Tater plate

>> At long last, les Couch Potatoes get their album out

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

After months of false starts and delays, sunny, funny houseketeers les Couch Potatoes have finally dropped Cool Ride, their debut album. With a solid live band in place, an accessible sound even Mom could dance to, inroads into France and a slew of collabs cooking--including a possible team-up with Mitsou--DJ Nic B. and composer Jean-Michel Lapointe have planty to smile about.



Mirror: How does it feel to have it out at last?

Jean-Michel Lapointe: It feels good! It was long enough wait for the release, but I think it was for good reasons. We got to know the people we're working with and we developed a good distribution network. It was about time, though, because we're ready to do other things. We're ready to do a second album, and the first one's just coming out.

M: There are some newer tracks, which see you expanding the scope of the Couch sound. Songs like "Gouma" and "Baby Couch," which have a more electro feel than the sorta sunshine disco-house we've come to expect.

J-ML: It's a result of our different influences--we listen to house, electro, a lot of pop. You can hear it on the album, each song has its own character. The more we go along, the more I want to explore a wider world of music. I don't like the elitist side of house, I'll leave that to the DJs. They do that well, digging up the underground stuff that you'll only hear in clubs. We want to reach more people than that. More and more, and maybe this is just us getting older, we're just looking for a smile. To be honest, I'd have no problem hearing our stuff on commercial radio.

M: So what else is cooking for les Couch?

J-ML: Nic's still DJing, that's going well. We've also been doing remixes. You know the song "Kiss and Run" by Richard Petit? He's pretty straightforward Quebecois pop. I did a Daft Punk-ish remix that's now number-1 on CKMF. Oh, and we did a 2001 remake of "Bye Bye Mon Cowboy" by Mitsou! It's got an electro tone to it, it's really fun. I also did a remix for Dubmatique with Nic, which sounds very Paper Recordings. When they got it, the Dubmatique guys said, "We feel like we're in Nottingham!"

Launch at Newtown on Sun., Sept. 2, 10pm, $10