First Watch: Le Volume Courbe, 'Rusty'

Le Volume Courbe is the music of Charlotte Marionneau and her friends. On her second album those friends include names you'll know, like Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine, and names you'll want to know, like Melanie Draisey, Chris Mackin, Lascelle Gordon and more.

It's been ten years since the first Le Volume Courbe album, I Killed My Best Friend. Charlotte admits that she's not prolific. She makes music more like collage, piecing bits and pieces together, and for her that takes time — it's like starting all over again. This song, "Rusty," is from the new album I Wish Dee Dee Ramone Was Here With Me, which comes out Friday. Marionneau wrote the song with band mate Chris Mackin about his friend. I don't speak French, but when I heard the song and watched the video I felt a great sense of love and friendship not only toward the subject, the cigarette smoking Rusty, but among the players ... the way they build the song up from something almost like a small glance into a big hug.

The video seems shot with the same sort of camaraderie, and in fact when I asked about the making of the video, Charlotte wrote back to tell us, "The video is very much an extension of the song in the sense that it was shot by two dear friends and edited by my best friend, video director Nathalie Gasdoue. It's Nathalie's first music video. I wanted the video to be about friendship so it does include many of my close friends. Nothing was staged — it was done spontaneously with an iPhone at different locations without the song being played and without the people knowing they were being filmed for the video (except me). The footage was filmed at different times in the U.S., U.K. and France and put together like a collage where the American deer meets the French donkey."

And if you're wondering about the words, here's a translation for you, from Charlotte Marionneau herself.

RUSTY
A word, a simple word Rusty
A word, a simple word Rusty

This cigarette that you smoke Rusty
What does it do to you
This dance that you sketch/hint Rusty
Always we like/enjoy it

When you laugh Rusty we laugh too

I dreamt you were in heaven
I dreamt you were in heaven Rusty

And there we were too
And there we were too

A word, a simple word Rusty

This cigarette that you smoke Rusty
What does it do to you
This dance that you sketch/hint Rusty
Always we like/enjoy it

When you laugh Rusty we laugh too

I dreamt you were in heaven
I dreamt you were in heaven Rusty

And there we were too

A word, a simple word Rusty
A word, a simple word Rusty
A word, a simple word Rusty
A word, a simple word Rusty

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