Les Chauds Lapins 's debut album is
" Parlez-moi d'amour".

CD $12.99  BUY NOW
LP $14.99  BUY NOW

upcoming performances

Friday, May 23, 2008, 8pm
Barbès
376 9th St, corner of 6 Ave,
Park Slope, Brooklyn 11215
barbesbrooklyn.com

news

Sea kiss'd

We got a lovely drawing in the mail, from our friend Capuchine, the enormously talented graphic novelist. She created a visual complement to a song we perform, "La Barque d'Yves" -- a salty ballad where doomed lovers' tears mingle finally with emerald waves.

Have a look, and check out the song if you like -- we've provided an English translation.:
La Barque d'Yves

This past summer, we had an exceedlngly breezy and deilicous album release party at the 'Temporary Museum of Painting. Artist Cathy Quinlan created a backdrop for us featuring Lautrec characters gone quite animalistic. Su Friedrich made this little souvenir video of the occasion, featuring a performance of "Palez-moi d'amour".

Les Chauds Lapins @ 'temporary Museum video

Enfin! It's here it's here it's here! The vinyl version of our album, Parlez-moi d'amour, has arrived. The vinyl version includes all 13 songs found on the CD release. As a special bonus, it comes with sheet music, for the song "Mon rêve c'etait vous". The sheet music has the melody line, chords, French and English lyrics and fretboard diagrams for ukulele.

The sheet music is also available separately. Which leads us to our next point of business:

The Les Chauds Lapins web store is now open. You can now buy Les Chauds Lapins albums and other merchandise directly from us. You can pay by Visa or Master Card or by Paypal. enter web store

You can also find our CD for sale, with lots of audio samples, at CD Baby.

We were in Paris last fall, where we had a swell gig at the Bistrot des Artistes. The gig was set up by our indefatigable friend Romain. Here's a little clip from the gig. The audience can be heard joining in on the chorus:

Parisian ukulele virtuoso, Romain, created a video based on Les Chauds Lapins' recording of Charles Trenet's "Vous êtes jolie." It features Romain — seen strumming his ukulele — and his friend, Anna.

"Vous êtes jolie" video

View performances of
Il m'a vu nue and
J'ai connu de vous
on the Midnight Ukulele Disco site.

a portrait of Kurt and Meg, by Capuchine.

photo by STEPHEN BARKER

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AUDIO
Mon rêve c'etait vous
Presque Oui

MYSPACE
myspace.com/chaudslapins

From the murky depths of New York’s cultural ferment, Les Chauds Lapins rise stately into view. In their hands, small devices — banjo ukuleles, that curious half breed which combines the banjo snap of early jazz with the sultry sea breeze of the ukulele. On their lips, cryptic incantations from an alternate reality — for it is the heart of the French music hall which pulses within collaborators Kurt Hoffman and Meg Reichardt.

Les Chauds Lapins present French songs of the '20s – '40s, an epoch when American jazz and swing was being absorbed into the witty, passionate, highly melodic tradition of French popular music. Their repetoire includes numbers popularized by the likes of Mistinguett, Lucienne Boyer, Edith Piaf, and in particular features suave, swing-tinged gems from the enchanted catalog of songs by the great, late Charles Trenet.

A word or two about Monsieur Trenet. He is scarcely known stateside but for his wonderful “La Mer” which, with some rather unremarkable English lyrics, became Bobby Darrin’s big hit, “Beyond the Sea.” But Charles was so much more than that. A former art student, he was a flamboyant singer who wrote his own songs, whimsical, sophisticated and poetic, and who recorded a string of French hits beginning in the late 1930’s. “Without Trenet,” said Jaques Brel, “we would have all been accountants.”

Les Chauds Lapins are here to help spread the word. Seductive, modest, wry, Kurt and Meg affectionately sketch out a repertoire of music that swings and charms.

Meg Reichardt reports that her first trip to France was on a biking tour from Rome to Paris with a triumphant finish in Paris round L'arc de triumph. Says Meg, “I was exposed to Serge Gainsbourg’s music à la that nasty duet he did with his daughter (“Lemon Incest”) which I saw on French TV. My second adventure to France was a six-week stay with a family in Nantes, of which the highlight was a week spent camping on the Brittany coast. I recall the inviting sign, ‘Gratuit pour les filles toutes les nuits’ which was located on the door of all the beach night clubs.”

When Meg is not crooning in French with her banjo ukulele, she is a singing, guitar-slinging force of nature in the The Roulette Sisters, who perform frequently in the New York area, and have recently released their first album, "Nerve Medicine".

Kurt Hoffman Collecting old French 78s and learning some Charles Trenet songs began as a diverting way to pick up some French vocabulary. However, there was apparently some Gallic genie in that pile of old records. It has possessed him, causing French chanson to replace much of what had hitherto constituted Kurt’s life on earth.

Prior to his current infatuation with the banjo uke, Kurt was active as a composer, saxophonist and clarinet player. He co-led the legendary nine-piece instrumentals band, The Ordinaires, for close to a decade. Later projects included his early swing fantasy, the Band of Weeds, and various film and video scoring projects. As a sideman, he has recorded and toured extensively with They Might Be Giants, and has recorded with the Jon Spenser Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, Frank Black, Firewater, and Drink Me.

Les Chauds Lapins means literally, ‘the hot rabbits.’ Figuratively it means someone who is always turned on sexually. Usually, it refers to the guys who are always hitting on girls. This music will cause you to recklessly try your luck.

For more information on Les Chauds Lapins, contact:
info@leschaudslapins.com