Yelle

A cause de short dick

By DAVID DANCER

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What's up with all of the French culture we are experiencing now? I like French things. Au Bon Pain is pretty cool, lingerie is frilly and French House me oui! Boston now has, like, 50 bistros, apparently ... but they are expensive and have blooming onions on their menus.

With all those examples of French life, a dose of something to accommodate the aural palate is in need. Yelle can satisfy, while her Day-Glo outfits and aerobic dance steps provide the eye candy—think Kylie Minogue meets Justice, but take away 20 years. Pop-Up, her first full-length, was released through France's EMI last year, but is currently available on Astralwerks in the US. Yelle (Julie Budet) began getting label offers after exploding into the French music scene through her MySpace music page, with her delightfully danceable jab at Cuizinier, member of popular French hip-hop group TTC. It was called "Short Dick Cuizi." She is finally making her Boston debut on a 2008 stateside tour, catering to her growing English-speaking audience with stops in 16 US cities.

After checking into her hotel in São Paulo, Brazil, I had the chance to speak with the 25-year-old singer over the phone, ask her a few questions about her growing international success and gain some insight on her stimulating wardrobe. Her limited English made quotes pretty damn hard to excavate. "Fashion is a real pleasure for me—I like going onstage with a strong image, so I play with style in my outfits," she says in the sweetest French accent ever. She goes on to explain how the simplicity of the lyrics makes it easy for people to follow along, regardless of their first language.

All this is summed up in her biggest club hit, "À Cause des Garçons" ("Because of the Boys"), which not only references the Japanese design house, but has an insanely catchy melody. Not to mention a video that features a bottle of lotion, a hair dryer, a cellphone, a wardrobe and a musical note, all magically exploded and life-size and dancing. Later in the videos our heroine vogues for a huge dancing camera.

Tepr, who will be joining Yelle onstage in Boston, remixed the song, and that really did it. Suddenly it was all over every hipster electro picture-posing party in the world. That video, in turn, cast a huge light on Techtonik, a dance form that came from Paris but was reintroduced to the hipster masses via the Yelle remix. The video features nothing but Techtonik dancers, and has been parodied and re-parodied. The song is one of many pop-electro confections on Pop-Up, including "Je Voux Te Voir" and "Ce Jeu."

When asked about her increasing popularity, she answers with a very simple solution: "I think that people just want to dance in the clubs to pop melodies," she says. "The language doesn't matter."

YELLE

WITH FUNERAL PARTY AND KAP10KURT

WEDNESDAY 10.15.08

ROXY

279 TREMONT ST.,

BOSTON

617.338.7699

7PM/18+/$18 adv, $20 dos

ROXYPLEX.COM

YELLE.FR