Although today’s PlayLive guests, the French Indie Electro-Rock duo Housse de Racket were born and raised over 5000 thousand miles from our PlayLive stage, in a suburb of Chaville (France), the band member’s Pierre Leroux and Victor Le Masne developed and initial friendship over a T-shirt with Seattle ties. Back in the 90’s the two teens who had previously snubbed each other in passing, sparked up a conversation when a Pearl Jam T-Shirt worn by one of the members, attracted the eye of the other. They began discussing Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, and the Seattle music scene; a musical kinship which led to a friendship, and eventually a band.
Starting out as in-demand session musicians-for-hire with local bands such as Air and Phoenix, Housse de Racket were first brought to the fore as featured artists on a Maison compilation release; curated by French electronic label, Kitsune. The Maison series featured such artists as Bloc Party, Cut Copy, and Simian Mobile Disco, and also help break such bands as Two Door Cinema Club. In 2008 Housse de Racket released their debut album Forty Love, and embarked on a relentless world tour playing over 200 shows from Lisbon to Tokyo and Berlin to Beijing.
Now in 2012, the band is once again stepping out from behind the scenes with their sophomore album, Alesia. Attempting to further solidify their own identity and avoid being lazily lumped in with their contemporary friends, Air and Phoenix, the band recruited none other than Phoenix producer Philippe Zdar to produce their new record. After all, the band joked, “who better than Phoenix’s producer to keep us away from the sound of Phoenix?” Their excellent new album Alesia was just released March 13th, and while the album reveals a band that clearly took notes during their apprenticeship with their country’s biggest synth pop icons, it also reveals that House de Racket is doing things their own way, and show enough potential to suggest that one day, they could well become just as influential themselves.
Today’s PlayLive show is a must see, and you can also catch the band tonight on Capitol Hill at Chop Suey (tickets are still available). For more info on the band, you can visit their official site, as well as follow them on Facebook and Twitter (@HousseDeRacket). Also be sure to check out the songs Chateau (below) and Roman, which are both featured on their new album.
[youtube http://youtu.be/_diBINWSid8]
Blake Kirpes – Associate Music Supervisor
PlayNetwork
