Mike Rimbaud 2015 press book

Mike Rimbaud Press book
www.mikerimbaud.com
New album, “Put That Dream in Your Pipe and Smoke It”
Other albums:
Night Rainbow
Coney Island Wave
Mutiny in The Subway
Funeral Lover
Red Light
Graffiti Trees
Beast of Broadway
What Was I Thinking

Mike Rimbaud is an American singer-songwriter and painter who lives in New York City. He has recorded
11 albums(including an album of covers and a compilation). “Put That Dream in Your Pipe and Smoke
it” is the latest (released fall, 2014.) In February 2014 Mike released his single cover of “Stairway to Heaven”
not what you would expect with harmonica and saxophone, watch the music video on You Tube. “Night Rain-
bow,” from 2013 was inspired by hurricane Sandy and the continuing economic crisis in the US, “Night Rain-
bow” includes the singles; “Sandy Must Be Crazy,” “Dark Money Can’t Buy Her Kisses”, “Jackhammer Jones”
and “Robin Hood In Reverse.” recent music videos include “Rainbow Tonight,” “Slow Down To Get Ahead,”
“Teacher’s Got a Bad Mouth,” “Jackhammer Jones,” and “Sandy Must Be Crazy.” In 2012 Mike shot videos
in Coney Island (“Dance With A Mermaid”) and “Everyone needs a Daddy” (filmed in Nashville) for his “Co-
ney Island Wave” CD ( released in 2011.) In 2012 Mike Rimbaud also contributed his song (Saving Up To Go
Bankrupt) for “Occupy This Album” to benefit the Occupy Wall Street movement.
He started his career by performing in the bars and rock clubs in New York, but it was with record labels in
Paris that he released his first 3 CD’s. Mike has been compared to Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Gene
Vincent among others, but his songwriting style and voice have always been unique. Although his career has
remained in the underground, he has continued to be a prolific songwriter sometimes commenting on current
events with his songs such as; “Stimulus Baby”, “Katrina Comes Again”, “7-11 on September 11th” and “Moth-
er Nature’s Nervous Breakdown.” He also speaks about New York life, “King of Staten Island,” and relation-
ships, “You Make Love Like War,” “Girlfriend Lost and Found.” As a performer, he has toured Europe and the
US with his band as well as a solo artist.
Mike Rimbaud is also a painter who regularly exhibits his artwork. His subject mater includes subway scenes,
cityscapes, dinosaurs, portraits of revolutionaries, burlesque and belly dancers.
For more info please visit his site; www.mikerimbaud.com
Discography:
Put That Dream in Your Pipe and Smoke it 2014
Night Rainbow, 2013
Coney Island Wave, 2011
Can’t Judge a Song By It’s Cover, 2011
(Mike covers other songwriters)
Soundtrack For a Human Being, 2011 (an
18 song compilation)
What Was I Thinking, 2010
Beast of Broadway , 2003
Graffiti Trees , 1997
Red Light , 1993
Funeral Lover , 1991
Mutiny in the Subway , 1990
New York Music Daily
Global Music With a New York Edge
Mike Rimbaud: The Closest Thing to the Clash That NYC Has Right Now
by delarue
Much like Ward White, Mike Rimbaud has quietly and methodically built a vast catalog of wickedly smart,
catchy, relevant lyrical rock songs. Where White has drawn on janglerock, Americana, chamber pop and most
recently, an artsy glam sound, Rimbaud looks back to new wave and punk, but also to reggae, and jazz, and Phil
Ochs. White’s narratives are elusive to the extreme; Rimbaud’s are disarmingly direct, with a savagely spot-on
political sensibility. A strong case could be made that no other New York artist represents this city’s defiantly
populist past – or, one hopes, its future – more than Mike Rimbaud. He’s playing the album release show for
his characteristically excoriating new one, Put That Dream in Your Pipe and Smoke It (streaming at Spotify) at
Bowery Electric at 8:30 PM on Jan 15. Cover is eight bucks.
The album title alone is intriguing. Is it a pipe dream to think that we could create a world that improves on the
current paradigm of speculators taking their profits private and passing all their losses off to an increasingly
destitute public? Should we take Rimbaud’s suggestion as a challenge, as fuel for our imagination…or is he just
throwing a cynical swipe at dashed hopes? Whichever the case, isn’t that what song lyrics should do: draw you
in, keep your interest, maybe make you laugh a little, and think at the same time?
The album opens with Frequent Flyer Subway Rider, a cruelly evocative narrative which will resonate with any
New Yorker who shares Rimbaud’s feeling that we deserve a few free rides for all we’ve suffered with the trains
over the years. Rimbaud plays all the guitars on the album, with Chris Fletcher on bass and Kevin Tooley on
drums; Lee Feldman’s bluesy Rhodes piano perfectly matches Rimbaud’s gritty ambience here.
Friend is a snarling, reverbtoned new wave update on Highway 61 era Dylan, a slap at social media addicts
that’s as funny as it is accurate: “Your BFF is only BS,” Rimbaud snickers. Likewise, Rimbaud takes a blackly
amusing look at the all-too-real dangers of fracking in Shale ‘n’ Roll over brooding bolero-rock that wouldn’t be
out of place on a Las Rubias Del Norte album, Marc Billon’s creepy electric piano matching Rimbaud’s watery
menace.
Over a vamping psychedelic rock backdrop that offers a wink to Dave Brubeck, Know Nothing Know It All
makes gleeful fun of limousine liberals, both among the electorate and the elected: “Owned by Coke, and the
Koch brothers,” Rimbaud reminds, Feldman laying down a serpentine groove.
Erik Friedlander’s ambered cello lines anchor the swaying, jangly Apple Doesn’t Mean Apple Anymore and its
sardonic wordplay, a look at how corporate newspeak subtly replaces everyday language. Poverty Is a Thief, a
Gil Scott-Heron-inspired duet with soul singer Danni Gee, makes the connection between the credit trap and the
prison-industrial complex.
Among the album’s more lighthearted numbers, Paris Is the Heart sends a shuffling, stream-of-consciousness
latin-rock shout-out to that city’s haunts. The requisite Marley-esque reggae song here is Tears Don’t Fall in
Outer Space; the album ends with a cover of the Clash’s Rock the Casbah, revealing it as the prophetic anthem
it turned out to be. For what it’s worth, Rimbaud has never sung better than he does here. Where he used to
snarl, he’s more likely to croon these days, which is somewhat ironic considering how much unbridled wrath
there is in these songs. Another winner from a guy who refuses to quit.
About these ads
Published: January 10, 2015 https://newyorkmusicdaily.wordpress.com/2015/01/10/mr/

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/sound-advice/2015/01/20/singer-songwriter-mike-rimbaud-unveils-topical-songs-at-bowery-
electric.html
http://hollandude.com/mike-rimbauds-album-release-show/
Put That Dream In Your Pipe And Smoke It is Mike Rimbaud’s new disc. The Bowery Electric was the venue
for the New York singer-songwriter‘s latest release.
-Eric Holland New York 1 TV
MAKING YOU MOVE - MAKING
YOU THINK
By Susan Turner for “Set in The City 12-2014
Who could capture the energy of this city better in
song, then a guy born and raised in New York and
brought up right here in Little Italy. He is truly an Enigma
and his name is Mike Rimbaud. If you know this city, you
probably already know him, perhaps even intimately. He
has played in all of NYC’s hottest cafe’s and clubs and has
a loyal, if not cult-like following. For those of you who
may not have had the pleasure as of yet or perhaps just
arrived to this great city...let me introduce you and let’s go
deep with Mike Rimbaud.
I can tell you that his tone is really sultry and sexy, and that
applies to him speaking and singing. Add to that, the fact
that he really writes from a deep place within, and you’ve
just began to scratch the surface of this mysterious multi-
talented artist.
SET: Mike, you have an almost underground cult fol-
lowing here in the city. For those who aren’t in the know
already; how would you sum up your musical style and
message?
MIKE: I write rock ‘n roll songs that will make you move,
not only dance, but make you think. I’m constantly enter-
taining issues most songwriters would totally avoid.
SET: (smiles) I love that about all of your stuff. And for
those who may have missed it, you did an amazing job of
exactly that, in one of my personal faves...The Ballad of
Anthony Weiner. It’s just so spot on!! (See Video Below)
WHAT’S NEXT
SET: Where and when can we find you playing in NYC
next and debuting songs from your new album “Put that
Dream in Your Pipe and Smoke It”?
MIKE: (smiles) Everyone should come out. It will be Janu-
ary 15 at the Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery at 8pm
SET: I wouldn’t miss it for the world! Can you tell every-
one what inspired the name for your new album?
MIKE: “Put that Dream in Your Pipe and Smoke It” can
be interpreted in a couple of valid ways. (chuckles softly)
One is saying, “Take that American Dream and shove it”.
The other interpretation, which is more literal, is to smoke
or inhale your dream. Whether it’s real or not. (pauses
thoughtfully ) Don’t give it up. However, (smiles) smoke
eventually dissipates like a dream in the morning. So, I re-
ally like the ambiguity.
MIKE RIMBAUD AND TAYLOR SWIFT??
SET: (laughing) Okay, so let’s have some fun...What vo-
calist would you love to hear do a cover of a Mike Rimbaud
original and which song would you pick for him or her to
do?
MIKE: (smiling) Great question. How about Pharrell Wil-
liams doing “Friend” or Taylor Swift singing “Unicorn”.
SET: (chuckle) You never cease to amaze me. I gotta say
fantastic picks and (pause) way to change it up. (smile)
Would love to see that!
SET: Before I let you go..
What is the one thing you want everyone to know about
your music?
MIKE: My music will open your mind and touch your
soul, if you let it in...
I hope to see you all out at Mikes next show on Jan 15, at
The Bowery Electric and between you and I, his “poison”
of choice is a nice IPA beer. So let’s all send one his way.
Cheers Mike!!
Visit Mike’s Website at: www.mikerimbaud.com
Buy “Put That Dream In Your Pipe and Smoke It” on
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/put-that-
dream-in-your-pipe/id915182422
*Photo credit: Veronique Krieger
http://www.setinthecity.com/2014/12/01/going-deep-with-mike-rimbaud/

Mike Rimbaud Captures the State of the City
NEW YORK MUSIC DAILY
by delarue February 18, 2013
No other songwriter has captured the current
climate in New York better than Mike Rimbaud.
One powerful influence on Rimbaud’s work, lyri-
cally speaking, is Phil Ochs, (check out the absolutely
vindictive version of The Ringing of Revolution from
Rimbaud’s 2012 album You Can’t Judge a Song by
Its Cover). Rimbaud’s latest album Night Rainbow
– streaming at his site – is an eclectic, characteristi-
cally tuneful, savagely lyrical, cleverly amusing mix
of songs that span from straight-up four-on-the-floor
rock, to new wave, garage rock, psychedelia and
reggae. Rimbaud has listened deeply and widely; his
thinly veiled references to other songs, especially
from the Rolling Stones, are cruelly spot-on. Rimbaud
plays all the guitars as well as banjo, backed by tersely
tuneful bassist Chris Fletcher and excellent drummer
Kevin Tooley, with occasional keyboards from Marc
Billon.
Image by image, Rimbaud portrays a city and a world
on the brink, reeling from natural disasters, terminally
distracted by the vapidity of status-grubbing and social
media, the luxury of the corporate elite juxtaposed
against crushing poverty and despair. Ultimately, this
album is a call to action and revolution – and also one
of the best of 2013 by a Broadway mile.
The classic cut here is Jackhammer Jones. Over wick-
edly catchy, psychedelic minor key rock spiced with
searing wah solos and guitar sitar – with a nod to the
Lovin’ Spoonful – Rimbaud paints an allusive picture
of a city being destroyed from within by gentrification:
Turn off your phone, what can you hear, baby? Call
it noise or call me a liar  Ears can bleed and eyes can
weep  When you read between the lines
The jauntily swinging title track pictures an unlikely
rainbow over the Empire State Building at night – hey,
this is the global warming era, stranger things have
happened. On Big Bad Bully, as he does on many of
the other cuts here, Rimbaud takes aim at a target and
riffs surrealistically on it, in this rounding up the Wall
Street bulls who “treat everyone like cattle.”
Slow Down to Get Ahead layers clattery percussion
over a reggae bassline and builds from there, an an-
them for anyone tempted to unplug from the rat race.
Rimbaud returns to that idea toward the end of the al-
bum with Time Burglar, a rapidfire stream of dissocia-
tive, sardonic imagery: “Swing over the Williamsburg
Babylon, catching flies in one hand…relax with some
hillbilly music, a song from another ice age.”
Sandy Must Be Crazy, a hurricane memoir, builds
from dub reggae to roaring Stonesy rock. On one
level, Rimbaud’s images capture an unfortunately
indelible New York moment, on the other he’s also
captured the more disturbing context that rose to the
surface in the wake of the storm.
The sarcastically bubbling Teacher’s Got a Bad Mouth
takes a counterintuitive look at schoolroom insanity,
from the point of view of a teacher struggling to focus
the attention of a class lobotomized by Facebook.
Rimbaud revisits that theme a little later with the
nonchalantly brooding, Indian-flavored Learning More
About Less.
Robin Hood in Reverse is a stompingly snide Spring-
steen-style singalong: “Money talks, money is speech,
this is a protest song and talk is cheap,” Rimbaud
intones breathily. The metaphorically-charged Dark
Money Can’t Buy Her Kisses grows from mysterious
psych-pop to a brooding 70s soul sway. The album
ends with a long, scruffy cover of the Beatles’ Baby,
You’re Rich Man, bringing it full circle. Britain in
1977 had the Clash: New York in 2013 has Mike Rim-
baud. That’s a start. Now bring on the revolution.
http://newyorkmusicdaily.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/
miker/
Published: February 6, 2012
Mike Rimbaud’s Coney Island Wave Is a Riptide
by delarue
Any conversation about great lyrical songwriters
since the punk era needs to include Elvis Costello
and Graham Parker…and Mike Rimbaud. Rimbaud
is younger than they are; stylistically, he’s closer to
Parker, both in terms of surreal, aphoristic, dark lyrics
and excellent guitarslinging. In fact, Rimbaud’s the
best guitarist of all three, equally interesting whether
he’s working an oldschool soul vamp, playing twangy
noir surf licks, angry punk rock or glimmering, noctur-
nal Stonesy lines. His most recent album of originals,
Coney Island Wave is one of the great New York rock
records. It’s both a celebration of this city as well as an
often savagely spot-on look at the state of the world,
2012, set to catchy, usually upbeat tunes that run the
gamut from vintage new wave, to creepy garage rock,
to oldschool soul. It’s the rare album where the melo-
dies are as good as the lyrics, which are just plain
kick-ass pretty much all the way through, Rimbaud
handling all the guitars, keys and occasional harmon-
ica and backed by a no-nonsense rhythm section of
Chris Fletcher on bass, Andrea Pennisi on percussion
and Kevin Tooley on drums.
The first track is Burning the Night Out Early, set in a
vivid late night Coney Island of the mind where “it’s
getting early”- that kind of night. If you’ve experi-
enced one of those there, this will resonate mightily.
Rimbaud follows it with Dance with a Mermaid, a
noir garage rock song packed with loaded metaphors,
the mermaid dancing on the Titanic since the ocean’s
full of oil and global warming has brought the mix to a
boil, so to speak.
With its clever Like a Rolling Stone allusions, Don’t
You Love This City keeps the sarcasm at boiling point.
The next track, Everybody Needs a Daddy sounds sus-
piciously sarcastic as well, especially with the Simp-
sons and Darth Vader references – could it be a jab at
the Bloomberg nanny-state patriarchy?
Got to Sell Yourself is just plain great, an anthem for
anyone who’d like to take the world’s oldest profes-
sion to the next level: “You’re a failure when nobody’s
buying, you’re something else when you’re sold out;
you’re a loser ’cause you only own yourself,” Rim-
baud snarls over the song’s casually biting, insistent
hook. Here Comes the Subway Sun could be a tribute
to the joys of tripping on the train; Mamma Say Some-
thing Nice follows in a brooding blue-eyed soul vein,
like something Parker might have done in the late 70s.
The album really heats up at this point. Puppet Man,
with its soul organ groove, is packed with more politi-
cally-charged sarcasm. “Like Pinocchio, go to Tokyo,”
is one recurrent motif: a Fukushima reference, maybe?
The album’s funniest, and probably most timely track
is Put Your Facebook on the Shelf:
Don’t let it get in your head
Slavery’s not dead…
Your password’s not a secret
Eyes wander on the page
Your tongue hangs out like a hungry dog
How many friends can you count on?
Rimbaud rasps over a catchy groove that’s part Elvis
C., part Bob Marley.
Saving to Go Bankrupt – an anthem for the Occupy
movement, with some very insightful and useful
background from Rimbaud here – offers both a suc-
cinct condemnation of the one percenters’ bankrupt
system as well as hope for the future: “Wake up from
your American dream!” Rimbaud follows that one
with Tears for the Rich and Famous, a searing, guitar-
fueled condemnation of celebrity shallowness capped
by a sweet, vengefully swinging guitar solo. The last
track, Unicorn, is the most retro 80s of all the songs
here – with its goth tinges and synthesizer, it sounds
like an outtake from a previous session that might
have been tacked on here to end the album on a more
upbeat note. Rimbaud also has a killer new album just
out, Can’t Judge a Song by Its Cover, which imagina-
tively reinvents an impressively diverse mix of clas-
sics and standards by Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Dave
Brubeck, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Tom Jobim,
the Beatles and others. That’s up next here. Rimbaud
is also featured on the upcoming Occupy This Album
anthology, a benefit record for the Occupy Movement
featuring some obvious suspects along with several
refreshingly not-so-obvious ones including Immortal
Technique,Willie Nelson and Toots & the Maytals
plus New York talents My Pet Dragon, Taj Weekes &
Adowa and Stephan Said.
http://newyorkmusicdaily.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/
mike/

Published: February 7, 2012
Judging Mike Rimbaud’s Covers Album
by delarue
After seven albums of original material – and his
excellent, most recent release, Coney Island Wave
(chronicled here yesterday), literate rocker Mike
Rimbaud decided to do an album of covers. Which can
be tricky. In order to cover a song that’s worth cover-
ing to begin with, you either have to do it better than
the original – no easy task – or completely reinvent it.
Which is exactly what Rimbaud did with Can’t Judge
a Song By Its Cover. To call this record ambitious is
something of an understatement: tackling mostly well-
known, iconic songs, Rimbaud makes it seem easy as
he nails them, one by one. If you’re willing to buy the
argument that there’s such thing as a classic album of
covers, this is it.
It gets off to a false start. The opening track, Al-
most Hear You Sigh, has a tired, 70s blues-pop feel.
Who might have been responsible for it the first time
around? Dire Straits, maybe? As it turns out, this is a
Rolling Stones song, from long after that band ceased
to be relevant. Then the fun begins with an electric
bluegrass version of Springsteen’s Atlantic City –
Rimbaud’s casual, practically blithe delivery only
underscores the grim fatalism in the hitman’s tale. The
album’s centerpiece is Idiot Wind, which has arguably
the greatest rock lyric ever written, as much of a re-
quiem for the optimism of the 60s as for Dylan’s mar-
riage. Rimbaud reinvents it by turning it into straight-
up electric rock and playing it almost doublespeed (the
original clocks in at around nine minutes, this one at
five). Once again, the nuance in Rimbaud’s vocals,
from icy rage to a contemptuous rasp, is intuitive, and
packs a wallop: it’s not quite as intense as the venom-
ous Mary Lee’s Corvette version, but it’s pretty close,
and the band (Chris Fletcher on bass and Kevin Tooley
on drums along with Rimbaud’s guitars and keys)
keeps up with him.
The rest of the album is more carefree. Marley’s Is
This Love gets new life via a brisk new wave/power-
pop arrangement in the same vein as Blondie’s One
Way or Another, with a killer Link Wray-flavored
surf rock solo. Mike’s Wave is the Tom Jobim bossa
nova hit done with just enough bite to elevate it above
lounge music, while the Beatles’ No Reply gets a
Stonesy, noir garage rock groove. The original version
of Phil Ochs’ Ringing of Revolution has brilliant lyrics
but a pretty generic early 60s folkie melody: Rim-
baud rescues it by plugging it in and giving it a bluesy
menace fueled by ominous chromatic harp, raising the
intensity, the fat cats squirming in their easy chairs as
the murderous mob grows closer and closer. Which
makes the payoff at the end all the more satisfy-
ing, where the citizens’ “memories [are] dimmed of
the decades of execution.” It’s timeless: Ochs could
have been referring to the Soviet Union under Stalin,
or Texas under Bush. The last song on the album is
titled Take 5000: it’s an update on the Dave Brubeck
Quartet’s classic Take 5, the bestselling jazz single of
all time. Rimbaud makes tango nuevo out of it, blend-
ing electric piano and wah guitar for a fun, eerie ride
capped off with another excellent surf guitar solo.
Along with Rimbaud’s most recent album of originals,
this deserves to be counted as one of the best rock
records of recent months.
Rimbaud’s also featured on the upcoming Occupy
This Album benefit record for the Occupy move-
ment along with socially aware artists from Jackson
Browne, to Immortal Technique, to New York art-
rockers My Pet Dragon and roots reggae star Taj
Weekes & Adowa.
And there’s more: Rimbaud also has a pretty hilarious
new single out, a cover of the Beatles’ Baby You’re
a Rich Man done with a tongue-in-cheek, reverb-
drenched Exile on Main Street glimmer.
http://newyorkmusicdaily.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/rimbaud/

Le Deblocnot': MIKE RIMBAUD "Put that dream in your pipe and smoke it" (2014)
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MIKE RIMBAUD "Put that dream in your pipe and smoke
it" (2014)
N O T R E P A G E S U R
F A C E B O O K


Nous avions quitté Mike Rimbaud, le rocker underground, peintre et poète
New Yorkais début 2013 avec un superbe album, "Night rainbow" consacré en
partie aux conséquences de l'ouragan Sandy. Mike est certainement une des
rencontres les plus enrichissantes que j'ai pu faire ces dernières années, un
artiste vivant pour sa musique, un gars plein de révoltes, de poésie aussi, un
songwriter de talent, bon musicien, qui mérite une plus large reconnaissance,
en France, comme chez lui. Entre "Night Rainbow" et ce nouvel album intitulé
"Put that dream in your pipe and smoke it" (tiré d'une expression
américaine, fait référence à la fin de l'american dream, on pourrait traduire
par "prends le rêve américain et carre le toi..") il a publié quelques singles
comme "Funkyshima" consacré à la catastrophe nucléaire au Japon ou une
belle cover du "Starway to Heaven" de Led Zeppelin. Au programme de ce
9eme album 10 titres enregistrés cet été à New York dont 9 originaux et une
reprise des Clash. Mike (guitare, vocaux, harmonica, basse) est accompagné de
Kevin Tooley aux drums, Chris Fletcher à la basse, et se succèdent aux piano
et orgue Marc Billon, Charlie Roth et Lee Feldman.
Ce qui est intéressant avec cet artiste
c'est de savoir de quoi il parle et ne pas
seulement se contenter d'écouter sans
chercher à comprendre les paroles,
comme c'est souvent le cas quand les
français ont affaire à des chansons en
anglais. Quant on écoute de la shit
comme One Direction ou Justin Bieber ce
n'est pas grave mais avec quelqu'un qui a
des choses à dire ce serait dommage.. J'ai
donc demandé à l'intéressé de nous
expliquer son ressenti quand il a composé
P A R
D E B L O C N O T E U R
Big Bad Pete (16)
Bruno (304)
Christian (17)
Claude Toon (269)
Elodie (33)
Foxy Lady (50)
Freddiejazz (46)
les invités du Deblocnot (7)
Luc B (401)
Pat Slade (141)
Philou (243)
Rattlesnake JC (7)
Rockin-jl (416)
Vincent (114)
M U S I Q U E
actu / concerts (63)
B.O.F. (10)
Blues (194)
Blues Rock (139)
Chanson Française (117)
Classique (225)
Folk / Country (76)
Hard Rock (235)
Jazz (83)
Pop (36)
Progressif (72)
R.I.P. (84)
Reggae / Funk (12)
Rhythm and Blues / Soul (73)
Rock (380)

credit photos Veronique Krieger
ces chansons, ce qu'il a eu la gentillesse
de faire.
On commence avec "Frequent flyer
subway rider", belle ballade rock urbain
bluesy pour un trip dans New York en
métro, visite guidée et portrait de ses voyageurs. Mike nous raconte "on prend
le métro tellement souvent à New York qu'on pourrait avoir des voyages
gratuits, comme avec les compagnies aériennes, je prends le métro tous les
jours, parfois 2 heures si je voyage entre Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan". On
retrouve aux choeurs une figure de la nuit New Yorkaise, avec la belle voix de
la chanteuse Lady Zombie déjà remarquée sur "Night Rainbow".
Mike sort l'harmonica sur "Friend" qui s'attaque aux faux amis,
particulièrement sur les réseaux sociaux, "c'est une communication qui est
moins sincère" nous dit Mike qui avait déjà consacré une chanson à Facebook
dans son album précédent; c'est un morceau bien rock , un peu "Dylanien", où
on relèvera les bongos du batteur Kevin Tooley, son complice depuis 17 ans.
"Shale'n'Roll" évoque l'extraction du gaz de schiste par fracturation "et ses
retombées sur l'environnement et pointe "les mensonges des grandes
compagnies qui achètent les petits villages, les fermes, détruisent tout et se
fichent des hommes et leurs familles; c'est une energie à éviter". A noter une
belle partie de piano Rhodes (Marc Billon)
Reggae ensuite avec "Tears don't fall in outer space", "l'histoire de la
première fille qui va voyager vers la planète Mars toute seule. Elle est triste
de tout laisser sur le terre. Et les larmes ne tombent pas sans pesanteur" .
Ce reggae est l'occasion pour Mike de nous avouer son admiration pour Bob
Marley "J'ai toujours admiré Bob Marley, l'homme politique et l'artiste, son
écriture, son groove, un vrai héros". On retrouve ici l'envoûtante voix de Lady
Zombie qui porte bien son nom.
"Know nothing know it all" charge la
classe politique corrompue et l'extrême
droite qui mets des bâtons dans les
roues d'Obama, sur fond bluesy- jazzy,
C I N É M A
Action/Aventure (22)
Animation (10)
Clap de fin (31)
Comédie (58)
Comédie dramatique (40)
Documentaire (11)
Drame (43)
Fantastique / SF (18)
Guerre (5)
Inclassable (5)
Policier / Noir / Thriller (48)
Western (18)
L I V R E S
B.D. (19)
Document (33)
Polar/Suspens (40)
Romans (64)
R U B R I D É L I R E
Le Deblocnot en folie (76)
résumé hebdo (105)

avec piano (Lee Feldman) et
harmonica.
Plus léger, "What is this song" pose elle
même la question existentielle, c'est
quoi cette chanson ?, tandis qu' "Apple
doesn't mean Apple anymore" est une
belle pièce pop avec cordes (le
violoncello de Erik Friedlander ) qui
joue avec les références aux pommes,
le label des Beatles, les ordinateurs, la
pomme d'Adam et Eve..
"Paris is the heart" est une chanson qui
tient au coeur de son auteur, en effet Mike a vécu à Paris dans les années 90 -
publiant même quelques disques sur des labels français- et reste attaché à la
France. Un rock un peu "stonien" aux guitares saturées sur "la vie un peu
alternative et underground de Paris et aussi sur mes relations avec cette ville
historique et romantique" nous dit Mike. J'aime bien ce titre et cette vison
américaine de Paris "Finish that baguette before you get home/You know French
rock had theTelephone/The guillotine took the head but not the soul/Thanks to
Josephine Baker and Charles De Gaulle/and Paris still is the heart."
"Poverty is a Thief" est "une chanson qui parle de l'inégalité des revenus aux
USA qui devient de plus en plus grave. Il n'y a plus de classe moyenne ici mais
des super riches et tous les autres qui galèrent". Avec un beau sax jazzy de
Avram Feffer et aux voix une autre chanteuse New Yorkaise, Danni Gee (du
groupe Suga Bush). Cerise on the cake, on termine avec une reprise bien rock
des Clash, "Rock the Casbah" encore une à laquelle tient Mike:
" J'ai chanté ce morceau il y a quelques années à East Village, mais j'ai
toujours voulu en faire un bon enregistrement, parce que c'est une chanson
que j'aime bien. Joe Strummer a toujours été une inspiration pour moi, il
était un vrai rocker politique, et on a très peu de gens comme ça aujourd'hui.
Nous avons plus que jamais besoin d'artistes qui osent combattre ce système
qui ne marche pas pour les plupart des gens. Il y a aussi une message de paix
je trouve dans ces paroles de cette chanson".
Ancré dans son époque et lucide sur l'état de son pays et de nos sociétés en
panne, Mike Rimbaud est un compositeur - et un type - vraiment intéressant.
Sa musique l'est aussi, mêlant rock urbain, blues, folk, rock, punk, garage. Il
le disait à propos de Joe Strumer, on a besoin d'artistes comme ça pour
secouer un peu les consciences endormies devant la télé et les Iphones.
C O U P D E
P R O J E C T E U R
Projo (97)
M E M B R E S

Rockin-JL
à lire également la chronique de Night Rainbow et L'interview de Mike
2 extraits, ballade dans le métro New Yorkais puis à Paris, filmé par Mike:
PUBLIÉ PAR ROCKIN À 05:09
LIBELLÉS : ROCK , ROCKIN -JL
2 COMMENTAIRES:
Sweet Songs Never Last Too Long 23/9/14 16:56

Lower East Side vet Mike Rimbaud took the name of his new band from a set of cute cartoon signs that
reminded ’50s commuters not to smoke or spit. But it’s that dingy, subterranean, through-the-grate kind
of glow that informs his scruffy-voiced rock songs, invoking ’70s Costello and Springsteen along with an
improbable hint of Brazil—the Baiana guitar (a surfy-sounding electrified acoustic).
(Kamenetz) –The Village Voice
Mike Rimbaud, in basic black, wielded an electric guitar in songs that were terse, telegraphic and propelled
by urgent strumming. Mr. Rimbaud has a rocker’s rasp in his voice, and he knows how to get the most
power out of verses with few words. His songs crackle with New York’s nervy paranoia.
By JON PARELES The New York Times
The Lower East Side:
Attracting Creative Types Since Forever
Living La Vie Boheme
Stepping inside the tiny Pitt Street apartment
of artist/musician Mike Rimbaud, a visitor is
greeted by computers, musical instruments,
toys, and his vibrant portraits of his Lower
East Side neighbors. Mike, a single dad,
composer with his own band, and painter,
also has a day job teaching computer graph-
ics. He grew up in Little Italy in an artistic
family (father, Robert Grossman, is a well-
known illustrator) and studied painting at
the University of Wisconsin. After college
he lived in Paris and toured Russia playing
rock and roll. “A friend called me a typical
Bohemian,” he says. Mike loves the area’s
spirit and is currently painting portraits of
friends like Samora Free, a singer, and Ja-
meel Moondoc, a saxophonist and architect.
Influenced by Ashcan School painters such
as George Bellows, Mike’s portraits capture
the joie de vivre of creative types living on
the Lower East Side.
by Carol Markel
Grand Street News.
-MIKE RIMBAUD, local NYC singer-songwriter and recording artist. Though Mike and I had not
worked together before, I am already a fan. Thank you, Mike. His folk music is so thoroughly
drenched with rock music sounds, that its hard to tell where one ends and the other starts---but
it is NOT the “folk rock” most of us recall. He is onto something utterly new. Please check out
Mike’s website www.mikerimbaud.com where you can find his performance schedule and order any
of his 5 CDs, the latest of which is “The Beast of Broadway”.
-John Pietaro
Lower East Side’s Renaissance man
By Ernest Barteldes, The Villager, February 8, 2006

“There’s no shortage of characters in New York,” says portraitist Michael Rimbaud. “In fact, there’s a sur-
plus”— including Phyllis Sanfiorenzo, above, an actress Rimbaud met on Rivington Street.
A keen observer of the comings and goings of his neighborhood, Lower East Side artist and musician Michael
Rimbaud has spent the past few years painting portraits of every local resident that catches his eye — “the
butcher, the baker and even the undertaker,” says Rimbaud. In the past year alone, he’s painted 50 portraits of
personal friends and people he’s approached on the street. Many are on view now through February at The The-
ater for The New City Gallery (155 1st Ave. at 9th street). We spoke to Rimbaud about his exhibit, “Lower East
Side Portraits,” and what it takes to be a Renaissance man.
You’re a musician, painter and graphic designer. How do you see yourself as an artist in general?
I am an artist with many interests, primarily painting and rock music. Graphic design helps pay the rent and I
teach computer graphics, too. Leonardo DaVinci was the real Renaissance man. He wasn’t only a great painter
and sculptor, he invented flying machines and submarines, weapons of small destruction and he also dissected
humans.
What is your background as a painter? Did you study painting, or did it come from inspiration?
I was always the “class artist” in school. Teachers and other kids always were commenting on my pictures. I
made my first underground comic book when I was eleven. It was called “Gross.” I don’t know if it’s worth
much, but I was a huge fan of (cartoonist) R. Crumb and still am today. In high school I did caricatures of my
teachers. One time in math class the teacher was visibly upset, thinking I was making fun of her. I had to ex-
plain that caricature is an art form, exaggerating distinctive features. I think she felt better after that and I always
did well in math. I majored in painting in college and I earned a BFA. American artists like Edward Hopper,
Alice Neal and Winslow Homer made a big impression on me, too. The Ash Can Artists of New York from the
early 20th century [also] blow me away. They did many beautiful street scenes, kids swimming in the Hudson
river, early subways, etc. I would like to consider myself in the same tradition.
Your show at TNC — how would you describe it?
With Lower East Side Portraits I want to show the variety of people that live in this culturally rich neighbor-
hood. I’ve lived here almost ten years and I’ve been inspired by the diversity here. I wanted to draw the butcher,
the baker and even the undertaker. I’ve painted bartenders before they got fired and rockers who never get tired.
I love the human face, old or young, everyone is different.
I [also] want to capture this period in New York like a 21st century Pieter Bruegel, George Grosz or Toulouse-
Lautrec. Many of the paintings are in gouache, but I’m also doing some street scenes and cityscapes in oil. I ap-
proach people on the street and I ask if they mind if I sketch them. Often they say yes, sometimes no. Everyone
painted is a real person; some I’ve known for years.
How do you choose people to paint? What catches your eye?
I want to capture all walks of life. Different cultures, ages and jobs. For example I was doing my laundry the
other day and the woman who works there was folding some clothes by a dryer. Something in my mind then
clicked like a camera and I say to myself, “that could be a great painting.” I had thirty five minutes before I had
Paintings: http://www.saatchionline.com/profiles/portfolio/id/76694

to take my wash out so I went home and came back with my paper and pencils.
Do you get to know all your subjects?
Every one is different and everyone has a story. Sometimes I’ll sketch a scene. I once sketched a older gentle-
man sitting at a bar and showed him the drawing after. He was mad, he said I should have asked if I could draw
him, but he would have declined if I did. When I asked him for his name, he said, “How do I know you’re not
an FBI agent?” Eventually he changed his mind. He told me his name was Henry. You’ll notice that many of the
people I painted are smiling. I try to make everyone comfortable and have a nice conversation. I’m not after a
photographic likeness either. I want to capture the person and make a good painting.
Who’s your favorite subject or your most unusual one?
My favorite subject is whoever is posing for me at the time. There are no unusual subjects.
What comes next for you?
I’m going to keep on doing my portraits and city scenes, getting deeper and deeper. I hope to find a publisher
who will put out a book of my Brazilian work too. I’d like to do a mural somewhere like Diego Rivera did. My
band, “The Subway Sun,” plays about once a month locally. The next show is at the Mercury Lounge, February
5th at 9:30.
How do you manage to fit all these things in?
A typical week has me juggling work, my art and music and raising my two wonderful children, I’m also a
single parent. New Yorkers need to learn how to juggle. It’s not enough to have the balls.
“Rivington Sunset” Oil on Wood 17”
Second Avenue Underground
Oil on Canvas 2006 48 x 36.5”
“Lower East Side’s Renaissance man” continued;

Mike Rimbaud 2015 press book

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