''Motel Capri'' is the third album by Québécois néo-trad band

Les Cowboys Fringants Les Cowboys Fringants () are a Quebecker folk rock band formed in 1995 in Repentigny, Quebec. The French word ''fringant'' can be translated as "dashing", or "frisky". They perform '' Quebecker'' néo-trad music (modernized Quebec folk music ...

Track listing

#Su' mon big Wheel (c'tait le fun) (Pauzé) – 0:11 #Le plombier (Pauzé) – 3:03 #Québécois de souche (Lebeau) – 2:04 #Awikatchikaën (Tremblay, Pauzé) – 2:37 #Maurice au bistro (Pauzé, Lépine) – 3:29 #M'a vivre avec toi (Lebeau) – 5:10 #Le Shack à Hector (Pauzé) – 4:41 #Marcel Galarneau (Tremblay, Pauzé) – 2:38 #Mon pays - Reel des Aristocrates (Pauzé, Lépine) – 4:14 #Rue Chapdelaine (Pauzé) – 4:25 #Banlieue (Pauzé) – 4:45 #Voyou (Pauzé) – 2:53 #Léopold - Le Temps Perdu (Lebeau - Prévert, Pauzé) – 4:12 #Le Gars d'la Compagnie (Pauzé, Lépine) – 3:16 #Le Pouceux (Pauzé, Dom) – 3:11 #Un p'tit tour (Pauzé, Lebau) – 3:09

Personnel

* Karl Tremblay – lead

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, "3.00$ instrument"actual leaflet text (instrument a 3.00 $) * Dominique Lebeau –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Marie-Annick Lépine –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

violoncello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C ...

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

and female

* J-F Pauzé –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Jérome Dupras –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, backing vocals

Production

In a humorous fashion, production credits are indicated in terms of 'Motel employees' title. *Shareholders and Producers: Les Production Louboy International *Reception and Phone: La Compagnie Larivée Cabot Champagne *Motel Manager: Claude Larivé *Room Service:

La Tribu La Tribu is a Canadian independent record label founded in 1999 in Quebec. Noted artists * Dorothée Berryman *Robert Charlebois * Les Cowboys Fringants * Dee * Dumas * Louise Forestier * Fred Fortin/Gros Mené * Jorane * Juste Robert (fr) *Kat ...

*Handy-Man (part-time): Marc Talbot *Room Decoration and musical arrangements:

with the touch of Louis-simon Hétu *Photography: Anick Desjardins

Additional credits

* Sound take, mixing, creation: Louis-Simon Hétu (track 1, 2, 4 and 8 sound take Michel Tellier (Presqu'Ile studio) and track 1 mixed by Claude champagne (Studio champagne) * Leaflet design: BBF Design * engraving Jean-Francois Chicoine SNB

Notable songs

''Su'mon Big Wheel (C'tait l'fun)''

One of their ultimate

naïve art Naïve art is usually defined as visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy, art history, technique, perspective, ways of seeing). When this aesthetic is ...

-esque songs. A silly 10 second piece with the title constituting the entire lyrics (''On my Big Wheel, 'twas fun!''). (A Big Wheel is a child's plastic

tricycle A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a Human-powered transport, human-powered (or gasoline or electric motor powered or assisted, or gravity powered) Three-wheeler, three-wheeled vehicle. Some tricycles, such as cycle rickshaws (for pa ...

toy).
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''Le Plombier''

A thoroughly farcical song about a grotesque plumber sharing the name of

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

great

Guy Lafleur Guy Damien Lafleur (September 20, 1951 – April 22, 2022), nicknamed "the Flower" and "Le Démon Blond", was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was the first player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 50 goals in six c ...

, speaking fanatically about

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

not being ''fake''. The song grew out of a bet made to J-F Pauzé by singer Karl Tremblay to manage writing a song with bizarre, random expressions like '' Jaromir Jagr haircut'', ''butt crack'' and ''

Velveeta Velveeta is a brand name for a processed cheese similar to American cheese. It was invented in 1918 by Emil Frey (1867–1951) of the Monroe Cheese Company in Monroe, New York. In 1923, The Velveeta Cheese Company was incorporated as a separat ...

''. ''And since that time, when I see the real Guy Lafleur on TV; I always have a little thought for a fat badly raised plumber!''
listen

''Québécois de souche''

A complete critical comical mocking of the

anglicism An anglicism is a word or construction borrowed from English by another language. Due to the global dominance of English in the 20th and 21st centuries, many English terms have become widespread in other languages. Technology-related English ...

s of the popular language of some Quebecers, and their ''corny'' lifestyles. ''I am an old-stock ''Québécois''... My

Bill 101 The ''Charter of the French Language'' (, ), also known as Bill 101 (, ), is a law in the Canadian province of Quebec defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the official language of the provincial government. It is th ...

, don't you dare touch it; It's not that I don't know how to speak well... but I'm an englished colon (in the sense of colonist)...''
listen

''Mon Pays''

''Mon Pays, suivi du Reel des Aristocrates'' is a very amusing song which ends in a long

reel A reel is a tool used to store elongated and flexible objects (e.g. yarns/ cords, ribbons, cables, hoses, etc.) by wrapping the material around a cylindrical core known as a '' spool''. Many reels also have flanges (known as the ''rims'') arou ...

and laying down the ludicrous theory that much of the

Quebec independence The Quebec sovereignty movement (French: ''mouvement souverainiste du Québec'', ) is a political movement advocating for Quebec's independence from Canada. Proponents argue that Quebecers form a distinct nation with a unique culture, language, ...

-related defeats of the

Quebec people Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...

throughout its history (the

Battle of the Plains of Abraham The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec (), was a pivotal battle in the Seven Years' War (referred to as the French and Indian War to describe the North American theatre). The battle, which took place on 13 Sept ...

, the

Lower Canada Rebellion The Lower Canada Rebellion (), commonly referred to as the Patriots' Rebellion () in French, is the name given to the armed conflict in 1837–38 between rebels and the colonial government of Lower Canada (now southern Quebec). Together wit ...

and the

October Crisis The October Crisis () was a chain of political events in Canada that started in October 1970 when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross f ...

) are caused by an almost endemic tradition of drunkenness. ''The Patriotes rebelled, the English regime will have to fall, they got out their ceintures fléchées! The Patriotes all agreed: to achieve victory, we will have to stop drinking!''
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''Le Gars d'la compagnie''

It's about

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, ; ) is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

workers and the Quebec forest, as well as aboriginals, being exploited by American businessmen before the

Quiet Revolution The Quiet Revolution () was a period of socio-political and socio-cultural transformation in French Canada, particularly in Quebec, following the 1960 Quebec general election. This period was marked by the secularization of the government, the ...

. This might be one of the few songs with little irony (although some lyrical passages are indeed ironic). ''And the guy from the company was laughing secretly; Who's the idiot that says that money doesn't grow on trees!''
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Notes

{{Authority control Les Cowboys Fringants albums 2000 albums