Phoenix is a French rock band from Versailles, formed in 1995. Their line-up, which has remained unchanged since their formation, comprises Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz.
Thomas Hedlund has been the band's session and live drummer since 2005.
real name: Thomas Mars, Christian Mazzalai, Laurent 'Branco' Brancowitz, Deck d'Arcy
members: Thomas Mars, Laurent Brancowitz, Deck d'Arcy, Christian Mazzalai
formed in: Versailles, Palace of Versailles
labels: V2 Records, Astralwerks, EMI, Virgin Records, Glassnote Records, Arts & Crafts Productions, EMI
genres: alternative rock, electronic music, rock music, French pop, synth-pop, indie rock, new wave, indietronica
awards: Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, Victory of the rock album
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
Phoenix was conceived in the 1990s when vocalist Thomas Mars, bassist Deck d'Arcy, and guitarist Chris Mazzalai, who were all friends in school, started playing together as a "garage band" based out of Mars's house in Versailles. In 1995, Laurent Brancowitz, Mazzalai's older brother, permanently joined the band on guitar after the end of Darlin', a short-lived band that Brancowitz had formed with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who would later form electronic duo Daft Punk. Two years later the band took on the name Phoenix and pressed 500 copies of a single on their own label, Ghettoblaster. Shortly after, they were signed to the Paris-based Source Records. Phoenix quickly became well acquainted with labelmates Air when...
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"1901" is a song by French indie pop band Phoenix. It was released in 2009 as the lead single from their fourth studio album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009).
It peaked at number 73 in Canada and number 84 in the United States, making "1901" the band's first song to chart there. Furthermore, it also reached number one on the US Alternative Songs chart.
The song has received very positive reviews from music critics; Pitchfork's Jason Crock chose the song as a "Best New Track" and added that it's "just as smooth and spirited and dementedly catchy as any of their best singles". The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll ranked "1901" at number two to find the best music of 2009, after Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind". In October 2009, "1901" ranked number 228 in Pitchfork's list of The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s, the fifth-highest placement on the list amongst 2009 songs. The NME's Gavin Haynes praised the song's "rave-like stop-go guitars", while Evan Sawdey of PopMatters said it might be Phoenix's "finest song to date". Philadelphia Inquirer music critic Dan DeLuca described the song as...
The music video for "1901" was uploaded to YouTube on 25 October 2009. Featured artists include Helen George and Ian Roe.
"Everything Is Everything" is a song by French rock band Phoenix and is featured on their second studio album, Alphabetical. It was released 22 March 2004 in the European Union and Japan as the lead single from that album.
It was also released 12 July 2004 as a single from the album in the United Kingdom. It is featured in the music video game Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, as downloadable content for Guitar Hero 5, and on Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends.
"If I Ever Feel Better" is a song by French band Phoenix, released on 1 June 2000 as the third single from their debut studio album, United. It contains a sample of Japanese jazz musician Toshiyuki Honda's 1979 track "Lament", which was written by Chikara Ueda.
The song remains Phoenix's highest charting in both France and internationally, reaching top-10 positions in Belgium, Italy and Spain, as well as number 12 in France. It was certified gold in Italy by FIMI in 2017.
In a review for the band's album It's Never Been Like That, Rob Mitchum of Pitchfork referred to the song and "Everything Is Everything" as "brilliant" with "production as crisp as a Frito and singer Thomas Mars' mercury croon" that "could slot into the playlists of hipsters and receptionists alike". In a review for Erlend Øye's DJ-Kicks album that includes a remix of the track, Nick Sylvester called the original version an "utterly catchy French house gem".