Les Sans Culottes
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Les Sans Culottes | |
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 Les Sans Culottes at Irving Plaza New York City, September 2015 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York |
| Genres | French rock |
| Years active | 1998–Present |
| Labels | Vibratone Records Escargot-Go |
| Members | Clermont Ferrand : vocals Kit Kat le Noir : vocals Brigitte Bordeaux : vocals Geddy Liaison : guitar Benoit Bals : keyboards M. Pomme-Frite : bass guitar Jacques Strappe : drums |
| Past members | Gigi Soleil Albert Camembert Jean Luc Retard Beau Pantalons Luc Panatalons - aka Le Marquis! Celine Dijon M'Arc de Triomphe Max Gauche Francoise Hardly - aka Jeanaté Gilles Pamplemousse Lola La Chaise Malcolm Smart Ali La Pointe Axl Rouge Pascal Blase - aka Horace de Bussy Jean Paul Georges-Ringo Jacques Sheer-Rock Cal D'Hommage Maurice Chevrolet Roget Bontemps Jean L'Effete Pierrot Le Fou Joe Camus Anouk Ennui Harry Covert Theo Neugent Sid Vichyssoise Johnny Dieppe Courtney Louvre |
| Website | Official website |
Les Sans Culottes is a French-language rock band from Brooklyn, New York. The group performs mostly original material as well as some covers of French rock songs and French-language reworkings of some classic American rock songs. Their name is a reference to the citizen soldiers of the French Revolution and also the more contemporary slang term for "no underpants."
History
The band was formed in 1998 by Detroit native and Brooklyn transplant, Bill Carney, dubbed Clermont Ferrand after the industrial city in central France. Carney had travelled to France and developed a deep interest in French pop and yé-yé music of the 1960s, particularly artists such as Serge Gainsbourg, Françoise Hardy, France Gall, Jacques Dutronc and Nino Ferrer. The band made its debut in April 1998, at Freddy's Back Room, a neighborhood bar in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The original lineup was singer-frontman Ferrand, vocalists Kit Kat Le Noir and Gigi Soleil, drummer Albert Camembert, bassist Jean Luc Retard, keyboardist Beau Pantalons, and guitarist Luc Panatalons - aka Le Marquis!. The band has had several line-up changes over its more than 18-year history while maintaining original vocalists Ferrand and Kit Kat Le Noir.
In 2005, the band's guitarist and drummer attempted to start another French language band with some former members and others and to call themselves "Les Sans Culottes". The original group brought a trademark infringement claim in Federal Court in Manhattan which resulted in a court order barring the new group from using the name of the original group.[1]
In July 2009 the band played its first ever shows in France, performing at La Feline and L'Opa Bastille in Paris and at the 18th annual Festival des Musiques d'ici et d'ailleurs in Châlons-en-Champagne. The group has also toured nationally across the United States and in Canada.
Their music has been featured in numerous ads, on television programs and movies, including for Hewlett-Packard digital cameras, Google Nexus S smartphone, HBO's "Cathouse," "Working Girls in Bed" and "Entourage" programs, FX's "The Strain," MTV'S "The Real World" and Surf Girls" and the CW Network's "Gossip Girl" as well as the movies, "The Hot Chick" and "Dalton Calhoun."
The band released The Gods Have Thirst, its eighth album, in December 2014
Discography
- Les Sans Culottes (1999, Escargot-Go Records)
- The Ennui and the Ecstasy (2001, Escargot-Go Records)
- Faux Realism (2002, Aeronaut)
- Full Frontal Crudité- Live in Paris (2003, Digital Club Network)
- Fixation Orale (2004, Aeronaut)
- Le Weekender (2007, Vibratone Records)
- 'Pataphysical Graffiti (2012, Vibratone Records)
- The Gods Have Thirst (2014, Escargot-Go Records)
References
External links
- Official band web site
- Les Sans Culottes MySpace page
- Les Sans Culottes page at Vibratone Records
- Interview with Clermont Ferrand - Rocker Magazine
- Profile on The World from PRI and the BBC
- Followup on The World from PRI and the BBC
- Review of La Feline show
- Review of Châlons show in L'Union
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