Music Video: AKB48 - Bounce Back

It stands to reason.  If a four girl band is good, a (+/-)60 girl band is fifteen times better!  And leave it to our Japanese friends to realize that first.  Give them bonus points for making sure those 60 girls are all dressed in schoolgirl uniforms.  And as a chubby and bald middle-aged man, who am I to argue? 

You wouldn't know it from looking at them, but AKB48 has been around since 2005.  On first glance, that may make one wonder if the members might be pushing their luck with the schoolgirl schtick for seven years.  However, membership in AKB48 is constantly revolving, ensuring the elders fade out while their younger replacements are being groomed.  The result is that AKB48, with their bouncy Japanese pop sound, is one of the top selling bands in the world.  Bounce Back illustrates the reason for this perfectly.  Catchy tunes and a steady stream of attractive young singers; you can't lose!

Music Video: Housse de Racket - Oh Yeah!

I am slowly being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.  Sure, I blog, and I have an active profile on Facebook.  But I'd rather pound spikes through my skull than Tweet, and until recently I really didn't look at other people's blogs.  However, there's something of a community of people who blog about music in other parts of the world, and when my own well of musical awareness runs dry, these blogs are a great place to go for inspiration.

Today I found out about a nice little outfit out of Chaville, France called Housse de Racket.  They hit it big within their own borders back in 2008 with their first single Oh Yeah!  As you can hear for yourself, this bit of Euro pop is insidiously catchy.  They recently came out with their second album, "Alesia", back in November.  This outing is much less pop, and much more electronica.  But it too is full of catchy musical hooks.

Music Video: Superbus - Tiens le Fil

Despite all the evidence to the contrary on this blog, I still can't help but think of most French music as being some mild updating of the cabaret sound.  For all the songs by BB Brunes, Naast, or Les Shades that I play, I can't help but be reminded of songs by Les Negresses Vertes, Paris Combo, and Caravan Palace.  Now don't get me wrong, I love that second group of bands as much as I love the first.  But they always strike me as being excessively self-consciously and defensively French.

So I get excited when I hear a French band that blows that self-reinforcing French music cliche out of the water.  Superbus is one of those bands.  Granted, this is an older song.  But sweet Jehovah, these guys can rock in a way that transcends culture!  It is hard to argue against a song like Tiens le Fil when the drums start pounding, the guitars start screaming, and the bass starts throbbing.