Soft Cell Gets Softer

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• The Clash (Band)
• Nouvelle Vague
• Olivier Libaux
• Punk Rock
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

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A French bossa nova band covering '80s Brit New Wave hits, Nouvelle Vague has a sound that touches on something cinematic. Picture Jason Schwartzman entering stage left to the band's woozy version of Modern English's "I Melt With You" as his character taps into a sentimentality that's been muted over the years. The band is the creation of two French producers, Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux, who recruited French and Brazilian vocalists to sing postpunk and New Wave classics by the likes of the Cure, the Clash, and Joy Division. Hard-core fans of the originals might cringe at a French songstress aping Ian Curtis, but there's a kitschy reflectiveness to hearing these angst-y, 20-year-old songs mellowed. On Nouvelle Vague's latest album, 3, Depeche Mode's Martin Gore even sings backup on his own "Master and Servant." How meta.
Tue., Feb. 16, 8 p.m., 2010