Housse de Racket

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Housse de Racket

Posted Mar 28 2011 by Brian Chalfin in Social with 0 Comments

Housse de Racket, Justice, Phoenix and Daft Punk? Crydamoure and Kitsuné? The French must be eating their Wheaties. Without a doubt there’s a renaissance in their music industry. Phoenix is now mainstream and Grammy winning while Daft Punk produced an amazing soundtrack for Tron Legacy making both more popular and public than they have ever been.

Justice has been around for some time but never gained as much popularity as they should’ve. Believe it or not I had their first and only album, Cross, for about a year before I listened to it. I tried once or twice but could never quite get into what I was hearing. Eventually I decided to take another shot at it and listened straight through, solidifying another favorite band almost immediately. Maybe my senses weren’t ready for what they delivered. And wouldn’t you know it? Just last week Justice announced a single “Civilization” from their second so-far untitled album arriving sometime in 2011.

Here’s the new single called “Civilization” from Justice:

Then come two French house record labels, Crydamoure and Kitsuné. Crydamoure is owned by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, half of Daft Punk’s duo. They put out mixes of new music or remixes by Guy-Manuel often sounding similar to a Daft Punk album. Since most of these bands take their time and only release new material every few years this can be a great way to pass the time and also find new music to listen to.

Kitsuné on the other hand is something amazing. Yes, I said a record label but it’s also much more than that. Technically it’s a fashion label that also produces music. It was founded in 2002 and the flagship clothing store resides in Paris. They grew into a successful clothing line but why stop there? One of co-founders worked with Daft Punk for about 10 years when they decided to mix clothing and music. They put out mixes of great music, not limited to French, and also provide single bands the ability to mix and match their own albums with other music. Case in point is the Kitsuné Tabloid mixed by Digitalism, which is how I found Kitsuné originally. Since then I’ve been listening to their compilations which so far totals 10.

You can check out Kitsuné at: http://www.kitsune.fr/

While listening to the most recently compilation, Kitsuné Maison Compilation 10, I was excited to see Digitalism’s new single ‘Blitz’. After listening to the entire album I found one song I really loved called “Chateau” by Housse de Racket, and wouldn’t you know it, now I’ve got another amazing French band to listen to. So far Housse only has one studio album out much like Digitalism and Justice.

Here’s “1-2-3-4″ by Housse de Racket:

But just like that, Justice isn’t the only one with a new album on the way. Housse de Racket has a new album coming out. Not only them but Digitalism too! Don’t forget about the German take on all of this, as it were I’m probably most excited about Digitalism’s new album out any of these! How long has it been since each released a studio album? 4 years for Justice, 2 years for Housse de Racket and 4 years for Digitalism. These guys take their time but they always deliver.

Here’s “Pogo” by Digitlaism:

To finish up on the French, while searching for info I found this photo of Justice on the Simpsons. That would make my day if it really happened.

Now time to add some rock into this. With not much more than a few weeks notice, Queens of the Stone Age announced a US tour of their first and self-titled album. On the list of cities was Philadelphia and there was no way I was missing that. I picked up some tickets and called Dag who quickly agreed to go. Finally getting to see Josh Homme live? Dream come true. And it was an amazing concert.

We stood on the upper level looking down as they blasted through the album better than I could’ve expected. For the encore they broke out some favorites and even let the audience vote on what they wanted to hear. Unanimously 3′s & 7′s was chosen and it was amazing to hear live.