I wrote time ago about Stephen’s Library and The Non Stop Kazoo Organization, the fine French bands, who featured Jacques Speyser. I eventually got in touch with Jacques but sadly never heard back about an interview we planned to do. So didn’t get up learning the details that perhaps would be good for this post.
Why? Because Les Molies was another of his projects. In this project he collaborated with Renaud Sachet who produced the first Stephen’s Library record. Renaud was also part of the band Buggy and Herzfeld Orchestra (where Jacques was also part of).
But that was not all. There were more people involved including Franck Marxer who was part of The Non Stop Kazoo Organization, Original Folks and Herzfeld Orchestra.
And there was also Jaqueline Yoesslé and Régine Yoesslé too in the band. Were they sisters?
One thing to mention though, their name appears as Les Mollies but also as Les Molies. What was the right way to write it?
Les Molies translates in English as The Mollies. What are mollies? They seem to be fish?
Poecilia sphenops, called the short-finned molly or common molly, is a poeciliid fish inhabiting freshwater streams, coastal brackish, and marine waters from Mexico to Colombia. The wild-type fishes are dull, silvery in color. The molly can produce fertile hybrids with many Poecilia species, most importantly the sailfin molly. The male mollies generally tend to be mildly aggressive.
In any case, the band released an album in their day. In 1994 the band released “Kumcat” as a CD on Cornflakes Zoo (Zoo 12). The album included twelve songs “Lucky Star”, “Speed Queen” (Etienne Greib from Temple Temple and Superdrug plays guitar in this track), “Beat of Your Heart”, “La Nuit Des Etoiles Filantes”, “Escalator”, “Stars Above”, “Summerside”, “Belong to You”, “Away”, “Yoyo Sista”, “Tell Me” and “Lucky Stars”.
The songs were recorded between August of 1993 and February of 1994 at Downtown Studio in Strasbourg by Didier Houbre (he also plays guitar on “Escalator” and Jew’s harp on “Summerside”). The art for the album was put together by Philippe Roure, the well known French designer.
The first appearance of the band happened in 1990 though. It was on “Heol Daou”, the legendary compilation tape released by Katiho (02). On this record comp the band contributed “It’s Playtime”.
Two years later, 1992, the band contributes the track “Smile” to “Whoops!” a compilation tape, released in France by Houpla (HOUPLA1). This compilation tape came with a booklet, I’ve never seen it, but maybe there are good details?
In 1993 the band has the track “Cha Cha Charlie” on “Ces Chères Têtes Blondes” which was a tape released by Cindie (CIN 01). The track the band recorded was an original by Pat Laureate from Melody Dog.
Les Molies would then appear on a triple 7″ compilation titled “The Onion Most Dangerous Game” in 1994. On this cool compilation released by Aliénor Records (Alien λ), the band had the last song and it was called “Bye Bye”. That same year the band contributed a track to “A Tribute to The Jesus and Mary Chain”. Their choice was “Jesus Sucks”. The compilation tape was released by Candy Chérie (001).
1995 sees the band appear on “Cosmic Shop”. This time as Les Molies, just one L. On this tape released in France by Paperplane (SC-02) the band has the song “Car Boot Sales”. Then that same year on the compilation “Bedroom Palace” on Lo-Fi Recordings (High2), another French label, the band has the track “J’en Ferais Bien Mon Quatre Heures”.
Then in 1997 the band has a track on a Spanish label. The compilation CD is called “U.F.O.logy.” and was released by Green UFOs (OVNI 003). Here the band had the track “Speed Queen”.
Lastly there is a compilation called “L’Éventail” that we don’t know when it was released. It came probably with a fanzine. The label listed for this tape is called Le Fanzine (060672FS) and hailed from France. The song Les Molies are credited for is called “Stars Above”.
And that’s really all we could find about this band. Wonder if we’ll find out more details later on.
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Listen
Les Mollies – It’s Playtime
