Yelle 'Pop-Up' album

Following a smashingly successful springtime swing through North America that hit both coasts, Canada and the Coachella Festival, the fascinating and irrepressible Astralwerks singer-songwriter YELLE will return to the U.S. with her exuberant three-man stage show for a series of club dates in October (full schedule below). In the meantime, the French pop-sensation will release a music video for the new single “Ce Jeu” (This Game), an irresistibly hooky pastiche of Eighties club rhythms and visuals.

Yelle’s growing American following can also sample the singer’s energetic live show with the recent release of iTunes Live: London Festival 08 EP.

Accompanying Yelle on tour is album producer GrandMarnier on drums and vocals and collaborator/remixer Tepr on keyboards and programming. The five songs on iTunes Live: London Festival 08 EP were recorded during Yelle’s triumphant July 10th performance at London’s famous KOKO club. Before returning Stateside, Yelle will conclude her world-wide festival tour on August 10th at Japan’s Summersonic Festival.

Fusing a young lifetime’s worth of pop-culture influences with a fearless, DIY approach to lyric writing and a magnetic vocal presence, YELLE’s album POP-UP was a Top 10 charter on Billboard’s Top Electronic Albums listing, and also entered the Heatseekers chart shortly after its Stateside release in April 2008. (It was released digitally late in 2007, and charted among iTunes’ top-selling electronic albums.) Yelle was Artist of the Week earlier in 2008, in MTV’s 52 Bands / 52 Weeks program.

tour dates
10/07 House Of Blues Dallas, TX
10/09 The Venue Austin, TX
10/10 Polish American Club Miami, FL
10/11 The Social Orlando, FL
10/13 9:30 Club Washington, DC
10/14 Webster Hall New York, NY
10/15 The Roxy Boston, MA
10/20 Magic Stick Detroit, MI
10/21 Congress Theatre Chicago, IL
10/22 Turner Hall Milwaukee, WI
10/24 Ogden Theatre Denver, CO
10/25 Urban Lounge Salt Lake City, UT
10/27 Neumos Seattle, WA
10/29 Berbati's Portland, OR
10/31 Mezzanine San Francisco, CA
11/01 Henry Fonda Theatre Los Angeles, CA
11/02 Beauty Bar San Diego, CA

biography
I wanna see you in a porn flick, getting busy with your potato or French fried shaped dick, so your body will have no more secrets for me...- “Je Veux Te Voir” (“I Wanna See You”)

Born and raised in Brittany, France, Yelle is known for her spirited, explicit lyrics, laid over a booty-shaking pop electro beat. This musical prowess was expertly showcased in 2005 with the track “Je Veux Te Voir” (“I Wanna See You”). The minute this humorous track (taking a friendly jab at French rapper Cuizinier) was placed on her MySpace page (www.myspace.com/iloveyelle), it garnered 2000 plays in just two days.

Yelle grew up with music, her dad being a famous musician in the Côtes d’Armor region, where she still lives today. She played the piano, then went on to acting, and played in a few bands that never made it past the rehearsals, but whatever: she knew she was a born performer.

Five years ago, she met GrandMarnier at a party. This young musician and producer, was going back and forth between his own band and his dorm room where he was making beats on his computer. Although his teens were all about rock music, he was drawn to electronic music after listening to the Beastie Boys and started mucking around with his machines. Yelle started singing on GrandMarnier’s demos just for a laugh at first, but the combination of the boy’s electronic loops and the girl’s half-sung half-rapped voice worked so well that they naturally ended up producing an electro pop album all in French if you please. Yelle’s golden voice was in the house!

Last autumn, for her first show, Yelle, bold and audacious, was invited to Paris Paris, one of Paris’ trendiest venues, packed on the occasion and waiting to hear the young provincial’s crazy lyrics and off the hook loops. The set, very rock and in-your-face, was a success as the crowd all joined in to sing the lyrics to “Je veux te voir...” (“I wanna see you”) becoming in just a few months a cult hit on dance floors from Paris to London and New York...

Now very much at ease on stage with her fluo tights, the brunette with attitude drops her first album, which echoes a certain nostalgia for the golden years of French electro-pop (Etienne Daho, Elli & Jacno, Alain Chamford, Taxi Girl or Lio) but all boosted with her own flavored groove and subtle vibe into some booty-pop, revealing the story of a shameless girl with a strong character. So “85A” (a French breast measurement), very close to the tune of “Banana Split” is dedicated to small breasts (Pamela would never have given me self confidence on that side. Thankfully Jane Birkin was a classier woman).

“Les Femmes” (“Women”) slyly talks about lesbian temptation, while “Mon Meilleur Ami” (“My Best Friend”) and its bouncy keyboards is an ode to dildos (you are all so small, my best friend, I take you with me everywhere I go. I talk to you like you are a sweet and sensitive man; the only thing that annoys me about you is I have to change your batteries). Yelle has broken away fromfeminine insecurity, no more nostalgia! (I sing in 80s French, I don’t look back to the past, but there were still good times back then” she sings in “Amour Du Sol” literally “Love Of The Soil”). Yelle is a liberated woman and speaks freely, whether it be about sex, jogging, boys who drive her crazy or her best friend. Yelle, winks at boys like a playful brat, but still casts a very cynical eye to the world surrounding her.

Yelle may be young and pretty but she is also a very explosive character entering a slightly rigid French pop scene. This stage freak with a unique flow is fully driving the new nonaggressive girl power scene, focusing on delivering kick-ass lyrics. She also doesn’t takeherself seriously and is refreshingly laidback, especially when she proudly covers the song “A Cause Des Garcons” (“What We Do For Boys”) a French ‘80s anthem. Let’s all sing along to the lyrics: (What we do for boys, we wear stockings, we fight each other, boys make us worry, we cry all the time, that’s what we do for boys”).

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Yelle - Pop-Up