Les Breastfeeders Rock Out In French

01/02/07 7:00pm

by Phil Villeneuve (CHARTattack)

Many critics say that if a baby is breastfed versus formula fed, it will be less susceptible to respiratory diseases down the road. It's with this useful piece of information that Montreal's Les Breastfeeders should be grateful. After all, they're a band very likely to run out of breath very quickly due to their high energy, ultra-giddy garage rock.

"There are six of us on stage and we all move a lot and the songs are really fast and I think we give it all we got," lead guitarist Sunny Duval says. "For my part, when I play a show, I want to be extenuated at the end. I wanna be soaking wet, and that's pretty much the same for all of us."

Les Breastfeeders recently picked up the 2006 MIMI Award for best live show by a Montreal band. They released their second studio album, Les Matins De Grands Soirs, an all-out garage-punk guitar-tambourine-call-and-answer party. Seemingly part of the new French Montreal indie rock invasion (led by bands like Malajube), Les Breastfeeders are a loud rock ensemble that you might want to sport earplugs for if you see them.

"I put little pieces of Kleenex in my ears while we rehearse 'cause you don't want to go out after practice and hear a high pitch 'eeeeeeeeee,'" Duval explains with a laugh. "Live, though, you can't do that.

"It's like wearing a condom. You want to feel everything when you play live. Also, if you're with the same person all the time, it's safe and better."

Though you might get a chance to see the band as they tour (they head to Europe this spring to win over the other French), you should know that Les Matins De Grands Soirs is a good representation of their live show. Most of the album's instrumentation was recorded live and shows how the band plays off each other. After partying and playing together since '99 (with the exception of a former drummer who's now a tattoo artist), the band members have become close and comfortable with each other's roles and styles. This includes the language issue.

"We've never felt a pressure to sing in English," Duval says. "We've spoken French since we were born. But that didn't keep us from going to the States or English Canada."

The band recently recorded a cover of the song "Bip-Bip" for a Joe Dassin tribute CD. When asked if he was an influence on the band, Duval says, er, not really.

"We know Stefie Shock, who organized the compilation, and he asked us to record a song for it. Luc [Brien] doesn't like to go for known songs, so he picked out 'Bip.' There were 50,000 copies of the album sold, so we have a gold record in our rehearsal space. It's pretty weird. It's probably the only one we'll get in our life."