by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Have you ever wondered what we, children of the ’70s and ’80s, have gained from contemporary verse? The poetic masters, say Lennon and pre-Wings McCartney, have undoubtedly touched our hearts ("In My Life"), yet they’ve also numbed our minds ("Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?") and painted cruel pictures of unattainable fantasy worlds ("Everybody Wants to Be My Baby"). But what of modern penmanship? Have guilty feet really got no rhythm? Was 1989, in fact, Hammer-time? And has Eric Lapointe truly broken his fists on the face of life? Is it all trifle?

"We think that today’s artists show too much idleness and self-indulgence in their lyrics," suggests Dandys Fauchés singer François. "Poor language, poor rhymes, weak symbolism and false emotion."

Have faith, rock readers! Not only do François, guitarist Sébastien, bassist/laptopist Juan and drummer Alex play vivacious rock ’n’ roll worthy of your best dancing shoes, they revive classic French poetry worthy of your best foulard.

"We thought it would be great to give life back to 19th-century dandy poetry, so we used those great texts for our lyrics," explains François. "We just love the beauty of it all."

After toying with Charles Baudelaire’s "Une Charogne," an experiment that began as a joke, the band chose a name (translation: broke dandies) and ran with the concept. While his bandmates jammed, François read from his favourite dusty tomes, both to work out song lyrics and to set the mood. Baudelaire’s essay on dandyism, which describes the philosophy as, among other things, "a setting sun; like the declining star, it is magnificent, without heat and full of melancholy," inspired the quartet’s theme song "Dandys!" (featured on DJ Frigid’s Kink CD) along with two other tunes, up for grabs at www.dandyrock.com and compiled on an indie single. A new disc is forthcoming.

"We’re fond of the damned poets and mostly of Baudelaire because he’s simply a genius," states François. "He’s able to laugh at himself through his suffering and he transforms the bitterness of life, like the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, into the most beautiful thing you’ll ever read."

With les Truands at l’Hémisphère Gauche
on Saturday, Jan. 22, 9 p.m., $6

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