Some weeks ago, SEB WOOd, Matt Le Rock, Dave Rebel and I went on hunting for cheap beer, hot cheeks and noisy indie music. We ended up in a lonesome university bar after a 20 minutes long drive through the city. Seb Wood had seen a poster for a show there, MYRA LEE and LOISIRS, two French bands from Poitiers he had already heard of which were playing in the area during one of their day off. The entry for the concert was free and so we appreciated to spend our money on beer, waiting for the bands to start. The atmosphere was really relaxed as far as the bands were to play for fun and because there was not a lot of people in the bar. MYRA LEE opened the concert and their energy was truly refreshing, counterbalancing the mediocrity of the soundboard. Anyway, it was fun to listen and watch them, especially the drummer and the guitarist whose favourite game was to try to avoid each other’s spit. The drummer was a sympathetic loony, always smiling and joking, sometimes pouring water on his drum kit for the pleasure of the visual effect. The guitarist tortured his guitar all along, also shouting his lines out like a druggy Muppet. The lead female singer tried to counterbalance the whole chaotic energy of the music with some more lyrical stuff we could not entirely appreciate because of the soundboard (again). LOISIRS was even better, as far as I am concerned, maybe only more original to my untrained ear. Here again, the guitarist played some crazy melodic distorted parts like an epileptic teddy bear, sometimes singing too, sweating profusely and jumping around but always keeping his glasses on. The lead singer also played some kind of Moog which added originality in the sound and in the quality of the songs themselves. We only understand at the end of the concert that the names of the songs were numbers when the guys from the other band started shouting “three, three…” for an encore.

I think it was the first time that I bought something at the end of a concert of bands I had never heard before. So I bought this split 7’’ of the two bands because I had spent too much of my money on beers and could not afford more. One can find two songs by each band on this vinyl that is perfectly representative of the styles of each band, moreover its visual artwork is pleasant. ‘3’ by LOISIRS is my favourite with its weird guitar lines and the furious singing. The Moog comes in perfectly to complete the noisy basis of the song, but here again I lack references to describe precisely their music. ‘5’ is somehow calmer but the drum and bass always restart the engine when the guitar heads into softer moods. The whole machine works well. MYRA LEE makes me think of the late REIZIGER that passed out recently, with more distorted parts. ‘9ème’ is out of the ordinary with its structure. The lyrics are drowned in the noisy atmosphere but we get the point with the recurrent screams (and the lyrics in the liner notes). ‘Mig100’ is full of angst here again but too short for full pleasure.

Feel free to contact them for more information.

MYRA LEE : lamachoire@caramail.com 

LOISIRS : tiger-bytone@voilà.fr

-Angus Anderson (is over-rated)

/feb 1st 2003/