Hushpuppies

by Sergey Mesenov
Energetic French indie rock combo Hushpuppies originally started out as Likyds, a locally known group that bandmembers Olivier Jourdan (vocals), Cyrille Sudreaud (guitars, backing vocals), Wilfried Jourdan (keyboards), and Jean Pompidor (drums) formed in their native town of Perpignan. In the early 2000s the kids moved to Paris, where they were joined by an old friend, Guillame Le Guen, who the band referred to as "the best bass player in Bordeaux" -- and thus Hushpuppies were born. Equally fascinated by the wild unpredictability of punk rock, angular melancholy of post-punk, hypnotic precision of Krautrock, and plain good old noise-making of rock music in general, Hushpuppies allied themselves with singer and musician Benjamin Diamond (best known as the performer of Stardust's "Music Sounds Better with You," a big European dance hit of 1998), who was also conveniently the owner of the independent label Diamondtraxx. The label issued their debut record, The Trap, in 2005; it was released in more then 20 countries and became an independent hit in France, selling more than 20,000 copies. In support of the record, Hushpuppies played more than 100 gigs all across Europe, as well as in Russia and Japan. Their sophomore record, Silence Is Golden, recorded with producer Peter Deimel (known for his work with the Kills and dEUS), was released in 2007 and preceded by the single "I Want My Kate Moss."