NOISEY 038: THE SHOES

The Shoes almost single-handedly inaugurated the flood of new music in Reims. Now, with other groups like the indie-poppers Bewitched Hands, the Reims scene is burgeoning, and childhood friends Guillaume Briere and Benjamin Lebeau’s brooding electro-pop is leading the way.

Things started to get interesting for the Shoes back in 2008, when a couple of remixes for their friends Yuksek and Brodinski grabbed the ear of online tastemakers. Since then, they’ve changed their live set up, picking up instruments and leaving the laptops at home.

They’ve continued moving forward, lending their remix abilities to Ladyhawke, Marina & the Diamonds, and Golden Silvers. Their debut record Crack My Bones was released in early March, keeping up momentum built by the video for “Stay The Same,” which brought in glowing reviews. The record features guest appearances from Esser, Cocknbull Kid, and Wave Machines. The band has stated that they’re wary of labels, and use the freedom of releasing records independently to experiment within the electro idiom. We caught up with them at a festival in Dijon, where we met their army of young fans. We got an exclusive tour around a deserted construction site where they used to practice, and they told us a bunch of hilariously stupid jokes.