Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Under the Radar with ..... Madame Godard (PT)
"Madame Godard is no one in special, just a name that sounded better after a couple of experiments. It even was Madame Arlette. They even thought on Russian names,...... it just had to be Madame something....."

They are five, they're from the North of Portugal, from Viana do Castelo, and they sound gorgeous.

Juvenal Vieira, on vocals, theremin and megaphone; Rui Amaro, on guitar, banjo, trumpet and backing vocals; Paulo Oliveira, on keyboards, violin, moog and accordion; Paulo Goncalves, on bass guitar, claps and backing vocals; and Jose Ribeiro on drums and guns are Madame Godard, a quintet that has been perfuming my past few weeks with their amazing mixture of crooner style music, fantastic combination of chanson francaise meets Calexico meets Tindersticks in dark cheap and merry cabaret, amusement park soundtracks, delicate pop songs, whispered catchy chorus, claps claps and more claps, and a wild party, open to everyone, where accordions dance with violins, banjos challenge trumpets for a run up to the skies, keyboards fall in love with theremins.
Altogether they deliver us this amazing party of sounds, of beautiful melodies and great great songs.

The story of Madame Godard, nevertheless, goes back to the late 90s. By then and after a quite successful participation on the Termometro Unplugged music contest, where they finished in second place, we would see them later on Festival Paredes de Coura in one of the most enthusiastic performances, in that festival, that year.

On the year 2001 the band would take a pause, after some internal issues, only to come back last year with a new line-up and a great wish to finish their debut album.

This debut is being worked on, together with producer Paulo Miranda (worked with Old Jerusalem and The Legendary Tigerman among others), and shall see the lights early next year.

Meanwhile, so that you can get addicted too, Madame Godard placed 5 tracks (not final versions) on their MySpace. The fact that these are not final versions makes me happier as they are already fantastic.

Have a look at the beautiful Queens of the Twilight, Love is Poker, Femme Fatale, Le Carrousel and Hardly Alone and fall in love with them.

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posted by SKL @ 12:57 PM  
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