and artistic cross-pollination existing between France and Japan since the 1850’s – Candy Candy, Rose of Versailles come to mind, but I rather more enjoyed Speed Racer (Monte Carlo!) and Kimba, The White Lion (bastardized by Disney) and the Osamu Tezuka classics. (It is a shame I gave away all of my childhood manga years ago!)

Obviously, with many other fascinations, to say that I’m a fetishist for a certain mode in my adult life might be a bit extreme – I was, however, brought up partly by incredibly exciting Scandinavian au pairs who had groovy taste in music - but I have a devoted a considerable amount of time, energy and money collecting rare finds in this elusive genre. I have a kick-ass Yé-Yé collection now, the Gainsbourg oevre, an embarrassing treasure trove of obscure sixties and seventies film soundtracks, and even branched out to seeking out Québécois vinyl of a certain era – obsessions which my current budget cannot handle right now, as I face graduate school and growing up a bit and being generally responsible and a realist.

Which is why I’m SO grateful for discovering a kind of “famille” of mp3 blogs recently – these yeomen bloggers are doing the collecting work for me and I have indulged in their sites considerably. (In fact, if I haven’t been posting much, it is because I’ve been spending all my computer “playtime” downloading music. I know I’m late to the party – now that I finally have proper equipment at home I can join the fun – and there’s a whole world of excellent mp3 blogs out there!) Today I’d like to give props and steer folks to a couple of really fantastic sites, ones that embody the aforementioned sensibilities and are well worth exploring and are fantatsic resources.

First and foremost is Quite Quite Fantastic. Although the site’s creator has the enviably given name of Roar, I imagine his voice to be quite mellifluous, given the smooth and well-crafted intros he gives each of his brilliantly and tastefully curated playlists. Somebody give this talent a radio gig – to me, he is the John Peel of the genre. Roar “packages” each of his entries beautifully – with well-designed and groovy professional quality CD pdf artwork; his thoughtfulness and energy have provided his fans with an enjoyable body of work over the few months. Quite Quite Recommended.

Schlocker is the ultimate destination for the rare retrobabe sound. Although site author Bruno has expressed fatigue we need to encourage him to continue – this site is an incredible resource and a real labour of love! Recent posts have included fantastic tracks from Bonny St. Clair, Andrea Parisy, and Cettina – try to find those elsewhere -as well as some video files of Birkin and Bardot which I swear I remember from childhood - and its unlikely one would find these gems otherwise. Merci, Monsieur Schlocker!

Amsterdam native Guuzbourg, gracious host of Filles Sourires, is a master at bridging the lineage of European female pop and chanson from the sixties through the seventies and eighties to its present day manifestations – there is indeed a tangible thread there – and many popular French artistes are acknowledging this to successful effect – perhaps Keren Ann and Carla Bruni would be most familiar to American listeners. Essential!

Drugburn has a thing for Jacques Dutronc and who wouldn’t? Lately the SF-based sultan of cool has been posting some amazing Scopitones (precursor to music videos, dig?) in addition to some fantastic vintage tracks, but the highlight is checking out his spirited outfit, the Seahorse Liberation Army, for contemporary mod-ified tunes that will blow you away. The image of Patty "Tania" Hearst in the International Herald Tribune- armed and dangerous and hot - was a defining moment in the history of my childhood crushes.

Speaking of which, Mod-ified Music is where the shin-dig is happening! As I write this, I’m enjoying the latest podcast –Les Lionceaux, Bernadette Castro, Carole Robert, - who, who, who… qui? Find out! – and hear Cher before she sucked…. covering the Byrds no less. Who could ask for more? Moi non plus… Fab spot.

I just think Hanakodo Music Lounge is just darling… I get all natsu-kashii for blissful days as a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy roaming about Tokyo with careless abandon, through Shinjuku, Harajuku, Roppongi, and Kiddyland. In addition to lovely period pieces from the likes of Nico and Vashti Bunyan and some brilliantly obscure finds, we also find the themes to some of my favorite anime series of a more innocent era. You know, Japanese tastemakers rediscovered chanteuse Claudine Longet and re-released her catalogue. And bizarrely etched into my early chilhood memory was the day she murdered Vladimir "Spider" Sabich! Que International Escandolosa!

Spiked Candy rocks – I’m like a kid in the sweet shop with these sites! “7 Heures Du Matin” is an essential track for devotees of the genre, and it beat-checks The Who’s “ My Generation”… fab. And Spike Candy has one-upped everyone by securing a guest-post from the maitresse du swinging mademoiselles herself, the immortal Jacqueline Taieb. Check out Spiked Candy Radio on Last FM!

And then there’s Blowup Doll, whom I suspect may be the granddaddy of these children of the revolution. Auteur Mordi’s tagline is “you’re just jealous because you can’t be me,” and I couldn’t agree more because I wish I had the collection he so generously shares with us. Quite frightening - I actually remember the Eurofantrashtic Stephanie du Monaco track recently posted – I was reading Paris Match at a dangerously early age indeed!  A few years ago, I did get to party with her older brother, the heir -   is he King yet?  Whatever, it was boring....

There are myriad other mp3 blogs I would like to share with you. But for now, I’m going to try stay on topic (a bit of a challenge for ADD me!).

I would like to spotlight, however, the beautiful site Songs to the Sirens Hostess Delphine - there are other contributors as well - is a tireless champion of thoughtful, more meditative music – and, through her banner alone, is reflective of the uniquely European gift of appreciating unique and soulful music; Jeff Buckley was huge in France long before his untimely death and America discovered him. It’s funny, Europeans seem to appreciate and celebrate our more esoteric and gifted performers – the High Priestess of Soul Nina Simone comes immediately to mind – decades before the music becomes in vogue here in the United States. Also, I indebted to Delphine because she got me up do date on a little-known band, Jacques, whose Momus-produced debut was the essential soundtrack to a certain bittersweet period of my life in NYC, when I was entrenched in Brel and Leonard Cohen and Scott Walker. So Delphine is my babe now!

Anyways, check out all these sites toute suite because files are up for the proverbial “limited time only”!

Again here are the link and start telechargere-ing NOW!:

Quite Quite Fantastic

Schlocker

Filles Sourires

Drugburn

Mod-ified Music

Hanakodo Music Lounge

Spiked Candy

Blow-Up Doll

and

Songs to the Sirens