CHEVEU
Paris, Île-de-France, France | INDIE
Music
Press
I'm basing the following assertion more on a feeling than actual research, but I think it's safe to say Cheveu's 1000 will be the highest-rated album on Pitchfork to feature a Vanilla Ice song, never mind the Vanilla Ice song. Until vocalist David Lemoine starts spitting out the lyrics, though, Cheveu's version sounds more like a Pee-Wee's Playhouse outtake than a faux-ghetto "Under Pressure". He doesn't fight the beat so much as belly-flop on top of it, his nasal vocals doing their damnedest not to sync up with the backing track's stiff and chintzy rhythm.
1000 is only the group's second proper album but this sort of odd musical digression seems to be a Cheveu staple. For their debut, the group took a simpering, sex-fixated Philip Seymour Hoffman monologue from Todd Solondz's Happiness and set it to grocery-shopping Muzak, with Lemoine offering a scarily accurate PSH impersonation. While Cheveu's music can be described as "odd" even at its most approachable, these tracks push the envelope further than required. That said, if this sort of taste-flaunting exhibition is necessary for Cheveu to produce the mind-boggling, post-everything music they're good at making, then it's a small price to pay.
In a genre where the word "angular" is used with alarming frequency, Cheveu's take on post-punk is obtuse in the best possible sense. When not setting fire to pop-rap or psychosexual film dialog, these frenetic Frenchmen take their sonic and spiritual cues from all sorts of musical pranksters: fellow countrymen and proto-industrial noiseniks Metal Urbain, British New Wave chuckleheads bIG fLAME and Family Fodder, and even good ol' American Captain Beefheart. Calling Cheveu eccentric only scratches their idiosyncratic surface. There's the eerily prophetic "Charlie Sheen", a track whose flip-flopping between loping synth tones and digital hardcore breakdowns mirrors the actor's current manic state. There's "Sensual Drug Abuse", a spoken-word/rap on the titular subject set over chiming hip-hop groove burbles. There's "Impossible Is Not French", in which an Iggy-Poppish Lemoine repeatedly sneers variations on the lyric, "French know how to do what you don't know what to do," through his usual pedal-distorted setup. Nothing from Cheveu sounds quite like anything else, but there's no mistaking who's making this noise.
And then there's the string section. While touring Israel in early 2010, Cheveu spent some studio time recording shockingly normal-sounding string arrangements with composer Maya Dunietz. If you're wondering how Cheveu feel about this surprising development, check out their 90-second Israel travelogue on YouTube. What's even more surprising is how well these cultured bits of music fit into Cheveu's distinctively uncultured songs. On 1000's lead-off track, "Quattro Stagioni", the strings add an air of stately elegance to the tune's spy-movie milieu. For "No Birds", their measured swooning provides a grounded counterpoint to the song's ramshackle textures. And on the Middle-Eastern-flavored "Bonne Nuit Cheri", they join forces with an economy-sized hallelujah chorus to provide a oddly stirring end to this beautiful mess of an album. I'd hesitate to say that 1000 is proof that Cheveu are "growing up," but if their songwriting chops can mature enough to make room for honest-to-goodness orchestration and equally honest emotion, there's no telling what sort of trouble they'll get themselves into.
- Pitchfork
Discography
* 1000 12' and cd, 2011. born bad records (paris), kill shaman records (los-angeles), handshake records (shanghai).
* CHEVEAU 12't, 2009. permanent records (chicago).
* LIKE A DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS 7', 2009. born bad (paris).
* SPLIT crash normal/cheveu. 7', 2008. rococo (chicago).
* CHEVEU . 12' and cd, 2008, born bad (paris) & s-s records (sacramento).
* SPLIT cheveu / tyvek. 7'. 2007, s-s records (sacramento).
* MY ANSWER IS YES ! 7'. 2007, rob’s house (atlanta).
* CLARA VENUS 7'. SDZ & royal records (paris). 2006.
* DOG 7'. s-s records (sacramento). 2006.
Photos
Bio
Cheveu is a three-piece band from Paris, born out of boredom during a hell of a hot summer in the mid-00's. Gathered around a cheap casio, a cheap guitar and a broken mic, their plan is to make some rock. And to make it LOUD.
After the band’s first 7'' record (« Dog ») was released on Sacramento,CA’s S-S Records, and having played only a few shows in France, they flew across the ocean for their first US tour. In the midst of the tour, they played the gonerfest in Memphis and shared the stage with Jay Reatard and Jack Oblivian, to name a few.
Three more US tours would follow. The french trio then played with Pink Reason, The Intelligence, Times New Vikings, Animal Collective, King Khan & BBQ and many
more...
They then toured in the US (2007) & in Europe (2009) with Tyvek, and in Europe with The Black Lips (2008). They shared the stage with the Slits at SXSW (2008) and played at the PS1 fest in 2009.
After releasing more 7' records on US and European labels (S-S, Rob's House, Permanent Records),.Cheveu released its first LP in 2008 on Born Bad Records/Pias in Europe & S-S records in the US.
Pitchfork, Cokeglow Machine, Dusted and numerous blogs gave the record stunning stellar reviews. Their post punk,noisy-pop sound and their use of drum-machines has
earned them comparisons to bands such as The Country Teasers and The Intelligence, though with a more psychedelic approach. Though kind of noisy and minimalist on their records, Cheveu « enhance » their sound on stage, dilatating and reinforcing their songs.
After playing big gigs in France (Rock en seine, Printemps de Bourges), they toured Israel in 2010. While there, they also recorded string arrangements for their upcoming album. Their new record, « 1000 » was released the of on January 27th, 2011 simultaneously on Born Bad Records in Europe, Kill Shaman/Revolver in the US & Handshake Records in China.
The record is best defined as Post-Punk meets Weirdo-Electro-Pop meets primitive Garage-Rock, or as the label has put it nicely: "Think SUICIDE meet RUN DMC meet VIVALDI"!
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