No Christmas for John Quays

Our talent is only eclipsed by our humility. We recognize we can't always be awesome, or great, or even listenable. Once or twice the France has truly erred. Our cover of the Fall's "No Christmas for John Quays" is proof.

It's 1999, the tail end of the pre-Griggs four-piece days. We've done one recording session, a homemade four-track deal at Phil Horan and Robbie Beers' house. The songs don't sound so hot so we do nothing with them. Kindercore asks us to do a song for their second Christmas compilation. We say sure thing and promptly do nothing until the night before it's due. The four of us huddle into Jon Croxton's bedroom on Reese Street and quickly tear through the worst Fall cover ever committed to tape. We think it's funny to do an incompetent twee-pop rendition of such a loud, sneering, overbearing song. For the first and last time, the France is wrong.

To sum it up: we were lazy, we had no idea what we were doing, and the idea was a bad one to begin with. That'll be the name of our eventual career retrospective. The only good things are both ruined by the horrible production. Elise Jensen and DJ have a fine trumpet-and-guitar duet at the end undermined by the lo-fi fuzz of a level-blown cassette four-track. The final product was deemed unfit for American consumption, and only released as a bonus track on the Japanese reissue of Kindercore's first Christmas album, Christmas in Stereo. It was the first song ever officially released by Je Suis France. It's absolutely horrible.

This post doesn't deserve an image.

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JSF EP: Stoking the Storm (Gypsy Blood)

Crog recorded Stoking the Storm (Gypsy Blood) during a hurricane in Miami in 2004. His tale will harrow you. One of these songs wound up on Afrikan Majik a few years later, and at least two more maybe should have. This was the third or fourth (ACTUALLY THE FIFTH - ed.) cd-r we put out on mostly fake label Nokahoma.

1. Badlands (Springsteen)
2. The Mariner's Compass
3. Xenia, Ohio
4. Adventure in Contentment
5. Feeder Band
6. Squall!!
7. Low Rider (War)
8. Jesus Loves Me
9. The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory (Pollard)

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The Li'lest Angel

Not every song we do is great. Sometimes they are awesome instead. Like "The Li'lest Angel", a Christmas classic we made on Oglethorpe next to that Pizza Hut. It got rejected by a label that promptly got rejected by existence. Later it appeared on God's Cake, which will be reposted soon. This is one of the days that are a part of JE SUIS FRANCE'S MULTIPLE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS.

UPDATE: OH YES: close friend, France audiobiographer, and all-around ultimate man GREG VAGEN played space guitar on "The Li'lest Angel". He makes our world a better place.

music we made: SAs Stones

SAs Stones

this was '06, one of us had stones, the rest sang about them. like Gordon Lightfoot, our stock in trade was as much hard-eyed, dispassionate observation as romance or poetic whimsy. we will punish you with romantic whimsicality.

this thing is less dead than before

'010 is a year for the France
'09 too
we don't make music, we reveal truths
like with PALS
a new ep entirely by SA
he's a pro

God's Cake EP

JE SUIS FRANCE - GOD'S CAKE EP

1- MB Intro
2- God's Cake
3- Knoxville
4- Spaceships
5- Space Truckin' (Deep Purple Cover)
6- Angels
7- 12XU (Wire Cover)
8- Working Overtime To Kill You
9- Thunder Down
10- We're Wizards / The Pincher
11- Never Gonna Touch The Ground
12- The Lil'est Angel
13- Cali
14- Kick Out The Jams (MC5 Cover)
15- Ice Age
16- The Bible

Our first "ep". Long been out of print, but wanted to post it here for people who never got their hands on one or lost their copy. We originally made 50 of these and released them in late 2003. A majority of the ep is live stuff recorded at our "Last Show Ever" - also includes some gems recorded in the studio but were never released and songs that got rejected from various comps. Why, we have no idea. During the recording sesh of Space Truckin' you might catch a glimpse of us at our most polished moment. Also includes the hidden track at the end which is dubbed "the Bible" a song from the show dark posted below (the show where Memorial Day rears its ugly head for the very first time.)

ZIP file above has all the MP3s and the cover art.

Twilight Delirium 2000

Twilight Delirium 2000
Recorded somewhere in 2000
in Athens, Georgia

1. Memorial Day
2. Attention Young Squires
3. Forklift Rodeo
4. Lives in Museums
5. Outdoor Industry / Flip-Scolded
6. Release the Tucson Killer
7. Hammock
8. Memorial Day

recorded by Pubes Kevin in 2000
at Hi-Fi Mastodon's house
in Athens
Georgia

the night of the race