BB Brunes – In Concert at RTL Studios, Paris – December 15, 2017 – RTL
“New” French Rock, if you haven’t heard it before – been around for a while if you have. BB Brunes, in concert at RTL Studios in Paris and recorded on December 15, 2017.
The French Rock scene has been making international headway in recent years, with bands like Phoenix and Daft Punk making the festival circuit in the U.S. and establishing themselves on U.S. charts and getting airplay on U.S. radio stations. Pretty good, considering that only 20 years ago you couldn’t get arrested if you were a band from a non-English speaking country, no matter how good you were. Much of it had to do with an unwillingness to accept non-English lyrics, which many bands at the time weren’t doing. That created a problem because it meant a large market wasn’t being introduced to music that really needed exposure.
But all that’s changed in recent years, and even some bands whose English lyrics make a small percentage of their material are getting heard and seen in places they wouldn’t have before.
In 2000, Adrien Gallo, Karim Réveillé and Raphaël Delorme, childhood friends, formed the band “Hangover” with songs exclusively in English.
Some years later, Raphaël left the band at the moment when they were signing their first contract. The new lineup found a new guitarist, Félix Hemmen, who enjoyed their music. In 2007, the bassist Bérald Crambes joined the band.
In 2005 they participated at the Emergenza music festival in Paris until the final.
The band took the name BB Brunes, inspired by the name of the song “Initials BB” by Serge Gainsbourg and by Paris’s boulevard Brune, where the band then did their rehearsals. The band’s musical influences are punk and rock groups from the 1960s and 1970s as well as current groups such as The Strokes, Amy Winehouse, The Clash, David Bowie, Ray Charles and singers like Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Dutronc, etc. Their lyrics are mostly in French.
In 2009, the group won a Victoires de la musique in the category ‘Group or artist stage revelation of the year’. The band is currently on hiatus, the lead singer released his debut solo album in November 2014.
If you’re not familiar with BB Brunes, you can get familiar with them right here, by hitting the Play button and cranking it up.
Works like a charm.
