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I’ve just realised that it’s a year today since this blog first appeared on a screen near you.
Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting over the last 12 months. It has been an education. Couldn’t have done it without you guys, you know. No, really.
Stay classy, readers.
To most readers, Bebo is a social networking site hugely popular among Irish teens and school-goers.
To musician and activist Billy Bragg, however, Bebo is a company who’ve become successful by using the creative blood, sweat and tears of musicians such as him to attract new members and advertisers.
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From the good news department: hip-hop and samba night Brasilintime, which has its roots in the documentary of the same name (see video below), is back in Ireland in May.
Put together by Limerick-born photographer, director and DJ Brian “B+” Cross, the line-up stars Afrobeat legend Tony Allen, most recently in action with The Good, The Bad & The Queen.
Allen will appear with Brazilian drummers Ivan Conti (Azymuth) and Joao Paryhba (Trio Mocoto) plus the mighty Madlib (Beat Konducta/ Quasimoto), J-Rocc (The Beat Junkies) and Nuts.
The dates are Dublin’s Tivoli on May 2nd and Limerick’s Trinity Rooms on May 4th.
It has been a bonanza week for music business legal eagles in the US.
First came the news that Smashing Pumpkins are taking former label Virgin to court.
The reason for Billy Corgan and co’s breach-of- contract suit? A claim that Virgin has endangered the band’s reputation by involving them in sales promotions with Amazon and Pepsi.
Corgan described it as “a frustrating situation” for the band “to be treated so poorly by a label where we had so much success”.
The other music business plaintiffs this week are US performing rights body ASCAP, who have sent in the heavies to tackle 29 clubs and venues who are playing music in public without a licence.
The body claims “it reached out to the owners of the establishments repeatedly over a significant period of time before taking legal action”.
John Cooper Clarke is the man who links The Sopranos (his “Evidently Chickentown” track below was featured in one episode) and the Arctic Monkeys (lead Monkey Alex Turner is a big fan). The poet and musician plays Dublin’s Crawdaddy on May 16.
Ben Otwell is the man with the big voice in Gomez and he’s at Dublin’s Crawdaddy on May 12 for a solo acoustic pow-wow with his band’s greatest hits.
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip play Dublin’s Button Factory on May 7 ahead of the release of their “Angles” debut album
Well, here’s the line-up for Electric Picnic 2008:
Sex Pistols, Sigur Ros, Grinderman, Franz Ferdinand, George Clinton & The P-Funk Allstars, My Bloody Valentine, Goldfrapp, Christy Moore, Wilco, The Gossip, Duffy, Underworld, Tinariwen, Foals, CSS, Tindersticks, New Young Pony Club, Josh Ritter, Lisa Hannigan, Cathy Davey, That Petrol Emotion, The Breeders, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Sinead O’Connor, The Waterboys, The Roots, Kila, Micah P Hinson, Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), Hayseed Dixie, Candi Staton, Juana Molina, Turin Brakes, Faust, Midnight Juggernauts, Tartit, Hadouken!, Silver Apples, Mark Geary, Teitur, Blitzen Trapper, Absentee, Balanescu Quartet, Lou Rhodes, Adrian Crowley, One Day International, The Yard Dogs, Tobias Froberg, Boss Volenti, Dawn Landes, Constantines, Yacht, Lionheart Brothers, Large Mound, Emmy the Great, Kormac & the BSQ Band, Jape, The Noisettes, Dublin Gospel Choir.
First reason to be cheerful: SILVER APPLES! The fucking SILVER APPLES! Playing in Co Laois. Hell, yeah
Second reason to be cheerful: WILCO! Great to see them on the list, especially as they’ve been on every possible line-up since year one.
Third reason to be cheerful: BALANESCU QUARTET! Awesome, awesome, awesome
Main reason to be fearful: Christy Moore. Ah lads, c’mon. Tell me this is some kind of situationalist prank. What next, the Wolfe Tones?
Weekend tickets are €240 (no day tickets) and a family camping ticket is €480 for 2 adults & up to 4 kids under 12 with access to the designated family campsite. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 9am.
There’s oodles and oodles of space for your thoughts below
Time for some fun. I’ve been meaning to do this for ages, but never quite got around to it. Today seems as good a day as any. I mean, there’s nothing else happening. Sure, you all know that Christy Moore is headlining the Picnic, backed by Sigur Ros… You did know that, didn’t you?
Anyway, you have 20 words or less to let off steam about who you think is the most over-rated act in the world ever. One act only so choose wisely
It could be The Smiths (they only ever had one decent tune and that was “Draize Train”) or REM (a band who’ve successfully whored themselves around on past glories for the last 20 years) or U2 (it would have been far better and funnier if Gavin Friday was the lead singer).
The rules are simple: you can only pick one act and you have 20 words or less to make your case. Multiple entries from the same poster will be deleted. Heckling from the gallery welcome.
And please, make with the funnies. We need the laughs.
I still get nightmares about Smokey Robinson and his satin silk trousers. I know I’m not alone in this because someone else who was there that night recently ‘fessed to me that she can still recall the soul star’s see-through silk blouse with a shudder. Smokey’s gig last summer in Dublin scarred me for life. A living legend butchering his own legacy with a great big smile on his face. But these days, when Smokey sings, I see those trousers.
It probably explains the trepidation I felt walking into Radio City Music Hall in New York last Saturday night for the Aretha Franklin show. Not so much the idea of what the queen of soul might be wearing (for the record, she was sporting a veritable sub-continent of black chiffon and spangly glitter), but rather what the hell she’d do to her back-catalogue over the course of a show.
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The first confirmed acts and ticket details for this year’s Electric Picnic festival will be announced next Wednesday, March 26th
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The Raconteurs have announced that they will release their second album, Consolers of the Lonely, worldwide next Friday, March 28th.
The record was finished in early March, so there will be no hanging around for reviews, internet leaks, marketing meetings or promo tours for Jack White, Brendan Benson and the other two before Consolers of the Lonely hits the shops.
The move is partly reminiscent of Radiohead’s In Rainbows campaign last year, although The Raconteurs have not bought into Radiohead’s name-your-own-price model.
Of course, there’s nothing new about rush-releases like this. It’s a common ploy, for example, in the film business, where - usually lousy - movies sometimes go on release without press screenings for critics.
Rock Camp may be just the ticket for kids seeking to emulate such teen acts as Tiny Masters 0f Today.
At Rock Camp, 11- to 18- year-olds learn about songwriting, recording and performance, as well as how to promote and sell their music, all with the help of experienced instructors.
Camp attendees also have the opportunity to form a band to perform a gig at the end-of-camp concerts.
Rock Camp will be taking place in three different locations around Dublin from late June to early August.
More information and full details on how to apply here.
The UK Office of National Statistics has dumped the CD single from its list of goods and service used to measure inflation. Other items chopped include ready-made meals, camera film and microwaves.
Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee and Berlin-based music-maker Henrik Schwarz will host a Red Bull Music Academy workshop at Dublin’s Spy on April 12 for aspiring Irish producers. Email for more info.
RTE’s various digital radio stations are now broadcasting in the Cork and Limerick areas. Lets hope there’s even more content on the way, particularly from the excellent 2XM indie station.
Erykah Badu, she of the peerless “Baduizm” debut and the excellent new album “New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)”, plays Dublin’s Vicar Street on July 1.
As part of the Don’t Look Back series, Public Enemy will be performing their classic 1988 album “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back” in full at Dublin’s Tripod on May 25.
(1) On the night after SXSW finishes, Austin’s main music drag, Sixth Street, is one eerie place. There’s nothing happening. I mean, there are a few shell-shocked stragglers and members of various drunken bands walking around trying to get their bearings, but this is veritable tumbleweed terrain after the last few days and nights. The buidlings have stopped shaking, the streets have been cleaned and the madness has faded.
(2) Naturally, I’ve forgotten to mention in the course of the various daily updates about a dozen other acts seen and heard over the last few days and nights who impressed me, so here goes. Bodies Of Water got better and better as their set went on, Born Ruffians play colour co-ordinated pop which much pizzazz, No Age redraw the hardcore book, Delorean are probably the best Spanish disco-punk band you’ll ever come across named after a former automobile tycoon, Yeasayer know more about bliss than your favourite masseuse, Vampire Weekend are every jot as impressive as a band of preppy kids from NYC should be and Man Man are having a whale of a time on the new-school cabaret tightrope.
(3) Then, there are the acts that people are telling me I should have seen. A chorus of “doh” then for not getting in line for The Dodos, Fleet Foxes, Care Bears On Fire, In Case Of Fire (see, another theme developing here) and Oppenheimer, all of whom apparently rocked like beasts.
(4) Of course, there was also the convention centre. In years past, I’d have spent many happy hours feeding my brain at panels and interviews as well as checking out the trade show to see who was buying and selling. This year, though, I was more interested in bands than panels and it seems I wasnt alone. Those manning trade show stands were grumbling about the lack of footfall as people abandoned the convention centre to hang out in the heat at daytime parties and gigs. As far as those trade show people were now concerned, SXSW has become about the live music.
That perception is not helped by the fact that the panels are lazy and tokenistic, with too many featuring jaded time-servers who’re just there to collect their free badge and talk about the good old days. There’s no sense of owning up to the fact that the business has moved on and new problems demand new solutions and new players.
Then, there were the interviews. The sparsely attended chat with Seymour Stein was unfocused, with the interviewer clearly over-awed by the great man and leaving too little time to go through the Sire story. And do I really need to sit and listen to Lou Reed grunt and groan for an hour about his career at this stage of my life?
The best convention centre event by a mile was former Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg yakking with Jim Fouratt. As always at these panels, Fouratt is good value for money and gave it his best Nighty Night With Vincent Browne as he quizzed and propped Goldberg about his career and various political projects. Goldberg was more than a match for him, though, and the stories and opinions flew back and forth with great gusto for an hour.
(5) The growing problem for SXSW is that the festival has become a monster success story, but without any direct guidance from SXSW. To those who run the shindig, it’s still an industry event. Indeed, last year, there was much local fuming when one of the directors dissed the idea of SXSW becoming a consumer festival. In reality, though, SXSW is now a huge global brand which attracts punters who view it as an opportunity to see hundreds of bands playing in Austin over a few sunny spring days. It has become indie rock’s spring break.
But that audience don’t buy the badges SXSW need to sell to pay the bills. Instead, SXSW continues to focus very much on those parts of the music industry which are now in decline - I heard one figure touted last weekend that there are now barely 70 full-time A&R men at major labels instead of the 500 employed a few years ago. There were certainly far fewer major label folks in circulation these last few days.
Meanwhile, the kids and bloggers and tech labels who want to check out new music and take things forward are staying the hell away from the convention centre and working the daytime party scene for all they’re worth. Why pay for a badge if you can do all that for free? Lets hope SXSW doesn’t replicate the mistakes which the record business made and shuns the goodwill which is currently there in abundance.
(6) What I’ll miss most about Austin: the food. Truly, there is great eating and drinking in this town. You start with the best Mexican breakfast in the world at Las Manitas (we recommend the huevos rancheros with a side-order of chorizo) or a posh one at the Driskill Hotel. Later, when you’re peckish again, try the tacos or burritos at Guero’s or some explosive rock-your-world chilli from the Texan Chilli Parlour. The best slices in town? That would be at the pizza from Whole Foods.
(7) What I’ll miss least about Austin: power-tripping doormen demanding ID at every turn and then stamping an inky ident on your paw. Give a man or woman a clipboard in Texas and he or she becomes an instant asshole.
(8) Still want more SXSW coverage? Check out the New York Times SXSW blog and Jon Pareles’s fine round-up for that paper. There’s also extensive coverage from Johnnie Craig over at State, particularly on the Irish stuff. The Guardian were also blogging like crazy, while music industry tipsheet Record of the Day set up a seperate blog for SXSW. And for the first and last word on the real-deal parties and underground buzzes at the fest from an Irish blow-in living in Austin, Cubikmusik is the man you need to talk to.
(9) Time for some sleep. SXSW kicks off again on March 18, 2009.
Per the Boston Herald, the band’s tour-bus caught fire in front of their hotel in the city on Friday night. No-one was injured in the blaze.
According to a fire report, a generator located within the bus’ ventilation/air-conditioning unit caught fire and spread throughout the bus, damaging the unit and burning the interior. The fire was put out about 5:00 a.m. Damages are estimated to be $50,000.
And, as if that wasn’t enough run-ins for Irish rock with fire engines, there was a fire at The Village venue in Dublin on Saturday night, leading to the evacuation of 800 people from the building.
Band Of The Day
They are called White Shoes & The Couples Company. I think I was in love with them the first time I even heard the name. They’re from Jakarta, Indonesia - like, how many indie bands making their own back-to-the-future sounds do you know from downtown Jakarta? I mean, c’mon. A breath of fresh air on the last night of SXSW 2008, White Shoes (lots of bands with ‘white’ in their name this year - hey, it’s a trend) came onstage and we all start swooning with delight. At this stage of the game - they’re band number 80something for me - it’s becoming a blur and the bands are starting to sound the same. Or, like, that awful, terrible, ridiculous, pointless band who played just before White Shoes, sounding like The Blizzards fronted by Paddy Casey playing the greatest hit of The Coronas. Yeah, that bad.
Then, White Shoes appear and, you know what, they deserve a new paragraph of their own. On a new page
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Band of the Day
Crystal Castles. Lets start raving. You’d never know that Alice Glass had cracked a couple of ribs in a car-smash the other week from the way she rocks this stage. Sounds as intense and as alien and as futuristic and as downright groovy as it gets in 2008. The strobes keeps flashing. As they say over here, awesome. Their album is going to be an event
There are many comparisons you could draw between SXSW and Cheltenham. At both events, you have thousands of punters armed with tips and various form guides. The tips come from all manner of sources - some are ones you picked up from a randomer you met in the coffee shop (or steam room - great steam rooms here, though not so sure about the steam rooms in Cheltenham) and some you got from well-placed sources.
What’s fascinating to observe is how media and music industry people filter these tips and arrive at much the same conclusions. Remember, there are about 1,700 bands at SXSW. Of course, all of them are not playing on the same night or at the same time, but it is still remarkable to see how certain bands get the bulk of the attention.
The other night, I went to see Wild Light, a band from New Hampshire who were not very good, if truth be told. Yet the room was full of interested labels, agents and journalists, all gazing seriously at the stage and weighing the band up. Most of the audience were applying the three song rule (if a band can’t rock your world in three songs, move on fast) and left pretty fast. I heard from someone else who was at the gig that the band got better later on in the set, but that was too late for many.
Last night, it was the same deal at Magic Wands, a full house of people with vested interests. I turned up at the gig because I love their track “Black Magic” and have been playing it on the radio show. That was the second tune of the night, but the first one and the third one were poor by comparison so I was out the door. I was not alone.
You wouldn’t want to be a sensitive soul in a band at a festival like this. People walk into your gig mid-song, stay for a song and a bit and then walk back out again. This goes on at every single gig and for every single band. It’s binge-gigging and it really must wreck some musicians’s heads.
Anyway, enough preamble, the round-up from yesterday is below the fold
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Richard Brophy has an interesting piece (which is replicated after the jump) in today’s Ticket musing about rock’n'roll’s green credentials.
Richard looks at The Big Ask campaign from Friends of the Earth, which has been championed by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, and the report commissioned by Radiohead into how acts can reduce their carbon footprint and wonders if other bands will sign up for the programme. Are acts willing to forego planes and encourage their fans to travel to concerts using private transport? Or is the case that when bands do try to go green (see this list), they really get it completely wrong and are just paying lip service to the notion to appear all green and eco-friendly and cuddly?
An update to this piece: Radiohead’s Thom Yorke has clarified the band’s reasons for not playing Glastonbury. The Irish Times and other news outlets previously reported that Radiohead had refused to appear because the festival had poor public transport links, creating a large carbon footprint.
The misunderstanding arose after Yorke gave an interview to The Sun. In statement this week, Yorke says: “In the course of the interview I mentioned that we had a carbon footprint study commissioned and the biggest shock was the significance of the all travel to the show by the audience … I also mentioned that we were not playing Glastonbury this year … but not because of transport issues.”
Yorke has apologised to the Glastonbury organisers, and accepted that they are trying to minimise car use. The real reason for not playing, he says, is that “we had only just played there”.
As always, comments welcome below.
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Irish acts are in Austin, Texas this week on a mission to make new friends, influence people and play numerous shows at the South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival.
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For the citizens of Austin, Texas, the South By Southwest festival is about more than just an annual invasion of out-of-towners - it’s also about the money.
Financial consulting firm Angelou Economics estimates that SXSW was worth more than $95 million to the local economy in 2007. This also includes SXSW’s film and interactive festivals, both of which attract huge numbers in their own right.
Naturally, given such a significant cash splurge by visitors, the city council is happy to support SXSW with street closures, policing and permits.
Add in the 1,000 unpaid local volunteers who really keep this show on the road and you can understand the win-win relationship between Austin and SXSW
Adele’s back and we bet her Irish cousins will be happy with that news. She plays Vicar Street, Dublin on May 16
Hip-hop gig of the season? That could well be the visit of Lupe Fiasco for a show at Dublin’s Tripod on April 5th. Everyone’s favourite skateboarding Muslim MCs new album “The Cool” is every jot as good as his debut “Food & Liquor”.
Mark Geary gets back in the record releasing groove with her new album “Opium” out on April 18th. An Irish tour kicks off in the Sugar Club, Dublin on April 19th.
The Coronas, Boss Volenti and Juno Falls are the acts who will feature on the latest 2fm 2moro 2our.
It’s the fourth run around the country for the tour. Previous acts to have enjoyed the station’s largesse on the tour (though not necessarily any daytime radio play) include The Flaws, Messiah & The Expert, Giveamanakick and The Immediate.
The tour kicks off in Portlaoise’s Sky Venue on April 16th and visits Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Dundalk, Mullingar and Dublin.
Tickets are free and are available from this site.
Band of the Day.
They’re called White Denim and they sound so swell that you’ll smile the minute you hear them. In fact, they sounded so good I went to see them twice yesterday afternoon. Led by James Petralli, a would-be baseball pro who decided his real mission in life was to be a singer channelling the spirit of James Brown at the Apollo, and featuring a bass player who looks like he has yet to start shaving and starring a drummer who messes with that kit like he’s just found it for the first time, White Denim kick your ass with garage ramalama, sleazy, funky soulful licks and sheer raw power. You’re going to love them.
Second Best Band of the Day. So Good, In Fact, You’ll Go See Them Again
Times New Viking. Short, spikey tunes brimful of distortion and charm. They’re from Columbus, Ohio but don’t hold that against them. They have a lot of Spaceman 3 in their record collections, I reckon.
Other Good Stuff
Bob Lind. What do you mean you don’t know Bob Lind? Richard Hawley fans, Bob Lind is the guy that Hawley nicked all his licks (and threads) from, especially his “Since There Were Circles” album. Hes written songs which have been covered by everyone from The Four Tops to Glen Campbell. He played at midnight last night on the 18th floor of a hotel to a couple of dozen people and it was utterly compelling, especially the between song banter. Fans of Sixties folk-rock, check him out.
White Williams. His “Smoke” album is the business, but his live show in a wee pokey bar way out in the badlands of east Austin was deliriously good. Only known example of a natural fusion between palm wine music and slow-mo Dan Deacon-like ‘lectronics. Or else someone spiked our tacos.
Bon Iver. Hush, children, hush, master at work. Apparently, Justin Vernon wrote all the spooked-out country-noir tunes on the “For Emma, Forever Ago” album during a three month spell in a cabin in out-there Wisconsin. More people should do the same thing. Awesome, atmospheric and spell-binding performance which made you move closer to the stage. People compare Vernon’s Bon Iver work to Iron & Wine but this is way better.
Why? Delicious mumblathon horizontal hip-hop from the Why? gang as the Anticon vibe goes downtown and pulls some chicks and then gets dumped at 3am in an all-night diner miles from anywhere.
Panther. Two dudes from Portland, Oregon making a big funky racket. All the stoned jams from their “14 Kt God” album with added panache.
Ra Ra Riot. They would be the best band in the world ever if Arcade Fire didn’t exist. Still, a pleasant, youthful blur with demonic fiddles and cellos.
The Kills. Yeah, Alison from The Kills is the coolest singer in rawk right now. Like, you need me to elaborate on this?
Yacht. Turning that “I Believe in You, Your Magic Is Real” album into the most fun you can have at a live show unless you’re an Everton fan who’s just heard the result from the Fiorentina game.
Silje Nes. My night ended with this lass from Bergen, Norway and her drumming foil playing tunes from the fantastic “Ame’s Room” album. Bliss
In the next week or so, The Ticket will be asking Moby a whole bunch of questions and we’d like to know if there are any questions you’d like to ask His Mobyness now that we have him on the other end of a tape-recorder.
Pose the questions below or, if you’re shy, email them to askmoby@irish-times.ie
It’s the day before it all kicks off. Bands have already begun to arrive in dribs and drabs, but the real invasion gets underway on Wednesday. As you walk around the city, venues which are only used for music shows for one week a year have roadies and production people running around looking very busy. Every single possible area which could hold a stage has been pressed into service. Last year, I ended up at a gig in a garden centre out in east Texas so I must check out that one again. I mean, I could do with a new cactus plant for my own garden.
Both SXSW’s interactive and film fests are winding down. I spent a couple of hours wandering around the convention centre, checking out a few panels at the interactive fest. Two chinwags about blogging - The Future of Corporate Blogging and Bloggers Who Made It - were serious yawnfests. I think I’d have got better etertainment out of scrutinising my belly-fluff.
The one panel which did zing was How Piracy Will Save the Music Industry. On one side, you had Jason Schwartz from digital music label Robber Baron Music, who take a very pro-active role to working with the pirates to promote and market his acts. On the other side, you had Randy Saaf from MediaDefender Inc, a company who provide internet piracy prevention technologies. As far as the room was concerned, this was a battle between good and evil. Schwartz provided a fascinating rundown on how music and movies get pirated and the pyramid taking the pirated content from The Scene who do the initial pirating right through private IRC sites down to public P2P networks. He also ran through how a label such as his could use piracy channels to promote one of their acts. Saaf explained how his company flooded the P2P networks with fake files to confuse everyone. To be honest, he didn’t really have much else to say. When the panel moved to questions from the floor, I felt a little sorry for Saaf as every single person with a question had a go at him and his company. Pity he didn’t ask all those techie geeks in the room how they would feel if their own work was pirated.
I then decided to go to do my bit for the record industry and went to Waterloo Records. It’s the best record shop in town bcause it has an amazing spread of stock and cheap-as-chips prices, especially if you have an euro credit card.
The band business begins today. More reports tomorrow.
Yeah, we really had to leave the country after all the fuss over that poll. Even US immigration were on about it when we were getting finger-printed. “Hey, why no love for the Frank & Walters?”. At least the former government rottweiler, who was queueing with us mere mortals for entry into the land of the free and the home of the brave, didn’t start fuming about the poll as well.
Anyway, I’m at South By South West (SXSW), the annual music beano which takes place in the beautiful city of Austin, Texas. There are also 1,594 bands of every shape and size (and REM too, unfortunately) currenly en route by plane, bus, van and their mother’s station-wagon to the self-proclaimed live music capital of the world where they will play shows, eat top Mexican grub and watch other bands playing shows and eating top Mexican food. It’s going to be some week, boyo.
Also this week in On The Record, you can read the first installment from the Bell X1 tour diary. The band are touring Canada and the United States this month (shows in New York and Chicago are already sold-out) and will also be appearing on both the Late Show with David Letterman and the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson, though obviously not on the same night.
The blog is now on US time so any morning comments will get updated early afternoon. Please hold, your comments are important to us and we appreciate your patience. Have a nice day y’all.
As revealed by On The Record weeks ago, Leonard Cohen is to play the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham on June 14 and 15. Tickets, priced €88.50 to €115.00, go on sale on Friday at 9am.
Mary Carolan caught this one. The big boys in the Irish record business - EMI Music, Warner Music, Universal Music and Sony-BMG - are gunning for Eircom and it’s a battle about to feature in a Commercial Court room near you. The case is the first in Ireland taken by labels aimed at internet service providers, rather than individual downloaders.
The companies want orders - under the Copyright and Related Rights Acts 2000 - restraining Eircom from infringing copyright in the sound recordings owned by, or exclusively licensed to them, by making available (through Eircom’s internet service facilities) copies of those recordings to the public without the companies’ consent.
The record companies are also challenging Eircom’s refusal to use filtering technology or other measures to voluntary block, or filter, material from its network that is being used to download music in violation of the companies’ copyright and/or licensing rights.
Eircom’s retort?
Eircom’s lawyers said the company was not on notice of specific illegal activity that infringed the rights of the companies and had no legal obligation to monitor traffic on its network.
Interestingly, this case is being taken by the four labels rather than the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), the lobby group for Irish record labels.
Any legal eagles who want to break this one down for us?
UPDATES Here are the links to further analysis of this move by Daithí and Jason.
Anyone else surprised to learn that there are still tickets on sale for Oxegen? Isn’t Oxegen supposed to be the festival which sells out in a couple of hours because the kids love it so much and even get to pick the line-up? Have the kids bualked at those ticket prices? Have they said “meh” to the fact that REM are on the bill? Or have they decided to travel to a festival in Europe instead?
5.30pm UPDATE Press release tells me that “3 day weekend camping and 4 day weekend camping tickets along with Day tickets for Saturday 12th July have sold out”, but “a very limited number of 3 day (no camping) tickets and day tickets fo rFriday 11th and Sunday 13th July are available at this time.” All of which means, I suppose, that there are still tickets on sale for the festival.
If you haven’t done so already, read this fantastic post by Naomi Off Her Rocker about the real Irish underground scene. This is the kind of piece which should be on the cover of Hot Press and not Michael “trust me, our new album is really better than our last album and you have to buy it because we need the money and we’re still relevant and we got your man Jacknife Lee to produce the yoke and we’re playing Oxegen and did I tell you that I know Helena Christensen and Bono” Stipe. Hey, it could be the give-a-Stipe-a-kick week on the blog all week long to celebrate the release of their new album.
Footnote to the debate which raged last week on this blog about Irish music magazines: we are not alone. Former NME writer Stephen Dalton looks at the current state of the magazine he once called home.
And a footnote of sorts to the other debate about that Top 40 Irish Albums poll, here’s Mark Edwards explaining why music critics love albums that the public hate.
Bet the millennials won’t be buying music magazines. Or CDs.
Good to see Andrew’s Lane Theatre back on the event listings for the capital city. The theatre was closed down and sold last year for €9.25 million, but it now seems to be operating again as a venue. Forever Presents are promoting Crystal Castles at the venue on April 22 (they also play Cork’s Cyprus Avenue on 21 and Belfast’s Stiff Kitten on 23) and Foggy Notions have Why? playing there on April 26.
Can a music festival really be eco-friendly?
And finally, do you want a Tenori-On in your life? Here’s Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden having a go. Note superfluous subtitles.
As played on Phantom 105.2, Saturday March 8, 10pm-midnight.
Crystal Castles “Untrust Us” (Last Gang)
Autokratz “Padron Garcon” (Kitsune)
Apes & Androids “Creepy Girls” (Self-released)
Ladyhawk “I Don’t Always Know What You’re Saying” (Jagjaguwar)
The Notwist “Good Lies” (City Slang)
Mika Miko “Jogging Song” (He’s Your Mister Right)” (Kill Rock Stars)
The Ting Tings “Keep Your Head” (Columbia)
The Botticellis “Up Against The Glass” (Antenna Farm)
Vampire Weekend “Bryn” (XL)
The Kills “Last Day Of Magic” (Domino)
Foals “Heavy Water” (Transgressive)
LCD Soundsystem “Big Ideas” (Sony)
Times New Viking “The Wait” (Matador)
The Manhattan Love Suicides “You’ll Never Get That Guy” (Magic Marker)
Broadcast 2000 “Don’t Weigh Me Down” (Gronland)
Rings “All Right Peace” (Paw Tracks)
Chequerboard “Konichiwa” (Lazybird)
Oddarrang “Kumpi & Kampi” (Texicalli)
No Kids “The Beaches All Closed” (Tomlab)
Richard Swift “Knee High Boogie Blues” (Secretly Canadian)
The Low Lows “Modern Romance” (Monotreme)
David Karsten Daniels “Falling Down” (Fat Cat)
Ann Peebles “Troubles, Heartaches & Sadness” (Hi)
Baby Huey “Hard Times” (Curtom)
The Charmels “I’ll Never Grow Old” (Stax)
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings “100 Days, 100 Nights” (Daptone)
Aretha Franklin “Spirit In The Dark” (Atlantic)
The list of albums which were voted for but didn’t make The Ticket’s Top 40 Irish Albums Of All Time are now online, while comments from a selection of the readers on the poll are here.
The Ticket’s production supremo Anthea McTeirnan has an interesting piece in today’s paper about why music needs women-only awards. Given the success of past ventures like Ladyfest, it may - or, indeed, may not - be something worth considering. Anyway, we thought we’d put the piece in the blog as well to see what people thought. Over to Anthea….
They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said . . . wait a minute I’ll just finish the vacuuming, turn off the cooker and put the kids to bed. Rock’n’ roll enough for you boys? Obviously not.
So, big up to Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, Mama Cass, Karen Carpenter and whole rockin’ girl crew who have proven that we ladies can turn it up to 11 in the self-abuse stakes as well as the next guy. Great. They have won the sneaking R-E-S-P-E-C-T of the boys who write the history of rock.
Those same boys are currently mid-climax over the emergence of the latest tranche of lady talent. I give you Kate Nash, Adele, Duffy, even Lily bloody Allen. Girls, we are told, are now “officially” on top.
In fact, double X chromosome carriers are so in the ascendant that, here’s an idea (thanks Mr Brian Boyd, writing in last week’s Ticket): there is no longer any need for separate awards for male and female artists at music industry love-ins.
“Female is not a genre” declared Ms Kate Nash at the recent Brit awards. You bet it’s not a genre, Kate. That’s what makes it so easy to ignore, which is what would happen if you dropped the distinction. And in case you didn’t notice, there were seven other Brit awards that weren’t gender-specific. None was won by women.
They gave out 20 gongs at last week’s NME awards. Four went to women. Kate “Germaine” Nash picked up best solo artist. I am so bitter. But the other three lady trophies went to Amy Winehouse (Worst Dressed), Britney Spears (Worst Album) and Kylie Minogue (Sexiest Woman). Case closed.
And feel the shame. This publication isn’t immune. Last week The Ticket offered up our top 40 Irish albums - ever! Guess what? Only one was by a female solo artist. Sinéad O’Connor, take a bow.
Very few women get a passport to that boys’-own world of rock’n’ roll. Those who do are the gals the male-driven music industry approves of. Kate, Amy, Adele et al are not in the vanguard of some sort of feminist revolution. There’s nothing new about the music business pushing a bunch of female solo singers. The industry loves a girl who can belt out a dirge. It’s less keen on women who wield a bass, smash a cymbal or display a penchant for crowd surfing. (Thanks, Beth Ditto, for putting yourself on the radar).
As for girl power, yes, The Spice Girls were a male-constructed sham. D’oh. We got that bit. So’s the whole industry. At least I was able to vote for the members of Girls Aloud on TV. They weren’t hand-picked from The Brit School by some beardy mogul.
Never mind the bollocks. Next year let’s have our own women-only awards ceremony. Oh, and Kate Nash . . . you’re not getting one.
June looks to be the month for heritage acts in Ireland.
As revealed by On the Record last month, Leonard Cohen will play the Royal Hospital, Kilmainhaim, Dublin in June (full details to be announced early next week), and Iggy Pop will play the same venue on June 16th.
This week both Lou Reed and Neil Young anounced Irish shows. Reed will perform his Berlin album at the Live at the Marquee season in Cork on June 23rd. Young will play Dublin’s Malahide Castle on June 29th and that same Leeside marquee on June 30th.
There’s also a return visit from The Police who play in Stormont, Belfast on June 20.
Add in visits from Eric Clapton, Prince and Neil Diamond - and a possibile show from Tom Waits, who is touring Europe this summer - and June really is the month of the old codgers.
The huge rise in the number of live shows in Dublin of late is largely down to such new arrivals as Forever Presents and Foggy Notions on the promoting circuit.
At the same time, it’s good to note that veteran independent promoters like Paul Timoney’s U:mack are still very much in the game.
In the coming months, U:mack is putting on capital city shows by Battles (video for “Atlas” below) and Liars (Vicar Street, May 15th), Sebadoh (Whelan’s, April 23rd), Plaid (Crawdaddy, June 6th) and the Japanese New Music Festival featuring members of Acid Mothers Temple and Ruins (Whelan’s, April 29th).
They’re going to rock this town, rock it inside out. The Stray Cats play Dublin’s Vicar Street on September 14 as part of their farewell tour. Plenty of time between now and then to get your quiff in order.
Bands seeking cash should check out Music Network’s Performance and Touring funds. Closing date for applications is June 9
MTVs Spanking New Music Tour comes to Dublin’s Academy in May with shows from The Zutons, One Night Only and The Script on May 6 and CSS, The Futureheads and MGMT on May 7.
The waiting is nearly over, The new album from The Notwist, the follow-up to 2002’s “Neon Golden”, will be called “The Devil, You + Me” and it’s released in late May on City Slang.
You can now download “Good Lies” from the album for free here.
The Notwist play Dublin’s Button Factory on June 7 and Galway’s Roisin Dubh on June 8
Cute video for “Pick Up The Phone” follows
(Thanks to Charlie for the heads-up on the download)
As Nas said, made you look. Yeah, it’s the Republic Of Loose. Do you have a problem with that?
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Say hello to our new friend Gavin. He sells ads for Hot Press and he added his tuppence last night to the most recent debate to get the plain people of Ireland hot under their collective collar.
Gavin has this to say:
It’s a shame to see Mongrel go, I thought it was a great looking publication. Foggy Notions was way too clever for me, a good looking mag though as well.
I welcome State Magazine, I wish them the best. Their ad manager, my opposite number is a former colleague of mine. No harm in a bit of competition. It will help keep us on our toes here in HP Towers.
In relation to this quote
“But I feel sorry for her, because she was left to defend herself. Not one other person from Hotpress, and let’s face it, they are probably reading this right now, came to her aid to defend the publication with her. That speaks volumes for me.”
The reason for this is we are probably busy working, hence this will be my only input.
As for the other comments on our mag, you would swear we killed puppies for fun. Relax lads it’s just a magazine and it is only for reading.
There you have it. Hot Press employees are “probably busy working”. Hot Press don’t kill puppies for fun. And Hot Press is “just a magazine and it is only for reading”.
One question: “HP Towers”. Is that some sort of sauce?
Oscar-winning duo Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova play Oxegen in July.
Neil Young plays Malahide Castle, Dublin on June 29 and Live at the Marquee, Cork on June 30. Tickets for both shows are €81.50 and go on sale next Monday at 9am.
Lou Reed will be perfoming “Berlin” as part of the Live at the Marquee season in Cork on June 23. Tickets for the fully-seated show are €65.70, €59.80 and €54.80 (some chairs will have cushions, some will not have cushions, I suppose) and go on sale on Wednesday March 12 at 9am.
Yousef from Mongrel emailed last night and threw a five year old quote of mine back at me. It’s from The Ticket in 2003, when the first issue of Mongrel appeared.
“Magazines of this ilk are supposed to be ephemeral. No one, not least those in the Mongrel kennel, realistically expects the magazine to still be chugging along in five or six years.”
It’s all still going on over here. The conspiracy theories are funny, but the outraged fuming about the bands that didn’t make the Top 40 is even funnier. Pelvis? An Emotional Fish? Every single U2 album ever released? When someone mentioned the Aphex Twin because he was born in Limerick, eyes began to glaze over. Still waiting for the Enya fans, though.
At least, it means there’s less fuming here. It’s interesting to see the amount of spinning which is going on (disingenuous spinning too, because a number of the spinners are not declaring some very blatant conflicts of interest) in an effort to discredit this year’s winners. It won’t work, though. Super Extra Bonus Party, the sound of young Kildare, rock.
Time to move on. There are other things going on in the world.
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As played on Phantom 105.2, Saturday March 1, 10pm-midnight.
Handsome Boy Modelling School “Rock’n'Roll (Could Never Hip-Hop Like
This)” (Tommy Boy)
Daft Punk “Around The World/Harder Better Faster Stronger” (Virgin)
Jamie Lidell “Another Day” (Warp)
Vincent Vincent & The Villains “Beast” (EMI)
Menomena “Trigga Hiccups” (Muuuhahaha!)
Times New Viking “Teen Drama” (Matador)
Operator Please “Cringe” (Brille)
Born Ruffians “Hummingbird” (Warp)
The Kills “Cheap & Cheerful” (Domino)
The Breeders “German Studies” (4AD)
Panther “Puerto Rican Jukebox” (Kill Rock Stars)
YOAV “There Is Nobody” (Field/Island)
A Certain Ratio “Shack Up” (Factory)
Hercules & Love Affair “Blind” (DFA)
Woods “Be Still” (Shrimper)
Duffy “Warwick Avenue” (A&M)
Chequerboard “Prince August” (Lazybird)
El Perro Del Mar “Glory to the World” (Memphis Industries)
Tickley Feather “The Python” (Paw Tracks)
White Hinterland “Napoleon at Waterloo” (Dead Oceans)
Kevin Shields “City Girl” (Emperor Norton)
Why? “Good Friday” (Anticon/Tomlab)
Goldfrapp “Clowns” (Mute)
Shelby Lynn “Just A Little Lovin’” (Lost Highway)
Leonard Cohen “Suzanne” (Columbia)
Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares “Love Chant” (4AD)
Soulsavers “Revival” (V2)
Jeff Buckley “Be My Husband (Live)” (Columbia)
Baby Dee “The Only Bones That Show” (Drag City)
