Phoenix join The Back Keys and Pearl Jam at Open'er Festival

The world has first heard of Phoenix 13 years ago thanks to their album "United' and the single "Too Young", featured on the "Lost in Translation" soundtrack.  The next LP, "Alphabetical", brought singles "Everything Is Everything" and "Run Run Run". Phoenix also released a live album and another studio effort, "It's Never Been Like That". Yet, it was their Grammy Award-winning, critically-acclaimed and gold-selling 4th LP "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" that brought them global recognition.

The 5th album, Bankrupt! is the first new Phoenix album in four years. It sounds almost nothing like old Phoenix albums. It was made by the same people, Thomas Mars, Laurent “Branco” Brancowitz, Christian Mazzalai, Deck d’Arcy, but they may not be playing the same instruments. It was produced by the band and Philippe Zdar in Montmartre. Champagne was involved. In late 2010, the band entered Oscilloscope Laboratories in Manhattan, New York City, and commenced experiments with sound and colour. Over three months, the band began to feel nostalgia for their home country, France. Laurent Brancowitz recalls the origins of this feeling after watching a film set in Paris, with images of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. “I felt a strong emotion, and I knew it wasn’t normal,” he says. “I loved France like a foreigner.” Each member of the band revisited his youth to source the following inspirations: Eric Rohmer, Francois Truffaut, Franco Battiato, Lucio Battistik, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The effect? Bankrupt! is not disposable popular music. Though the songs are quite pleasurable on first listen, subsequent listenings will produce deeper engagement and satisfaction. This simple/complex dichotomy is evident in the pentatonic structure heard throughout the album on songs such as “Entertainment” and “Drakkar Noir,” alongside the Wagnerian overdrive of “SOS in Bel-Air” and “Oblique City.” Bankrupt! will be a dizzying experience for the listener, also intentional. “We were feeling this vertigo, this feeling of being at the very limit of failure,” says Brancowitz. “After a while you realize the most interesting things in life are not success or triumph. It’s more the possibility of everything collapsing.” The album got very high scored from critics, bringing the band headlining slots at Coachella and Lollapalooza.

Phoenix are also renowned for their vigorous concerts with incredible, impressive visuals. We will witness one of these shows on Open’er Stage on Saturday, July 5