Les Sans Culottes: Fixation Orale

In Les Sans Culottes, Francophiles have found their B-52's. Not since singer France Gall pranced her way through "Teenie Weenie Boppie" in the late '60s has French pop sounded so danceable and infectious. And to think such revelry comes from a Brooklyn band whose name, which once referred to 18th-century French revolutionaries, now translates as "Those Without Undergarments." Gall's perkiness, it turns out, enlightens much of the material on "Fixation Orale." Les Sans Culottes even covers her Eurovision hit, "Poupee de Cire." Band members hail from, among other places, Paris and Detroit, and you can tell they've been listening to equal parts Serge Gainsbourg and MC5, especially on the rollicking "Train a Grande Vitesse." The band's fifth release runs the gamut of styles, from sugary-sweet pop to lean garage rock. Ten of the 11 songs are sung in French, with one in French and English, and one in Esperanto. "Tout Va Bien" could induce a cavity with its gooey, echoed choruses, and on "Menage a Toi" band leader Clermont Ferrand orders, "Tell your ma/ Tell your pa/ I think we can make a menage a toi." But the cheekiness transcends the songs: The two female singers are named Kit Kat Le Noir and Celine Dijon. Can't you just see the beehives?