Moussu T anyone

Subject: Moussu T anyone
From: Colin Randall
Date: 21 Jun 11 - 04:13 PM

Has anyone come across the Marseille-based band Moussu T e lei Jovents (to give them the full name)? I did a quick search here and found nothing. To my own shame (living just along the coast) I had never heard of them until a former colleague in Abu Dhabi raved about catching them on the BBC World Service.

I was asked to write about them for the paper that the ex-colleague works for and, if I am honest, approached the task as a duty, a welcome commission, no more.

But the more I hear them, the more I like them. A lot of it is in the old Occitan language of Provence, but they draw liberally on the great cultural and ethnical mix that is Marseille.

I'd very much like to hear other views - there are French speakers on Mudcat who are sure to know of them. What I have heard is exclusively on record. Did anyone see them at the Wychwood festival in the UK earlier this month? Are they a bit "ramshackle" live, as a fRoots reviewer put it?

Expand my knowledge!

In case anyone is interested, this is what I made of them:

http://www.salutlive.com/2011/06/moussu-t-stirring-rhythms-from-the-marseille-m

Subject: RE: Moussu T anyone
From: Monique
Date: 21 Jun 11 - 06:31 PM

Their official site in French, Occitan and English -and some pages in some other languages. Their MySpace page
A YouTube vid and more on the same page.

Subject: RE: Moussu T anyone
From: Colin Randall
Date: 21 Jun 11 - 06:45 PM

Have you seen them live Monique?

Subject: RE: Moussu T anyone
From: Monique
Date: 21 Jun 11 - 07:15 PM

Never. If you want info, opinions and/or the like about "new" bands, you'd better contact my friend Mélanie (rather in French than English, unless you know Oc...)
5 songs to listen to on Goear

Subject: RE: Moussu T anyone
From: Colin Randall
Date: 21 Jun 11 - 08:13 PM

D'accord!

Subject: RE: Moussu T anyone
From: Folknacious
Date: 21 Jun 11 - 08:56 PM

They were on the cover of fRoots a few years ago and played Womad and some London gigs. I'd go with "ramshackle" but as a compliment. Slick and professional they ain't but that suits the music.

Subject: RE: Moussu T anyone
From: Monique
Date: 22 Jun 11 - 09:08 AM

Colin, I've just checked that the link to Mélanie's blog doesn't work, there's an extra / at the end of the address that messes up. So either you delete the extra slash at the end in the address window or Here it's her blog home page, her post about them was on 10/22/2006. I guess you'll recognize the "Mr. and Mrs.... have a son/daughter" joke in her alias.

Subject: RE: Moussu T anyone
From: GUEST,The Hut People
Date: 23 Jun 11 - 06:14 AM

We supported them in London a couple of years ago and all come back to do Musicport on the same bus straight after. A lovely bunch of guys, they were missing a couple of players in London so they used some backing tracks which wasn't great In Musicport they had there full set up I believe and were really good. I love that Occitan sound and would highly recommend catters to check them out.

Subject: RE: Moussu T anyone
From: GUEST,theboneshull
Date: 24 Jun 11 - 04:47 AM

Andy Kershaw use to play this lot back in 2005/2006 on his old radio 3 programme (which hopefully could come back soon)- they had an excellent album out at the time "mademoiselle marseille" which I could highly recommend. A couple of standout tracks on the album in particular 'LO GABIAN' & 'A LA CIOTAT'.

Kershaw described their music at the time as "lopsided skiffle/banjo reggae" or something along that lines. Could not have put it better myself.

Subject: RE: Moussu T anyone
From: GUEST,Mikaël
Date: 24 Jun 11 - 05:35 AM

I saw them five or six years ago with Massilia Sound System, a reggae/ragga group in which the singer and the guitar/banjo player are involved. Though I knew well Massilia Sound System, I hadn't heard anything about Moussu T e lei jovents. It was a great time and few days after this night, I listened to their first record.

Moussu sings both in french and in occitan, mostly about Marseille and La Ciotat and the everyday life of people. On the first record, there's a beautiful song called "Paul Emile et Henri" about the poor people who faught and died during the World War I : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x47724_moussu-t-e-lei-jovents-paul-emile-e_music