MTV Unplugged › Phoenix

Although to many it may seem like the French group Phoenix burst onto the scene recently, the members of the Gallic dance rock group have been working hard to bring their music to the world for over 10 years. Before they were Phoenix, Thomas Mars, Deck D'Arcy and Chris Mazzalai could be found playing in a garage outside of Paris. Mazzalai's brother, Laurent Brancowitz, joined the group after his band with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (now of Daft Punk fame) split up. In the late '90s, Phoenix put out a self-released single and served as the backup band for the French duo Air. In 2000, they released their first album "United," and the single "Too Young" was featured in the films "Lost In Translation" ... More»

Although to many it may seem like the French group Phoenix burst onto the scene recently, the members of the Gallic dance rock group have been working hard to bring their music to the world for over 10 years. Before they were Phoenix, Thomas Mars, Deck D'Arcy and Chris Mazzalai could be found playing in a garage outside of Paris. Mazzalai's brother, Laurent Brancowitz, joined the group after his band with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (now of Daft Punk fame) split up. In the late '90s, Phoenix put out a self-released single and served as the backup band for the French duo Air. In 2000, they released their first album "United," and the single "Too Young" was featured in the films "Lost In Translation" and "Shallow Hal." Their second album, "Alphabetical" garnered some alternative rock airplay charts and in 2006 they furthered their success with the album "It's Never Been Like That." However, it was 2009's Grammy winning "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" that blasted their music into numerous movies, TV shows, car commercials and onto iPods everywhere. The French quartet said they were eager to take to the "Unplugged" stage and "play naked," noting that "the danger is a fantastic feeling." They opened with their single "Lisztomania," hammering out the song's driving keyboard parts on marimba and piano. They followed-up with the equally recognizable "1901," adding some more acoustic treats with tubular bells and an old pump organ. They also served up other crowd-pleasing favorites for like "Rome" and "Long Distance Call." The musicians then stripped their arrangements down to just vocals and guitar for a cover of Air's "Playground Love." It's safe to assume that almost everyone has heard at least one of these songs even if they didn't know they were listening to Phoenix, and they are sure to walk away diehard fans after watching this infectious Unplugged performance. «Less