MUSIC

Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now are comprised of Eddie Argos from Art Brut and Dyan Valdés from The Blood Arm. The band (also a couple) formed on a car journey home from San Francisco to Los Angeles. “Jimmy Mack” by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas was playing on the radio - Eddie has always had a problem with this song, as it is cruel to sing a song to your boyfriend telling him you are planning to cheat on him – so Eddie told Dyan that someone needed to defend poor Jimmy Mack. Jimmy was probably off fighting in Vietnam (the song was released in 1967), and there she was singing about getting off with some other boy who “talks just as sweet.” Dyan agreed with Eddie’s disapproval of Martha’s infidelity, and they went home that night and wrote a response to the song from Jimmy’s perspective. Soon, they began to think of other pop songs with which they disagreed, and set about “fixing them.” They demoed 12 songs in their house in LA, then decided to make a proper record and headed out to Joshua Tree to record them with producer/engineer David Newton (ex-Mighty Lemon Drops guitarist/songwriter; Little Ones, The Blood Arm producer).