If the recent changeover from "freedom fries" back to "French fries" at the U.S. Congressional cafeteria is any indication, Franco-American relations are looking up, late night jokes aside.
Paris/New York art-rockers Nous Non Plus ("Neither do we") aim to be the movement's goodwill ambassadors with their bilingual blend of French pop and NYC punk. A healthy dollop of techno-funk and retro-rock top off the mixture, which will soon have listeners singing along despite the fact that they probably have no idea what the mostly-French lyrics mean.
The group formed in 2005 from the wreckage of the band Les Sans Culottes and immediately stepped up to fill the French bubble-gum fop-rock niche in the American music scene.
It's clear from the start that the members of Nous Non Plus don't take themselves too seriously, and they don't expect you to either. The sophomoric humor that inspired band-member pseudonyms like "Céline Dijon," "François Hardonne" and "Jean-Luc Ritard" comes across in the lyrics as well, most notably on the predominantly English double entendres of "One Night in Paris."
This steamy synth-driven disco track is chockfull of Parisian sexiness, even though the title doesn't actually refer to the city. Bassist/singer Ritard ridicules Paris Hilton and American celebrity culture in general with ludicrous lyrics delivered through an outrageous French accent, although he is actually from Denver.
In fact, only one of the six band members is actually from France, but that doesn't stop Nous Non Plus from creating the musical equivalent of "Pink Panther's" Inspector Clouseau doing drunken karaoke.
"One Night in Paris" is the pinnacle of this new art form, with deliberately bad plays on words and throwaway lines like, "Her smile is like a dare/ it says to me, 'No underwear.'"
But that's hardly the extent of the Nous Non Plus' distinct sound. This is a band that's equally at home whispering French pick-up lines and adding melodic la-la-la's to the end of a word.
Songs range from the delicate acoustic psychedelia of the sentimental "La Ballade de Tourette" to the raunchy garage rock of "Lawnmower Boy."
But even when singing about having a hair-of-the-dog Bloody Mary after a long night of doing blow with supermodels on "Le Ch?teau," the band remains unabashedly poppy, delighting in sugary-sweet hooks and cutesy catchphrases.
Sunny, horn-laden "Monokini" begins innocently enough as a trip to the beach with mom and pop. Instead, we end up at a seedy bar on the French Riviera just in time for happy hour as the band celebrates the "monokini," which is what it sounds like — a bikini minus one.
In the world of Nous Non Plus, wearing a topless swimsuit for a day-trip to the beach with the parents is no big deal.
Indeed, the band isn't really concerned with sounding too over the top, indulging in every bizarre bit of absurdist banter they can come up with from waxing lyrical on hair in specific regions of the body ("Lawnmower Boy") to randomly exclaiming that Matt Dillon is "super cool." In fact, they get away with far more of it than they should, considering most of the album is in French.
Due to song order, the album drags toward the end, leaving the listener slightly listless. After track seven, the party dies down quickly as the group provides a counterpoint to the riotous first half with two ballads and a mellow instrumental closer.
Serious fans will appreciate the contrast, but most listeners will probably end up making it only partway into the album. That is understandable — after all, the outrageous mixture of French posturing and vintage sounds that is Nous Non Plus is designed to be a little overwhelming.
But after the initial shock, the band captures the listener with their unique brand of pop, like a pick-up line that's so bad it's charming.
Along with Modern Addict and Los Angeles trio Hello Stranger, Nous Non Plus will bring a taste of Paris to the High Noon Saloon tonight. The show kicks off 9 p.m., $5 cover.
