Les Calamites Encore! 1983-1987

THE FIRST FRENCH ALL GIRLS ROCK BAND!?! Classic black vinyl including 8-page booklet, linernotes French & English."I perfectly remember the day I first heard the catchy single Toutes les nuits on Europe 1, in Maneval's show. I rushed to my tape deck to record an excerpt, which I listened to over and over again, until I finally got the album A bride abattue, released on New Rose. That album was everything I liked: brilliant compositions, pushy and skilfully arranged; refined, mischievous lyrics, a lo-fi spectorian sound like in the sixties, with heavenly voices and lots of harmonies. The cover depicts a girl band of students sporting pencil skirts, ponytails and pumps, dropping their tracks like they don't care. There's Odile and Isabelle on the guitar, Caroline on the bass and Mike on the drums. The result is a series of unstoppable hits: Toutes les nuits, Malhabile, Le supermarché, Nicolas, the moving Behind Your Sunglasses, but also some perfect covers: Teach Me How To Shimmy, With A Boy Like You, The Kids Are Alright, You Can't Sit Down. All gems. This carefree, charming, innocent album lightened up my early eighties. And I still listen to it." Étienne DahoA HISTORY OF THE CALAMITÉS Wouldn't it do them justice to rid Les Calamités (literally "the calamities") of the embarrassing phrase "girl band", durably stuck to their skins and plaited skirts? It's nothing but a pink puffy cloud obscuring their true importance as a "band" full stop, as well as their fleeting though mind-bending trajectory. In just a few months going on stage with a handful of original songs recorded here and there, they became, from Dijon to Rouen, Paris to Toulouse, Bordeaux to Strasbourg, the darlings of an uncompromising rockers' demanding scene. Tolerated by some, maybe, they were also consecrated, certainly (should they have needed the accolade). The trade-off was a succession of quick and distinctive verse-choruses for which the adjectives "fresh" and "light" seemed to have been invented again. They delivered ju...