Sebastien Tellier may be big in France, and may have some kind of underground cult following, but I’m not sure how big because he was 2008 France candidate in the popular but terribly old-fashioned contest Eurovision, which always seems to be a bad move to me if you want to be in.
Nevertheless, he is supposedly very cool, as one of his track from his 2001 album ‘L’incroyable Vérité’ was in the soundtrack of Sofia Coppola’s ‘Lost in Translation’, and some of his songs (‘Look’ from his 2008 ‘Sexuality’ album produced by Daft Punk and ‘La Ritournelle’ from his 2004 album ‘Politics’) were featured in some Ugly Betty’s episodes.
At Record Makers (his label) 10th Anniversary celebration at the El Rey, he appeared as the second headliners of the night, performing just before the famous DJ Kavinsky.
I personally thought this guy was a big joke. He was singing a half English-half French inaudible language, mumbling most of the words with a little voice lost in his long beard, hiding behind dark sunglasses the whole time, moving awkwardly his long arms. I was not sure if this was for real or fake, but any way it was unfunny and full of clichés with some big exaggerated drum solo, then guitar solo, then synth solo, … in France they have a word for this, it’s called variétoche, it’s not a compliment, and though lost in translation, it means cheesy pop,… just like his arrival on stage inundated with pink smoke.
I have read some very positive reviews of his albums, but for me he appeared as a sort of Big Lebowski wearing glitter pants and white shoes, whispering on music which had some reminiscences of the electro-synth-pop ambiance of Jean-Michel Jarre, another hatred of mine.
He left the stage and came back to lit and smoke a cigarette, then crushed it on the floor of the El Rey stage, a place where they don’t even allow chewing gums. I don’t know if it was supposed to be a sort of provocation, but you, Mr. Tellier, you are no Serge Gainsbourg.