Les Jupes

Even in Les Jupes’ poppiest songs, there’s a sense of something sinister lurking in the shadows. A big part of that unwavering brooding mood comes from the rich and morose baritone of singer, guitarist and producer Mike Petkau Falk, which imply a wearied, heartsick anguish amid the lovely melodies.

Back in 2013, Les Jupes released Negative Space, a concise four-song EP -- culled from something like 25 to 30 demos and unfinished sketches that hinted that there was likely another full-length on the way soon. Now, with Les Jupes’ gorgeous new music video for its latest single, “Introversion,” we’re getting a taste of what’s to come.

Even before you watch, “Introversion” already evokes a hair-raising feeling -- especially in those sharp post-punk guitar strikes, the burbling synth bass, and the juked-up adrenaline junkie pulse of the snare drum hits. But this video really teases out and heightens the song’s anxiety and isolation.

Filmed in black-and-white (with the occasional messy splash of purple) by director Ryan Simmons, the video depicts one young woman’s day-in-the-life journey. And while nothing particularly bad happens to the main character as she aimlessly floats through a variety of awkward everyday interactions, its use of a Requiem For A Dream-styled inward-facing Steadicam rig, gives the video an off-kilter and alien point of view. It results in a constant dreamlike self-consciousness that perfectly matches the unsettling eeriness of the song. - WNYC (NPR)

They may be four young dudes from Winnipeg, but Les Jupes evoke the spirit of the original post-punk wave of the late ‘70s. The Canadian quartet deliver the kind of dark yet melodically alluring songwriting acts like the Chamelons, Echo & the Bunnymen and the Comsat Angels favored three decades ago.

Les Jupes’ debut album, ‘Modern Myths,’ garnered praise in indie circles, and their upcoming ‘Negative Space’ EP should follow suit. Les Jupes’ frontman Michael P Falk’s vocals are a towering presence on the EP, matching the group’s driving arrangements and Adam Fuhr’s dramatic keyboard atmospherics. Diffuser.fm is thrilled to bring you the exclusive premiere of ‘Interview with a Contract Killer,’ a track off the EP.

“This is actually a fairly old song — it was played once at a show with a different version of the band years ago but remained as a half-finished demo, and I didn’t think it would ever see the light of day,” Falk tells Diffuser.fm. “My friend Dave kept bugging me and bugging me about it — it was his favorite. So, we brought it back from the dead and put it on the EP for him.”

Falk, who hits the road with the group on a West Coast tour starting Oct. 8 in Seattle, also provided us with some insight into the ‘Contract Killer’ lyrics.

“I’ve always enjoyed writing songs as movie scenes — there’s a couple on our first record and this song continues the attempt to create a painting of a scene with a song,” he says. “I picture the two people sitting across from each other, uncomfortable and both a bit nervous, and what must be running through their minds.”


Read More: Les Jupes, 'Interview with a Contract Killer' - Song Premiere | http://diffuser.fm/les-jupes-interview-with-a-contract-killer-song-premiere/?trackback=tsmclip - Diffuser.fm

For all intents and purposes, the appearance of Les Jupes in this column has been a long time coming. For years they’ve been producing the sort of music that column goes crazy for, and had if everything had been up to speed lately, this piece would have come together and fired off almost a month ago. But here we are, it’s October and while the band powers into the UK for the first time this year, it’s as good of a time as any to shine the well-deserved spotlight on the Winnipeg quartet.

Most recently from the four-piece’s camp came a four-track EP; Negative Spaces released last month to a strong reception, and one that it’s really quite difficult to dispute. Opening track ‘Save Your Friends’ is a rousing, pogo-inducing wake up call to kick the record off, with ‘the Voices’ and ‘Hold Me Down’ following to prolong the particularly epic brand of indie that seems to have become synonymous with Les Jupes. It’s the kind that has without doubt had the ears of the National ringing every time a new flow of reviews come through of the band’s work, and the Canadians are certainly resembling a band who has earned the right to be placed alongside the indie heavyweights. The likes of Arcade Fire are not far off either, and it’s easy to mark the band as akin to Embrace with a little more fire behind them. Regardless of how they’re labelled, however, Les Jupes are filled to burst with the kind of spark that can take a band’s UK presence from the Finsbury to Wembley Arena and beyond. ‘Interview With a Contract Killer’ only serves to strengthen this statement; a slowly building track that thrives with a pulsing rhythm to culminate in one of the strongest closing minutes to any release this year.

There’s no wonder why the quartet are turning heads right now, and it’s little surprise that the UK is beginning to warm to them. With releases like Negative Space, however, it only creates more anticipation of an eventual album release. It wouldn’t be the first from the band, whose debut full-length Modern Myths surfaced last year in a dazzling haze of indie-cum-post rock colour. It was a journey that you want to take over and over again, from the first notes of ‘Myth #3 (The Mountain)’, through the slow and pensieve ‘A Caveman Returns Home to Find the Fire Has Gone Out’ and into the more vibrant ‘Mathematics’. It culminates, via a number of other stops throughout the spectrum of a band with plenty of depth to play with, in ‘Awake, My Ghost!’, nine minutes of soothing, creeping sound; a dose of Nick Cave at his most stripped back would not be far off. While the track certainly takes its time to hit each crescendo, Les Jupes fill the album’s final nine minutes with ease. It’s the perfect conclusion to a hit-and-hit-again album that still seems to be lacking the real praise that it deserves.

There’s a lot to shout about when it comes to Les Jupes. The quartet have the tools for a big future on both our side of the Atlantic and their own. It’s certainly not something you should pass up, because every next day could be the day that the Canadians skyrocket. Hell, don’t even pass it up today. Make the most of days like today, and tomorrow, where small London venues are holding them, because they won’t for long. Les Jupes have a knack for the style of music that has taken the likes of the National into internationally renowned acts. To say that the Winnipeg four-piece couldn’t follow that same path would be the most ludicrous statement to ever appear in this column, regardless of any protests that fans of TWIABP might have about that. It’s just as well, then, that we’re saying the opposite. For Les Jupes, the sky is the limit. - 7 Bit Arcade

Winnipeg’s Les Jupes went into the studio with a sick producer/ engineer and came out with transformed songs that will make up the band’s new album, which has not be named yet.

“There are some really bold moments, and there are some really beautiful moments,” said frontman Michael P. Falk about the upcoming album. “It’s a bit of a left turn, but it’s still us.”

After the release of the Negative Space EP in September, Les Jupes went to Montreal to record with Marcus Paquin. Upon arrival, they found Paquin in rough shape. “Marcus was really sick when we were recording,” said Falk. “His body was kind of shutting down.” Paquin had just finished a busy stretch of projects, including sessions with The National. “He was lying down while we were tracking the songs, and just yelling, ‘YES!’ or ‘NO!’”

Falk said that Paquin pushed them to think a little differently about their songs. “We would say, ‘Maybe this song doesn’t want to be this way.’ Most of the songs got a serious overhaul once we were in the studio.

There are still elements of rock band songs, but a little more orchestrated. There are more electronic elements involved, more loops, more keyboards.” Falk mentions one song in particular, called “Something’s Happening,” which saw big changes in the studio. “We went into the studio with a simple synth style and it came out as this giant percussive mountain of melody and cacophony.”

Les Jupes’ earlier releases each include a song that tells a story. Falk said that’s one thing that is not changing on the new album. “There’s a couple of vignette pieces. This one has one about a spy, on a dock in the fog, figuring out if what’s going on is really going on.” - Outwords

WHEN it comes to the local indie music scene no one knows better what is happening at street level than Mike Petkau Falk.

In 2009 his highly successful Record of the Week Club challenged disparate players to create music outside their natural comfort zones. As the current artistic director of the West End Cultural Centre, he has been exposed to countless artists and, along with his own well-regarded musical skills, has created what may well end up being one of the best local releases of the new year.

Modern Myths kicks at indie rock convention and throws down a weighty gauntlet for those wishing to produce any kind of unusual music in this city. The quartet, along with a bevy of local heavyweight scenesters, creates an energetically diverse din that is at once affecting and intelligent in its delivery.

The production is top-notch and the songs fairly blast out of the speakers with jittery excitement. Petkau Falk's deeply resonant voice is a key element in the Les Jupes sound and it will get your attention right away. Tracks like the bubbling Mathematics and others are almost immediately unforgettable and avoid the standard "build the hook early and repeat incessantly" syndrome. Along with a graphically divine album sleeve design this 10-tracker rates as the new benchmark for locally created rock. And that's no myth. - Winnipeg Free Press

CANADIAN trio Les Jupes have delivered a highly enjoyable album in Modern Myths and one that will reward those who seek it out.

Recorded over a year and a half when Montreal producer/engineer Marcus Paquin (frontman of Last Gang’s Silver Starling) found time from working on Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, it’s an eclectic listen that’s both intimate and pounding.

Throughout, Michael Petkau Falk’s baritone vocals provide an endearing accompaniment – rising to the album’s liveliest occasions, while offering something brooding and/or thoughtful during its quieter ones.

They also deliver one outstanding moment in One Solemn Oath, a slow burning offering that features a fantastically laidback beat, some brooding guitar riffs and a vibe not dissimilar from Snow Patrol at their finest.

The lyrics, too, are observent and thought-provoking… evidence of the band’s strong songwriting qualities. It’s a true 5 out of 5 moment.

If the remainder of the songs can’t quite measure up, there are still plenty of moments to savour.

Opening track Myth #3 (The Mountain) opens amid a wave of distorted guitars before hitting you with a gruff vocal and a mounting intensity that proves compelling, while Mathematics is a pure slice of melodic rock ‘n’ roll that marks the LP at its most radio friendly and catchy. Doubtless, you’ll be singing along to the chorus of “mathematics is the universal language”.

Elsewhere, there’s a beautifully melancholy blend of guitars and piano on A Caveman Returns Home To Find The Fire Has Gone Out… a heartbreaking song in itself if you listen to it properly.

And a haunted romanticism surrounding the atmospheric, slow-burning Last Dance.

But then Les Jupes don’t shy away from ambitious lyricism either, with songs covering a broad range of themes from Nikita Khruschev, Stalin’s Ukranian heir and cold-war architect, depression and eating disorders, suicide, Chicago and people who take things too seriously.

Not that some of these weightier issues give rise to a depressing listen… far from it! The album is compulsive, occasionally rocky but always interesting even during songs that perhaps don’t satisfy as much as the LP’s finest efforts.

It’s a damn fine effort, in fact, from a band that look set to become one of Canada’s most intriguing and complex acts.

Download picks: Myth #3 (The Mountain), One Solemn Oath, Mathematics, Last Dance, A Caveman Returns Home To Find The Fire Has Gone Out, Awake, My Ghost! - Indie London

Pop music that's intellectual, overtly or otherwise, runs the risk of never finding an audience receptive to its charms. As such, Modern Myths might slip through the cracks - and it shouldn't. Winnipeg's Michael Petkau Falk has created a brazen, bizarre album featuring his charismatic, problematic baritone and a whack-load of neat production from Arcade Fire collaborator Marcus Paquin. Songs of note: Someone Lit a Fire Under Kruschev manages to be both danceable and spacey; A Caveman Returns is sparse and vaguely dangerous; Last Dance is hypnotic, first, then anthemic and ebullient. Smiling, I ask, like, WTF? - Montreal Hour

As hard as you work as an indie band, there are always certain elements that are beyond your control: Earthquakes, floods, thefts, fires. For Winnipeg’s Les Jupes, it was the latter, specifically, The Arcade Fire. Shortly after recording the bed tracks for Modern Myths, co-producer-engineer Marcus Paquin was drafted to work on the indie juggernaut’s third album, The Suburbs.

“I had zero clout,” admits Les Jupes songwriter and frontman Michael Petkau Falk, with a slight chuckle. As an experienced and well-regarded producer-engineer, Falk recognized the need for a second pair of ears on his own project. “Marcus was an old friend of mine who I really trusted,” he says. “I wanted to just be a musician and just worry about the creative stuff. I didn’t want to have to worry about mic positions or compressor settings.”

Paquin was out of the picture for a full year, but there was an upside to his departure. “It was nice to actually sit on the record and hash it out, to have a year-and-a-half to do that…. Each song has been sung a couple of times now and I’ve tried out several different arrangements on certain parts.”

Given Les Jupes’ stature and reputation, it almost seems surprising that Modern Myths is, in fact, its debut album.

Those lucky enough to have caught its set as a three piece at Sled Island in 2009 will discover a considerably fuller sound from an entirely new band. “We were between keyboard players for Sled Island,” explains Falk. While current keyboardist Kelly Beaton doesn’t actually play on the album, she does sing on several tracks — her clear, pretty voice contrasting beautifully with Falk’s dark baritone.

The result is a triumphant debut: dark, thoughtful, near epic songs with expansive themes, punctuated with soaring, sweeping melodic breaks. It is one of those rare records that grabs your ears firmly and immediately, yet still yields exponentially greater rewards upon repeated listens.

“Les Jupes live has been a bit of a rotating door, for a couple of years,” Falk admits. “We went for a really dense, thick sound. All the keyboard parts are tripled and all the guitar parts are quadrupled. Live, the drums are much more present and it’s really kind of pounding — much more of a rock band.”

When not fronting Les Jupes or producing other Winnipeg artists, Falk is the artistic director for Winnipeg’s West End Cultural Centre and runs Head in the Sand Records. Falk’s ambitious Record of the Week Club paired up two widely diverse artists in a studio, for one night, to conceive, produce and record a finished track. An impressive 16 songs were completed in 16 weeks. Although he has ideas for a Record of the Week Club sequel, it’s unlikely to happen in the near future. “I’m trying to stay away from that for a little while. I need to just focus on my stuff. I’ve given a lot of creativity to other people.”

Pressed to define a common esthetic thread that unites Prairie artists, Falk offers one word. “Patience. That spaciousness, the fact that it takes you six hours to drive to another city — you don’t have to get to the chorus right away,” he says thoughtfully. It’s rather fitting. The drive may have taken longer than was foreseen, but now, with the destination in plain sight, it all seems worthwhile.

“We finally have a stable band, oh my goodness,” Falk says. “It’s taken a long time to get to this point, where everybody’s on the same page, in the same room. Kelly was jumping up and down in rehearsal the other day, saying ‘I can’t wait to finally play these songs for people.’” - FFWD Magazine

"What about the voice of Geddy Lee, how did it get so high? I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy?"

With apologies to Pavement and their Stereo salute to the great Rush rock god, it is something many, too, are wondering about Winnipeg musician Michael Petkau Falk.

Upon the release of his band Les Jupes' superb debut Modern Myths, his vocal delivery is receiving almost as much press as the darkly confident indie rock that's contained within.

But instead of owning a piercing, dog-calling, Take Off squall, Petkau Falk lays claim to one of the richest, most wonderfully weather-treated baritones in all of Can-rock Christendom.

So the question remains: Does he speak like an ordinary guy?

Petkau Falk laughs. "That's awesome -- we sing that Pavement song in rehearsal all the time," he says in a, yes, oven-roasted timbre.

With that question now laid to rest, the focus can finally fall on Modern Myths, as a whole. Finally.

The album, released Jan. 11, was produced over an 18-month period of stops and starts, partly due to producer Marcus Paquin's work on Arcade Fire's latest release The Suburbs, and partly due to Petkau Falk's own busy life in the Winnipeg music scene. There, he runs an indie label, is the artistic director of the West End Cultural Centre, books bands and plays in other local projects.

In fact, between the hometown release shows for Myths and the upcoming tour, Petkau Falk was jetting to a music-industry conference in France, where he was shopping around some of his artists and ideas.

He says he's somewhat relieved to have his own album out there now.

"It was a long time coming, but it's a good sign that I still love all of the songs. I feel really excited about it and there's a lot of energy and a big weight off my chest and this feeling of, 'Now we can finally get rolling here' -- that's kind of how I feel.

"So it's nice to be able to push open the door a bit and start working."

The magically gloomy Modern Myths is an album that should push the quartet through a number of other doors. It slides contemporary folk into a lush fog of subdued prog for a sound that is as epic as it is primal and as stirring as it is sad and introverted-- like Henry V's Agincourt speech whispered beneath the blankets.

As a result, the 10 tenderly rendered tracks should find favour with anyone who likes their rock with a side of melancholia, which Petkau Falk promises to deliver in a live setting, as well. Because, despite the fact some of the tracks have been with him for five years and come from a time when he was going through some dark times of his own, the current quartet incarnation of Les Jupes performs the record "pretty faithfully."

"This is the first time I've really felt a responsibility to the songs, to the production, to try to really convey that same mood and that same sonic palette live," he says.

One thing that puts a smile on his face is the current thaw in his city's musical climate.

As someone who's been called "the patron saint of the Winnipeg music scene," he has watched and even helped nurture the level of talent to a point where people are once again talking about 'Toba acts and what they're doing. And he also sees in the city itself a place that's conducive to bringing unique things out of the musicians, artists -- and everyone, for that matter -- who reside inside of it.

"It felt like we were in some post-Weakerthans dark age for a little while there," Petkau Falk says on the indierock darlings. "The Weakerthans came out and they were a big deal -- and they're still a big deal -- but it felt like that was all that was really happening in Winnipeg for a little while.

"Now there's Royal Canoe and Liptonians and us and Imaginary City and there's Oldfolks Home and a lot of other stuff that's starting to percolate and there's a new scene really charging out of the gate.

"That's really exciting. Because it felt like, for a couple of years, Calgary was the only place on the Prairies putting out cool music.

"This is a weird place sometimes," he continues. "It feels like a city that, even in 2011, is still just really disconnected from what's going on in a lot of the other parts of the world and just plays by its own rules. Sometimes to its own detriment, and sometimes it's a success.

"But Winnipeg marches to the beat of its own drum and everyone else be damned." - The National Post