Malajube - Trompe l'oeil

When I was in Notre Dame-du Lac, Quebec with a broken down van and a group of frustrated people, I purchased a number of Quebec exclusive "big beers" and along with my band mates proceeded to drink until I didn't care about our predicament anymore. What followed was a night of billiards, poutine, and at some point, my first actual exposure to the television channel Musique Plus (I may have watched it once, briefly, while on a high school trip to Quebec City, but I was probably too busy looking at french girls' bums to pay attention). At one point, when the seven of us were crammed in our hotel room, this video came on :

It was nice and unexpected to see a video that not only in itself was visually interesting, but the song was extremely well written, catchy and poppy with enough noise and odd parts to catch the ear of anyone who was looking for more. I guess I was just used to the onslaught of garbage transmitted by Musique Plus' english counterpart. We have long stopped being able to get anything decent broadcast into our living rooms during the regular hours of the night. We promptly bough their album while in Montreal and listened to it approximately thirteen times before we arrived back to Halifax.

What Malajube proved with the success of this album is that great songs will always transcend language barriers as long as everything else is done properly. To be honest, I never used to put much stock into French music (and I'm French), but this album instantly struck a chord with me, the intention of the songs comes across even if you don't understand what he is saying. Growing up I had heard a lot of french music, but it was all mostly about girls and fishing. I had never really been exposed to much coming out of Quebec and France other than Celine Dion and Daft Punk, and really, for a French record to have much chance of success internationally is fairly slim, both Celine and Daft Punk sing in english. Thankfully, people are starting to acually listen to music now, and bands like Sigur Ros and Laakso are doing fairly well all over the world.

The drums on this album can only be described as fat. They sound thick and precise with a very room-y and huge presence, like a Flaming Lips record. Francis Mineau does a great job of playing off melodies and vocal lines but keeping everything rooted with the bass. He plays with a real sense of urgency and power, it feels like he's hitting really hard even in the quiet parts. Songs like Pate Filo and Montreal -40 keep a nice steady rock beat with lots of huge cymbals and some rave ups, while songs like La Crabe and Fille a Plume have loud and deep tom rolls and lots of strict timekeeping.

If I had any money at all to bring a band to the East Coast, it would definitely be these guys. It would give me a chance to just sit on the side of the stage and watch Francis play*. I could also get them to bring me some big beers and some poutine on their way.

*I once had the chance to see Malajube in Hyacinthe, Quebec, while on my way home from a tour. I had even contacted them, told them I was on the road and really wanted to see them but I had no money and they put all of us on the guest list, along with their cell phone number in case anything went wrong, which was super cool. Alas the day came and we were so exhausted from the previous two weeks that we drove straight home to our beds. It was definitely the right thing to do, but I haven't had the chance to see them live since, and every time I think about it, I piss myself off.