Chocolat

FRENCH ROCK, GARAGE, PSYCHEDELIC, BLUESY-FOLK-ROCK
ARTIST: Chocolat
ALBUM: Chocolat EP
TRACKS: "Johnny Depp," "Le Monde Est Vert"
STREET DATE: 3/2/10
LABEL: Semprini Records


Today, rather than delving into our typical whos and whats and whens of our featured artist, we'll leave you with an excellent story that captures them in perpetuity.

READ ON...if you dare

...............

During the summer of 2008, the band was scheduled to play a festival date on Quebec's Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence. Throughout the day before the scheduled performance, the band's alcohol consumption exceeded what the locals considered to be "acceptable". Their conduct eventually led to indecent exposure in public, trespassing on private property, destroying hotel furniture, the "disruption" of a another artist's performance, and a fist fight with their former manager. The promoter / hotel manager decided that this was enough to warrant not only canceling their show, but their hotel reservation as well. The authorities had them thrown out of the venue and the small, tightly knit community soon caught wind of the band's "unruly" behavior. They were quickly barred from every bar, restaurant and hotel on the island and with their return flight being a few days later, the band was forced to sleep in someone's car for the remainder of they stay. Word of the incident spread across the province rather quickly and Chocolat were soon banned from all other Quebec festivals and venues.

The entire incident from beginning to end was miraculously captured on film:


It was at that point that Semprini Records decided that Chocolat had all the criteria necessary to be on the label and agreed to reissue their self released EP. Seeing as how the band no longer had any venues to play out of Montreal, the label began booking the band on a tour of the province's penitentiaries. The tour eventually had to be cancelled as the prison wardens decided that the band's safety could no longer be guaranteed once inside. Chocolat soon broke up prior to the re-release of the EP only to reform a year later for their live performance at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Once again, Semprini blew the dust off the master tapes and voila... the re-release of the 'Chocolat EP' finally sees the light of day.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/montrealchocolat