Laetitia Sadier live

Since I missed the Daniel Johnston gig in order to look after P., it was my turn to go out and enjoy an evening of music! This happened last night at Le Confort Moderne. Every year in Spring, the venue organises a kind of small festival with a couple of music (mostly experimental or noise) and art performers. Yesterday, Laetitia Sadier was scheduled, to my great pleasure. I’ve been a longtime Stereolab fan and following her releases with Monade and her excellent solo album from last year (The Trip).
Laetitia was playing early and her performance was set in the garden at the back of the venue. Luckily the weather was sunny, and the whole setting was quite pastoral and enjoyable, with children running around and climbing higher and higher in the big tree behing the stage as she was playing. She was alone on stage with just her guitar and an effect pedal she used very sparsely. Her set opened with an old Stereolab song, International Colouring Contest. She played a couple of new, unreleased songs from her forthcoming album Silencio, due out in July. One new song was about fire and another one about mathematics, which is going to please F. as it is his discipline of choice. She also played Monade songs The Swim and Wash and Dance, and Statues Can Bend and Ceci Est Le Coeur from The Trip. Even if I sometimes heard the keyboards and metronomic beats in my head, her voice is so great that the tunes sounded very good in a bare version like this. As usual in Poitiers, I am surprised with how few people have heard of ‘underground superstars’ like her, but hey, this is a small town in France, and at least the people were curious enough to come and listen. After her set, I congratulated her for her performance and we talked for a couple of minutes. It felt incredibly easy to be able to talk to one of my heroes in my mother tongue for once, especially as she is a very friendly person. I’m looking forward to the new album and possibly another concert here before long.

Record of the day: Lotus Plaza – Spooky Action at a Distance

Made in France

I’m not going to write about our ongoing presidential elections (besides saying I am appalled by the high score reached by the National Front). This post is about manufactured goods that are made in France. Lately I have been more careful about how and where the goods I buy are made. Most brands have their products made in asian countries where the labour is cheap but not always fair. If I can buy quality products that were made by workers with decent pay and work conditions, I like it better. If the goods require less transport and therefore less pollution to reach me, and if it helps supporting our economy, that’s even better. Fewer and fewer french enterprises produce locally though. It can be a challenge to find nice items at reasonable prices. Here is a selection of french goods:

Clairefontaine is a well-known brand of school stationery. Their Zap Book range of recycled notebooks looks quite cool.

I was writing about the australian cosmetics Aesop. Sanoflore‘s products may not have the same cool packaging, but their cosmetics share the same heavenly vegetal smells and efficiency, plus they are organic and ethical.

How lovely are the clothes from Bérangère Claire and Bleu De Paname? They are a bit expensive, but they took up where APC left things some years ago when production moved in Asia (without lowering their prices!). These are tailored in France and most fabrics are local too. Love, love, love! The problem encountered with small production like this is they sometimes only make a couple of sizes. Oh well, if I’m too big/tall for them I’m less tempted to splurge!

Cocotte Métal design and produce metal furniture.

Le Slip français make underwear for men. According to the website, a range of underwear for women will soon be available. I am curious to see what it is going to look like.

Stéphane Gontard makes shoes. I don’t like every model, but the mens sneakers are really beautiful and affordable.

Empreinte also make shoes, I love this mens model made of french leather and recycled rubber.

See also: clothes by Balibaris, bags by Bleu de Chauffe and Jojo Messenger, shoes by La Botte gardiane, breton stripes by Armor-Lux

Record of the day: Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

What did you get for Record Store Day?

Yesterday was Record Store Day, a good opportunity to support your local record shop and get collectible records made available for the occasion. Poitiers is a small town but there are still a couple of decent record shops. Here is my booty: Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains/Slow Club split 7″ (Domino) and Graham Coxon What’ll It Take 7″ (Parlophone).
The Coxon songs are taken from his new album A+E whereas Frànçois and Slow Club cover songs by one another.

Record of the day: Pale Lights – EP

Australian Spring

It’s actually Autumn in Australia, and the weather here in France is quite autumnal too. I have coincidentally been into a variety of things from Australia.

I already mentioned them, but I’m still on a Lucksmiths kick, digging deeper into their consistent discography, at the crossroads of Belle & Sebastian, The Go-Betweens and The Smiths. If you’ve never listened to them, Camera Shy is a fairly representative song.

There is also a new album by Allo Darlin’, whose singer Elizabeth Morris is australian. First single Capricornia is about her Queensland hometown and sounds fantastic – watch the video here.
I’ve also just watched Animal Kingdom which is a crime story set in Melbourne. A bit disturbing, but quite good.

On a lighter note, I’ve discovered through samples the australian brand of cosmetics Aesop. Expensive stuff, but lovely natural scents and beautiful visuals. I offered a friend the Jet Set kit for her birthday and she was delighted.

Record of the day: Spiritualized – Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Hi, how are you?

Daniel Johnston was in town on Monday. I missed the gig because, unlike for Frànçois the other night, this one was scheduled early (6PM), making it difficult to leave P.’s dinner, bath and bedtime to a babysitter. Daniel probably can’t stay up too late. But F. got me a nice consolation prize with this ace tote bag which will add up to my collection. There are video clips of the show here and here.

I have received the Lightships album (Electric Cables) a couple of days ago, and it’s a really georgous warm and free-flowing record.

I have been reading good novels, including Howards End by E.M. Forster, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, Caribou Island by David Vann, and some youth fiction as I’m returning to work in 2 months…

Here is a pack of Petit Bateau onesies I got for P. to wear in the Summer, and with the loyalty card points we got these coincidentally matching notebooks. I love the look of them! They also issued a range with the band Herman Dune. I don’t know what to think when bands get involved with brands, but I quite like this t-shirt, and there are onesies too.

Also, I have been busy making drawings! I will let you know more about that in due time.

Record of the day: Lightships – Electric Cables

How to dress well?

Hello people. I haven’t been posting lately, but I’m writing to say nothing bad happened to me, in case anyone wondered. Just the opposite, in fact, I’m doing great! It’s just I really have a love/hate relationship with the internet. I’ve been busy taking care of P. but also enjoying my spare time with activities more satisfactory to me than blogging. I love following blogs with a lot of content and input instead of reposts of things seen or heard everywhere else. That is why I don’t want my blog to be a hollow place.

But I’m going to be hollow anyway tonight because I’m writing about clothes. Until a couple of years ago, I didn’t pay much attention to clothes. I knew what I didn’t like, and wore what I could find that seemed ok and vaguely related to the music I liked. I seldom felt great in my clothes. I’ve always thought there were more important things in life. But I am not a very self-confident person, and I found that wearing my favourite outfits helps me feeling more comfortable. I’m not saying I dress well now, but I sure dress better than I used to (ok, except when I’m hanging at home with P. eating his first vegetable purées!). I admire people with the innate quality of dressing great without thinking about it. It’s not the case for me but here is what helped me:

1) Accumulating photos of items or outfits that appealed to me. Finding a couple of brands or bloggers pinpointing the style I like.

2) Realizing that everything I like does not always suit me. Only models looks great in anything. Learning which shapes and colours work for me and which don’t. Remembering my age. Forgetting without regret any item of clothes that has the wrong cut or colour for me – even though they look great on someone else.

3) Analyzing my wardrobe. Writting down outfits on paper, every combination that can be made. Eliminating the items that don’t go with anything. Noticing what I have too much of or if I lack anything. No more unconsidered purchases. Get the basics first, the simple, versatile pieces and then add a touch of quirk/femininity/colour when needed.

If someone has more tips that they found helpful, please let me know!

Record of the day: Placebo – Placebo (I don’t like the other albums and hadn’t listened to it for years – wow!)

More slices of vinyl

I forgot to include one photo in my previous post, so I thought I might as well snap another batch.

Been listening to pretty 7″s

Hood – The Lost You (Domino)
Best Coast – The Sun Was High (So Was I) (Art Fag)
The Lilys – Which Studies the Past? (Ché/Sub Pop)
Flin Flon – Swift Current (Teenbeat)
The Members – The Sound of the Suburbs (Virgin)
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Hide & Seek (Candy Floss)
Pavement – Father to a Sister of Thought (Matador)
My Life Story – Sparkle (Parlophone)
Ivy – Don’t Believe a Word (Seed)
Novak – Boy Scouts of America (Kitty Kitty)
Frànçois/Ray Rumours – Forest Songs (Stitch Stitch)
Plone – Press a Key (Wurlitzer Jukebox)
Kicker/The Butterflies of Love/Comet Gain/Airport Girl – More Soul Than Wigan Casino (Fortuna Pop!)
Stereolab/The Cat’s Miaow – split (Wurlitzer Jukebox)
Vera November – Red Dream (Too Pure)
International Airport & Teenage Fanclub – Association (Geographic)
Hofman – Ladies on the Way (Vibrations From the Edge of Sanity)
Cornershop – 6 A.M. Jullandar Shere (Wiiija)
Urusei Yatsura – Siamese (Ché)
Melody Dog – Cassie (Seminal Twang)
Les Calamités – Vélomoteur (Polydor)
Thee Headcoats – She’s in Disguise (Birdman)
The Wendy Darlings – Not a Match Made in Heaven (Marineville)
Anorak Girl – Plastic Supermodel (Damaged Goods)

Record of the day: Blur – 13

Arthur’s drawings

Check out my little cousin’s drawings here. Arthur is 15 and he has been invited to the famous comics festival of Angoulême thanks to winning a young talent award. I can’t wait to see more of his drawings, I think he’s very promising.

Record of the day: Camille – Ilo Veyou

Listening to music with Baby around

Having a baby at home has changed my habits when it comes to listening music. Now way I would stick to lullabies, but I can’t listen to anything at any time. I’m not sure P. would be into say, Fugazi or The Stooges for now.
My record collection now sort of falls itself into several categories:
- the music I can put on with P. around, when I’m feeding him or when he’s playing (poppy or folksy stuff, gentle sounds)
- what I prefer listening to with headphones on while he’s alseep for fear it’s a bit too much for him to take (more complicated, psychedelic or moody things),
- the music I can listen to loudly when I’m alone in the car or in the bathroom (less ‘sophisticated’).
Of course I will want to expose P. to varied sounds, but gradually is probably be better.
Not having the time to listen to a lot, I have become extremely careful of what I pick to make the most of my listening time. It means a more focused approach on music. Less time for second raters. Not listening as much to bits and bobs /people’s suggestions on the computer as I used to. It does not mean I won’t try anything new, but not too much at once. Resisting the siren call of Spotify. Choosing which albums I ‘accept as friends’ in my little circle. Also, finding the perfect album for the perfect moment is something I’m really after, and it’s very satisfying.

Rollerskate Skinny – Horsedrawn Wishes (through headphones!)