The first wave of French punk bands actually didn't have much in common with their U.K. and U.S. progenitors, in much the same way that
France Gall and
Françoise Hardy weren't exactly
Lesley Gore and
Ronnie Spector.
Telephone had a serious
Rolling Stones/
Mott the Hoople jones, and
Plastic Bertrand (who was Belgian, anyway) was his own weird little thing. So it's a bit odd to hear
the Hatepinks'
Tete Malade (Sick in the Head), which is basically a loving re-creation of the noisy/jokey end of '70s punk, both British and American. Echoes of
the Dickies,
the Ramones,
Redd Kross,
the Sniveling Shits and
Jilted John reverberate through these seven brief songs, with their giggly English-language lyrics ("My City Is Sick of Pizza"???) and tongue in cheek moves like the '50s love ballad pastiche "Your Ass Is a Stereotype."
Tete Malade (Sick in the Head) is a fun, goofy, old-school punk time highly recommended for anyone who likes a larf with their three-chord riffage. ~ Stewart Mason