The way I get into things is usually very organic.  I will be reading/watching/listening to something, when something about that something peaks my interest, and I begin a process of research and discovery (honestly, I can trace pretty much all of my passions/obsession back to that initial discovery of The Who.  Its cliché, but they honestly changed my life).  Let me relate to you the story of one of my latest obsessions; the French musician –M-

I have long had a soft spot for the children of rock stars who try to make names for themselves as musicians, in particular, the Lennon boys, Julian and Sean.  Julian gets a lot of flack for (what is perceived to be) trying to capitalize on his father's fame.  Yes, Julian looks and sounds like his dad, but that's not his fault.  Yes, his first album, Valotte, was very poppy without a lot of substance, but that is to be expected from a debut venture.  But as Julian's career has progressed, it has become clear just how good of a musician he really is.  In my opinion, his last album, 1998's Photograph Smile, is a brilliant piece of work with some absolutely beautiful songs on it.  Being a big supporter of Julian's, I was exited back in '98 to hear that his half brother Sean would be releasing an album as well, called Into the Sun.  I bought it…listened to it once or twice…it just didn't speak to me in the same way that Julian's stuff did.  Oh well, Sean, nice try.  Maybe music's not your thing (Wait a minute! I hear you say, You just liked Julian better because he's the British one!  Sean grew up in New York, that's why you didn't like his album!  Keep reading…)

Cut to early 2007.  For a while, I had been meaning to pick up Sean Lennon's second album Friendly Fire, which had been released the previous October, and when some birthday money came in, I finally had the chance to.  Not expecting much from it, but wanting to support Sean, I took the album home and stuck it in my CD player.  It was utter fucking genius.  If you have not yet heard this album, please contact me and I will make you a copy.  It is such a well crafted, musically and lyrically challenging work, worthy of the blood that is flowing through its creator's veins.  Not only was the music brilliant, the accompanying DVD was extraordinary, with Sean proving he had more acting chops then might have been apparent from his screen debut in Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.

Being thoroughly infatuated with Sean at this point, I sought out his MySpace music page in order to keep abreast of all his current projects.  One day, a video appeared on the sight, simply stating that it was a behind the scenes shoot with Sean and -M-.  Funnily enough, I knew who –M- was already…kind of. 

Flash back to the previous summer, where a friend and I were deciding what movie we should watch for the evening.  Upon learning that he possessed a copy of The Triplettes of Belleville, I requested that we view this film, as it was one I had been wanting to see.  While I enjoyed the film itself, it was really the Academy Award nominated theme song that caught my attention.  The singer of this song, you ask?  A French rock musician by the name of Matthieu Chedid, better known by his stage name of –M-.  Something about his trembling falsetto intrigued me, so much so that I downloaded the tune soon after viewing the movie.  For six months, it sat on my iPod, occasionally making me smile whenever it popped up on my Shuffle with its wackiness and almost indecipherable lyrics .

Now back to the present (actually, about four months ago).  I see this video on Sean Lennon's MySpace page, and I think "Oh cool!  That's that French guy who sings 'Belleville Rendezvous.'  I guess him and Sean are buddies."  I watched the video, and from what I could make out (the video was entirely in French, and I remember very little from French class in high school.  What do I remember from French class in high school, you ask?  J'adore actors anglais.  Guess what that means...) it seemed that Sean and Matthieu were recording a re-mixed, French language version of my favorite song from Sean's album, "Parachute."  Very cool.  Once again, there was just something that seemed so captivating about –M-, so I did what I always do when I'm intrigued…you guessed it.  Research.  Only now, the library has been replaced by Wikipedia, IMDB, and YouTube.  After wading through many a French website, I discovered some of –M-'s music videos, thus giving me a way to discover his more popular tunes at the same time as witnessing his peculiar visual sensibilities.  Not only is the man a total showman (he wears his hair in the shape of his favorite letter, which gives him the appearance of a sort of grown up Eddie Munster) but he is a fantastic musician.  His voice is haunting, his melodies complex and catchy, and his lyrics (once translated into a form I could understand) were surreal and enchanting.

So yes…I happen to like French rock music.  Do I like it because it is obscure?  No (it's not obscure in France, anyway).  Do I like it because it's easy to sing along to?  Obviously not.  Do I like it because I think its good music?  Hell yes!

As an added bonus, I'll bring everything full circle: just after discovering –M-, I found a recording of him singing a Jacques Brel song called "Au Suivant" or, in English, "Next," on a tribute CD.  Jacques Brel was a French singer/songwriter from the 1960's who was a very big influence on a young David Bowie.  Bowie himself covered a handful of Brel tunes, specifically "Port of Amsterdam," which was an unreleased track from the Pin-Ups album, an entire album of cover tunes.  Among those covers were two songs by a certain hard rock British 60's band… Yep, you guessed it.  The Who.  Bowie also repeated this tribute about twenty five years later when he contributed his version of "Picture of Lily" to a Who tribute album entitled Substitute: The Songs of the Who.  Want me to keep going?  Because I can…and will!  In 1989 The Who contributed to an Elton John tribute album called Two Rooms, in which they sang a cover of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," a sort of shout out to Elton, who had previously covered their song "Pinball Wizard" back in '75 for the movie version of Tommy.  Elton did another cover around the same time, a version of the Beatle's song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which was inspired by John Lennon's son, Julian, who had drawn a childishly surrealistic picture of a school friend.  Now let's see, who else do we know with the last name of Lennon…possibly the guy who started the whole story off…Sean himself!  So, you see? >Sean Lennon and –M- were intrinsically linked through some of my favorite artists long before they met each other, and long before I liked either one of them (and if you're wanting me to make that last link something more than a simple blood relationship, both Sean and Julian have covered dear old dad's songs on several occasions)!