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Last week in Seattle, I found out that Neil Young was playing in town. I’m not a huge fan of old Shakey, but I still wouldn’t mind a look. I went online to buy a ticket. The cheapest I could find was $147 and that was before I factored in the Ticketmaster convenience charges. I went to the cinema instead.
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Those Halifax ads. Dudes, you are bankers. Just because you don’t mention the fact that you’re a bank in your ad doesn’t mean we, the plain current account-seeking people of Ireland, think “cool, Halifax, they’re not a bank, lets give them our cash”. It might have worked in Leeds, but so did David O’Leary for a while.
Howard Marks. Are there really people out there who will hand over hard-earned cash to hear this old codger talk about his life as a drug smuggler when he does some stand-up Irish shows in the coming weeks? I mean, the fact that he got caught surely means he wasn’t very good at it? If there are people who’ll happily buy tickets for someone talking about drugs, isn’t this a business model for UnaRocks fan Olaf to have a look into?
The provisional licence fandango. I’m willing to bet that this will crop up again next June. And the June after that. And the June after that again. Like so many other unqualified public disasters in this country, this mess is part of what we are and no-one is willing to do anything about it. Lets just accept the fact that we as a nation don’t really care about road safety and be done with it.
Film critics. Chaps, Eastern Promises is not that violent. Well, not as violent as watching a west Tipperary junior hurling match. Fine movie, even if there are a couple of plot twists which do sell it short.
RTE’s People In Need yoke. Yes, I know it’s for charity but is that really enough to excuse yet another example of RTE drawing from the same stagnant pool of talent in Dublin 4 that they’ve already surely drained dry at this stage? If they really need to big up the station and its various employees so much, take out an ad. Or get everyone gold stars.
Still, at least Ian Brown’s fans had a great time the other night.
Twenty Major! Naomi Klein! David McWilliams! A Sinn Fein councillor who used to be indie rock’s answer to Louis Walsh but he’s OK now! Clint Velour! IN THE SAME ROOM! I mean, what more do you want on a Friday night?
The return of Leviathan to the big smoke after some high jinks in Co Laois sees Maccer talking shop with Klein about her (very good) new book “The Shock Doctrine”.
Then, there’s the debate. Talking with great intelligence and insight about the topic, “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone” will be everyone’s favourite chain-smoking bad-ass with a typewriter Twenty, the excellent Sarah Carey, Killian Forde (Killian would be a MEP now had the people of Dublin Central took Mary-Lou as their TD but thankfully that latter nightmare scenario didn’t come to pass), John Waters from the paper, Green Party senator Deirdre de Burca and Carol Hunt from The Sunday Independent.
It all goes off at Crawdaddy on Friday from 7.30pm. Tickets are €20 and ham sandwiches with the crusts cut off will be available in the bar. Appropriate security measures are already in place.
As played on Phantom 105.2, Saturday October 27, 10pm-midnight
Cathy Davey “Moving” (EMI)
The Whip “Sister Siam” (Southern Fried)
Black Affair “Tak! Attack” (V2)
Holy Fuck “Royal Gregory” (Young Turks)
Jakobinarina “Monday I’m In Vain” (Regal)
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists “Sons Of Cain” (Touch & Go)
Magik Markers “Body Rot” (Ecstatic Peace)
Le Loup “Planes Like Vultures” (Hardly Art)
Young Galaxy “No Matter How Hard You Try” (Arts & Crafts)
The Changes “On A String” (Kitchenware)
Grace Jones “Pull Up To The Bumper” (Island)
Gloria Jones “Tainted Love” (AVI)
Googie Reno Combo “Smokey Joe’s La La” (Class)
Just Brothers “Sliced Tomatoes” (Music Merchant)
Johnny Griffin Orchestra “Wade In The Water” (Riverside)
Tav Falco’s Panther Burns “Jungle Rock” (New Rose/Soma)
King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan “Lets Make A Record” (Ropeadope)
Betty Davis “Anti Love Song” (Light In The Attic)
Charlie Feathers “Jungle Fever” (Revenant/Soma)
Band Of Horses “Islands On The Coast” (Sub Pop)
Sea Wolf “Middle Distance Runner” (Dangerbird)
Picastro “Car Sleep” (Polyvinyl)
William S Burroughs “Mildred Pierce Reporting” (Island)
Efterklang “Illuminant” (Leaf)
Vic Chesnutt “Warm” (Constellation)
Tom Brosseau “Amory” (Fat Cat)
Islaja “Pete P” (Fonal)
Cowboy Junkies “Dreaming My Dreams With You” (RCA)
Josh Ritter “The River” (Live recording)
It seems that our speculation the other week about Live Nation making a move on MCD Concerts has turned out to have legs, per the business pages from today’s paper.
This is a move which has serious repercussions for the Irish music industry. In the space of two deals - taking over management of all Harry Crosbie’s venues and now, the in-the-works MCD deal - Live Nation are set to become the biggest live music players in the Irish market, especially in terms of the all-important issue of controlling access to venues.
If you thought MCD had a virtual monopoly in this regard with their hands-on control of the Olympia and Ambassador, that’s nothing compared to the venue muscle which Live Nation can now flex with the addition of these rooms to a portfolio which also includes the Point, Vicar Street and mooted new venues Vicar Street 2 and the theatre on Grand Canal Square.
And I wonder will this come to pass over here too when Live Nation move into those well-appointed offices on Park Road in Dun Laoghaire?
Never a dull moment on the pop beat, is there?
There should be no withdrawal pangs for jazz fans after this weekend’s traditional blowout in Cork with a full dancecard of shows scheduled for the coming weeks.
Made On Mondays is a series of Irish talent showcases at Dublin jazz haunt JJ Smyths during November.
It kicks off on November 5 with a meeting of the minds between the Ariel Hernandez Trio and Savage Monkey.
Other highlights include electronic composer Zoid with trad fiddler Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh (Monday 12), Awkward Silence’s Aphex Twin-inspired musings (Monday 19) and Italian pianist Francesco Turrisi’s first foray into the world of the trio (Monday 26)
Meanwhile, one of Europe’s most promising jazz players, Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen, plays Cork’s Triskel on October 31 and Dublin’s Sugar Club on November 1.
Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca brings his band to that same Dublin venue on November 14.
It’s all change on Dublin’s Middle Abbey Street with the Spirit nightclub about to adopt a new moniker and, by the sound of things, a new direction too.
The Dublin venue will be known as Spirit 57 from November 1 with former Olympia Theatre boss Brian Whitehead taking over the reins at the Denis Desmond-owned venue. The club’s New York outpost has been closed for some time.
One of the first changes will see electrohouse club night Dirty Fridays ceding way to Brutus Gold’s Love Train, a UK club night which bills itself as “a fantasy recreation of the disco years”.
Four decades on from its release, Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks” continues to gain new fans and attract increased acclaim with every passing year.
Plans are now afoot to mark the album’s 40th anniversary with Astral Weeks Revisited in Morrison’s native Belfast next January.
The event will feature a number of Irish performers playing the album in sequence, with music writer and BBC broadcaster Stuart Bailie talking about the record’s genesis and context.
There are tentative plans to run similar events in Cork and Dublin.
Acts interested in participating should contact Stuart Bailie directly at stuart@ohyeahbelfast.com
I speak of course of Ian Brown.
His fans keep on coming to On The Record and having a pop at all and sundry. Boy, Sunday’s gig is going to be SO exciting, if Mary is anything to go by. The second coming, anyone?
I cannot believe the audacity and blatent ignorance of these obvious student “we know what’s cool” types above. Take my advice and keep your lack of taste and complete ignorance to brilliance to yourself until your cheap beer and crap music college days are over and you look deeper into music and discover that Ian Brown is infact one of the cleverest people to enter the music business ever. His lyrics are ingenius and his melodies and harmonies are sencond to none. i’ve been to see Him on many ocasions including Dublin Castle, Hi:Fi, the Ambassador and Glen Eagles in Kerry and everytime I’ve come away with a sense of pride at having being in the presence of a living legend. So when you’ve gotten the hype of the pop culture bands such as the Thrills and the Blizzard (who were better doing cover versions in the Stables in Mullingar) and found some taste in music feel free listen to ian Browns work and appreciate it like you should!
Wow. I mean, wow. Post of the year on so many different levels. For once in my life, words fail me. Over to you.
I just couldn’t get this song out of my head this week.
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While you were sleeping, Stan got the bullet. Guess they’ll be updating this sometime today.
(1) Cadence Weapon has the power. It’s a hard task to face down a room full of twee indie kids waiting to ooh and aah over Final Fantasy’s one-man-and-his-fiddle orchestrations and symphonies, but our man Rollie did this and more at Monday night’s double-helping of Canuckness at Nectar. Yes, his live chops need a little more grilling but boy, he already has the tunes and the charisma for the next level. Get set for more Cadence when he supports The Go! Team at Tripod on November 21.
(2) My favourite anti-Hillary placard as seen on Monday when she visited Seattle to rattle a tin and raise some campaign pork? “Re-defeat Communism. Say no to Hillary”. A close second was “Hillary Scares Me”.
(3) I’ve liked mostly everything I’ve heard by Ted Leo, but that was before I finally saw him live. Chalk me down as a convert to his mission statement. And his band The Pharmacists rock like they’re the last band on earth.
(4) Kurt Cobain: About A Son is a fascinating insight into that doomed figure who was the unhappy figurehead for an alternative rock explosion in the 1990s. The flick uses previously unheard interviews conducted by biographer Michael Azerrad set against contemporary footage from around Seattle, Olympia and Aberdeen to let you feel as if you’re seeing the world through his eyes. There’s a fair bit of moaning, but there are also some very funny quotes too.
(5) The Experience Music Project museum and assorted sideshows is a blast. While I’ve plenty of reservations about rock’n'roll and museums (I really don’t see the point of sticking guitars into a glass case just because they were once plucked by someone mildly famous), the scale and span of this is pretty cool. The Yes Yes Y’All hip-hop exhibition was particularly striking.
(6) Seattle record stores like Easy Street, Everyday and Sonic Boom have beaten the retail blues. How? Huge stocks, quality product and keen-as-mustard prices. You can’t go wrong with new releases for eight bucks.
(7) I may have arrived in the city on a bus, but I sure as hell have not been feeling any love for the city buses. Maybe I should have looked at a map first….
(8) The food stalls in the Pike Place Market rock. Especially the one with the halibut sambos.
Seasoned rte.ie readers will have already seen this headline and added it to an ever growing list of tactful headlines from that news department. I suppose it’s one way of dealing with those people who like to talk to Joe.
Excellent lengthy piece from The New Yorker on the best TV show on the box - what else? - The Wire. (For those still in the middle of watching the show for the first time, the article does contain some spoilers)
It includes news on the next stop for show creator David Simon, who is planning a series on New Orleans musicians rebuilding their world after Hurricane Katrina.
Via Mulley, the trailer for Series 5, which kicks off Stateside in January. Here’s hoping those lovely TG4 peeps are already on the case to get the show on Irish screens as fast as possible.
For those who’re still playing catch-up, Series 4 of The Wire comes out on DVD in December.
Just read this very sad news about the death of Brendan McWilliams, the paper’s fantastic weather writer.
The Weather Eye column was one of those daily must-read pieces for me because of his writing style and knowledge. The fact that he produced a daily column for almost 20 years is staggering in itself - the fact that it was always interesting, erdudite, curious, witty and usually quite brilliant was another thing entirely. He will be sadly missed.
There were two possible opening lines for this post and I just couldn’t decide between the two of them.
(1) Went to sleep somewhere outside Boise. Woke up somewhere south of Seattle and north of Portland and there’s snow on the hills.
(2) The last time I overnighted on a tour bus was with Faith No More. Now, there’s a line you probably never expected to read here.
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As played on the award-winning music station of year, Saturday October 20, 10pm-midnight
Born Ruffians “Hummingbird” (Warp)
The Teenagers “Scarlett Johansson” (XL)
Phoenix “Everything Is Everything” (Source)
Double Dee & Steinkski “Lesson Three” (Tommy Boy)
The Go Team “Doin’ It Right (Yo Majesty remix)” (Memphis Industries)
Dan Le Sac v Scroobius Pip “Beat That My Heart Skipped” (Lex)
Operator Please “Leave It Alone” (Brille)
The Aliens “Robot Man (Hot Chip remix)” (Regal)
The Dragons “Cosmosis” (Ninja Tune)
Animal Collective “Chores” (Domino)
Nirvana “Come As You Are” (Geffen)
Fiery Furnaces “Ex-Guru” (Thrill Jockey)
The Organ “Brother” (Mint)
Johnny Thunders “You Can’t Put Your Arms ‘Round A Memory”
Cathy Davey “Sing For Your Supper” (EMI)
Flying Lotus “Dance Floor Stalker” (Warp)
Map Of Africa “Map Of Africa” (Whatever We Want)
Deerhunter “Like New” (Kranky)
Windmill “Planning Stopped” (Melodic)
Beirut “Cherbourg” (4AD)
Beachwood Sparks “Sing Your Thoughts” (Sub Pop)
Emmylou Harris “Sweet Old World” (Elektra)
Mary Margaret O’Hara “Body’s In Trouble” (Virgin)
Karen Dalton “In The Evening” (Light In The Attic)
Billie Holiday “God Bless The Child” (Verve)
Ennio Morricone “Cinema Paradiso” (DRG)
It has been a busy week for live music giants Live Nation in Ireland and abroad.
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The October Bank Holiday Weekend has traditionally seen music fans scattering to the four corners of the island for one last bout of festival high jinks before Christmas.
With the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival and the Cork Jazz Festival attracting plenty of visitors to both capital cities, a huge number of people will also be heading northwest to Sligo.
It’s the third Hallowe’en outing for Sligo Live, a festival which traces its roots back to the Sligo Sounds bash in 1971.
Headline shows come from the Buena Vista Social Club, Duke Special (an artist who must be in need of a few weeks off), Dervish and Alabama 3.
Besides fiddle workshops and street performances, visitors should also check out the Eternal Now exhibition on Andy Warhol’s New York Factory currently running at the town’s Model Arts & Niland Gallery.
Yes, it really is 20 years since U2 went into the desert with Anton Cobijn and came back with those iconic photos for their landmark album.
November will see “The Joshua Tree” in bloom again with previously unreleased versions, limited edition prints and new sleeve notes from the band part of the reisue mix.
There are also plans for a DVD containing a 1987 live show from Paris and the “Outside It’s America” rockumentary.
Whatever about the likely manner chosen to release future material, U2 will be keeping faith with their long-standing record label Island for this effort.
One of the most intriguing Irish releases of 2007 is to get a US release.
Giraffe Running’s ambitious self-titled double-album saw Dublin bass and drums duo Greg Barrett and Hag enlist the help of Ian Williams (Battles), Max Tundra, Eoin Dillon, Matthew Bolger, Somadrone and Miriam Ingram to transform their original five tracks into some hugely engaging sounds.
The album will be released this coming spring in the US on Austin, Texas label Australian Cattle God, a label which has also provided a home for Irish alt-rockers The Redneck Manifesto.
The Arts Show is what RTE Radio One have decided to call the latest incarnation of their daily yakathon about the arts which goes live on Monday November 5. If that name was good enough for Mike Murphy, it’s good enough for new presenter, playwright Vincent Woods.
From the press release:
Over the course of the first few weeks The Arts Show will look at the writings of Kate O’Brien and Philip Roth, the life of the great ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev and the poetry of Seán Ó Ríordáin and Vincent Woods will discuss with guests the challenges of making a living out of traditional music at the ‘Cruinniú’ conference in Glór in Ennis and the show will visit the Armagh Pipers Festival.
Jazz fans will be treated to a live performance from the Fred Hersch trio, author Robert Harris will be discussing his favourite book and, in ‘The Arts Show Focus’ series Vincent and the team will look at the idea of ‘the road’ in films, books and music.
Vincent will also be talking to writer Ken Follet and to Sandra Smith, translator of the novels of Irene Nemirovsky.
Yes, another arts show aimed squarely at the women-with-scarves and the men-with-beards who dominate the world of Irish arts and culture from opening nights at the Abbey to poetry readings in regional arts centres. Fantastic. Can’t wait to hear their review of The Order of the Phoenix Park, though.
Do you numpties think I’m that stupid?
When I get a flurry of comments raving about some Irish singer-songwriter I’ve never heard of before, I get suspicious and check the IP addresses.
When ALL the comments about that act come from the same IP address, I sigh loudly, press the delete key and make a mental note about that act.
That is all.
As predicted, oh, weeks ago, Nadine has decided to get in the blogging game. Expect loads of smart and on-the-money stuff about the arts from the Sunday Business Post writer and the host of The Kiosk.
The infamous Pedro has started a blog. Lots of cool music recommendations (including the smashing Le Loup, who are, like, so September 2007). Nothing about Renaissance yet, though, but give him time.
Then, there’s the wonderfully named I Prefer The Obscure Remix, a music lover and drummer (are the two things compatible?) writing from deep within the Irish music industry about, well music strangely enough.
Get clicking!
The Some Days Never End show with Groove Armada and Dizzee Rascal has been moved from a tent in the grounds of IMMA to Tripod instead.
The reason? “Unforeseen circumstances”. What the hell are “unforseen circumstances” anyway? Did someone forget to book the tent or something? Or did people forget to buy tickets?
I’ve been a little amiss in recent times with the Tune of the Week updates so here’s five audio thrillers currently making me go wow to make up for the oversight.
These New Puritans “Colours”
They’re from Southend, their debut album “Beat Pyramid” is coming in November on Arular (with help from those smart folk at Domino) and they rock pretty hard. “Colours” is one of the cuts from their new single. Check out this video or lend your ear to these tunes.
New Buffalo “Cheer Me Up Thank You”
Sally Seltmann is the Australian one-woman show operating as New Buffalo. She wrote “1 2 3 4″ for Feist and you’ll probably go “ahhh” when you hear this. It’s the first track from her new album “Somewhere Anywhere” on Arts & Crafts and it’s absolutely lovely. Hear it here or watch it there.
Grizzly Bear “Alligator”
One of the two Bears we like around here has released “Friend”, an overgrown EP with 10 reworkings, re-recordings, covers (including that wonderful version of “He Hit Me” which was floating round the MP3osphere earlier in the year) and collaborations. This version of “Alligator” from their “Horn Of Plenty” debut album is space-age choral music, a widescreen odyssey where the Bear, Beirut and Dirty Projectors go digging for gold. Enjoy.
Afrikan Boy “One Day I Went To Lidl”
I was going to include one of the “new” M.I.A. tracks from the US version of “Kala” (hear them here) and then decided it was time to rep Afrikan Boy instead. He features on “Hussel” from that album but his own tale of woe about a shopping trip to everyone’s favourite discount supermarket deserves an airing.
Adele “Hometown Glory”
Here’s a name to reckon with for Zero Eight. A simple piano gives away to this monster voice. Adele is just 18 or 19 years of age but it’s a voice which will remind you of someone like Etta James or Marlena Shaw. What I love about this is how darn simple it sounds. And it’s as far from Kate Nash and her ilk as you can get.
Usually, I don’t post album reviews here because they are, after all, published in The Ticket every Friday and that’s just a click away. But last week’s rock/pop reviews didn’t make the jump from the paper to the website so I thought I’d post the Cathy Davey album review here instead.
Having seen her show in Whelan’s last night, I’m even more convinced that we’re in the presence of something very special indeed. Even the old songs sounded good last night - after all, the problems there were to do with the production rather than the songs. Davey has a rocking band with her at the moment (Bell X1’s Paul Noonan is on drums and ex-Immediate dude Conor O’Brien is on guitar) and her own growing stage confidence is also striking. An artist with an album as sussed and sassy as this doesn’t come along all too often. Review in full after the jump (by the way, it’s a long one because it was due to be CD of the Week until Thom Yorke got it into his little head to unleash the Radiohead album in the same week).
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I meant to plug the brand new Analogue magazine last week but didn’t get around to it. I’d reckon all the print magazines have been grabbed by now but issue two can only be a few weeks away so keep your eyes peeled for it. A fantastic piece of work from Bren and his fellow Trinity students.
Speaking of magazines…. This is on the way to a newstand and screen near you. March 2008, I hear.
Go see Garage. Truly one of the finest cinematic experiences of the year.
Ignore the one star reviews and go see The Kingdom too.
Radiohead (oh yes, them again) seem to have taken the private healthcare route to serve “In Rainbows” to their fans. I’m so over Radiohead now.
Twenty went fishing on You Tube and came back with this nugget for all the radio anoraks in the audience. It gets really interesting and strangely relevant around the 1:20 mark.
Via the Mulley man, further proof that Arcade Fire ripped off all their ideas for “Neon Bible” from Bruce.
The lady behind one of the albums of the year is the latest addition to the Dublin autumn/winter tent love-in.
M.I.A. plays Live at the Marquee in the Phoenix Park on Friday December 7. Tickets go on sale at the weekend.
That means Kanye West, Justice and now M.I.A. (and we’re sure a few of you are having happy thoughts about the Cascada gig) are now lined up for this run of shows.
As played on Phantom 105.2, Saturday October 13, 10pm-midnight
The return to the airwaves after a three week break meant a chance to spin a ton of new music. Naturally enough, there was plenty from the recent Canadian adventures - Les Breastfeeders, New Buffalo (Sally Seltmann may be from Oz but she’s signed to Arts & Crafts and she wrote Feist’s “1 2 3 4″ so there’s a lot of Canuck links), Young Galaxy, Holy Fuck, Plants & Animals and, of course, Kevin Drew - but there was also a lot of quality new Irish stuff in there too. The Cathy Davey love-in continues, but you should also check out Cork’s Hooray For Humans (cool album), Waterford’s John Haggis (beguiling album from Haggis Towers) and Thomastown’s Wax Botanical. That new Operator Please tune is hot, the single from These New Puritans is savage and Grizzly Bear’s fantastic new “Friend” EP, has a wonderfully spage-age choral version of “Alligator” on it. I forgot to bring “Magic” with me to the studio so The National’s live version of “Mansion On the Hill” provided a Bruce fix.
Black Lips “I Saw A Ghost” (Vice)
Les Savy Fav “Comes & Goes” (French Kiss)
Holy Fuck “Milk Shake” (XL)
Les Breastfeeders “Tout va pour le mieux dans la pire des mondes” (Blow The Fuse)
Operator Please “Leave It Alone” (Brille)
Poppy & The Jezebels “Electro Bitch” (Reveal)
Young Galaxy “Golden Coin” (Arts & Crafts)
Hooray For Humans “Pimptacious” (Out On A Limb)
Ra Ra Riot “Dying Is Fine” (V2)
These New Puritans “Colours” (Angular)
Health “Crimewave” (Lovepump Unlimited)
The Heavy “That Kind Of Man” (Counter)
Patriza & Jimmy “Trust Your Child, Part One” (Numero)
Wax Botanical “I Am” (Blue Electrics)
Wolf People “October Fires” (Battered Ornaments)
Cathy Davey “Moving” (EMI)
Kevin Drew “Big Love” (Arts & Crafts)
Dan Deacon “Big Milk” (Carpark)
To Rococo Rot “Freitag” (Domino)
The Gospel “Skating Your Pool” (Brownpunk)
John Haggis “Boy Solider & Invisible Man” (Granny It’s OK)
New Buffalo “Cheer Me Up Thank You” (Arts & Crafts)
Plants & Animals “A L’Oree des Bois” (Secret City)
Avety Tare & Kria Brekkan “Polenka” (Paw Tracks)
Lali Puna “Together In Electric Dreams” (Sunday Best)
Grizzy Bear “Alligator” (Warp)
The National “Mansion On The Hill” (Beggars)
News that Madonna has decided to take the Live Nation millions (a story which has had legs for quite some time and which will inevitably feed into the current end-of-the-world feeling about the record industry) comes on the same day as Simon Carswell has a story in the paper about Dublin venue owner Harry Crosbie doing a deal with the multinational concert promotion giant.
As a result of the deal, Live Nation will manage all four of Crosbie’s venues: the Point (which currently has the builders in), the proposed Daniel Libeskind-designed 2,000-seat theatre at Grand Canal Square, the brand new Vicar Street 2 (a smaller venue to be located beside the Point) and, what is probably the best venue in Dublin, Vicar Street on Thomas Street.
While some aspects of the story aren’t new (Live Nation have managed the Point since they took over the Apollo Leisure Group a good few years ago and they were slated to look after the Grand Canal Square venue since it was first mooted back in 2004, albeit under their old Clear Channel name), the news that Crosbie has done a deal with Live Nation for Vicar Street is very interesting.
Since it opened in 1998, Aiken Promotions have managed the venue for Crosbie and, while they have been very open and helpful to independent promoters, their biggest rivals MCD have not had access to the diary. Will this change now that there’s a new management company in place? Especially a new management company whose parent company are in bed with MCD on the ownership of a couple of British venues and festivals? Yet another interesting twist in the city’s ongoing live music story to keep an eye on.
A couple of weeks ago The Ticket published a comprehensive rundown of autumn/winter gig highlights. However, with promoters reckoning that the Irish music fan has an insatiable hunger for live music, that list has grown by the day.
Besides the usual suspects (hello David Gray) and repeat offenders (CSS return for their umpteenth Irish show in ‘07) getting the cash together for the Christmas shopping, there are some very promising shows on the horizon.
Spiderman of the Rings daredevil Dan Deacon visits Galway(Róisín Dubh, November 30th), Sligo (Model Arts, December 1st) and Dublin (Whelan’s, December 2nd), while Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore plays Dublin’s Tripod on December 4th.
Self-styled emergency rockers Cougar are at Whelan’s in Dublin on November 30th, Vic Chestnutt and his all-star indie band play Dublin’s Button Factory on December 1st and the excellent Fuyija & Miyagi are also there on December 16th.
Vinyl freaks planning a trip to the LCD Soundsystem shows in Dublin next weekend should take in a visit to the merch stand.
The band are currently flogging a highly collectible tour-only EP featuring their version of Joy Division’s No Love Lost. On the flipside (younger readers, this means the other side of the record) are recent LCD Soundsystem tour-mates Arcade Fire covering Serge Gainsbourg’s Eurovision 1965 winner Poupée de Cire/Poupée de Son.
This may well be a better investment than taking out a defined contribution pension.
It’s good to see that are still some brave souls keen to get involved in the record-releasing business.
A new Dublin electronic music label gets its first release out in November.
Mantrap is the brainchild of Sunil Sharpe, one of the main movers behind Give Us The Night, the lobby group hustling for an informed debate about club and venue opening hours.
The label’s debut release comes from Dublin producer Magnetize, with a record due from Rory St John in early 2008.
“There’s no digital label-only crap going on here, it’s a real McCoy record label,” says Sharpe.
Crash Ensemble fella Donnacha Dennehy had a very interesting piece in yesterday’s paper tracking the ongoing rise and rise of new Irish classical music. The piece was to plug this weekend’s Shindig, a hooley to mark 10 years of Crash Ensemble business, but Dennehy also had a tale to tell about the state of his artistic bailiwick.
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The first review is in. Kilian was on at 7.56am with this:
Listening to it now. It’s err… nice. Not groundbreaking. Not earth shattering. But free.
As I write, the story is even getting traction on Morning Ireland (with “High & Dry” from 1995’s The Bends playing in the background rather than something which might startle the horses) so we KNOW this is a big one. Actually, hang on, this must be a HUGE story because Cormac Battle is on talking about it now. Woo-hoo!
Over to you: what the hell is the album like? I bet the Cathy Davey album is a million times better….
I’ve steered clear of commenting on the new Bruce album until now, chiefly because I just haven’t had a chance to listen to it properly between the jigs and the reels of the last week or so. But after a couple of listens, I’ve found myself drawn back to “Magic” again and again. Be it the snatch of a lyric here or a trace of a melody there, it’s a bit like a freight train running through the middle of my head, as the man himself says, and you just can’t ignore that sort of thing.
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(1) Headline of the week. I mean, you just have to read a story which comes with a headline like that.
(2) Watching The Police at Croke Park from one of the corporate hospitality suites around the stadium was bizarre. While we paid homage to Michael Wall in that we didn’t eat the dinner, every single other box was full of people tucking into the steak and chips while the band played on. Extremely strange behaviour. Actually, Maccer would have probably lost his reason coming up with terms for the people in the boxes.
(3) Bob, by Todd. I remember hearing him talking about making this film at Tokion magazine’s Creativity Now confab back in ‘05 - “it won’t be like Scorsese”, he promised and it sounds as if he came good on that.
(4) As stadium rock shows go, The Police weren’t shabby at all. They played the hits, they played them well and everyone had a whale of a time. And they were far, far better than the atrocious support act, Fiction Plane. Wonder how Joe got that gig?
(5) Would you pay $222,000 for these songs?
(6) Here’s a rumour to get you humming: MCD to turn their Spirit joint on Middle Abbey Street into a Button Factory with more live gigs and less trance DJs. The important word here is “rumour”.
(7) The funkiest album you will hear this year is “Home Schooled”, the latest must-have collection from the excellent Numero label featuring various kid funk and soul combos from the Seventies getting wicked.
(8) A Month of Sundays is back, back BACK! Donal Dineen’s sound and vision roadshow will call at the Kerry Film Festival (November 4), Ard Bia in Galway (November 11), Cork’s Triskel Arts Centre (November 18) and the Belltable in Limerick (November 18). Acts onboard for the trip include Lisa Hannigan (get a site or a MySpace, homegirl), Si Schroeder, Jape, Canadian electronica dude Milosh, Matt Elliott, Halves and Dark Room Notes.
(9) Comments not to be made in corporate hospitality: “wow, it’s not like the Barbara Streisand gig at all”
(10) Yo Majesty plus Beth Ditto equals this
We told you so. Per Music Week and Billboard, our new favourite excuse for a blog post Radiohead are talking to a load of labels about a CD release of “In Rainbows” for 2008 and expect to make an announcement next week about this.
According to the band’s management team, Courtyard Management’s Bryce Edge and Chris Hufford, none of the labels they have been talking to knew about their online release strategy in advance. On The Record would have given anything to have been able to hear what was said on Monday morning when the labels offering oodles and oodles of cash found out about that one.
So much for bypassing the traditional record labels, eh?
But as pointed out below, a band like Radiohead can not and will not spend time, money or energy on putting together the infrastructure required (from production and warehousing to fulfillment and distribution) necessary to get one album - just one album - into record stores in every territory.
This move shows that the band recognise the importance of having their record stocked in traditional retail outlets worldwide. It’s further proof of the truism that there will always be a need for a middleman to get the music from the musicians who make it to the audience who want to hear it. Given this, the trick for labels and stores now is to work out just how they can still be around in the future.
Radiohead’s decision to sell - or give away - their music directly to their fans via the web is the “music news story of the year”, according to one of many postings on the On The Record blog this week.
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The Music Ireland expo in Dublin’s RDS, which runs from today until Sunday, features a music equipment trade show, 10 live acts and workshops with such well-travelled pros as Doug Wimbish, the bassist who features on a number of seminal old-school hip-hop cuts (including “White Lines” and “The Message”) and who has also played with the Rolling Stones, Living Colour and Tackhead.
The real attraction for many, though, will be some promising round-table discussions on various music-business issues. Besides 2FM big potato John Clarke arguing the toss about playlists and radio airtime for Irish artists, there will be discussions and debates on music management, songwriting, production and a public interview with Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis.
Participants include producer Stephen Street, superstar manager Louis Walsh, Brian Kennedy, Dolores O’Riordan (ex-Cranberries in case you’d forgotten), 2FM’s Mark McCabe and Today FM’s Tom Hardy.
It’s time for a Microdisney revival, and the release this week of the career-spanning Daunt Square to Elsewhere: Anthology 1982-1988 may be the catalyst for one.
Cathal Coughlan and Sean O’Hagan’s band lit up 1980s Ireland for many with such releases as The Clock Comes Down The Stairs, Crooked Mile and We Hate You South African Bastards.
Ater Microdisney, Coughlan went onto more scathing heights with Fatima Mansions, while O’Hagan rustled together the High Llamas.
The press release reference to “one of the UK’s best post-punk bands” will come as news to Cork’s citizens, who still consider the act one of Leeside’s finest.
Tomorrow night at 8pm, BBC Radio 2 will broadcast Dream Dylan Live, an hour of Bob Dylan’s greatest hits culled from four decades of live shows.
Ignorning some of the ropier Dylan live shows of recent years (and boy, there have been some stinkers), this broadcast even includes four previously unheard out-takes from Dylan’s own archives.
Meanwhile, we’re digging Dylan’s own idiosyncratic wireless adventures, Theme Time Radio, on BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music. High time for some Irish radio station to get Bob on the job.
Everyone loves fairy tales involving knights in shining armour jostling with nasty monsters so relish what Headrambles has to make of the battle of the spam merchants making the Irish blogosphere huff and puff. No houses blown down yet, though.
Rapture Ponies has spotted that my paymasters have a weird-ass selection of online games. Nope, I didn’t know that either.
CSS are playing yet another Irish show. I make this their fifth trip here in 2007 - Ambassador, Trinity Ball/Carlow, Oxegen, supporting Gwen Stefani and now Dublin’s Olympia on December 10. Enough already. CSS, go home. Put your feet up. Do the laundry. Open your mail. Pay your bills. And write some new songs
Arcade Fire are doing something on Saturday. Actually, I’m busy on Saturday too.
Eoghan O’Neill is on fire these days. Here, he points out some techie problems which may well bedevil Radiohead Day next Wednesday.
Actually, the more I think about this Radiohead yoke, the more I’m convinced it’s also the PR scam of the year. No-one has heard the album so far and yet I’m sure massive space is already getting cleared for the reviews and the features and the like because the band have turned it into an event. They haven’t quite bypassed the record labels either but are keeping that bit quiet for now.
Proof that sometimes a sold-out show is not a sold-out show.
Say hello to the Wu-Tang Beatles. The Clan have got the nod from The Beatles to use a sample of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” for a new tune on new Wu album “8 Diagrams”. It’s the first ever legal clearance of a Beatles sample. Wow, whatever next? Bono writing a song for the Spice Girls? Hold on a darn tooting second…
And this blog post title? One of the best reads ever about the music business.
Biggest music news story of the mo’ is the Radiohead yoke by a country mile. It broke on Sunday night and it has dominated proceedings since. It’s the story which will keep on giving.
Yet if you look at the news pages on Hot Press or Muse, two online sites which purport to cover music, there’s not a mention of it. Not a sausage. And this is now Tuesday afternoon, over 36 hours after the news first broke.
No wonder people are turning to blogs and bulletin boards for their music news (ironically, there’s a discussion about it on the Hot Press messageboard) if the music websites can’t do the job.
I’ve spent the last 10 days or so tramping around Toronto and Montreal. The sun has been shining for the most part, the vibes have been pleasant and I’ve mooched around various ‘hoods, avoiding doing much of the work I said I’d do while I was here. Mitching, it’s the new rock’n'roll.
Anyway, as I went further along Queen St West, wandered around Cabbagetown or swapped the Plateau for Mile End, I’ve found myself going back again and again to three particular mixes on the iPod
The first mix is the Diplo one which Pitchfork threw your way a couple of weeks ago. Now, I know some of you have problems with him, but I’ve had nothing but love for Diplo since he dropped that “Florida” album and since I caught him slaying the Razzmatazz club in Barca a couple of years ago. Anyway, this mix is delightful, a cheery-picker’s delight.
The second mix is a wonderfully hissy and crackly 1998 Essential Mix from Ashley Beedle. I found it on the Best Foot Forward blog a few weeks ago and only got around to listening to it last week. Beautiful super-skank sounds from Beedle, complete with rewinds and chatter.
The third one is the Fabriclive 36 from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Pat Mahoney. Yeah, yeah, I know some of you probably have problems with Murphy too – what it with you lot, eh? Anway, if this collection of old-school New York City spiritual disco and rare grooves does not bring a smile to your face and a spring to your step, there is something amiss in your bones. You really have to move your feet and clap your hands when you hear sounds like Donald Byrd & The 125th St NYC’s “Love Has Come Around”, music from a time when the living and dreaming was that bit easier. Call it an alternative soundtrack, if you will, for those mythical Sunday mornings and afternoons at The Loft or Body & Soul which keep playing in your mind.
Anyone have mixes they’d like to recommend?
Lets start with what will probably be the news story of the week - the new Radiohead album is called “In Rainbows” and you can only get your hands on it via this website. It will be available as a download from October 10 (you can even choose how much you want to pay for it - if it’s worth just one cent to you, pay one cent) or you can wait for the swanky box-set (complete with CDs, vinyl, hardback books, slipcase and what look like a couple of hairs from Thom Yorke’s head) which ships from December 3. There’s no record label involved as far as I can see, so this really is a new-school record industry business model. The copycatting will be only fierce.
Hey, lets all go to Sligo! The Model Arts & Niland Gallery are in Andy Warhol mode for the next few months (or should that be 15 minutes?) with the Eternal Now exhibition based on work produced by the artist at The Factory from 1963 to 1968. Besides various talks and film screenings, the music performance element of exhibition is pretty cool with shows by Dan Deacon (December 1 - two other Irish dates to be announced), Si Schroeder with the excellent Cap Pas Cap (December 8th) and - great news altogether - an Irish exclusive from the magnificent Max Richter (October 18).
Is this the moment when minimal goes mainstream? Or will that be when Villalobos hits Hollywood? No doubt Minimal Boy will tell us in due course.
Synthpop pioneer - by the by, whatever did happen to Howard Jones? - Thomas Dolby plays Dublin’s Whelan’s on October 11. We saw him at SXSW earlier in the year and it was, uhm, ah, er, interesting. Support from Neosupervital and Black Affair, AKA former Beta Band-er Steve Mason (whose former colleagues The Aliens play Dublin’s Crawdaddy on October 20 with support from the majestic Super Extra Bonus Party).
2FM in new band shocka! And they’re all Irish too! Japes! We talk of the 2fm 2moro 2our, the latest installment of which features David Geraghty, Ham Sandwich and Concerto for Constantine (an Irish indie “supergroup” featuring ex-JJ72-er Mark Greaney, ex-Turn-er Gavin Fox and ex-Frame/Bell X1-er Binzer). Tickets are free for the the various shows up and down the country from November 15 to 25 and you can get your hands on them here. The bands will be accompanied by various 2FM jocks but, unfortunately for the plain people of Ireland, Gerry Ryan, John Clarke and the two lads who do the breakfast show that most people in the country don’t listen to will probably not be on the tour. Boo!
Speaking of that other Liverpool FC fan with the initials JC… The 2FM big brains will be speaking at one of the Music Ireland seminar yokes next weekend at Dublin’s RDS. John Clarke will be talking about radio playlists and their impact on Irish acts alongside Steve Wall (The Walls), Kieran McGeary (big cheese at Cork’s 96FM/103FM) and Louis Walsh (do we need to put anything in brackets after Lucifer’s name? I don’t think so).
We’re big fans of Eoghan O’Neill’s Promenade blog over on Cluas. As he has shown on various visits here (see comment number 5 which Thom Yorke obviously noted when he was reading On The Record that day) and particularly on his own blog, Eoghan’s a bit of a forensic Columbo when it comes to making very smart points about music, media and technology (and we’re not saying this because of his latest post, aiight?)
So then Hard Working Class Hero worshippers, how was it for you? For those who weren’t there, Lili has the pics and we will hopefully have the words from you lot to go with them. So what did I miss much when I was hanging out in MTL speaking really bad French and catching live shows from Beirut, Bat For Lashes, Colleen and The Brunettes (all the local bands, as feared, are cooling their jets for next weekend’s Pop Montreal)? What HWCH bands rocked your world? Did the idea of having all the HWCH gigs in just one location make or break your weekend? You know what to do - type to Jim.
And I guess this photo means we’re free of the oval ball boys again for a while. Hurrah.
