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Les Sinners
Sinerisme
Rusticana - 1967
Michael Panontin
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Sandwiched between les deux expos, one situated on Montreal's Ile Ste.-Helene and the other a little farther north at Jarry Park, were a trio of pop debut releases in 1967 by the Rabble, the Haunted and Les Sinners. Les Sinners, mostly francophone and progeny of a hip and swinging sixties Montreal, its own youthful and confident swagger belying its relatively long and storied past, traverse the normally estranged worlds of angry anglo garage rock and the lilting cool of French pop.
This was a Montreal where the stone structures along Rue St.-Jacques were still the storehouse of stolid anglo wealth and where the likes of playwright Michel Tremblay, artist Guido Molinari, and Leonard Cohen trolled the bars and cafes along Ste-Catherine and St.-Denis streets, where the revolution, mostly quiet then, had not yet sparked the twin terrors of the FLQ crisis and the War Measures Act that followed. It was (as always) a brash and stylish Montreal that, unbeknownst, would soon become the victim of its own bold visions, be they the Parti Quebecois and the anglo flight to Toronto or the boondoggles of Mirabel airport and the 1976 Olympics. Certainly by the 1980s, Montreal was a city a louer, as the plethora of signs downtown would tell.
Sinerisme, ironically somewhat more typical of new millennial Montreal in that it is an effortlessly bilingual affair, alternates between surly garage rock nuggets sung in English (the fuzzed-out riffs on 'Nice Try', for example, wouldn't be out of place on a Pebbles compilation) and French pop ditties with languid harmonies and relaxed, sultry rhythms. The anglo cuts, while steeped in the requisite Jaggeresque snarl and standard blues riffs, are ultimately formulaic. However, in the post-Stereolab, Post-Gainsbourg world, it is the French tracks that are the most intriguing here, as anyone who has hung out in Montreal's 'Plateau' neighbourhood in the 00s can attest to. 'L'Hymn a Zoe, for instance, is a relaxed, almost nonchalant pop affair, while 'Elle est Revenue' is steeped in understatement, with its bold bouncing bass, strident yet minimal guitar and almost subtly cool harmonies.
That same year, drummer Louis Parizeau and guitarist/vocalist Francois Guy appeared in a film by Jacques Godbout called Kid Sentiment, contributing music and songs to the soundtrack. As well, 1967 would see the release of what would be Les Sinners' biggest hit, a French version of 'Penny Lane'. The following year, Guy would leave to join Le Revolution Francaise and Les Sinners would soldier on with considerable success until 1975, releasing some 5 more albums as well as a fascinating historical shard, a 7" called 'Go Go Trudeau' in 1968 with a French version on the A side and an English version on the flip.
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