As announced by On The Record readers last week and again yesterday, Leonard Cohen plays Dublin’s 02 on July 19 and 20 and Belfast’s Odyssey on July 26. Tickets for the Belfast show go on sale this Friday (£90, £70) and tickets for the Dublin show go on sale next Tuesday (€125, €110 and €90). Go on the Lenny!
It’s the return of everyone’s favourite Canuck with a fiddle. Final Fantasy plays Dublin’s Whelan’s on May 29. Support from Cryptacize. Tickets are €20 plus booking fee.
(1) Know the way some of you are gagging – gagging, I tell you – to get the first official word on the Electric Picnic line-up? Remember how this was promised “early April” and “next week”? Well, that ain’t going to happen. Festival launch now takes place April 15, people.
(2) I’m guessing that a lot of On The Record readers went to see Animal Collective in Dublin’s Tripod last Friday. Just a guess, you know. Anyway, there are reports on the show here, there and everywhere (and you can also peruse a really swell review of their London show). If you have anything to add, please do so below.
(3) Me? I was at the Gaslight Anthem, who rocked Webster Hall in New York last Friday. I missed them when they were in Dublin due to this and that and have been really keen to see them because “The ‘59 Sound” is such a blast so much respect to Thomas and Pedro (we shall miss him lots) for hooking up the ticket to the sold-out show. I was hugely impressed by what I saw and heard – man, these dudes can play. It’s an old-fashioned, ragged punk-rock rattle from start to finish which, yeah, owes a few beers to the Boss, but not in a way which is a particular virtue or a vice. They’ve only released two albums to date, and frontman Brian Fallon is really just learning the ropes of frontmanship, but I reckon this one has legs. Maybe we could get them, The National, The Hold Steady and Titus Andronicus to play a Brucepalooza gig in Dublin on July 10? Better than Stone Pony, right? Hold that thought.
(4) There are ghosts in the Twit-machine. Here’s a reminder that those you’re following may not be those you think you’re following, if you know what I mean. Plus, excellent piece by Markham from a week or two ago on the blogging-versus-Tweeting wrestling match.
(5) Yesterday saw the giant Virgin Megastore on New York’s Times Square go out of business and its sister-shop on Union Square will be pulling down the shutters for good in May. Virgin’s vanishing act from NYC is another chapter in the ongoing ballad of the music retail sector. In the end, the measures taken by these shops to diversify in recent years – trying to flog DVDs, games, books, clobber and lunchboxes with decals of cartoon characters on them as well as CDs and vinyl – was just not enough to pay the rent and the overheads. Both shops will be missed, especially by those folks happy to potter around a record store at midnight. I’ve also fond memories of seeing a fantastic in-store performance from Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach in the Union Square shop about 10 years ago or so.
(6) So what’s the future then? While the Big Apple indie shops seem to be doing OK (Other Music and Sound Fix seem busy, though there’s far less music in Kim’s than in years gone by), one way forward could be found on Brooklyn’s Fulton Street on Saturday afternoon. Two dudes were flogging CD-Rs of soul, funk and gospel nuggets from a pram at five bucks a pop. You can’t buy CDs anywhere on Fulton Street right now (the closure of Beat Street probably helped to put paid to that) so these two old boys have decided to jump in. Business for their boots was brisk, too. Maybe this is the future – two lads selling indie and dubstep CDs from a barrow on O’Connell Street?
(7) Museum encounter of the week: Department of Eagles playing at the Museum of Modern Art midweek to launch their new video for “No One Does It Like You” as directed by Patrick Daughters. Beautiful sounds and melodies which more than made up for me missing them at SXSW. Here’s the video, y’all
(8) Duck! Irish Times restaurant reviewer – and snarky reviewer from ace TV show The Restaurant – Tom Doorley has joined our blogging circle. Check him out here
(9) Anyone for popcorn? Really dug Goodbye Solo, the new flick from Rahmin Bahrani about a sunny Senegalese taxi-driver called Solo, a sulky good old boy called William and their encounters on the streets of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Hugely thought-provoking movie with winning performances all round. For those looking for a remake of Speed on the streets of New Orleans featuring Aidan “Tommy Carcetti” Gillen as a cackling madman blowing up things and John “wrestling dude” Cena as a fat-neck cop trying to stop him blowing up things, the Renny Harlin-directed 12 Rounds is for you. This second-rate, fairly dumb, predictable slap-bang-wallop opened in the US without any advance previews whatsoever and you could see why. Future shocks: there are a ton of remakes on the way which may or may not be good news. The new State of Play reworks the awesome State Of Play TV series, with Russell Crowe taking over from John Simm as the journalist who’s as mad as hell and is not going to take it any more. Let’s be charitable, though, and reserve judgement on that and also on Tony Scott’s redo of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three with John Travolta and Denzel Washington for now. I mean, hey, they both could be good, right? Right?
(9) Check-check-check-it-out. Community Skratch is a bunch of Galway-based DJs and producers promoting hip-hop and DJ culture in the wild, wild west. For the third year in a row, the Community Skratch Games will bring together DJs from all around Ireland and Europe for a scratchvaganza from April 8 to 12. Loads of workshops, showcases and battles to look forward to – more info here
(10) A date for your diaries: Friday April 3, 10am, this blog. I shall say no more other than you’d be an eejit to miss it. Bring coffee and popcorn. Tell your friends. Pull a sickie. Trust me, it will be worth it.
(11) And finally, let’s start the working week with some beautiful music
In The Ticket today, there’s a round-up of the best bands I saw at last week’s South By Southwest festival, interviews with Ladyhawke and PJ Harvey and John Parish and film director Richard “Four Weddings” Curtis talks about his new pirate radio flick, The Boat That Rocked.
The CD of the Week comes from David Kitt and there are also reviews of new releases from Pet Shop Boys, Peter Bjorn & John, Therapy?, The Antlers, Waaves, Eugene Donegan, Soap & Skin, Arne Weinberg, Enrico Rava and many more.
New Music picks this week are DM Stith and And So I Watch You From Afar, while Brian Boyd expresses his disapproval of Japan’s men-only gigs in Revolver. As always, Lauren Murphy has the Music News and Eoin Butler splits the atom with the Singles Reviews.
Across the aisle, there are reviews of new flicks The Damned United, Genova, Two Lovers, Knowing, Tyson and Traitor.
That’s our plug. Now, over to you….
There are times when only a classic will do.
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Seeing as last week’s news about Festival Republic taking a slice of the Electric Picnic was released late on the eve of a bank holiday (and a sunny bank holiday at that), it may be an idea to revisit the story this week. After all, it has kicked off a lot of chat and blather as those who buy tickets for fun and sell tickets for a living analyse the move.
Much of the discussion centres around Denis Desmond’s role in the transaction. The MCD boss is the co-owner of Festival Republic (along with Live Nation) via his Gaiety Investments vehicle. Festival Republic’s move to Stradbally, where they take over from Aiken Promotions as POD Concerts’ partners in the event, means Desmond now has an interest in the Electric Picnic of just under 25 per cent. This calculation is based on Desmond’s 49.9 per cent share of Festival Republic entitling him to a similar share of the Picnic spoils.
Obviously, there has been a lot of speculation about Festival Republic’s motives, but it may simply be a piece of good business at a time when such a thing is in short supply. Like all festivals, the Electric Picnic took time to find its feet and especially the financial bottom line. However, sources indicate that 2006’s fest broke even and that 2007 and 2008 were profitable outings. What Festival Republic are getting, then, is a share of a popular, cash-making enterprise – remember that all the advance early bird tickets for the Picnic sold out ages ago, long before a line-up was announced, so the festival has considerable audience appeal. No-one beyond the interested parties knows how much Festival Republic have paid to get in this game, but we can assume that it wasn’t peanuts.
Because of this, it is safe to assume that the Electric Picnic is not suddenly going to morph overnight into something else entirely. Look at it logically. Why would Denis Desmond, Melvin Benn and Live Nation kill a golden goose by turning a festival which has become hugely popular and profitable by being the anti-Oxegen into a carbon copy of its nemesis?
The Electric Picnic has its followers – and, yes, detractors – and it’s in the interest of Festival Republic’s investment that these fans continue to come to Co Laois every year. The Picnic is a brand with a defined, dedicated following in Ireland and any plans Festival Republic might harbour for a full takeover down the road require this value and unique selling point to be fostered and protected. Buying into the Picnic at this juncture means they don’t have to invest a lot of time and money into importing the Latitude festival, for example, and developing it as a competitor.
We can therefore expect Picnic 2009 to be steady as she goes and to continue along the music-and-arts trajectory of last year. Chances are, as always, that while there won’t be a single name on the bill capable of drawing 30,000 people to Thomas Cosby’s gaff on their own, it’s a different matter when you have the combined weight of solid audience-pulling names and other attractions. Of course, now that MCD are involved even below-the-line, it will probably rain all weekend, but you can’t have everything. The last line is a joke, right?
And, to the most important question of all, just who might these Picnic acts be? Based on things falling off trucks, educated guesswork, good cop/bad cop conversations and getting handed a sheaf of print-outs at my Austin hotel which were destined for a UK booking agent, don’t be surprised if Fleet Foxes, Department of Eagles, Micachu & The Shapes, Orbital, Bon Iver, Okkervil River and The Prodigy end up on the bill.
By the way, I mentioned Green Day to Picnic booker Declan Forde and he guffawed loudly with laughter for several minutes. I think we can take that as a definite “no”
Bon Iver plays the Big Top at the Galway Arts Festival on July 23. Support comes from Alela Diane. We’re hoping Justin Vernon will find the time to head down to Eyre Square to flog some mobile phones while he’s in town. Ticket info to be announced.
Let’s call it Carnage On Sixth Street: The Sequel. Saturday night and it’s coming up to midnight. I run into Nialler9 on Sixth Street, that couple of city blocks where all the SXSW madness goes on. It’s like Bourbon Street in New Orleans or Beale Street in Memphis or Temple Bar in Dublin but with more lunacy, luders and loons. Nialler and myself compare notes on what’s left. A couple of days ago, dude was a SouthBy virgin. Now, he looks like he’s just back from Vietnam. But the end is, remarkably, in sight.
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Friday afternoon. Corner of Colarado and 4th. Walk out of yet another dark, dingy club into the blinding sunlight after watching The Ettes turn on the style as only a three-piece garage-rock powerhouse from LA now living in Nashville with two awesome albums to their credit can do. Outside, run into an old pal who we shall call Greg because that’s his name. You haven’t seen him for ages so you head for a drink. He suggests the Cedar Street Courtyard and you say “sure”. You belly up at the bar and start to chat. Suddenly, a truly appalling noise begins. Adjectives and adverbs have not yet been invented to describe this horrific sound. Greg looks at you. You look at Greg. Both of you swivel around to stare at a flyer on the wall. You then look at each other with horror and get the hell out of there.
And that, friends, is how I ended up experiencing two minutes of Razorlight. Richard O’Donovan, you’ve a lot to answer for, bud.
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Another day, another tattoo. The sun is blazing down on Austin, the cops are getting itchy (c’mon guys, you know you are) and thousands of indie music fans are out there racing in the streets. First Bruce reference today. There may be more.
While the number of official delegates is obviously down on previous years (and there certainly ain’t a whole lot going on in the convention centre to bring in more of them – the panel topics forone seem to be the same as they were when I first came to SXSWin 2000), there seems to be a bigger number of Joe Indie Rock Fans out and about. They’re here to check out the free shows by day and take their chances with what comes their way at night. Official badges may enjoy a freemium at night when you get first in the door, but there’s still more going on than anyone can take in, regardless of the badge around their neck.
Yesterday’s highlights? Here’s three to get things rolling. The Hold Steady playing in a lean-to at the back of a pub, blasting out the giddiest 45 minutes of blue-collar rock’n’roll I’ve heard in yonks to an audience made up of dudes and dudesses who looked like they walked out of a Craig Finn song. A show to put a big broad smile on your gob. This band are flying on all cylinders at the moment.
Grizzly Bear playing in a church and putting some skin on the bones of songs from forthcoming you’ve-got-to-hear-this album “Veckatimest”. Yep, they also played some of the classics – and that spooky version of “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)” is their classic of a classic – but it was the newer melodies and harmonies which promise to beget greater greatness.
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes doing the hippie shake. No, you probably haven’t heard of them and what harm? A dozen freaks from Los Angeles who probably arrived in TX on a ramshackle vegetable oil-powered bus last used by The Merry Pranksters. A band who are totally out there – few have a backing singer who squirts essence at her fellow band members before they begin to play to ensure good vibes – but in a good way. Skyscraping tunes which burst into light at every possible moment.
And the best of the rest? Music maestro please
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In today’s issue of The Ticket, the music and movies supplement which comes your way every Friday, there’s a plethora of good stuff. Tom Humphries defends the honour of Leeds United fans everywhere by issuing a fatwa against the makers of The Damned United, Paddy Agnew talks to director Paolo Sorrentino about Il Divo and there’s an interview with the mighty Jinx Lennon on the occasion of his new album “Trauma Themes Idiot Times”
In New Music, there are profiles of The Virgins and Disconnect 4, while Music News talks to John Reynolds about what now for the Electric Picnic after the deal with Festival Republic. In Revolver, Brian Boyd reckons the new deal is good for music.
CD of the Week comes from Justin Carroll, and there are also reviews of new releases from Jinx Lennon, Royksopp, Paranoid Visions, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Oumou Sangare, The Tallest Man On Earth, Dan Deacon and the soundtrack to “Duplicity”.
New flicks on a big screen near you getting the once-over from Messrs Clarke and Dwyer include Duplicity, Il Divo, Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Lesbian Vampire Killers
Just The Ticket.
And we’re off. Officially, there are 1,950 bands playing in 73 venues around Austin, Texas during SXSW Music. But when you add in the fact that many non-official venues are pressed into service – including a couple of spaces which are usually used as car parks and the colossal Fader Fort on the other side of the I-35 – it feels like the whole city is reveberating and soundchecking 24/7.
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Today (Wednesday), the musicians arrive, SXSW Music gets under way and the real madness begins. In fact, the bands are already rolling up in their hundreds, stretching in the sun and wondering just who had the bright idea that they should play 12 shows in three days.
The geeks, though, have left town. As gatherings go, SXSWi 2009 was one of the very best talking shops I’ve ever attended. There was smartness here to the power of a trillion, with fantastic brain-food, ideas, theories and notions at every turn.
What makes it such a valuable experience is that the panel ideas and themes are generated by the SXSWi community which makes it more of a conversation than a conference. There was also a wonderful feeling of positivity in the air – sure, ideas were crunched and robustly tested, but the overall vibe was can-do and not can’t-do. The fest’s rep – and a relatively cheap ticket price when compared to other tech chinwags – means audience numbers were way, way up.
One very interesting development this year was Platinum Track, a one-day session joining the dots between music, interactive and film. Really enjoyed the super-duper presentation on punk marketing from Richard Laermer (especially his views on “wimplash”), M Ward’s thoughts on a return to analog and Jeffrey Rosen talking to Google legal eagle Nicole Wong about Google’s gatekeeper role when it comes to online censorship. Tons of insights there.
I was also really glad I caught Chris Anderson’s keynote. The Long Tail and Free dude was quizzed by Guy Kawasaki about the whole nature of free and was more than able for questions on everything from how Twitter can make money to how the book industry is very like the music industry – same mis-aligned interests – and how it should start doing 360 deals with authors.
Prediction: there will be more people signed up for SXSWi than SXSW Music next year.
Hope: more and more Irish tech freaks will find their way to Austin, TX for this spring break exchange.
On the film front, The Hurt Locker, Kathryn “Point Break” Bigelow’s flick following the work of a US bomb squad in Iraq, was a fantastic, intense, high-wire thriller about men at war and what war does to men. Hugely recommended – the film which Generation Kill should have been.
I lasted about 20 minutes at Passing Strange, the new Spike Lee flick, mainly because it’s a musical and musicals, even musicals made by the man who made Do The Right Thing, are the spawn of Satan. Spike was sitting in the row across from me so I waved at him as I left. Sadly, he didn’t wave back.
Daily reports on the music to come, uhm, daily. Here’s one act I hope to see today somewhere along the road.
One very noteworthy aspect of every SXSWi panel I’ve been to has been how individual Twitter feeds act as a collective thought-bubble for the room.
As the panelists go about their business discussing everything from the death of the PR agency to how old media has gained a new voice via Twitter, tweets from the room with instant reactions, updates, questions and musings begin to appear.
Keeping an eye on seach.twitter.com for these updates under the appropriate hash-tag, you get a real sense of the pulse of the audience and how everyone else is rating the panel and panelists. It’s quite eye-opening to see how Twitter can be used to enhance converstions in this manner.
But what’s really interesting in all of this is the psychology of these exchanges. Because everyone is instantly reacting to what is being said or implied, there are a lot of repeat comments because people are obviously extrapolating and highlighting similar topics and trends.
The overall mood-music is usually positive. Sure, there are some snarky attention-seekers who will Tweet something they’d never say in a million years into a microphone in the same room, but the overall drift is more positive than negative.
Irish duo Niall Smart and Cormac Driver launched Echodio at SXSWi’s Accelerator showcase for new tech today.
Echodio is a synchonisation product which will allow iTunes users with more than one iTunes library to keep them in sync. For example, if you have an iTunes library on your work computer and your home computer, Echodio means you can keep iTunes music libraries in sync, securely backed up and streamable from anywhere.
The site is currently in beta so On The Record users who want to check it out should use the invite code “accelerator”.
Press release as issued this afternoon below the fold. FYI Festival Republic is the company formerly known as Mean Fiddler and is co-owed by MCD via Gaiety Investments and Live Nation.
(1) All those rumours were bang on. (2) Will this new MCD/POD love have any bearing on POD’s venues or is it solely a Picnic thing? (3) Will Aiken Promotions now do their own festival? (4) There sure will be some interesting culture clashes in Stradbally in September! (5) Will both POD and MCD be booking the Picnic? (6) How will this impact on the Picnic’s vibes? (7) Who the hell will headline the Picnic? (8) Does the Competition Authority have anything to say? (9) I assume it was just bad timing that this news broke late on the eve of a bank holiday.
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It’s that time of year when On The Record’s thoughts turn to Texas and we haul ass over the Atlantic for the best binge-gigging session of them all. The South By Southwest music (SXSW) festival kicks off here in Austin on Wednesday, but we got into town a few days early and have been checking out SXSW Interactive and SXSW Film.
I’ve already had two days of feeding my inner geek at SXSWi and have learned many new buzzwords (my favourite is “redneck proxy variable”). My next job is to find out what they all mean. I’d also like to know if there’s a name to describe hundreds of delegates walking around the halls looking at phones and iPhones rather than at where they’re going.
One unsurprising trend is the strong Obama vibe to the proceedings with panels examining what your start-up can learn from Barack Obama (including pointers from Blue State Digital’s Clay Johnson), how Twitter won the day (Twitter was, remember, a SXSW breakout success back in 2007 so it’s on every agenda here this year) and a fascinating, head-spinning, brilliant keynote from baseball-statto-turned-political-number-cruncher Nate Silver.
Some neat panels too involving someone from Facebook doing their level-best to not be irked when someone in the audience or on the panel bring up Nu-FB and Twitter lookalikability. Kind of takes some of the shine off announcements like Facebook Connect for iPhone. Lots of panels too about how to cope with an economy which is FUBAR, though many of the suggestions are flashes of the blindingly obvious. And naturally, there’s a bit of panel-tease too where panels just don’t live up to their billing.
On the film-front, I’ve seen one awesome flick (Sin Nombre – Cary Joji Fukunaga’s wonderful thriller/love story is set amongst Mexican gang hard-chaws and desperate immigrants on a train bound for the Amexico border), one very good flick (Moon – low-budget sci-fi thriller with an excellent Sam Rockwell as a Wall-E type dude going stir-crazy working on his own on the moon before strange things begin to happen) and one so-so flick (Alexander the Last – slight, predictable indie fare) so far. The best thing about the film fest is, without a doubt, the Paramount theatre, an old-school picture-house with all the dusty fixings and grandeur.
Question of the day: doesn’t Jack White’s business plan sound like the most lucid piece of commonsense to be applied to the music business in absolute yonks?
Snigger of the day: hello to the many Man-U fans who read OTR on a daily basis. We hope you had a good weekend. Ain’t it a pity that Liverpool can’t play Man-U and Real Madrid every week?
Free advice of the day: on the back of the weekend’s One for the Road benefit, some suggestions about what Road Records might do next to attract customers and business.
Housekeeping: please note this blog is now on US time so any morning comments will get updated early afternoon Irish-time.
Tune of the day: ooooooooooh! Here We Go Magic are also on the long (long) list of bands I want to see this week.
Loads of new gigs announced today – and a few which will be announced next week. Let’s gig-roll!
Saint Etienne play Cork’s Opera House on May 30. They’ll be playing the classic “Foxbase Alpha” album in full and a ton of Greatest Hits. Bob Stanley will do some DJ-ing afterwards. Tickets are €30 and go on sale next Wednesday.
Super Furry Animals play the Sea Sessions in Bundoran, Co Donegal on June 27.
The Prodigy headline Live in the Park in Newcastle, Co Down on June 19. Also on the bill: live sets from the Japanese Popstars and Noise Control, plus DJ sets from Hot Chip and BBC Radio One’s resident Kiwi Zane Lowe.
Planetlove Ireland takes over Fairyhouse Racecourse, Co Meath on June 6 and I’m willing to bet not one On The Record reader will don furry boots and blow their whistles at this one.
Michael Franti & Spearhead play Dublin’s Vicar Street on June 29. Tickets are €25 for this one.
Hearing really good reports about Imelda May’s gig at Tripod last night. She returns to town to play her biggest Dublin show yet at Vicar Street on June 13. We always knew that rockabilly from the Liberties would be the next big thing.
And finally from the “Holy God” department. The Priests take time out from their priestly duties to play Dublin’s 02 (June 22) and Belfast’s Odyssey (June 20). Tickets go on sale next Thursday – £30.00, £41.50, £49.00 for Belfast; €33, €40, €50, €60 for Dublin. Did someone mention Mother’s Day presents?
Did we say finally? How could we forget everyone’s favourite tax-efficient beat combo? Even before tickets go on sale, U2 have added an extra date for their Croke Park residency. They now play the Jones Road venue on July 24 and 25. Tickets will be €33.60, €59.80, €91.50 and €131.50.
In this week’s issue of The Ticket, you will find Animal Collective on the cover and an interview inside with Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox, Brian “Geologist” Weitz and Dave “Avey Tare” Portner about their fabulous new album “Merriweather Post Pavilion”. There’s also The Answer talking about touring with AC/DC and Richard Brophy look at the relationship between record labels and music blogs.
In New Music, it’s The Antlers, Dark Room Notes, Lemonade, CFCF and The Invisible, and there’s also Lauren Murphy’s Music News, Eoin Butler’s singles reviews and Brian Boyd on turning CD buyers into video game consumers.
CD of the Week comes from the ace Fever Ray and there are also reviews of new releases from Iain Archer, Peter Doherty, Terry Lynn (awesome album), Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Paul Tiernan, Stefan Goldman, Mt St Helen’s Vietnam Band, Kelly Joe Phelps and many more.
On the movies side of the house, Tom Hardy talks about playing Charles Bronson, there’s Donald Clarke’s dastardly quiz, all the movie news of the week plus reviews of new flicks Marley & Me, Bronson, Hush and WC.
The Ticket: damn, it’s good.
Not surprisingly, the two news stories at the top of music business agenda at the moment show colossal changes in the sector’s power structure.
While U2’s decision to ditch the Apple in favour of pimping the Blackberry and YouTube’s move to blank the Brits to put some pressure on collection society PRS to do a deal may not be quite joined at the hip, both stories show that traditional music industry power lines are sagging.
In U2’s case, there’s a lot of speculation about why the band have gone with a product not known for cutting-edge music innovation. While there’s a bit of press release blather about future plans to “enhance” the “Blackberry experience” for “U2 fans”, I’d wager the U2/Blackberry deal has more to do with a large cheque than any sort of brand placement. When U2 partnered with Apple in the past, it was a win-win situation for both sides. In 2009, though, U2 probably need Apple’s cachet far more than Apple need U2 to sell their devices, especially at the price the band and Live Nation were looking for. Enter Blackberry and, voila, U2 shilling for Blackberrys in big stadiums in 2009 and 2010.
The YouTube story is a different kettle of legal eagles. As Neil McCormick notes in the Telegraph, “negotiators are so far apart it is hard to believe that they have ever been in a room together”. YouTube are claiming that the PRS are holding them to ransom, but PRS retort that YouTube are looking to cut their costs and keep their profits high by not ponying up to the songwriters behind the songs which YouTube users are viewing.
You get the feeling that YouTube’s decision to pull the plug is the kind of oneupmanship which the PRS have not come across before. The usual PRS negotiations probably involve them sitting down with fellow members of the music business permanent establishment to talk turkey, so the skill-set to deal with tech set-ups who are happy to break all the rules and switch the gameplan when a negotiation turns sour is not in their make-up.
They’d better acquire some of the gumption double-quick. Yet again, we’re seeing evidence of failure by music business companies (and collection agencies are certainly hugely lucrative music business companies of long standing) to read the writing on the wall. Since the mid-to-late 1990s, the tech and telecoms sectors have done all the running but, because trad music companies didn’t really bother to engage with them until they had no choice in the matter, both sides regard each other with a great degree of suspicion, trepidation and ill-will. Expect the YouTube/PRS face-off to set the tone for all future negotiations between the sides. And if they thought dealing with YouTube’s peeps was bad, wait until they get an eyeful and earful of News International’s troops in the next round in the collection agencies v MySpace bout.
Here’s proof that some people will go to desperate measures to get their hands on those plastic discs.
Wow, that was fast. Ten weeks after their show in Whelan’s and ahead of the release of debut album “Manners”, Passion Pit play Dublin’s Academy on May 7. Tickets go on sale on Friday at €15.50 a pop. No word on the support act, though I doubt if it will be Hockey again. As noted after the last show, I thought Passion Pit were OK and had the look and sound of a band who hadn’t played enough shows yet to really impress. Still, this song still rules
As played on The Far Side, Phantom 105.2, Tuesday March 10, 10pm-midnight
The Ettes “No Home” (Take Root)
Ty Segall “The Drag” (Castle Face)
Baddies “Battleships” (Yo Yo Acapulco)
Disconnect 4 “The Rise” (Self-release)
Harlem Shakes “Strictly Game” (Gigantic)
Lissy Trullie “Boy Boy” (American Myth)
Adam Kesher “Irene” (Disque Primeur)
The Virgins “Fernando Pando” (Atlantic)
Friendly Fires “In the Hospital” (XL)
Subway “Simplex (Gatto Fritto mix)” (Soul Jazz)
Junior Boys “Bits & Pieces” (Domino)
CFCF “Color Dreams” (Paper Bag)
The Hold Steady “Atlantic City” (EMI)
Wintersleep “Weighty Ghost” (One Four Seven)
Here We Go Magic “Only Pieces” (Western Vinyl)
Minnie Ripperton “Les Fleur” (Cadet)
Golden Gate Quartet “Wade In the Water” (Document)
The Stylistics “People Make The World Go Round” (Avco)
DM Stith “Pity Dance” (Asthmatic Kitty)
Tim Hardin “Don’t Make Promises” (Verve)
Jackson C Frank “Blues Run The Game” (Columbia)
Headless Heroes “The North Wind Blew South” (Names)
Wildbirds & Peacedrums “I Can’t Tell In His Eyes” (Leaf)
Giorgio Moroder “Tears” (Hansa)
Virginia Rodriguez “Negrume da Noite” (Hannibal)
Bessie Jones “Go To Sleep Little Baby” (Smithsonian)
Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate “Debe” (World Circuit)
Brand new space about to be launched in Dublin for improvised and experimental music. The Fold will be located in St Audeon’s, that church on High Street which DEAF used for some gigs in 2007, and will have four outings over the next couple of months.
Fold 1 (March 26) will feaure Seán Óg, Fergus Cullen, Gavin Duffy, Karl Him and Iarla O’Lionáird. Fold 2 (April 23) has the excellent Moira (who played a very fine gig at 12 Points last month) and Rainfear, a new live yoke from David Donohoe and Peter Maybury. Fold 3 (May 21) will have Justin Carroll’s Triple Piglet and the Electronic Sensoria Band, while Fold 4 (June 4) will star fiddle maestro Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Threadpulls and an one-off spoken word jobbie from Cathal Coughlan. Bet he won’t be taking the 123 to the gig. Oh no.
Just noticed that Foggy Notions are bringing the ace Health back to Ireland next month. They play Whelan’s, Dublin on April 17 and The Menagerie, Belfast the following night. Tickets for the Dublin show are €13 and are now on sale
Fabulous new issue of State magazine now available for you to click through here. Top-drawer features include Craig Walker from Power Of Dreams looking back on the years when those Dubliners were young and in their pomp, interviews with Animal Collective, Telepathe and Alison Curtis, a rake of reviews and John Walshe v internet begrudgers. All yours for 0 cent.
Gerry Ryan in “acting the maggot” shocker – who knew? You have to wonder if this palaver about pay-cuts is not some kind of weird attempt by his paymasters to push up his listeners. At least, we can now see the truth of that hoary old RTE saw that Ryan’s abysmal show was some sort of one-off advertising godhead, as no-one in the present climate is capable of doing that. Chin up dude, we’re sure that new refuge of the grumpy old man and taxi-drivers everywhere would welcome you with open arms.
U2 are on course to run up a first week tally of 450,000 copies of “No Tune On The Horizon” in the United States. Now, for any other band on the planet, that would be a good day’s work. But given the huge amount of front-loaded promo which U2 have engaged in for this album – including a cringey spell as house-band on the Late Show With David Letterman – and the fact that previous album “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb” shipped 840,000 copies in week numbero uno, it seems that the casual fans really have gone “meh” to this one – or maybe the era of “event CDs” is finally over. If it were not for the die-hards buying every version they could get their hands on, that tally might be a whole lot lower. Can’t see this malaise hitting ticket sales for the We Are Still The Kings Of The World We Think Pension Redux tour (as sponsored by BlackBerry – hey, they need the cash after album sales like that), though, especially with those limited low-low ticket prices to further up the hype. Per their tour schedule, the band play Dublin’s Croke Park on July 24 (tickets go on sale on March 20 and prices are currently TBA).
Don’t forget that One for the Road takes place at Dublin’s Andrew’s Lane Theatre on Saturday next with Jape (Choice Music Prize winner, dontchaknow), Si Schroeder, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Adrian Crowley, The Jimmy Cake and others playing live. Tickets are €20 plus booking fee.
Yet more bloggers defecting from the daily grind. The latest to sling her hook is Off Her Rocker who dramatically shrieks “feck this for a game of cowboys, I’m off” as she heads for the door. We always liked Naomi’s enthusiasm and attitude and the fact that she always stuck to her guns, even when out-gunned and out-numbered. But, man, they’re falling away like bankers at the moment, aren’t they? I blame Twitter.
Last week, we were raving about DM Stith. This week, we’re preparing for his live shows. He plays Dublin’s Crawdaddy on May 23 and Galway’s Roisin Dubh the following night. While you wait to get your mitts on his fabulous “Heavy Ghost” album, check out sessions recorded by Stith for The Torture Garden and Daytrotter. Hopefully, Ticketmaster and the promoters will get around to spelling his name right before the shows
Hey, anyone got any tips for Cheltenham they’d like to share with their fellow On The Record readers?
On your radio: New York/New Jersey’s/somewhere on the US east coast WFMU heads to Limerick for a live broadcast on March 27 with the station’s hop-hop show, Put the Needle on the Record, coming live and direct from Viva Music Studios in the city. Billy Jam’s show will feature performances from and chats with such acts as The Rubberbandits, Nora Ni Murchu (Tweak Festival), Code, Size2Shoes, Jay Red, Jimmy Lyons, True Blood Souljahz, Vince Mack Mahon, Rob Kelly and Kerry’s Lineage crew.
And finally, Lissy Trullie is one of 317 acts I’m aiming to see at SXSW 2009. Yep, it’s that time of year again when I and thousands of others will running like blue-arsed flies all around Austin, Texas.
In today’s issue of The Ticket, your only man/woman when it comes to music and movies and stuff, Donald Clarke goes all the way to 11 with Anvil, the loudest band in Canada who are subject of the rockumentary of the moment (and who play Dublin’s Academy on June 14), Choice Music Prize winner Jape wonders what it’s all about and my New Music picks this week are Nico Muhly, The Laundry Shop, The Kanyu Tree, Magic Arm and Hjaltin. There is also a fabulous Choice Music Prize slideshow as shot by Dara Mac Dónaill at Vicar Street the other night plus Brian Boyd on why 60 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds would rather go without sex than without music.
This week’s CD of the Week comes from Micachu and there are also reviews of releases from Beirut, Howling Bells, The Long Lost, Niall Colfer, Starsailor, Hauschka, Melody Garnot, Liz Durrett and the Watchmen soundtrack.
Lauren Murphy’s Music News has stories on the Oxegen line-up – plus word that Orbital seem to be heading to Stradbally – the Meteors and another bloody U2 album.
Across the aisle, the new film list is bursting at the seams with Watchmen, The Young Victoria, Flame and Citron, American Teen, Wendy and Lucy, Surveillance, The Secret of Kells and – what looks like the flick of the week – Anvil: The Story of Anvil.
That’s our lot. Over to you – get plugging before the classified ads department realise what’s going on.
Latest acts added to the Oxegen 2009 party: Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction, Glasvegas (yes!), Hudson Mohawke (yes, yes!), Eagles of Death Metal, Dreadzone, God is an Astronaut, Tom Middleton, Aeroplane (lets hope they have a live show together by the time they get to Punchestown), Pet Shop Boys, Doves, The Saturdays and Gary Go.
There’s a day-by-day breakdown too – Blur headline Friday, Kings of Leon and Bloc Party are the Saturday bill-toppers and The Killers (and The Specials) are the names at the top of the list for Sunday.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow, with prices from €99.50 for a day ticket to €199.50 for a three day no-camping ticket and €244.50 for a four day camping ticket if you want to start the crack on Thursday.
It’s not all Oxegen this afternoon: Neil Young plays The O2, Dublin on June 21. Tickets are priced €65.70, 68.20 and €76.20 and go on sale next Monday.
And Telepathe play Dublin’s Academy 2 on May 19
In what must rank as one of the most popular decisions since bank holidays were invented, Jape took home the Choice Music Prize bacon at Vicar Street last night for the “Ritual” album. Big congrats to Richie “dude looks like Springsteen on the back of the “Darkness On The Edge of Town” sleeve” Egan on the win – I’m sure he won’t spend the ten grand on a kitchen.
This time tomorrow, the shouting will be in full swing here and elsewhere. As someone said to me yesterday, the blog post-mortem will probably be as entertaining as the actual event.
Tonight, in Dublin’s Vicar Street, 12 colourful rogues, sorry, judges will decide who wins the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year 2008. There are 10 acts on the shortlist and six of them will be playing live tonight. It promises to be one hell of a do.
By the way, if you can’t make the show at Vicar Street (where doors open at 7pm and the gig kicks off at 7.30pm with Jape opening the show), Today FM’s Paul McLoone will be broadcasting live from the venue from 7pm. The winner will be announced round about 10.30pm-10.35pm
So, with about 13-and-a-half hours to go before the winner is announced, who do you reckon is going to leave Dublin 8 with a nice trophy and a cheque for ten grand?
* Declaration of interest: I’m the co-founder of this yoke and am also the non-voting chairman of the judging panel. Yep, I will be in that room.
As played on The Far Side, Phantom 105.2, Tuesday March 3, 10pm-midnight
Lemonade “Big Weekend” (True Panther)
Project Jenny, Project Jan “Train Track” (Might)
The Harlem Shakes “Strictly Game” (Gigantic)
Little Comets “One Night In October” (Lucky Number)
The Golden Filter “Solid Gold” (Dummy)
Woolfy “Oh Missy” (DFA)
Casiokids “Fot I Hose” (Moshi Moshi)
Playdoe “It’s That Beat” (Try Harder)
NASA “Hip-Hop” (Anti)
Jinx Lennon “You Can’t Keep Everyone Happy” (Septic Tiger)
Magic Arm “Bootsy Bootsy” (Switchflicker)
Tactic v MIA “Boyz (Tactic remix)” (Dress 2 Sweat)
Pinch “Fighting Talk” (Soul Jazz)
David Holmes “I Heard Wonders” (Canderblinks)
RSAG “The Climb” (Psychonavigation)
Harlem River Drive “Theme From Harlem River Drive” (Roulette)
Alice Coltrane “Blue Nile” (Impulse)
Halfset “Another Way of Being There” (Casino Gravity)
DM Stith “Around the Lion Legs” (Asthmatic Kitty)
The Antlers “Kettering” (Self release)
Lisa Hannigan “Pistachio” (Self release)
First Aid Kit “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” (Rabid/Wichita)
Alela Diane “Take Us Back” (Names)
Soap & Skin “Cry Wolf” (Couch)
Bonnie “Prince” Billy “I Won’t Ask Again” (Domino)
The latest batch of names for Oxegen 2009 include TV On The Radio, Manic Street Preachers (yeah, they’re still going), Lady Gaga, Florence & The Machine, The Game, Ladyhawke, James, Foals, Of Montreal, Squeeze and – yes! – Friendly Fires.
There’s a press conference on Thursday which will probably mean even more names will be announced before tickets go on sale on Friday. Lets hope MCD also announce what days the likes of Blur and The Specials are playing so people can buy one-day tickets if they’re the only acts they want to see. Surely in these recessionary times, MCD wouldn’t try to get people to buy weekend tickets by with-holding that information, eh?
Makes you wonder, though, just what the Electric Picnic have up their sleeves to counteract all that, bar the fact that you won’t get The Kids in Stradbally. Somehow, that unique selling point may not be enough this year.
N.A.S.A. play Cork’s Pavilion on July 8 and Dublin’s Crawdaddy on July 9. We reckon the four dozen superstars who have guested on the “Spirit of Apollo” album – including Lykke Li, Tom Waits, Kanye West, Santigold, David Byrne, Chuck D, Seu Jorge, Lovefoxxx, Sizzla, Amanda Blank and assorted members of the Wu Tang Clan, Jurassic 5, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Red Hot Chili Peppers – will sadly not be there, but hey, you never know. Video follows for “Hip Hop”, the track which features KRS-One, Fatlip and Slim Kid Tre.
(1) If you only read one book this month about the music industry, make sure it John Niven’s Kill Your Friends. It won’t tell you anything you don’t already know about this den of thieves, numpties, losers and sinners, but it’s a hugely entertaining yarn nonetheless about obnoxious A&R man Steven Stelfox dealing with the filth and the fury of the London music industry in 1997, a time when that filth and fury was at its most impassioned and depraved. Part of the fun for me lies in the fact that Niven used to work at London Records and some of the characters are very easily recognisable to anyone who worked in that particular madhouse. That said, everyone should get a chuckle out of the account of Stelfox dealing with bad German trance. The film version should be a howl.
(2) The future of the record shop? That could be Rough Trade East or Pure Groove, both in east London and both checked out during a weekend hop across the water. Coffee, comfy sofas, free wi-fi, instore stage, gallery space, friendly staff: it’s certainly a brand new future for anyone used to less salubrious retail offerings. What’s interesting too is the lack of depth when it comes to back-catalogue with both shops really just holding new and recent releases (and just a smattering in the case of Pure Groove) and refering you online for the rest.
(3) The U2 backlash is really getting into gear. While it’s obvious that the band can deal with the Sunday Indo’s fuming by actually doing an interview with them (that seems to be the problem there when you read between the lines), it was interesting to see The Observer’s Miranda Sawyer note the very close links between U2’s label Universal and the Beeb (a point also raised last week by Record of the Day). And those tax issues just won’t go away. Meanwhile, back with the music, On The Record readers continue to fume about the album or, in the case of U2 diehards, attack those who are criticising the album rather than arguing about their criticisms of the album.
(4) Spent a pleasant hour or so taking in the ambitious Altermodern expo running at the Tate Britain at the moment. Concentrating on the very elastic notion of interactivity between artist and audience, it’s a mixed bag in every sense, ranging from Katie Paterson’s beautiful, exacting gallery of dead stars to Nathaniel Mellors’ dreadful Giantbum film. A far more altermodern pursuit is to take the boat across the river to the other Tate and marvel at the fact that the Thames is the quietest place in London.
(5) Well, that was fun while it lasted. At least, this has kicked in again.
(6) A full house at Whelan’s in Dublin last night for the Passion Pit and Hockey love-in. Really impressed by Hockey live whose performance whacked you right between the eyes with its power and panache. Naturally, “Too Fake” brought the house down, but they have plenty more in the canon too. Loads of hurrahs for Passion Pit too, who have the songs, if not quite the performance smarts right now, for the long run. Both bands will be back apparently for Oxegen.
(7) Actually, Hockey reminded me a lot of this tune
(8) Gold stars all round for The Class and you can’t argue with those reviews of Laurent Cantet’s excellent film. It’s a look at contemporary France through the eyes of a classroom, which will remind some of you of how David Simon used series 4 of The Wire to present an alternative view of Baltimore. Fantastic acting too from a cast who had very little acting experience before Cantet’s cameras rolled.
(9) This week’s new music obsession: DM Stith. Nice piece on him in yesterday’s Observer ahead of the release of his “Heavy Ghost” album on Sufjan Stevens’ Ashmatic Kitty label.
(10) From the parish newsletter: regular On The Record poster Mumblin’ Deaf Ro gets his reissue freak on via the hugely prolific Indiecater label. Ro’s 2003 debut “Senor, My Friend” is the release under the microscope and the new digital version comes with three bonus tracks. Check out the album, download “The Hero Is A Graduate” for free and spend four euro on the rest of it.
(11) Finally, it is Choice Music Prize week. In Choice-related clippings, Una talked to The Script (who are going to win with ease) and Nick Kelly, the best music writer at the Irish Indo, had a close look at the runners and riders before reckoning it’s the Year of the H (Holmes, Hannigan or Halfset). The fun happens on Wednesday night and will probably continue here on Thursday morning.
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