Taxi Girl

Taxi Girl came together in Paris during the closing years of the 1970s, built around the core lineup of vocalist Daniel Darc, guitarist Mirwais, keyboardist Laurent Sinclair, bassist Stéphane Erard, and drummer Pierre Wolfsohn. The group shared bills with Marquis de Sade and other acts that defined the French ’80s cult-bands circuit. Drawing inspiration from literature and American pop, the musicians forged a sound that fused Mishima, the Stooges, Kraftwerk, and Jim Morrison, gaining attention through a string of singles—“Mannequin,” “Cherchez le Garçon,” “Paris,” and “Aussi Belle Qu’une Balle”—and through their confrontational stage presence. Manager Alexis cultivated an aura of myth around Darc and the rest of the band, especially after the singer slashed his wrists during a performance supporting Talking Heads. The debut album Seppuku, helmed by the Stranglers’ Jean-Jacques Burnel and featuring drumming from Jet Black of the same group, captured a fully realized romantic new-wave outfit operating at peak strength. Pierre Wolfsohn’s death from a drug overdose hastened the group’s dissolution, although the Darc-Mirwais partnership continued long enough to issue several additional singles and mini-LPs before each pursued a solo path. Darc’s profile rose gradually yet steadily, while Mirwais built a thriving production career that eventually included work on Madonna albums in the 2000s. That renewed visibility, together with Mirwais’s Production and Darc’s Crève Coeur, helped fuel the wave of new acts citing the band during the mid-2000s new-wave and post-punk resurgence.