Vanessa and the O's

Vanessa and the O's is a musical group formed in 2003/2004. It was created in New York City when Parisian Vanessa Contenay-Quinones (known for Allez Pop!) got together with Swedish musical collaborators Andreas Mattsson (Popsicle) and Niclas Frisk (Atomic Swing) and joined up later with James Iha (former guitarist and co-founding member of The Smashing Pumpkins).

They recorded the album La Ballade d'O over the next 18 months. Quinones also went into the studio with Lou Reed around this time and cut an Anglo/French version of "Sunday Morning" under the name 'Vanessa St James ft Lou Reed'. The O's album was finally finished in 2005 when Pelle Gunnerfeldt (producer of The Hives) was brought in for additional production and mixes, bringing in Per Nordmark on drums and Bjorn Ytlling (of Peter Bjorn & John) for additional keyboards. The self-financed album was licensed initially to Virgin/EMI Sweden in May 2005 for Scandinavian release only.

In September 2005, the imported debut was Album Of The Week in London record store Rough Trade who described it as "...a fantastic album of ‘European cool’ with breathy vocals over music which sounds like The Concretes, Stereolab or a modern take on the Velvet Underground…" and in 2006 the band released La Ballade on their own Rushmore Recordings label headed up by ex Warner Bros A&R executive and Deaf School founder member Steve Allen. By Summer 2007, it was available physically in France, Japan, Thailand, Portugal, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, as well as digitally distributed.

"Incontournable!...un album estival, lumineux, en teintes blanches, jaunes et pourpres...c'est un miracle..Vanessa a la classe total!"

La Ballade received great critical acclaim. In France, the influential rock critic Nicolas Ungemuth reviewed it favourably for Le Figaro and the magazine Rock & Folk. The band also received rave reviews from the other leading French music writers at Les Inrockuptibles, Magic, and Rolling Stone. The album received a year-in-review award from Le Figaro.

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Wikipedia