Aidan Curran posted on September 06, 2008 19:00
It seems that every second French act is playing folk-tinged acoustic indie-pop. It's something of a fashion here.
So far this year we've featured Syd Matters, Barth, Cocosuma, St Augustine, Poney Express, The Rodeo, The Dø, Roken Is Dodelijk, Da Brasilians and adopted Frenchie Micky Green. All of them are clearly in thrall to the likes of Nick Drake and Elliott Smith, which is no bad thing.
Now, lest you think we only have ears for soft-spoken strummers, here's something loud and swaggering.
Pussydelic (right) are a self-styled "girls' rock n'soul band" from Limoges in central France. An all-female six-piece, the group clearly take their lead from Beth Ditto - they make a Gossip-esque punk-funk racket that's high on attitude. Three of the six - Natty, Mayhia and Myriam - are singers, and the band's three-up-front line-up certainly goes for power. But the vocal trio can also harmonise to good effect.
In the often macho world of live gigging, their sense of sisterhood is all the greater - they augment their line-up with Justine the second bass player and Caroline the sound engineer.
The band's most noticed song to date is called "Dick For A Brain". While it could never reach the dizzyingly high expectations you have of a song called "Dick For A Brain" by an all-female rock band called Pussydelic, it's still enjoyable. They also do a rocked-up version of Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang".
You can visit Pussydelic's MySpace page to hear tracks from their recent EP, "Six, Sex And Fun" (a pun on a Serge Gainsbourg hit called "Sea, Sex And Sun"). Here's the band live, playing a song you won't hear on that EP - the raucous "I Don't Need This":
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