I came across Those French Girls thanks to a sampler I bought at a used record store about a year back. Kelly's Records used to have these in-house samplers they'd play in their stores, and most of them covered a lot of Canadian new wave. Finding one of these samplers in the wild is unusual, since they weren't meant to be sold. I love me some Canadian new wave, and I also love me some obscure records, so I had to have it.
On Rocktober 82, in between tracks from Spoons, The Extras, Blue Peter and (oddly) Anvil, Santers and Steppenwolf were two non-Canadian bands, English metal band Tank and Scottish new wave band Those French Girls.
Scottish new wave has a long and varied pedigree, and a unique sound in the world of new wave music. Scottish new wave had a jangly and melodic tone missing in English new wave, and many bands had an almost folky sound. The biggest names to come out of the Scottish scene were Simple Minds, Big Country, Lloyd Cole and Aztec Camera. The scene also spawned the Waterboys, who had a distinct Celtic folk feel, the punk feel of the Rezillos, and the affected pop of Altered Images. Then there were less successful but no less interesting bands like the manic Orange Juice and the noise-punk of the Fire Engines.
Those French Girls were one of the more obscure bands from the Scottish scene. They released just one album, 1982's Those French Girls, and two EPs, then disappeared. This album appeared on the UK label Safari Records, which was then released on the Canadian label Attic, which explains why they're appearing on this Canadian record store sampler.
VERY GOOD. THANK YOU
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