Ooo la la! Next week, Canada will be saying bonjour to summer with it's 22nd annual Les FrancoFolies de Montreal Festival. Why, since 1989, has it been known as the largest francophone music event in the world? Hmm, let's see. Well from June 10-19, they'll manage to cram in 70 indoor shows, as well as 160 FREE outdoor shows, filled with over 1000 songwriters, composers, musicians, and bands from all across the francais-speaking world. Zut alore! Befitting that it's held in America's largest French speaking city, tout à fait.
Tricot Machine
A variety of genres will be represented, as is the case at most summer festivals. A notable Montreal native indie pop act that'll be making it's way to the fest this year is Tricot Machine (French for Knitting Machine.) The duo formed towards the end of 2005, with a 9 song demo floating around until their debut s/t album was released in March 2007. Through that album, they received the ECHO Songwriting Prize via SOCAN, (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.) Terrifiant!
Sexy Sushi (c. Myspace)
If you're into electro, then the French duo Sexy Sushi should not be missed. Formed in late 2002, this dude and dudette had this to say about their chance meeting, "We met by chance on what a distributor of Super U, we have shared our respective work one and so we have started sammanfattningly to work on our first songs with the band aim is simply to have fun!"And they sure are getting around this summer on the Fest Circuit! (Just noticed they will also be at the Dour Fest, which we covered early on in this series.)
The Hop La! (by GG)
Pop punk will take stage at the fest as well, as seen with the band The Hop La!, another out source from the motherland of France. Forming in 2004, these dudes have been on the road since 2005, hollering their mantra,"Qu’on se le dise : LE ROCK’n’ROLL n’est pas mort!" For us anglophones, that translates to "Spread the word: Rock'n'Roll is not dead!" Party!.. I mean, escouade!
Angélique Duruisseau
And a new edition to this year's extra activities is the FrancoFolies dinner cruise aboard Montreal's "Bateau-Mouche" (tour boat). Politely binge out on the five-course French-faire while literally cruising on a cruiseliner, and take in the sweet Edith Piaf tribute via Angélique Duruisseau. This mademoiselle was the winner of the "Ma première Place des Arts" contest in 2003, and received "best singer" title at the Festival International de la Chanson de Granby in 2005.
