Les Lionceaux

Every once in a while I gotta reach into the wayback machine and pull out something from the archives. In this case, it's the LP "En Direct du Bilboquet" by Les Lionceax, something I bought back when I'd buy any record by a band with Les followed by a French noun. And if said band was doing a cover by a popular British "beat combo," well, forget it, put me down for two!

Anyways, so I bought this record for 8 dollars sometime back in the early, heady days of the Bush administration (W, natch) . I bought it, took it home, spun it a few times and then let it molder on a back shelf. I think I may have once played a Kinks cover on there out at a mod night somewhere. It's a live record of British Invasion covers done with a minimum of pep. These guys look like grouchy square older brothers on the cover of the record and they sorta sound like it, too. I know this a fake live record because an audience cheers loudly after (and often during) every song performed.

Recently, I've been shocked to see this record priced for 70 bucks and up, both online and in the real world. Are people fiending that hard for fairly mediocre funky uncle garage rock? I guess so.

In the interests of consumer awareness I'm gonna post a couple songs here. I picked their versions of "I Wanna Be Your Man" by the Beatles and "Gone, Gone, Gone" by the Everly Brothers, because they're less common songs to cover and I think they pull off both songs pretty well. Honestly, this is not horrible stuff, it's just not primo either.

And to my ears, it's not 70 dollar sounds, either. I am guessing the high price on this record is because Les Lionceaux were from France. Bands from Quebec doing this sort of material are a dime a dozen. But, self-contained rock and roll bands were not a big trend in France at this time, so perhaps that would account for the higher value.

This record is available on CD, if this taste has wet your whistle. If you desire more info on the band itself, they have a fairly big web presence. In fact they still play out regularly...


Mourir Un Peu (Gone, Gone, Gone) - les Lionceaux

Je Te Veux Tout a Moi (I Wanna Be Your Man) - Les Lionceaux