Showing posts with label G.P.S.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label G.P.S.. Show all posts

Friday, November 20, 2009

G.P.S. - Panique Sur la Plage


France's Garage Psychiatrique Suburbain (more here) never topped this slightly twinkie but still utterly rollicking barrage of melodic hooks and underwatery keyboards.

G.P.S. - Panique Sur La Plage
(1985)

Respect must be paid to the heroic ModPunkArchives for championing the by now unfortunately-initialed G.P.S. on their pages.
By the way, singer Thiery Hazard later gained pop celebrity in France for an intermitenly pleasant eighties take on late-sixties psych-pop, as heard (and seen) in songs like the toe-tapping Poupee Psychedelic and the Robert Palmer-esque Le Jerk. Hey, it could be Mitsou!



Panique Sur la Plage 7"



Here's a MySpace page but I believe their sole CD is out-of-print.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

G.P.S. - Quand Revient L'ete


Garage Psychiatrique Suburbain killed some, if not all, prejudices about French rock n' roll. For an early-eighties pop-savvy band, recall this was the era of Simple Minds, they rocked just fine. You can hear the guitars, the keyboards sound like a pub-rock holdover and the song is irresistibly catchy no matter what your mother tongue. It was ancienne and moderne all at once sorta like if the Go-Go's had been French (and guys). Of course, as befits the the French, there was touch of ironic distance, as if this was the musical equivalent of Euro Disneyland.


(What French lesbians and caged tigers have to do with this I can't say.)

This single from 1982, was a bit behind the times, with its surf-punk/new wave sound that fit somehwere between Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi" and The Barracudas "Summer Fun". So while the video is hilarious (sometime intentionally so) the band here, and on the more straight-up punk "Samedi Soir", acquit themselves of all charges of being cheese-eating surrender monkeys.


Quand Revient L'ete 7"

Here's a MySpace page but I believe their sole CD is out-of-print.