L’Ocelle Mare preview

L’Ocelle Mare
Fuck Mountain Loft, Chicago
Friday, February 15, 2008

Thomas Bonvalet don’t wanna work. He just wants to bang on his guitar all day.

Mare, formerly half of French duo Cheval De Frise, adopts the L’ocelle Mare moniker for a solo career, which he debuts with a self-titled Sickroom release. This is an incredibly tough listen – 16 nameless tracks (most less than two minutes) that often sound like nothing more than soundchecks. Bonvalet recorded the material in a variety of deserted French locations (quarries, churches, etc.) during a week-long session, which may very well be the most interesting thing about the album (the cricket chirps captured in the background of track 13 provide the album’s most intriguing musical moments), because you can go into basements around the world and hear dudes dick around on their acoustic. Bonvalet can be engaging, and even virtuosic at times, but too often he’s either a) zone-it-out boring or worse, b) flat-out obnoxious.

Them, Roaring Twenties also play. Fuck Mountain Loft is located at 1278 N. Milwaukee Ave.

– Trevor Fisher

Click here to download L’ocelle Mare’s “Track 9.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly