Plastiscines
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Les Plastiscines are an all-female French rock band of the mid-noughties, who perform mostly in English.
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[edit] Formation and discovery
The Plastiscines are Katty Besnard (singer/guitar), Marine Neuilly (guitar), Louise Basilien (bass) and a dummer named Caroline who replaced Zazie Tavitian. They formed in 2004 after Besnard, Neuilly and Tavitian, all of whom were at school together, met Basilien, originally a harpist, at a concert by the English band, the Libertines [1]. Their talent was recognised early on by Maxime Schmitt, producer of the German band Kraftwerk, and they were signed by EMI for for the Virgin France label in October 2006.
In addition to the Libertines, the band's influences include the White Stripes, the Strokes [2] and, from an earlier generation, the Kinks and Blondie [3]. Their name derives from the phrase, "plasticine trees and marmalade skies" in the Beatles' song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, on the 1967 album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The Plastiscines have been critical of French retailing of rock music. Louise Basilien has remarked that she learnt about rock 'n' roll through her parents, the Internet and by reading books: "the generation before us could not learn about rock 'n' roll because the stores here were rubbish" [4]. In consequence, the French rock scene in 2006-7 was seen by many as fresh and exciting, even though the requirement that forty per cent of songs broadcast on radio in France should be in French continued to militate against bands who wished to perform in English (which, because of its American origins and British dominance in the 1960s, has always been the prime language of rock 'n' roll).
[edit] "Les bébés rockers"
The Plastiscines are one of several Parisienne teenage bands, referred to collectively as les bébés rockers. Paris Calling, a compilation album of music by several of them, was released in France in June 2006 (and was due for release in Britain in April 2007). It contained the Plastiscines' first studio tracks, Shake (Twist Around the Fire) and Rake. Those present at its launch included the French Minister of Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, and Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty [5].
Such bands have tended to be scorned by some elements of the press for their bobo (bourgeois bohème or bourgeois Bohemian) backgrounds [6]: in other words, they have been seen as "the spoilt kids of rich parents playing at being rock stars" [7].
[edit] LP1 (2007)
The band's first album, LP1, was issued on 12 February 2007. This was an electic mix of thirteen notably short tracks (none was over three minutes long and some were under two), including their first single release, Loser, and the two songs that had appeared on Paris Calling. The other tracks were:
- Alchemie
- Mister Driver
- La règle du jeu
- Zazie fait de la bicyclette
- No Way
- Pop In, Pop Out!
- Tu as tout prévu
- Lost in Transition
- Under Control.
