les cowboys fringants (english please)?

Question

I am hooked on them, but I don't speak French! Could someone please explain to me what the songs Plus Rien, Hannah, and Evangeline are about? ..These are my favorites by them! And if someone could recommend any similar bands from Quebec that sing in English that would also be great!

Answer 1

Wow...it is funny to read that you are hooked on Les Cowboys Fringants and don't speak French...they are very "Quebec'' music..you can't get any more traditional music that that! I won't give you word for word what the songs mean, but a general idea...it is hard to translate word for word because it is not in French French,,,it's Quebec French (let's say a French from France may not understand a word!)

Okay: Evangeline is about a guy and a girl that meets up, he holds her hand...she punches him...he begs her...they get married! But then he catches her with another guy so he leaves...and he 's miserable. So now he hangs in bars with his buddy and raises his glass to all the cheated of the world.

Plus Rien: (Plus Rien means: Nothing) So the big big picture: it is about what we did and still do to the planet and other human beings and that it is getting worst and worst...and in the end we will end up with Nothing..
The first lines are : I only have few minutes to live, or maybe a few hours but I"m weakening, My brother died last night in the middle of the desert, I am the last human being on earth.

And Hannah: Hannah is a sad song about a girl that had a bad childhood and now does nothing with her life...

I can suggest other bands/singer from Quebec that are similar to The Cowboys...but you won't find the equivalent in English...it just doesn't exists...it is too typical ''french Quebec song''...too traditionnal.
Okay, if you don't know these ones yet, try it you might like it...:
Stefie Shock, Mononc' Serge, Mes Aieux (try the song Dégénération...that is like what you like!), Les Trois Accords, Ariane Moffatt, Beau dommage.....

There you go! :)