Pop Music Reviews : A Mutt-Like Mix From Les Negresses Vertes

We’re getting hit by bands from all over these days--Eastern Europe, Brazil, Africa--with most making at least minimal concessions to the U.S. market.

Not Les Negresses Vertes. When the Paris-based folk-punk aggregation played at the Roxy on Sunday, the only attempts to communicate directly with the Hollywood crowd were sweaty singer Helno explaining his condition (“It’s hot !”) and another band member stating a curt “Thank you very much” at the show’s conclusion. Otherwise it was parlez en Francais all the way.

For those who parlez only un peu de Francais : Yes, the name translates as the nonsensical “the Green Black Women” (of the 11 people on stage there were two women, but no one who appeared green or black). The music is a similarly mutt-like mix--a vibrant, willfully sloppy melange of Franco-Gypsy and Algerian styles played on mostly acoustic instruments, but with a rock ‘n’ roll attitude.

So if the music is sort of the Pogues meet the Gipsy Kings, frontman Helno seemed like the Pogues’ Shane MacGowan meets Charles Aznavour, with his ruffled lavender shirt and lounge parody manner, while the rest of the band mugged and clowned--this is, after all, a band that was started by former circus musicians.

But Les Negresses is no joke: This is life music, even more so in the spirited concert presentation than on the new album “Mlah.” And that needed no translation.