Eurockéennes’ Do-It-Yourself Band

Les Eurockéennes de Belfort Festival booker Kem Lalot has taken to building his own bands. It was his initiative that temporarily put Swiss industrial rockers The Young Gods together with New York hip-hop act Dälek to form Griots And Gods.

Apart from appearing at the picturesque Eurockéennes site in northwest France, only 40 miles from the Swiss city of Basel, Griots And Gods has picked up a run of summer shows including Belgium’s Dour Festival, France’s Furia Sound Festival and club shows in Switzerland.

The two bands will play covers of each other’s songs and a few originals that have been co-written especially for the project. Rehearsals will be at the Theatre Des Amandiers in Nanterre, near Paris.

Festival communications manager Herve Casteran, who refers to the event as "the laboratory of spanking new music," said he’s confident this year’s bill – which is being headlined by Arcade Fire, Marilyn Manson, and The Hives – is strong enough to equal last year’s 32,000 per-day crowds.

Other acts on the June 29 to July 1 lineup on the Lake Malsausy peninsula include Queens of The Stone Age, Air, Amy Winehouse, Editors, Maxïmo Park, Antony & the Johnsons, Goose, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Laurent Garnier, Juliette & The Licks, and The Good, The Bad & The Queen.