A Guy’s Guide to Culture: Charlotte & Magon: Good Moody

Charlotte & Magon’s bio refers to the duet as ‘charmful’, which describes them, and their album ‘Life Factory’, rather well. On the surface they sound soft and trippy, somewhat 70’s, the kind of music you attach –esque to a lot.

But after you spend some time with these tunes, they move in, they show you their dark side and become songs you turn out the lights to. When you listen to this music it speaks to you, and you get close enough to recognize the harmful in the cheer.

Lucky me got to see Charlote & Magon on La Dame de Canton, a boat moored at Party Harbor in the shadow of the Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir. A concert on a barge, how cool is that? I felt the stage rocking during the show in more ways than one…

22:26 The show has begun. Experimental electronica. Soft, slow intro somewhere between foreign prayers and desert winds. The bass moves my clothes like the beat of my rock and roll heart.

22:28 Charlotte dances and tonight feels like it just got home.

22:32 They look like they sound so innocent that they feel guilty.

22:34 Maybe it’s because I’m sitting close to the front, but the music is so intimate I’m worried about invading their privacy.

22:44 Imagine Edith Paif born in a white Rihanna’s body singing what the angels sing before they go to bed.

22:46 Their show is almost too personal to take pictures of.

22:48 ‘Dice’! I love this song. What the desert would sound like if it could sigh. What the devil could sound like if he would cry.

22:51 Starting to lose control of the tune. ‘Dice’ is an unruly song that needs to be kept on a tight leash.

22:58 Nice little duet where you can see they love each other in dark psychedelic ways.

23:01 Transported and soothed. Like I’m in a … soothing transporter. Or a Jacuzzi in a private jet and the water is just right.

23:02 Excuse me while I stop writing a sec just to watch Charlotte dance.

23:06 It’s nice to see a band who really get into their music. Soul deep into it, where they forget they’re performing for any other reason than the feeling.

23:09 Great version of ‘Germinator’. Sometimes live music makes you appreciate a studio song more, like meeting a woman’s younger sister makes you see how beautiful she is.

23:11 The new song, ‘Misdemeanor’, is a good omen.

Here’s a sample of what you missed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzgtZBeI_3k