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French pop culture has always been notorious for its nonchalant use of irony, but societal changes have lately morphed irony into hard-edged cynicism and nihilism — which might be taken for a bad thing were it not for the banging tracks recently pouring out of France. As American rapper Murs puts it in the mission statement “To Protect and Entertain,” “Shout out to all my black people in France, for being the only other niggers to burn shit down when the white people fuck with you.” Whoa! Pedro Winter a/k/a Busy P’s Ed Banger Records seems to specialize in dance/hip-hop made by and for reformed metalheads; and nowhere is that more evident than in the cut-and-paste death-metal mash-up of SebastiAn’s “Dog,” a punishing dance-floor slamdance pieced together out of what sound like scraps left on Slipknot’s cutting-room floor. The other two standouts are the Justice remix/victory lap of the epic “Stress,” with elements from “Night on Disco Mountain” brought front and center for maximum drama, and “Robot Oeuf” by EB superstar-diva-of-the-future Uffie, whose wasted-chick-at-the-party flow disguises some pretty tough lyrical sentiments. The rest of the record is pretty awesome if your definition of awesome includes crunk instrumental remakes of the Knight Rider theme song. Mine does.
Related:
The French are coming, The numbers of the beast, Shredding zoo, More 
- The French are coming
The launch of an extensive North American tour sponsored by MySpace that comes to the Paradise this Saturday.
- The numbers of the beast
As a million fingers air-guitared frantically, Maiden put on a fireballing motherfucker of a show.
- Shredding zoo
As guitarist Nuno Bettencourt and vocalist Gary Cherone prepare to play what is, to most, their one hit, a moment pops into my head.
- Choir power
The Romantic notion of artistic merit is that one must plumb the depths of despair to emerge with great work — and that the finest triumphs are often born of the direst misery.
- Guitar solos?
“It actually feels really liberating, like a moment where you’re like, ‘Boy, am I glad to be an adult!’"
- Distinguished flannel
The world-weariness of the whole thing made it clear why this is the wrong band to look to if you’re trolling for Day-Glo flannel nostalgia.
- New attitude
The rock career of UK upstarts the Big Pink has been one of finding, at the intersection of sheer bloody noise and haunting melodies, the commonality of hate and love.
- French tickler
"The French language is perfect for talking about sex," muses hirsute Parisian singer and electronic-musician Sébastien Tellier.
- Japanimayhem
Japanese acts attempting to interface with Western audiences often do so from behind a veil of inscrutability. Never mind that Japanese artists emerge from an alternate J-rock history that seldom intersects with ours. Tokyo's enduring Polysics have bridged this gap by expressing themselves as plainly as possible: with screaming, bouncing, eyeball-popping pogo pop so spastic that it breaks the language barrier.
- A voice from on high
On his new album The Crying Light, Antony Hegarty lifts his voice without raising it.
- Dirty old men
"We were kind of just . . . normal guys who liked to . . . enjoy stuff."
- Less
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CD Reviews
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, Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music, Pedro Winter, MURS (Rapper), Less
