A Little Bit Francer Now

Je Suis France “Fantastic Area” – You’ve gotta love a band that not only calls itself and its album title out in its songs (bringing the rap sensibility into indie rock), but creates an entire mythology for itself. No one can accuse the France of not having a sense of humor, but they’re emphatically not a joke band. You could compare them to Ween that way, in that it’s easy to see the party, but harder to see the craft. But there’s clearly craft going on, with nice, riffy guitars and a good drumbeat behind ’em. It might take 30 seconds to get going, but it kicks the album off God in Three Persons or Flood style with a metabang.

Je Suis France “California Rules” – Another song off the same album, with a great guitar hook that sucks you in and a lot of “come on, come on”s. It would be hard to drive down the coast without playing this song. Or not even the coast. You could be driving down any backroads Georgia highway. Coincidentally, their record label’s site, under the listing for this album, picks the exact two tracks that I picked, which I didn’t even realize until a couple of minutes ago, but must mean they’re the ones that will suck you into the vortex that leads to the Franceverse. I also recommend you poke around their website, which seems all austere and bauhaus at first, but reveals its true colors in, for example, the “releases” section, where you can see the range of album covers. So: they’re a fun band, they’re a rock band, they’re a party band, they’re a hard-working band, they’re a band that will put the Statue of Liberty getting attacked by a bear(?) on their album cover and take their promo pictures at the Six Flags over Georgia arcade, they’re a band without pomposity, and they’re a band that needs to make a video. You can buy this album on the Orange Twin site, and you can buy others from the France site.