While Montreal’s Bonjour Brumaire is a young band by any measure, even after celebrating their first birthday in January 2008, their indie rock still speaks to the heart of pop’s golden age with a refreshingly uncontrived message. The music is smart, catchy and uncompromising; it avoids both empty imitation and facile novelty with a contemporary self-consciousness that informs their songwriting in structure and lyric. Clearly, Bonjour Brumaire has managed to grow from disparate roots a musical sense of self that flirts shamelessly between pop axioms and prog indulgence. Orchestral arrangements of organ, bass, guitar, and drums cushion solo and group vocals that drip with equal parts hook and enduring melody, endearing the listener to an aesthetic that recalls French café, the Lower Main, and a sweaty London dive circa ’75 with equal regard. After charting three number one hits on Quebec radios CISM, CIBL, CHOQ with their demo E.P.’s “Ste-Catherine”, “L’Insouciance ne s’improvise pas” and “Argelès” respectively, Bonjour Brumaire were recognized in the “Baromètre Top 10 Radios ICI/Sopref”, a composite ranking of the most broadcasted songs in Montreal. Since then, Bonjour Brumaire have participated in the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival, Pop Montreal, Coup de Coeur Francophone, and they were nominated at the GAMIQ 2007 and the MIMI 2008, winning “Discovery of the Year” at the former. They also enjoy regular airplay on CBC’s Bande à Part, and will be part of this year’s CMW, Francouvertes, and Telus Spin 08 events. The band’s first full length, entitled “De la Nature des Foules”, was recorded at four locations in Montreal over five months by acclaimed producer Ryan Battistuzzi (Malajube, We Are Wolves, Les Breastfeeders), and will hit shelves April 1st 2008 on Indica Records. While in studio, the band recorded on the mixing board responsible for the (more than) famous Rolling Stones album “Exile on Main Street” and Led Zeppelin’s “Physical Graffiti”. “Brooklyn”, the first single from their debut, exemplifies the band’s happy coupling of nouvelle chanson française with Anglo-American riff rock, whereas the six minute plus epic “Cette bête” runs the gamut from intimate whisper to a driving syncopation almost overrun by the voice of both band and audience. The band is the first French Canadian act to have had its album exclusively available for streaming on Myspace before its release.