Happy New Year! This is the last post for 2019 and of course I’ll continue posting and updating the blog. It will be the 12th year of updating it! Time does fly! The format has changed through the years but still the curiosity, the hopes of finding new great popsongs and popbands. Meeting bands, making new friends, and releasing records as part of the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen.
We have two releases for the series lined up for the new year. I am working on a new fanzine as we speak and also discussing possible new releases on Cloudberry as part of the 7″ series. It is exciting times!
Here are my last finds for 2019!
Loca Polka: another great Indonesian band? Yes! It is no surprise anymore to surprise more great Indo Pop! This band formed by Nuri Hapsari, Mikael Yudi Priamuda, Ginanjar Wahyu Aji and Christian Agung formed back in 20017 in Magelang. But only this year they released their super first single “Surrender”!
Tusindfald: this Danish band has made a very good 80s new wave influenced dreampop mini-album called “Blik”. The record is quite short, 7 songs, and seems to be only available now in digital format. It does sound great and I hope it gets released properly, meaning, physically.
The Reds, Pinks & Purples: three more songs by the San Francisco band, “The Record Player & the Damage Done”, “Life with the Damned (has gone Sour)” and “The Walking-Away World” are now on their Bandcamp. I don’t know how they are this prolific. Really impressive!
Blondehouse: more from Indonesia! The label Don’t Fade Away Records has just released a tape by the band Blondehouse titled “Melt”. It is a 5 song EP of shoegazy sounds and dreamy melodies. The EP is out now in cassette format.
The Orange Peels: the classic California band has put together a new version of their debut album “Square”! it is released on vinyl LP and it comes accompanied by a double CD that includes a bunch of demos and bonus tracks. This is a terrific release that no none should miss!
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The label Cornflakes Zoo was created in the early 90s by Stéphane Teynié who at the time was the writer of the Anorak fanzine and also was in charge of the Anorak mail order. This label released many classic French bands like Les Autres and Non Stop Kazoo Organization, both featured already on the blog. Among these French bands there was one that excelled when it came to jangly guitars, that was Des Garçons Ordinaires!
But the band’s first release wasn’t on Cornflakes Zoo. it was actually on Glam Records. It was a single sided flexi (GLAM 003) and it is not surprise as this label had previously released flexis by Solace and Smily Post (both also featured on the blog in the past!). I believe Des Garçons Ordinaires’ flexi was the last one this label released. They managed to include three songs on the flexi, “Sister Love and Mr Moon”, “Caroline” and “My Favorite Garden”. These songs were recorded on a 4track in November 1991. The artwork for the sleeve is very indiepop I’d say, with a drawing of four girls.
Des Garçons Ordinaires released their debut album in 1993. This one came out on Cornflakes Zoo (ZOO6). The album was self-titled and included 12 songs of superb jangly pop. The songs were: “Flower Power”, “Bung a Loo Goo”, “Nice Price”, “Funk Them All”, “Galaxy”, “Clouds”, “Freud’s Hairstyle Technique”, “La La La”, “Bass Drum”, “Sometimes We Smile”, “Sixteen Cannons” and “Lost in Space #3”. All songs were recorded and mixed by Damien Bertrand on most of the songs and Vincent Lecouplier (also known as Vincent Balloon, owner of Studio balloon Farm in Rennes, France) on “Nice Price”, “La La La” and “Bass Drum”.
The credits give us the names of the band members:
Alban Rautenstrauch – bass
Emmanuel Lamour – drums, guitar, keyboards, vocals
Bors – guitar
Stéphane – vocals, guitar, harmonica.
The band appeared on many compilations during the 90s. First was the song “Into Space” that was included in the “Heol Daou” tape compilation that Katiho (Katiho 002) released in 1990. Then in 1991 they included two songs on the compilation tape “In the Limelight” which was a French ompilation as well. This tape came with a fanzine-type booklet that I would guess had information about the bands on it. Des Garçons Ordinaires appears on this one with the tracks “Circle Corners” and “Into Space”.
Elefant Records from Spain would include them in “Around the World Again’ (ER-020) in 1992. The band had the song “Summer Songs” on this one. That same year the band had their song “Little World” on the French compilation “Whoops!” that the label Houpla (HOUPLA01) put out. The song “Summer Games” would also be included in “Garden Party” another tape compilation from 1992. It was on another famous French label, Aliénor Records (ALIEN α).
Then in 1993 the band would have their song “Sometimes We Smile” on the tape “Ces Chères Têtes Blondes” (CIN 01) on Cindie. And then in the classic German CD compilation “The Noise and The Melodies – The Pearl Compilation” (PERLE 1).
Lastly in 1994 the band had their song “Laughing Box” in the Alienor Records’ box set of 7″s called “The Onion Most Dangerous Game” (ALIEN λ). I believe this compilation was sort of a tribute to the fanzine Onion’s Soup.
It is also worth mentioning that in 1994 the band had the video for their song “Flower Power” on the VHS compilation of indiepop videos “Munch Part I (An International Independant Music Video Compilation )” that Season Records (Season Two) put out. Oddly enough I can’t find a copy of the video on Youtube. I feel it was on Youtube some years ago? Maybe?
Aside from all this info I know that Emmanuel Lamour has made music under the names Emmanuel, Manu, Manu Love, Mr De Cuny, Polar Bear, Mark 2, Love and Dave Quartet and Shop. Stéphane on the other hand had been in the band Mum’s The Word.
The blog of the Shoegaze Movement has a post about them and there the author talks mostly about the quality of the tracks. There is also a post about the flexi the band released by my good friend Alex at his blog 7iete Pulgadas.
Then on Les Autres’ Bandcamp I find them covering Des Garçons Ordinaires’ “Sister Love and Mr Moon”.
What else? Well, the band hailed from Rennes. I know that thanks to the archive page of the venue Krakatoa in Mérignac, close to Bordeaux. I know they played there on January 23rd 1993.
And that’s it really! I thought the band was much more known, at least to have more written about them on the web. I still have many questions about them. And I really hope I could find out why they split? What other bands had the band members being involved with? What are they doing now? Are there more songs recorded by the band? I hope to find out soon!
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One Response to “:: Des Garçons Ordinaires”
On Twee.net there’s a section called French Pop!! where they talk about a football tournament organised by Alban in 1991 and 1992. I believe the ‘Flower Power’ video was shot during that tournament. The video was definitely on YouTube but it was removed not long ago and it featured members of Des Garçons Ordinaires plus other french indiepop bands! It is a fine tune and one of my favourite DHO songs!