A huge number of live dates announced by Breton language punkers Les Ramoneuers de Menhirs.
The band have just begun a tour of Quebec and play fest noz dates and gigs over the summer, then go on to play dates in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands in August, and more dates towards the end of the year across France.
Les Ramoneuers de Menhirs not only take Breton language and the Celtic culture into the 21st century, they're active in raising awareness of political issues, from ecology to anarchism, antifascism to anti-nuclear, and put Breton culture into a wider global context of resistance.
The band's most recent album, Amzer an dispac'h - their second - was released in 2010.
Full details on their website: www.ramoneursdemenhirs.fr
A wonderful version of the song Je T'aime Tant by Dominique A from the Jacno Future tribute album, released recently to celebrate the legacy of the late Stinky Toys, Elli et Jacno and solo artist.
I've already featured the Elli at Jacno version of this song recently on the blog, and I've also mentioned the Jacno Future album, but this is such an outstanding version of the song that I thought it certainly deserved a mention in its own right.
One of the things I have enjoyed most about writing this blog is coming across music that I might never have heard that just amazes me, and this is certainly such a song.
Taking what was en electro song with a female vocalist and re-imagining it this way brings the focus right back to the strength of the song.
There is also a great version by Indochine, which although certainly with its charms is more of a regular rock song than this nicely understated and tasteful take on the song.
A great clip from a French punk bank from the late 70s. Stinky Toys were from Rennes, and were around from '76 to '79, and were one of the prime movers of the French punk scene.
Like a lot of French punk it doesn't seem to fit our preconceptions of the genre, it doesn't seem aggressive or particularly angry, and more stylish than street.
But the band were right there from the start playing in London at the punk festival at the 100 club in London in 1976, apparently coming across the channel without any instruments or equipment and borrowing their gear from other bands on the bill.
Those other bands included The Clash, Sex Pistols and the Damned and the Buzzcocks. A legendary event that set the agenda for popular music in the UK and abroad for decades.
The band had come into contact with Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren during his time in Paris, and its thought that Stinky Toys singer Elli inspired the punk movement adopting the safety pin as a fashion statement after she wore an outfit adorned with then.
Its strange how contemporary the music clip seems. Kate Moss would be a dead ringer for the singer Elli, while the band sound more like a 2010s indie band than a 70s punk act.
Stinky Toys managed to release two albums during their original career, a self-titled album later re-titled Plastic Faces came out in 1977, but a lack of critical support led to it facing apathy from the record company who did not release it outside France. A second album came out in 1979.
Elli and guitarist Jacno worked as a duo in the 80s after the end of Stinky Toys, both then having solo careers. Elli continues to release music and has a career as an actress, while Jaco died of cancer in 2009.
It's a great clip of the band in their prime, and while the dancing seems to be a little bit less choreographed than we expect these days, I suspect it might be more down to avoiding a wardrobe malfunction than anything else.
I've featured Métal Urbain before, but I make no excuse for featuring them again as they really merit greater recognition outside France.
They were a genuinely innovative bunch, subverting even the conventions of the apparently subversive punk genre.
Synths were in the 70s tended to be the reserve of the well-heeled progressive, while many punk bands limited their musical horizons by sticking to a formula that ruled out innovation and experimentation as indulgence.
Métal Urbain saw the possibilities offered by the likes of drum machines and the opportunity to make something that was genuinely new rather than simply covering old ground.
Perhaps that's why their music still sounds fresh, while many of their contemporaries quickly lapsed into reheating a rock 'n' roll template that was establilshed decades before.
To the modern audience it is a reminder that Electro has its roots in Suicide as much as Depeche Mode.
This track initially appeared on the bands 1980 debut album Les Hommes Morts sont Dangereux. The band had only released singles up to that point, the album collecting them and adding Peel session recordings of other songs. This version came from the 2008 Crève Salope mini album, which featured re-recordings of early songs by the band.
