THE MIDDLEBURY CAMPUS
Melissa Marshall Issue date: 9/11/08
MIOU MIOU: LA LA GRANDE FINALE (Minty Fresh)
Ever since reading "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and the curb stomping of the dollar by the euro, I have wanted to visit Prague. But instead of paying $721 for a ticket, I can be transported to the Czech Republic for $10.99 with the alt-art quintet Miou Miou. Framed around the girlish, barely-there vocals of Karolina Dytrtova, the Prague-based promenade poppers released their first album in the U.S. on April 29th. While she calls Prague home, Dytrtova's laces the band's sunny arrangements with French lyrics - the incomprehensibility of the music for most Americans as well as Czechs adding an ethereal quality to the already light La La Grande Finale. While occasionally Stereolab-like in their stylings, Miou Miou interweaves inventiveness through their impressive roll call of instrumentation. From the driving force of clapping in "A Lete de la Saint Martin 68" to the bongos in "Dans Le Miroir de Tes Yeux" to the sublime synthesizers in "Le Petite Punk," this freshman effort shines clean and gauzy while still straddling the prog-rock divide.
