les thugs

It’s a vinyl and CD single from the former drummer for French band The Thugs and it doesn’t muck around. Christopher Sourice sings in French but don’t let that stop you if you’re mono-lingual. 

“La Crise” (“the crisis”) is built on chugging guitars, vamping keys and a dense rhythmic backbone. It’s like a “Too Tough To Die” Ramones song with the foot off the accelerator. Repetitive but powerful stuff with Sourice’s urgent vocal leading the charge 

The flip side reminds me of The Trilobites in their “Venus In Leather” days of the early ‘80s (it must be that chorus) and once more it’s a song driven by chunky guitars, a heavy pop feel and a keyboards wash. Who says drummers should stay behind their kit? That's a Bandcamp below so you can try before you buy. 

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Live Paris 1999 – Les Thugs (Nineteen Something)

The first overseas signing for soon-to-be famous label Sub Pop, championed by Jello Biafra and Greg Shaw, and one of the few French bands to tour relentlessly around the USA, Les Thugs deserved to be more than a blip on the world’s music radar. 

You could go broke collecting the back catalogue of Les Thugs. It’s all out of print and the rarest of it fetches biggish money on eBay. The band lasted from 1983-99 and bounced around on various labels. This album is their 10^th and  documents a show on their farewell tour of their homeland.

The sound of Les Thugs – named for the 12^th Century Indian brotherhood of the ThuggeeThuggee who used to kill the rich for their money, not your standard bovver boys - is a few steps removed from their punk rock beginnings when they were formed, DIY-style, by brothers Eric and Christophe Sourice. It’s dense and intense, two guitars with enveloping harmonics and textured bass-lines.