Artist: Vilain Pingouin, Album: Vilain Pingouin, Song: Le Train

Vilain Pingouin are a francophone rock band from Quebec.  They are Rudy Caya, Michel Vaillancourt, Rudolf Fortier, Claude Samson and Frederik Bonicard.  They formed in 1986, although Caya and Vaillancourt had been playing together since the early eighties.  The band won some regional talent contests which led to the release of their first couple of singles in 1989.  The popularity of those songs attracted the attention of local indie label, Audiogram, who signed the band and released their self titled debut album in 1990.  Audiogram has represented a number of great French artists over the years, such as Adam Chaki (see blog 8/10/10), Bran Van 3000 ("Astounded", "Everywhere"), Damien Robitaille (see blog 2/16/12), Jean Leloup (see blog 3/19/11) and Ocean.  The band toured Quebec relentlessly, playing hundreds of shows.  They also realized the benefit of video and their singles received strong rotation on Much Music's French affiliate, Musique Plus.  As a result, their debut album achieved gold status sales within the province.  The band went on to win a number of regional awards and were also nominated for the Juno for Best Selling Francophone album in 1992.  Le Train, was a major hit for the band off their self titled debut.  You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNcPTdCt4i8.  Vilain Pingouin would go on to release four albums between 1990 and 2003.  You can check them out at http://www.vilainpingouin.com/.  You can purchase their self titled debut on Itunes.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!