Montevideo

Montevideo is post-punk that doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet knows exactly what it’s doing. The Toulouse band sings in English and writes tense, angular songs made for dancing: dry, cutting guitar lines, a rhythm section that pushes without ever letting go, and a delivery closer to declaimed than sung, theatrical and tongue-in-cheek. From its first EP in 2024, Magic RPM ranked Montevideo among “the 15 French underground bands to watch”. The band is supported by the Metronum, Toulouse’s SMAC, and continues to build its place on the French underground rock scene.

A sound between heritage and now

Montevideo draws on late-70s post-punk and new wave: the urgency of Gang of Four, the nervous edge of Television, the odd elegance of Talking Heads, the faux-naïve grain of The B-52’s. But the writing looks to the present, with the energy of Fontaines D.C. and the humour of Gustaf or Art Brut. The result is direct, danceable indie rock that works in a club as well as on a big stage: the band has opened for the Sex Pistols and played more than sixty shows.

For sync and licensing

That direct energy, those easy-to-remember hooks and that strong personality suit pictures that need movement, irony or attitude: advertising, series and film, sport, video games, branded content. The tracks exist in studio and live versions, and the whole repertoire is sung in English.

Lyrics that hit the mark

The lyrics are the band’s second engine. Montevideo watches its era with biting irony, starting with itself. On the Vision EP (2026), it takes on body worship and bodybuilding (“Brawn”), politicians’ empty speeches (“Vision”, where the band announces its own fictional candidacy), mansplaining (“Clear Thinking”), and, in a more serious register, pimping and sex trafficking (“Bunga”). The tone is light; the subject matter isn’t always.