"Having the traditional two arms doesn't restrict French Miami from showing off by pounding their heaving math-rock intricacy through two instruments at once. Each. Inevitably, the local musos cream themselves at such a sight, but this trio have the ability to get you throwing plenty of irregular shapes on the dancefloor too." - NME - UK
"San Fran psychopaths craft skull-collapsing post-punk, wiry (and Wire-y) guitars twitching over steady chugging rhythms." - Rolling Stone
"Art Rock trio, French Miami, have wowed San Francisco with their jagged guitar riffs and throbbing synths. The gritty style is irresistibly catchy and their boisterous live performances have earned them a reputation as a local favorite." - CMJ
"Their electric kool-aid post-punk is stilted by Telecasters winding up the same kind of prickly riffs that bands like Battles and Fiasco usually turn into proggy freak outs, but instead of going all aggro, French Miami end up sounding like a Guy Picciotto band that wouldn't need SPF1000 at the beach." - RCRD LBL
"Ummmmm.....holy shit. Holy, holy shit. That is pretty much, with all the eloquence I own mustered, the only way I know how to describe French Miami. Words don't really do justice to what this trio brings to the table, and upon hearing and seeing this band for the first time I really don't know what else to say but, well, holy shit." - Wiretapmusic.com
If you haven’t heard French Miami yet, enjoy your last few minutes of peace. Once their songs get inside your head, they start a permanent loop and you will wake up and go to bed singing along. The only way out of this musical addiction is sleep deprivation.
French Miami’s raucous live shows use rock music structures to hold together more technical musical ideas. Jagged guitars, pulsing synths, and precise stop-start rhythms launch seductive refrains that have forced the crowd’s feet off the floors in post-punk singalong deliriums from SXSW to CMJ. The first time you catch their live show you might be shocked to discover there’s no bassist as their ménage a guitar-synth takes the low end as far as it can go with the head-nodding precision of a mathematical equation.
How is this possible? It helps that they’re multi-taskers.
Onstage, French Miami show off the technical cred behind their sound by moving non-stop and playing an average of two instruments apiece, usually at the same time. Singer Jason Heiselmann slides effortlessly between baritone guitar and keyboards while delivering vocal melodies in memorable strands too gritty to be called pop, too irresistibly catchy not to be. Multi-instrumentalist Roland Curtis is usually playing a guitar with one hand and a synth with the other with freakish proficiency. Meanwhile, drummer Chris Crawford does precisely what a drummer should do by anchoring their sound in a minimalist beat, knowing when to let loose and when not to.
This was no easy live show to wrangle onto a record, but French Miami knew the right man for the job. Phil Manley (Trans Am, Fucking Champs) committed their self-titled debut - a unique blend of prog, post-punk, and synth-art rock - to eternity. The album waxes nostalgic on anthemic 90s sounds from Archers of Loaf and Trans Am, tastes the angular grooves of Battles and Holy Fuck, and throws in the earnestness of the Boss and Fugazi to balance the sweet with the sour. The result is terse, jagged rhythms fueled by great hooks fulfilled in noisy abandon.
The first pressing of this mind-bending album saw daylight on a start-up label with a modest PR effort. Even with this minimalist approach to the press, French Miami still attracted considerable attention from UK tastemakers NME and the BBC, a stateside nod from Rolling Stone, and a lengthy three-month hold on the CMJ Top-Fifty in 2008.
Constant chatter among music critics, backed up with a devastating live show and a cult-like following demonstrated the band’s ability to reach a larger audience. Take Root Records jumped to re-release this soon-to-be seminal album and support the band’s touring through 2009 while actively cultivating French Miami’s next record that will surprise you all over again in 2010. Early demo tracks suggest you won’t get any more sleep next year than you got this year if it’s a year in which you’re listening to French Miami.
For booking info in the U.S. and Europe contact frenchmiamibooking@gmail.com
So before I say anything I just want to tell you guys that I love the music you make. I just stumbled upon you fellas today when I was checkin up on Silian Rail's page and as soon as I started listening to the first song I knew there was something special about it. I'm just glad that there are still bands out there that make music because they love it and not because of money. But you guys are goin somewhere. Anyway though. that's enough out of me. One love. peace out
You killed it in Durango. We JUST got home at 6am. The entire drive home was filled with spontaneous outbursts/mimics/hummings of multiple FM classics.
Hey, I came to see you guy's play at Cicero's in St. Louis with I Like Snaps. I bought one of your amazing shirts as well ( : I've been telling alot of my friends about you guys and they agree, you are FANTASTIC! ^ . ^
hope you guys are still killing it which we know you are. Did you guys ever run into tIM in Ohio, really lovin the record phil is a badass. Godspeed gentlemen
TUESDAY 8/11/09: MARK TWAIN INDIANS, THE VALLEY ARENA, OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN
“[SMART ROCK] Don’t let the riffage scare you. The Valley Arena’s new disc, We Died, finds the SoCal crew engaging in hard rock as smart as it is heavy: Tricky post-hardcore guitar licks are there to buoy cleverly jingoistic turns of phrase. Fans of bass-heavy ‘90s indie rock like Jawbox and Seaweed ought to dig the group’s smartly aggressive aesthetic, which grows in spurts with each release. And you thought nobody was making worthwhile rock ’n’ roll anymore. Psshh.” - CASEY JARMAN, The Willamette Week
hi chris and the rest of the french miami gang! saw you play dba this past weekend and loved the performance. if you ever need a venue in baltimore please consider http://www.hexagonspace.com and i hope i'll get to catch you guys play in my city soon! have fun on the rest of tour and don't break anymore strings (though definitely pulled it off just fine) -annA
Hello i..ve been asked to being in MTV series. I am gone start a new mtv series!! But need a girl to be my Girlfriend on the show. Because this show goes about a couple!!! MTV asked me to find a girl. Anyone single and intersting being in MTV ??
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