Mamou by Mamou

Rising out of the swamps of Mamou, Louisiana (the heart of Cajun Country in Evangeline Parish) in 1985, Mamou flooded traditional musical forms with an unlikely, explosive combination: the energy and intensity of a punk rock juggernaut, mixed with a bit of psychedelic experimentation and jaw-dropping sonic virtuosity.

A rebel in his own right, LaFleur set a standard for the evolution of Cajun music, beginning with Mamou, by carving out a new niche in rock 'n' roll that merged two genres of music previously kept separate.
Though born and raised in Mamou, Steve LaFleur hardly took to playing the traditional sounds--the kind generally subscribed to by Festival de Acadiens over the years--as a youngster. “Cajun music was all around when I was growing up,” LaFleur recalls. “But at the time, I looked at it as my grandparents’ music, so I rebelled against it and played rock ‘n’ roll.”

Heavy metal, leading a group called Fantasia, was Steve's first calling, though they hardly endeared themselves to Mamou locals. Stints in the Grapes and the Movie Stars followed, but Cajun rhythms eventually found their way back into LaFleur's sound. By the mid-80s, with groups like Los Lobos, Jason & the Scorchers, Brave Combo, and others bringing rural, ethnic, and esoteric influences into rock 'n' roll, the time was right. Brushing up on his French, delving heartily back into his cultural heritage, LaFleur embraced the spirit of the music with a vengeance.

Starting with classic Cajun melodies and riffs, then running them through the meatgrinder-- mixing screaming Fender Stratocaster with a fiddle, accordion, bass, and drums--Mamou has reminded listeners of everyone from the Ramones to Jimi Hendrix. Or, put another way, rocking Cajun music that Cajunizes rock music. Or, as one observer noted, taking the folk out of Cajun music and putting rock there.

The eponymous first album, recorded for Austin, Texas independent Jungle Records, and eventually picked up for distribution by MCA Records, is--akin to Los Lobos' . . . And a Time to Dance--a lightning bolt, a frenzy of pent-up energy, virtually every song vibrating with a weird mix of jittery, dance-happy rhythms (the gut-punch of "Bayou Teche"; the dark of "Un Homme De Pitie") and hearty fiddle and accordion riffage.

By the time of their Ugly Day album, released by Rounder Records in 1992, LaFleur was drawing on personal autobiography, and tales of the Haddyshack Gang, whose partying and shenanigans in the mudlands of the countryside near Mamou in the late 1970s gave rise to an debauched event--Ugly Day--legendary in Cajun circles for its wild, pre-Mardi Gras revelry. It was LaFleur's appearance as pickup guitarist during one of the all-night Ugly Day parties that issued the challenge: Could contemporary hard rock be melded to old-style Cajun music?

Well, it's certainly present on the recorded results. Mamou's tough-as-nails sound comes to the fore on Ugly Day, on cuts like "Homme a Pitier" (Man to Pity), Cajun music lifted from the musty museum, and hot-rodded into the "now." "Ugly Day Stomp" immortalizes LeFleur's approach, digging at the cultural tension always present between the modern and the traditional. A live LP, Comes to Town, followed in 1997, before the group fizzled out.

Rising out of the swamps of Mamou, Louisiana (the heart of Cajun Country in Evangeline Parish) in 1985, Mamou flooded traditional musical forms with an unlikely, explosive combination: the energy and intensity of a punk rock juggernaut, mixed with a bit of psychedelic experimentation and jaw-dropping sonic virtuosity.