I’m away from the computer screen for the next 10 days and so will not be updating the blog during this time.

Comments will be updated (big thanks to Conor) so please keep talking amongst yourselves. You can use this post to connect with your favourite randomers, discuss Tom Waits or work out just why there are as many gigs happening in June as in May.

Normal service resumes on May 15. Or May 16. Depends on the weather.

As played on Phantom 105.2, Saturday May 3, 10pm-midnight.

Yacht “Platinum” (Marriage)
MIA “Paper Planes (DFA Remix)” (XL)
LCD Soundsystem “Big Ideas” (Columbia)
Santogold “You’ll Find A Way” (Lizard King/Atlantic)
Crystal Castles “Alice Practice” (Last Gang)
Duchess Says “Rabies” (Alien8)
Simian Mobile Disco “Clock” (Wichita)
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip “Look for the Woman” (Sunday Best)
Flying Lotus “Riot” (Warp)
Oppenheimer “Take the Whole Midrange And Boost It” (Fantastic Plastic)
Born Ruffians “Hummingbird” (Warp)
Magic Wands “Black Magic” (Ark)
Holy Fuck “Royal Gregory” (Young Turk/XL)
Von Sudenfed “Fledermaus Can’t Get It” (Domino)
Gil Scott-Heron “The Bottle” (Strata-East)
Kylie Auldist “That’s Why” (Tru Thoughts)
Goldfrapp “Happiness (Metromony remix)” (Mute)
The Notwist “Alphabet” (City Slang)
David Holmes “McCready Rides Again” (Oh Yeah)
Portishead “Hunter” (Island)
Nick Cave “Into My Arms” (Mute)
Halves “The Lamp Dies….” (Hate Is The Enemy)
Chequerboard “Toy WInds” (Lazybird)
Essie Jain “Haze” (Leaf)
Mara Carlyle “Vietnamerie” (EMI)
Dorothy Ashby “Wine” (Cadet)
Gil Evans Orchestra “Bilboa Song” (Impulse)

Yes, it is beginning to appear that June is the new May. Here’s the full line-up for the first Future Days festival, brought to you by Foggy Notions and Forever Presents, to be held in various Dublin venues in June.

Thursday June 12 - Matmos and Si Schroeder - Andrew’s Lane Theatre

Friday June 13 - Low, Atlas Sound and The Holy Roman Army - Andrew’s Lane Theatre

Saturday June 14 - Dan Deacon, Jape, White Williams, High Places and more - Vicar Street

Sunday June 15 - Bonnie Prince Billy, Baby Dee and Paul Curreri - Vicar Street

Sunday June 15 - Metronomy and Spilly Walker - Andrew’s Lane Theatre (late)

Info on tickets to come. And as if we needed an excuse for this….

The biggest music event of the week was not that Coldplay downplay, but rather the release of Grand Theft Auto IV.
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Further evidence that the record industry is in need of a radical pick-me-up came when the Recording Industry Association of America released its stats for 2007.

The good news: digital formats now account for nearly a quarter of all US music sales, with a headline figure of 809.9 million paid-for song downloads, a whopping 38 per cent increase on 2006.

The bad news: CD sales continue to slip and slide, down 17.5 per cent on 2006’s figures.

The really bad news: while sales volumes may be up, revenue is down 11.8 per cent on the previous year. That means less money in the pot, less money to invest in new bands and less money to pay the wages.

Those seeking a taster for David Holmes’s forthcoming album should check out the new compilation from the Oh Yeah music centre in Belfast.

Holmes has contributed a new track, McCready Rides Again, to the Oh Yeah Sessions ‘08 release.

The compilation also features tunes from the hotly tipped In Case of Fire, The Jane Bradfords, Kowalski, Panama Kings and others. Eight of the tracks were recorded at Oh Yeah’s in-house studio.

There are some shows which are selling out this weather. All tickets for funkmaster Maceo Parker’s gig at the Mermaid Arts Centre as part of the Bray Jazz Festival tomorrow night have been snapped up.

This year’s FeileAfrica fest in Cork runs from May 22nd-25th with shows from Gregory Isaacs, Afrocelt Sound System’s N’faly Kouyate and many others.

Master At Work Kenny Dope will spend the June bank holiday weekend in Ireland with shows at Dublin’s Tivoli (May 31st) and Limerick’s Baker Place (June 1st

Meet my new favourite Mexican band. It used to be Molotov, but it’s now Chikita Violenta. And they sound mighty.
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Part of the Future Days festival. Support from the lovely Baby Dee and Paul Curreri. Video niceness from the Prince below to mark the occasion.

Timing is everything. After last night’s screening of Where’s My Job Gone?, both RTE and TV3 news led with the story that Dell are going to chop 250 jobs in Ireland. Those who had just watched the show would have found the analysis which followed about the job cuts a little superflous.

Granted, it was a fairly odd concept for a show: take two redundant Irish workers to eastern Europe to meet the people who had taken their jobs when their respective factories closed and moved east. But what this No P45 Frontiers brought home to both participants and audience was that multinational companies like Dell will always move to the country which offers the lowest wages and cheapest costs. And that no longer is Ireland.

The two Irish workers visited Poland and the Czech Republic to find countries and people who resembled Ireland and themselves 15 years ago. There’s an abundance of young, bright well-educated people ready to work, government agencies willing to do whatever has to be done to bring those jobs to town and cheap costs all round from rent to transport. The Poles and Czechs probably also have an aspiring Bertie Ahern waiting in the wings - or maybe they could take our one off our hands when he finishes his various laps of honour.

But unlike Ireland, those Polish and Czech workers know that these multinational companies are the geese that will lay golden eggs for only so long. There’s no talk of jobs for life here, like there was in Ireland when companies began moving in to IDA facilities to avail of our cead mile failte and low tax rates. There’ll be no Bosch job waiting for their kids when they leave school.

In eastern Europe, they already know those jobs will go elsewhere when costs go up. Indeed, Poland and the Czech Republic are now facing competition from Romania and the Ukraine and you can sure the costs are even lower as you go further and further east. One of the Czech inward investment executives said the test now was to work out what would happen in five or 10 years when those companies left. It made you wonder if any Irish investment agency folks had been so prescient a decade ago.

A Friday or two ago, I went to see the Republic of Loose during their residency at Dublin’s Academy. I’d heard great things about the new album (the first tune from it, “I Love Music” is a winner) and I’d seen them back in January in Groningen, but the home turf is always more of a test.

It was a hell of a show. For a start, watching the audience was almost as entertaining as what was happening onstage. That floorshow was a flotsam and jetsam of Dublin past, present and future: apprentice chancers from a decade ago who’ve now graduated to prize chancers, a couple of multi-millionaires, a pair of weather-beaten poets, a future TD for Dublin South, contestants from Terenure’s Next Top Model, a few Italian wideboys who kept admiring each other’s perfectly sculpted sideburns, three Nigerian body-builders and at least 67 twentysomething first-jobbers with large credit card debts.

The real action, though, was happening onstage. Few acts can match the Loose when it comes to firing up funky riffs, chunky breaks and stone-cold infectious verse-chorus-verse bits all night long. They don’t look it, but they’re the house band at the Apollo on an alternative univese.

But best of all, they’ve a show-stealing frontman in Mick Pyro. Channelling in fairly equal measure the spirits of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, James Brown, Brendan Grace, Solomon Burke, Joe Dolan and LL Cool J, Pyro cajoled, provoked, teased, screamed, shouted, stomped and flirted away for the entire set. Any time the show was on the verge of flagging, Pyro would intuitively stoke up the atmosphere again. He was putting the “show” in “showbusiness” that night for sure.

For any long-time Loose watchers, the most noticable thing about the show was that Pyro was as sober as a disctrict court judge on his way to an all-night poker game. Now and then, Pyro would take a swig from a bottle of beer, but he wasn’t as messy or unfocused as we’ve seen him at previous shows. He was sharp, on point, rolling with it. The two facts may well be related.

The drink made an appearance in Neil Dunphy’s fine interview with the band in the Sunday Tribune. Dunphy realised that Pyro’s battle with the bottle had as much to do with the band and new album “Volume IV: Johnny Pyro and the Dance of Evil” as the music which inspired the songs.

Pyro certainly had no problems with Dunphy’s questions:

“Look, I have no problem admitting I’m an alcoholic. I gave up for a year and then fell off the wagon.”

There’s a song on the new album about it, titled ‘Poquito’. “It’s true, yeah. It’s about me falling off the wagon. Trying to describe that feeling. I’m not drinking spirits anymore.”

Is he aware where it all could go? “Well I’m aware of where it is. I drink too much. I have a problem with alcohol. I have to stop, but I need time off to do it. I don’t buy into a lot of the psychology on it, though. If I thought what I was doing was making my art suffer, I wouldn’t do it. I’m trying. I’m taking it pretty easy just drinking beer. I was pretty scared of making some of the music we are making, even the hip-hop on the new album. But you have to listen to yourself. I can be pretty cynical of people telling me what to do or that what I’m doing is wrong.”

Most of the new album was written while Pyro was on the wagon for the year. “I don’t think alcohol has anything to do with creativity, ” he says. “I get very anxious sometimes in social situations and it can help you then, but in terms of writing songs, drink is nothing but a hindrance. I was drunk writing ‘Comeback Girl’, but then maybe that’s why it’s a repetitive hit.”

Whatever about the ease with which Irish society as a whole self-medicates with alcohol for all that ails them, musicians have a much more complex relationship with drink. At work and play, alcohol is there at every single turn. They’re probably playing in a licensed premises so it’s available before the show and after the show. It’s probably on the posters advertising the gig too in the shape of the ubiquitous sponsorship from some drinks company or other and it’s on the rider in the dressingroom too. Like every other sector in society, some handle it fine while others, well, just don’t handle it at all and go off the rails.

It’s the same when it comes to admitting there’s a problem. Some do and some prefer to keep up the illusion that life is A-OK. They maintain the bravado, sink a couple of pints and play Jack-the-lad rather than admit this drug has taken over their life to the extent that they can’t function without it.

But as Pyro showed, that belief is a bit of a fake. He points out in the Tribune interview that being off the drink didn’t have any detrimental effect on his songwriting for the new album, which is probably their finest work to date. And, on the basis of that Academy show a few weeks ago, it has been nothing but beneficial for his mojo as a frontman either.

It has been noted on this blog a few times that May is the mother of all months when it comes to gigs in Dublin. Well, thanks to Forever Presents, here’s a chance to go to see some top-drawer shows next month without having to pay a bean. We have ONE pair of tickets to give away to the following shows:

(1) The fantastic Octopus Project (video for “Truck” from the new album “Hello, Avalanche” below), with support from the excellent Duchess Says (Sugar Club, May 13)

(2) Xiu Xiu (Whelan’s, May 22)

(3) The lovely Silje Nes (we’re still loving her “Ames Room” album), with support from Madam (Whelan’s, May 23)

(4) The Young Republic (Sugar Club, May 27)

To win the booty, simply predict who is going to be in this year’s Champions League final. C’mon, there are only four teams left in it (well, three - you don’t really expect Chelsea to win on Wednesday, do you?). Entries close when Barcelona and Manchester United kick-off at Old Trafford tomorrow night. In the case of a tie, the poster who makes the funniest comment wins. Winner announced on Thursday morning.

As played on Phantom 105.2, Saturday April 26, 10pm-midnight.

Chikita Violenta “War” (Noiselab)
White Denim “Don’t Look That Way At It” (Full-Time Hobby)
Foals “Heavy Water” (Transgressive)
Wolf Parade “Call It A Ritual” (Sub Pop)
Giveamanakick “Spring Break!” (Monkey Heart)
No Age “Cappo” (Sub Pop)
The Big Sleep “Slow Race” (French Kiss)
Oppenheimer “Major Television Events” (Fantastic Plastic)
Arms “The Frozen Lake” (Melodic)
Jamie Lidell “Another Day” (Warp)
Hercules & Love Affair “Time Will” (DFA)
Daedelus “Twist The Kids” (Ninja Tune)
ESG “Moody” (99)
Santogold “Creator” (Lizard King)
Duchess Says “Tenen non neu” (Alien8)
The Singles “Hypnotized” (Sound Artefacts)
New Amusement “Lights Go Down” (Any Other City)
Noah & The Whale “Five Years Time” (Young & Lost Club)
White Shoes & The Couples Company “Tentang Cita” (Minty Fresh)
Sky Larkin “I Was A Teenage Hand Model” (RCRD LBL)
The Notwist “Where In The World” (City Slang)
Halves “Amberscene” (Hate Is The Enemy)
Jeff Martin “Strange For A Tuner (Chequerboard remix)” (Casino Gravity)
PacificUV “Waiting” (Warm)
The Czars “Concentrate” (Bella Union)
El Perro Del Mar “To Give Love” (Memphis Industries)
Bon Iver “For Emma” (Jagjaguwar)
The National “Without Permission” (Beggars Banquet)
Charles Lloyd “God Give Me Strength” (ECM)

Judging by recent business deals, music and media companies see plenty of potential in music blogs.
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Not all outdoor shows this summer will feature old men and over-priced indie acts. There are also a few homegrown festivals to keep an eye on.

On May 3, the Sibin Festival takes over the Man O’ War pub in north county Dublin. Its four stages will feature General Levy, DJ Storm, Noise Control, DJ Bailey, Magnetize and many more.

Festivals returning to a field near you include the Irish Green Gathering (Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, August 8-10), Day Of Darkness (Ballylinan, Co Laois, July 4-5), Mantua Project (Ballaghadereen, Co Roscommon, August 1-3) and Glasgowbury (Draperstown, Co Derry, July 26).

Castle Palooza is also back, with Mystery Jets, The Black Seeds, The Flaws, Luan Parle, Fight Like Apes and others playing in Tullamore over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

While he spends a lot of time in Ireland, Canadian producer and musician Daniel Lanois seldom plays here.

This will be redressed next month when Lanois, currently working with U2 on their forthcoming album, plays two shows to tie in with screenings of Here Is What Is, the documentary on his work as a musician and producer.

Lanois, along with drummer Brian Blade, plays Dublin’s IFI on May 31 and Galway’s Town Hall Theatre on June 1. Both shows will be followed by a screening of the documentary (trailer below)

New additions to the Soundtrack ‘08 (just a pity the sponsors 86′d the idea of calling it Story, Bud) festival in Dublin’s POD complex include De La Soul (Tripod, May 31 - see video below), Noah & The Whale (Crawdaddy, May 26) and The Ruby Suns (Crawdaddy, May 30)

Per Billboard magazine, Jack Johnson is the greenest pop star on the planet thanks to such measures as insulating his new solar-powered recording studio with used denim.

Are the reunited Yazoo really worth €67.50? That’s the price to see them at Dublin’s Olympia on June 2.

First update, Hercules & Love Affair. Thanks to Catherine for pointing me towards the official explanation as to why the price of tickets for this show were slashed by 30 per cent:

We are delighted to confirm that Hercules & Love Affair have confirmed an Irish date this summer at The Academy Dublin on June 1st as part of Heineken Music. MCD welcome Heineken involvement, a leader in sponsorship of Live Music events they have confirmed that their involvement will result in the ticket price for Hercules & Love Affair to be reduced to 30.00 euro including booking fee

Heineken Music? They’re the ones sponsoring the Nick Cave gig, aren’t they? The gig with the hefty €49.50 tickets for a sponsored event. Obviously, their “involvment” didn’t lead to cheaper tickets there. And there are still tickets on sale. Hey, maybe they’ll slash the price of tickets for that one too!

Second update, Tom Waits. Thanks to Jackie for pointing me towards this news story. Love the line about “Hot Press have learned”. Yeah, they read this blog. Only took them a week to get the story up there, though. Still, better than their yarn about how having The Kooks on the cover led to the band having a smash album. Shame that both The Ticket and Day & Night had the band on the cover a fortnight before that. Wonder why the “EMI source” forgot about those covers, eh?

Because I saw them a couple of times last month, I didn’t go to the Crystal Castles gig the other night in Dublin. I was interested, nonetheless, to read reviews of the gig and especially the venue.

From the reviews, the “new” Andrews Lane Theatre sounds good, a room just the right side of sleazy and situated right bang in the middle of town.

Apart from the venue, everyone talking about the gig also seemed to have something else in common: they were talking about the kids in the audience.

From Niall’s review for State:

IThe venue was largley occupied by kids from 16-20 years old. There were glowstick-laden nu-rave kids, walking haircuts, Nathan Barley clones, extremely fashion conscious, and normal ‘non-distinguishable by fashion’ folk dotted in-between.

UnaRocks was also there:

There were a million (maybe less) hip kids hanging out at the gig. I felt old. But their clothes and haircuts were pretty cool, in fairness.

Mega-snapper Caitriona had this to say in response to Una’s post:

I felt extraordinarily old

Regular On The Record poster Steve K also noted the presence of the kids:

Also, did anyone go to see Crystal Castles last night? I had to leave because of the noise, though it was a great gig. But full of kids, jam packed, and they loved it. I had no idea they had this kind of following… were they a guest on Skins or something????

It’s interesting that all of these people commented on the fact that they were not the youngest people in the room as if they’d suddenly realised that a baton had been passed to a younger generation. I seem to remember reading similar comments after the El Guincho show at Antics a few weeks ago. Even twentysomethings, it appears, notice a generation gap when it is pushing them aside on the way to the bar or the stage.

It’s something I’ve stopped noticing, to be honest, because I’m usually one of the oldest people in the room at most gigs I go to. See, I’m an auld fella and I’m proud. I’ve seen things you kids will never see. I’ve also seen things you kids will never want to see, but the less said about those gigs the better.

I have noticed, though, that there’s a definite cut-off point when people just stop going to smaller gigs on a regular basis and it usually occurs in a person’s late twenties. Around about then, they see a big flashing neon stop sign which signals the end of the road and they take heed of it. Sure, they’ll go to shows now and then in the Olympia or Vicar Street and they’ll be out in force for the summer event gigs. But mostly, they’ll stay at home, look after the nippers and keep their money for their mortgages. Sometimes, their musical tastes also stagnate leading to a generation of people who venerate acts who were big when they were still regular gig-goers (hey, why else does Morrissey still have a career?).

Of course, there are exceptions who completely missed that stop sign (and one or two people who are in the venue because of work), but Irish gig audiences, by and large, are twentysomethings. It’s their domain, their playground.

But if I go to a show abroad, there’s a much wider spread of ages. I went to see Crystal Castles and HEALTH in New York’s Mercury Lounge last month and there were kids, twentysomething hipsters, nerdy blokes who obviously worked in the computer trade and old lads like myself all in the one room without anyone paying any attention to the age breakdown of the audience.

Elsewhere, gig-going does not not seem confined to first-jobbers or their peers. It’s a much more all-inclusive affair, where it’s seen as something which doesn’t stop just because you swap the rent for mortgage payments or when your job becomes a career. In Ireland, by contrast, gig-going sometimes does appear a mite ageist. That there’s a whole new bunch of kids eager to go out and see live music and make noise and get sweaty and be enthused by it all is, I reckon, something to be happy about.

Remember the bit of a kerfuffle here the other week about MCD charging €44 to see Hecules & Love Affair at The Academy in June? Remember how we pointed out that you could see Andrew Butler and his boyz for £12 (€15) in Glasgow and just a tenner (€12.50) in Nottingham?

Well, have a look at this. Tickets are now €30 for the gig. Yes, they’re still on the high side compared to the UK shows but they have been reduced.

Is this the first time ticket prices have gone down rather than up? Is this a sign of an impending recession?

Maybe it’s MCD’s equivalent of a spring sale. Surely it’s not because they sold zero tickets for the show and took action to prevent an empty room?

Actually, did anyone pay €44? And will they get a refund?

Also, when was the change made? I got a press release last Thursday still advertising the old price.