♦️🔹 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗬 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖 𝗦𝗬𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗠 🔹♦️

🔷 The 𝑴𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝑺𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 is the third track from the album 𝑷𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 by 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒉 𝑷𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆, a fleeting band created by 𝑫𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒓𝒊 𝑻𝒊𝒌𝒐𝒗𝒐𝒊 in 2000, composed by 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑘𝑜, 𝐽𝑜ℎ𝑛 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑒, 𝐽𝑒𝑎𝑛-𝐿𝑜𝑢𝑖𝑠 𝑀𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡 , 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑎 𝐴𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑜, 𝐴𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑤, 𝐻𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑡 𝑅𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑡. Artists who come and go according to Dimitri's desires or requests for collaboration ! The album was released in 2002.

Screenshots from the official video, edit by Laetitia

🔷 The main topics of Positions are sex and love, but seen from different points of view and approached at the opposite of usual cheesy love songs.


🔷 The lyrics were written by Brian Molko who was inspired by a story in the news.

💬 We wrote texts for Dimitri, I wrote one in the style of William Burroughs. It's about a guy who lives in Los Angeles and sells his sperm to famous lesbians so they can have children: that's the story. But it was very interesting to work on the record, because it's very different music from what we usually do and I really like that kind of music.
✔️ 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘚𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴


💬 The idea of the "metric system" came to me as a reaction to living in England or the United States. The two countries that keep this ancestral system of measurement in inches ! And then there was this news story about this gay couple who had taken David Crosby's sperm from Crosby, Still & Nash to have a baby. So I imagined this guy who lived in California, who was a sperm donor for a famous lesbian.
✔️ 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘋𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘦𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘶𝘹 𝘣𝘺 𝘚𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯 𝘔𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘥


💬 It's the only song that doesn't deal with sexual exchanges after all. Yes, only masturbation... My whole life !
✔️ 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰 - 𝘋𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘦𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘶𝘹 𝘣𝘺 𝘚𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯 𝘔𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘥


𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒉 𝑷𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆, 𝒃𝒚 𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒉𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝑫𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒓𝒊 𝑻𝒊𝒌𝒐𝒗𝒐𝒊̈?
💬 That was just for fun ! Dimitri Tikovoï is my mate. We have the same sense of humour, porn makes us laugh. What's funny is that people, the media, everyone took us very seriously. So it was even more jubilant. In another register, I also just worked with the German DJ Timo Maas.
✔️ 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘰, 𝘓𝘦𝘴 𝘐𝘯𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘶𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 - 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 2004


💬 When I worked with Placebo, I played a song to Brian Molko and asked him if he wanted to work with me on it. He fell in love with the project. He said; "great ! it's about sex ! I want to do something like that too", and we did the song Metric System.
✔️ 𝘋𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘪 𝘛𝘪𝘬𝘰𝘷𝘰𝘪, 𝘗𝘖𝘗𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴 - 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 2002

Photo credit: Lucille Brausch 

🔷 The video was directed by Franck Perrin.

It shows Brian dressed in a white suit, sitting on a black chair, against a black background. Dimitri is also present, dressed in black.

The protagonists are women and men, all connected by a cable that I imagine represents the link that will allow these women to obtain the sperm they need to have a child.

𝑴𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝑺𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐
🎥 https://bit.ly/3HZXPX2 💦

🔷 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒉 𝑷𝒂𝒍𝒄𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒏 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒖𝒈𝒖𝒔𝒕 10𝒕𝒉, 2002 𝒂𝒕 𝑳𝒂 𝑹𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝑫𝒖 𝑹𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝑺𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕-𝑴𝒂𝒍𝒐.


🔷 The critics were harsh with the band, describing the project as ridiculous, calamitous, depressing (✔️Philippe Richard for Magic). Harsh words that I think are nothing more than a total misunderstanding of the project. The staging is particularly well done, the performances brilliant. Everything is dynamic and above all to be taken to the second degree !


🔷 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒕'𝒔 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝑺𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 ! 😊

On a screen, words scroll by: "𝐻𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑐𝑦", "ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑦 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛", "𝑐𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙", 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑚𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦", 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒", "𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡". Photos of hotel rooms follow in quick succession. All this to the rhythm of the song. Brian is in particularly good shape, jumping around, warming up the room a bit, singing in his megaphone. The musicians are focused and play their part to perfection. Everything is accentuated by the very effective light show by the way !
In a few words, I love it ! 💗

𝑴𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄 𝑺𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆
🎥 https://bit.ly/3JxLbip 💦

Brian Molko (left) and Dimitri Tikovoi (middle). Photo credit unknown

🔷 LYRICS

Good work if you can get it
Good work if you can get it
Good work if you can get it

Rock boy is genital suck juice mad
His delicious apparatus would flutter and
Tremble after pubic worship
He would freeze it in a jar and sell it to
Celebrity lesbians

Good work if you can get it
Good work if you can get it
Good work if you can get it
Good work if you can get it

They want to buy it in kilos
They want to buy it in grams

They want to buy it in kilos
They want to buy it in grams

You know they’re down with the metric system
And they never fuck around

They want to buy it in kilos
They want to buy it in grams
You know they’re down with the metric system
And they’re paying by the pound

Good work if you can get it
Good work if you can get it

Post by Laetitia

⭐𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘: 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒⭐

Today we celebrate the 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐘 of the Trash Palace album “𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒” which contains two songs with Brian's on vocals, “The metric system” and “Je t'aime moi non plus”. The album was released 19 years ago on October 15th 2002.
Trash Palace was a project by French producer and DJ Dimitri Tikovoi who lives in London since many years and is well integrated in the British music scene. Early in his UK career Dimitri worked on some Placebo remixes and the band's cover version of Kate Bush's "Running up that hill", and then produced the band's fifth studio album “Meds”.

𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗦𝗛 𝗣𝗔𝗟𝗔𝗖𝗘 – 𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 (𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝗯𝘂𝗺)
🎵 https://bit.ly/2KAtbYp 🎵 

Photo credit: unknown, screenshot, cover of the album, Claudia Schmölders (live photo) /Edit by Silke

“The metric system” was first released on “Positions” but was also put out as a single four months later, on February 24th 2003. There's also a Remix edition of “Positions” which includes two new interpretations of the song. ”The metric system” tells the story of a guy who lives in Los Angeles and sells his sperm to celebrity lesbians, so they can have children.
Brian really enjoyed working on the song. In an interview with French magazine “Les Inrockuptibles” he said that it was big fun for him. "Dimitri is my buddy. We have the same sense of humour, porn makes us laugh. What is strange is that people, the media, everybody took us very seriously," he added.

📹 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖 𝗦𝗬𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗠 – 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢
🎵 https://bit.ly/3ECUFaw 🎵 

 Brian and Dimitri Tikovoi, London, June 2008. Photo credit unknown

“Je t'aime ma non plus” is a duet originally sung by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. It was put out as a single in 1969 and reached no. one in the UK, but it was banned in several other countries due to its overtly sexual content. The lyrics are written as an imaginary dialogue between two lovers during a sexual encounter, delivered in a breathy, suggestive style. Gainsbourg wrote “Je t'aime moi non plus” for the famous actress and sex symbol Brigitte Bardot with whom he had a short love affair with in late 1967.
Brian recorded the cover version together with Italian actress and singer Asia Agento. In their version the male and female roles are inverted, which gives a different interpretation to the song.

 💿 𝗝𝗘 𝗧'𝗔𝗜𝗠𝗘 𝗠𝗔 𝗡𝗢𝗡 𝗣𝗟𝗨𝗦 (𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼)
🎵 https://bit.ly/3aoVq6B 🎵 

Photo credit: Claudia Schmölders

📍 𝗗𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗥𝗜 𝗧𝗜𝗞𝗢𝗩𝗢𝗜 𝗢𝗡 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 📍 
📢 "When I worked with Placebo, I had Brian Molko listen to a song, asking him if he would work on it with me. He found the project very interesting. He said "Great! It's about sex! I want to do something like that too" and we did the song “The metric system."
(POPnews, November 2002)

📍 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗗𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗥𝗜 𝗧𝗜𝗞𝗢𝗩𝗢𝗜 📍 
📢 ”The artist in question is a French named Dimitri, whose nickname is the vibrator. He made an electronic record in French about pornography on wich I figure as well as John Cale, Jean-Louis-Murat. We wrote texts for Dimitri. I wrote one a la William Burrough. But it was very interesting to work on this record because it's a kind of music that is very different from what we do usually, and I love this kind of music”.
(M6 music, 2001)

📹 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗘𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖 𝗦𝗬𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗠 (𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲)
🎵 https://bit.ly/3EyNP5R 🎵 

Photo credit unknown

📍 𝗗𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗥𝗜 𝗧𝗜𝗞𝗢𝗩𝗢𝗜 𝗢𝗡 “𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦“ 📍 
📢 “I just wanted to push myself, my own knowledge of computer-based music so there was a lot of experimentation and trying to do things a bit differently. But I also had a theme which was sex, because firstly, everyone uses sex to sell things but they exploit it in a way that’s not very sensual or erotic. I thought that if I could combine some kind of eroticism into something that is as cold as electronic music, then it would be really interesting. Also I wanted things to be a bit deranged or slightly out of place…kind of the opposite of Britney Spears! Electronic music is so cold because it’s made with machines so if you try to put sensuality into it, it kind of gives it some soul.“
(Soundfreakcom, August 2006)

Post by Silke

"𝗠𝗘𝗗𝗦" 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗘𝗥 𝗗𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗥𝗜 𝗧𝗜𝗞𝗢𝗩𝗢𝗜 𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗦 𝟰𝟴 𝗧𝗢𝗗𝗔𝗬

Dimitri Tikovoi is a French artist, DJ and record producer. He is a personal friend of Brian and exactly the same age as him, so he turns 48 years old today.

𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐘 𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐑𝐈 𝐓𝐈𝐊𝐎𝐕𝐎𝐈!

Photo credit: dimitritikovoi.rocks

Dimitri Tikovoi was 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 10𝘵𝘩 1972 𝘪𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴, France. His parents were both luminaries in the French theatre scene. He hated it because being born around theatre people meant he “simply had too much of it”, as he stated in an interview with Soundfreakcom in 2006. Dimitri: “I suppose music was my way of rebelling.”

He started 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘴 when he was seven years old. Later he went to 𝘥𝘳𝘶𝘮 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 at the Conservatory of Classical Music, and also Jazz at CIM, the Institute of Contemporary Music in Paris. He even used to tour as a drummer back then.

Dimitri 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 by playing with bands and recording them in his little studio at home on a four-track recorder. “Then little by little things fell into place… “
He 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘒 because of the music. “Here in England there are lots of pubs and clubs where you can play and learn to be good but in France there’s nothing in between someone playing accordion in the town hall and big venues for bands that are already established. There aren’t enough venues for live music so there aren’t many touring rock bands… if you’re a young band in France it’s really hard”.

Brian Molko and Dimitri Tikovoi, London, June 2008. Photo credit unknown

Dimitri got to know Placebo through Rob Ellis because they had the same manager at the time and Rob was asked to do a string arrangement on one track. He was struggling a bit with it so Dimitri offered to let him come to his home studio and demo the strings. “Placebo really liked it so instead of getting some string players, they asked me to come to the studio with some samples and used what I had done.” Brian and Dimitri quickly became friends then.

Over the years he did several remixes for the band, produced some of their early singles and the album “Meds”. He also worked on “Kings of medicine” from “Battle for the sun”. In 2002 there was a collaboration between Brian and Dimitri's music project “Trash Palace”. Three songs with Brian on vocals were released on the album “Positions”.
Asked if it is a good thing to work with friends or if it can cause problems Dimitri answered: “It could go both ways, but if you’re going to spend 6 months in the studio with someone, you will either become friends or you will hate each other! I don’t think it’s changed much with Placebo because we respect each other.”

Brian Molko and Dimitri Tikovoi, London, June 2008. Photo credit unknown

 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡 𝗗𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗥𝗜 𝗧𝗜𝗞𝗢𝗩𝗢𝗜
 "The collaboration was just for fun! Dimitri Tikovoï is my buddy. We have the same sense of humour, porn makes us laugh. What is strange is that people, the media, everybody took us very seriously."
(Les Inrockuptibles, 2002)

To come back to Dimitri, isn’t it hard to work with a friend as a producer?
“Yes, it is! We had an argument the first week, the kind of «Why do you treat me this way? I’m your friend!» But after the first week, it became very easy. Since the clash was ended, we take the roles established between producer and artists, then it become really easy because no one is afraid of hurt the ego of the other.“
(Rock Magazine, December 2005)

”There wasn’t a generational gap or a cultural gap between us. In fact, we were born on the same day of the same year so we were very good friends before we started working on this record [“Meds”]. He realized that we’d found a comfort zone which was Vince’s synthesizers. He wanted to pull us out of that comfort zone and make us stare at ourselves in the mirror to make us realize that in essence we are a rock band.”
(Suicide Girls, May 14th 2006)

Post by Silke