We are thrilled to have the support of both the band and the Sub Pop label. To read more about performers and recipient organizations, click here.

Les Thus perform at Sub Pop Record's 20th Anniversary Revelry on July 13 at Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA. More information about this even is available at www.subpop.com/sp20.

The band will also play a free show at Neumo's on July 11. Doors are at 9pm with the band taking the stage around 12am. More information is available at www.neumos.com.

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ABOUT LES THUGS


MEMBERS:
Eric Sourice - guitar, vocals
Thierry Meanard - guitar
Pierrs-Yves Sourice - bass
Cristophe Sourice - drums, vocals

WHERE FROM:
Angers, France

WHERE NOW:
In Europe, still together.

DATE FORMED:
1983
The Sourice brothers Eric and Christophe started in a punk band called IVG. Les Thugs started in 1983 with four musicians: the singer and guitarist Eric, the other guitarist Thierry, bassist Gerald Chabaud and drummer Christophe. Pierre-Yves, the third Sourice brother, replaced Gerald after his decision to quit the band after the 1988 tour in Sardinia.

Contrary to what English-speaking people tend to think, Les Thugs' name doesn't refer to hooligans. The name refers to the worshippers of Kali, goddess of death, violence, vengeance, and the annihilation of creation. The Thugs originated in India in the 12th Century. They practice ritual murder by strangulation with a silk scarf (to avoid blood). Apparently, some of them are still living in Angers, France.

"They fuse the hypnotic with the explosive like no other band that I can think of."
- Jon Poneman, Sub Pop Records CEO

"Les Thugs proved to be the best thing to come from France since French kissing."
- Daniel Ewacha

Visit LES THUG's website (in French) - www.lesthugs.fr

photo (angoulème – juin 2008) < © mumuDIY

il y a un mois ou deux, mon ami bruno (il écrivait dans le premier numéro de "bardaf!", le fanzine papier dont je m'occupais jadis), plus vu depuis une petite quinzaine d'années, entendu une seule fois au téléphone il y a au moins six ou sept ans, retrouvait ma trace à la lecture sur internet de ma longue chronique de l'album "personne ne le fera pour nous" de mendelson… quelques mails plus tard, alors que je venais, dans un article sur les documentaires liés aux suites du mai '68 ouvrier, de faire allusion à l'utilisation précoce (bien avant "reprise" d'hervé leroux) par les thugs des paroles de dégoût et de révolte d'une ouvrière de l'usine de piles wonder lors de la reprise du travail en juin 1968, bruno m'apprenait que ce groupe rock fétiche de nos années nonante - les thugs, donc – allait remonter sur les planches pour quelques concerts français en guise d'échauffements à leur apparition, le 12 juillet prochain à seattle, sur la scène du festival programmé pour fêter les vingt ans du label sub pop. bruno et moi convenions de nous retrouver à paris le jeudi 12 juin pour le premier des deux concerts du combo angevin à la maroquinerie, sur les hauteurs de ménilmontant.

il devait être écrit quelque part que cette soirée serait placée sous le signe des retrouvailles. hormis bruno, qui n'a pas vraiment changé, je tombe sur deux des trois membres de feu-les-excellentissimes-sick-ducks (un des singles de mon label ubik dont je reste le plus inconditionnellement fier!) et j'échange aussi quelques mots avec "marsu", légendaire manager des bérurier noir, capitaine au long cours de bondage records puis de crash disques...

mais place à l'essentiel : au cœur palpitant de cette incandescente soirée… c'est-à-dire au concert lui-même.

chants tribaux (l'étymologie du nom thugs vient à l'origine du sanskrit thugee qui désignait un réseau de fratries secrètes de tueurs attaquant les voyageurs en inde jusqu'au dix-neuvième siècle) et coups de gueule de l'ouvrière de chez wonder ("non!! non, je rentrerai plus là-dedans! je mettrai plus les pieds dans cette taule!"), hystérie du public conquis d'avance… le groupe monte sur scène - "bonsoir, on est les thugs et on vient d'angers" – et commence illico avec un superbe morceau tout en sentiments mélangés caractéristique de leur dernière période: "sometimes it's hard to wear the mask / when painful names are coming back / some memories hurt so bad / that we'd just like to hide and cry / and we've been told so many lies / we can't believe in paradise / and because time is passing fast / we dry our eyes and try to be ... / as happy as you can be" – as happy as). comme l'écrit olivier portnoy sur le site www.lesthugs.fr : "le groupe s'amuse du contraste entre des titres optimistes et des textes à l'opposé. 'nous sommes des pessimistes combatifs', expliquent-ils'. 'aussi heureux que possible dans ce monde de merde', chantent-ils d'une certaine manière".

une grande part de la magie de ce groupe tourne autour de ça: être partis d'un punk-rock assez "one-two-three-four" pour la forme et d'apparence assez sloganesque pour le fond (à y regarder de plus près, les textes – même de la première époque - s'ils sont partiaux ou radicaux ne sont pas pour autant manipulateurs ou simplistes) pour évoluer petit à petit, au fil des ans, vers une musique qui n'a jamais sacrifié la clairvoyance de son engagement social ou politique à l'acceptation de plus en plus claire de leurs inclinaisons pop, sentimentales, mélancoliques ou fragiles. dans leur manière d'aborder le politique, les thugs n'ont jamais mis l'humain entre parenthèses.

ce côté tellement attachant de "belles personnes" évitant tout racolage et toute démagogie irrigue d'un bout à l'autre ce superbe concert de retrouvailles qui sans cesse bascule de la fureur et des coups de butoir rageurs à la mise en lévitation de nappes soniques tendres et de mélodies réconfortantes. être face aux thugs, et enveloppé dans leur musique, c'est ne plus être seul. ce n'est ni la première foi, ni la dernière, que dans un billet je citerai le titre programmatique de cet album d'albert ayler: "music is the healing force of the universe" mais il s'applique particulièrement bien à ce que j'ai vécu jeudi dernier.

les thugs: gros bras, grand cœur!
merci dix mille fois, les gars!!

lien 1 [morceau "rentre-dedans": i need you – jeudi 12.06.08 – la maroquinerie]
lien 2 [morceau plus "flottant": waiting – samedi 14.06.08 – la maroquinerie]
lien 3 [intro du concert et premier morceau: as happy as – sam. 14.06.08]

lien 4 [les thugs ""jeunes"" – never get older – vidéo d'époque]
lien 5 [les thugs en studio avec steve albini pour l'enregistrement de "strike"]
lien 6 [un peu de didactisme rock'n roll… reportage télévisuel d'époque]
lien 7 [beau montage amoureux d'images d'archives et de proximité]
lien 8 [concert complet – 57 minutes – des thugs en mai 1992]

the singer of french pop band les rita mitsouko had back in the days this theory that the french can not play rock - the language supposedly does not fit harder music and therefore it would always sound ridicioulus. yeah, quelle conne. especially since in the eighties there was a huge number of really great harder bands coming out of france: from more ska influenced to their unique brand of actually funny punk to hardcore to dirty rock. ironically today i would like to present you one of the few french bands that mainly sung in english: les thugs.

first: the name refers to the followers of a cult of indien goddess kali and has been inspired by...errr...a micky mouse story.

second: their music is way too often called hardcore, psychedelic hardcore, or that really ugly name "melodic hardcore" - well, i think it is just really good, dirty garage rock that learned how to be fast and short from hardcore. but they are just not trashy enough. i mean, they have melodies and actually sing, you know, with harmonies. but that maybe just shows that i did not listen to that much hardcore or only to the really sick "someone screaming out her / his lungs over totally crass noise" kind of stuff...

i guess les thugs are the internationally best known french underground rock band of the eighties / nineties. this is certainly partly due to the fact of singing english and certainly also because their records not only have been published in the united states, but published by the label sub pop (except for one record that has been published by jello biafra's alternative tentacles, i believe). additionally they have also worked together with a certain mister albini, which brought them even wider attention.

i exactly liked them for their hardcore and punk energy mixed with a more, hm, musical approach. and i think their records are still really good. what i always found interesting is that they mixed the voices quite in the back, giving the music in my opinion a slightly darker touch. and well, they were always proving to have a good eye for a cool visual represantion (i.e. they have great covers). something they shared with the french band dazibao (where some members played before being with les thugs). and yes, i've seen them live - and oh yeah, that was a good evening.

which brings us to the here and now: les thugs will play a couple of concerts again after years of absence. they have been asked to participate in the 20 years of sub pop festivities and will therefore play in seattle in july. so would somebody please tape that for me? or even better: send her / his jet over to pick me up, huh? and for everybody being in france this summer: they will also play a couple of gigs there - more infos should be soon on their website.

time for the music: how about some radical hystery? if you would like to listen to their first lp of that title, you can get it here. ripped from vinyl@224 with a lot of scans (cover and inside cover) included.

and here the video to the opener of that record, never get older:

hey, where are you going? we're not finished yet!

i do have a little surprise still waiting. to give you a better idea of how they sounded live i propose you some...les thugs live!

this comes off a tape that has been distributed together with a special edition of the french fanzine le légume du jour (the vegetable of the day) dedicated to les thugs. it is three parts: part one from a concert in may 1988 in clermond fd, part two a couple of songs from capsul rock in june 1988 and part three is an interview with the band (in french, though). ripped at the ridiculous bitrate of 224, the file includes also the inlay of the tape and the certificate that this has been a limited edition of 200 copies (they did later reprint another 300, though). get it here.

so for more information i gave you the link of their official page above. here a very informative fansite, and here their sup pop site.

not enough? well, les thugs were on a couple of samplers, too. most famously on the tribute to dead kennedies - sampler. but i would like you to propose a sampler of the french label closer, which also published les thugs - and a wide range of other interesting french rock bands. so go and have a look over at eternally yours.

and if you still have not enough, and if you are closer to garage rock then hardcore and appreciate also the stranger stuff, then it is finally time that i direct you to the twilightzone! an excellent blog for all things garage, beat, surf and so on and the generally obscure in these and affiliated genres. highly recommended! and you just have to love a blog that uses "rideyourpony" as a password...

so - that should be now really enough for the moment. and don't forget: what you need is RADICAL HYSTERY!