That post below about the changing of the guard at Ri-Ra, an interesting to-do at the Guardian’s blog (which reminded us of some clubs in Waterford we’d completely forgotten about) and a rumour that the fabulous Powderbubble may be returning for one night only to Dublin this summer has set us thinking: just what were the seminal Irish clubs and club nights?
(more…)
It appears that changes on Dublin’s docklands are not merely confined to the amount of new buildings sprouting up everywhere you look. In July, the Martha Schwarz-designed Grand Canal Square to the south of the Liffey will host Analog, one of the city’s most ambitious free music programmes in years.
(more…)
One of the albums of the year is set to be given away for free. The Crimea, the band fronted by Dubliner Davey MacManus, will give away their excellent new album, “Secrets of the Witching Hour”, as a free download from their website from May 12 *.
While the band released their debut album “Tragedy Rocks” on Warner Music, they see the move into a download free-for-all as a new business model which will help them boost their live audience and merchandise sales.
It’s an audacious move. While many acts are happy to give away tracks as samplers for forthcoming albums (and there are even a few band-approved sites like Free Indie and Free Albums Galore who give away large chunks of albums), The Crimea are one of the first to come out and state that CD sales are not the be all and end all of revenue streams.
* UPDATE As MP3 Hugger notes below, the album is now available for download from the band’s site. Because there has been loads of coverage elsewhere about this, the band decided to start the ball rolling right away. As of Wednesday morning, over 7,000 people have downloaded the album.
It’s not just DJs who take control at the Red Bull Music Academy these days. Last year, local jazz musician Daniel Jacobson was the Irish rep at the week-long boot camp for music makers.
This year, Toronto will host the long-running series, which has previously set up ship in Melbourne, Dublin, New York, Cape Town, Sao Paulo, Rome and London.
Irish DJs, producers and musos who feel they would benefit from a week of workshops and panels in Canada should head here right away to redbullmusicacademy.com and fill out the relevant forms. Closing date is May 4.
Cut-and-paste pioneer Steinski will be hitting Ireland when the country in the grip of political fever (or extreme ennui in some cases).
One-time New York advertising executive Steve Stein’s seminal productions, such as “Lesson One: The PayOff Mix” and “The Motorcade Sped On”, influenced thousands of turntabalists worldwide including DJ Shadow, Coldcut, Cut Chemist and Norman Cook.
Catch Steinksi spinning in Dublin (The Pod, May 11) and Cork (Liquid Lounge, May 12). He will also be doing a Q&A on politics, music and technology at Dublin’s South William on May 15.
It would appear that the Electric Picnic is now sold-out.
Her name is Candie Payne and she sounds, well, extraordinary.
(more…)
Props to fachtna (and Donny) for pointing us towards this piece.
Kelefa Sanneh stitches the whole story together, from Don Imus to Russell Simmons, in a level-headed fashion and makes some very salient points about how this particular hullabaloo plays out in the bigger hip-hop scheme of things.
The strangest thing about the last few weeks was the fact that hardly any current hip-hop artists were discussed. (All these years later, we’re still talking about Snoop Dogg?) Maybe that’s because hip-hop isn’t in an especially filthy mood right now. It sounds more light-hearted and clean-cut than it has in years. Hip-hop radio is full of cheerful dance tracks like Huey’s “Pop, Lock & Drop It,” Crime Mob’s “Rock Yo Hips,” Mims’s “This Is Why I’m Hot” and Swizz Beatz’s “It’s Me, Snitches.” (The title and song were censored to exclude one of the three inflammatory words — proof that this snipping business can be tricky.)
2FM disco-jockey Rick “who’s the daddy now?” O’Shea is talking about RTE’s current digital radio trials over at his blog
As well as a lot of the existing Dublin stations being on test on DAB as well as all the national ones RTE has 4 on test transmission. One oldies, one kids, one news and one (the one I’m extremely unofficially involved in) called Service 7. It’s all still very “Coming Soon” but to hear it coming out crystal clear in my kitchen is very, very cool…
RTE’s digital radio machinations have been a long time coming, going way back to a mooted Irish Digital Radio Forum in 1999 and a 2001 statement by the then Director-General Bob Collins that the 165 million euros RTE received from the sale of Cablelink would be used for digital radio and TV investments. That money obviously went to pay for Pat Kenny and Gerry Ryan’s salaries and expenses.
All the same, we look forward to Service 7 pushing our buttons. For the fellow anoraks in the audience, here’s a snap of Radio Rick. Lovely, isn’t it?
Various hip-hop activists and players are continuing to think out loud about what the hell is going on in their game. Obviously, they have plenty of time on their hands at the mo’ seeing as hip-hop sales have collapsed (sales are down 33.6 per cent for the first three months of ‘07 compared to ‘06)
(more…)
Good news, people. Beirut play Dublin’s Tripod on June 22. Yahoo. Tickets now on sale from Ticketmaster. 
On the one hand, you have the official statement from MCD Concerts issued last Friday that The Police at Croke Park is sold out. This was, naturally, reported on by some of the usual sources.
On the other hand, as On the Record reader Brendan Mulgrew points out, there are still tickets available via Ticketmaster for the show. Go on, have a look for yourselves. We could have picked up six tickets just now for the Upper Tier in the Cusack Stand.
We must have a look at the definition of sold-out show again.
News that Blur drummer David Rowntree is to stand for the British Labour Party in a forthcoming by-election should provide food for thought for the Irish political establishment.
Jaded party hacks could feel it’s time to take a punt on a couple of local indie stars in an effort to get the vote out. After all, there are only so many former GAA luminaries who can fit onto an average lamp-post.
So who’ll be the first Irish muso to look for your number one? Our money is on that Mundy fellow (well, it runs in the family), but who do you think would look good on the ballot paper and why? Over to you.
Everyone has to make a living, which probably explains Irish dates in May for two ex-members of The Jam trading under the name “(from) The Jam”.
As Paul Weller has no intentions of doing a Police and rejoining his former band-mates, Bruce Foxton and Rick Butler have decided to go on tour using the Jam moniker. To be honest, “Foxton and Butler” sound more like a firm of estate agents.
The Jam without Weller joins The Doors - touring without Jim Morrison - as another ham-fisted, cynical and depressing example in how to squeeze a cash-cow. Our advice? Avoid
By the time you read this, the sold-out signs will probably be up for The Police’s show at Croke Park in October.
It’s shaping up to be that kind of season, with sell-out shows already for the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, George Michael (right), Arctic Monkeys and Justin Timberlake (the last three acts have now added extra dates).
Add in the sold-out Oxegen weekender and a quickly decreasing stack of tickets for the Electric Picnic, and it adds up to a box-office bonanza for promoters.
However, some shows will inevitably struggle. While the European Central Bank’s interest rate rises and increased mortgage payments can shoulder some of the blame for this slowdown, there’s also a sense that punters are seeking value for money.
An Electric Picnic or Oxegen weekend with dozens and dozens of must-see acts versus a night out with grumpy old Damien Rice? No competition there.
His name is Hendrik Weber, but anyone seeking a slice of what electronic music might sound like a couple of years from now knows him as Pantha Du Prince.
(more…)
If you think your local political numptie is some man when it comes to making the headlines, you obviously haven’t seen Rev Al Sharpton in action.
(more…)
A couple of years ago, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek column in The Ticket giving record labels some ideas for concept albums. Look, it was January and there wasn’t much else going on. There was no new REM album, for instance, which sounded just like the last REM album to laugh at.
(more…)
Say hello to Lull. He’s the geezer who has done an amazing Music Box & Tears remix of Bloc Party’s “I Still Remember” (and he’s also done a good job on the ace I Was A Cub Scout’s “Pink Squares”). His own tunes are also impressive, if you’re into slow-motion electronica.
No-one else rants or raves like Bob Lefsetz when it comes to the music business. Here, he compiles the blame report for the latest death of hip-hop. No need to call in Bobby Goren to help with this one.
Miranda Sawyer’s smart guide to internet radio from The Observer. Memo to RTE: whatever happened to the great digital leap forward?
Free the Duke! Download “When The Bear Bites”, a free five-track sampler from the mighty Duke Special.
Aiiiiiight. Forget The Sopranos, the best TV series on the box is The Wire. Props to TG4 for getting their mitts on Series 4 before anyone else on this side of the Atlantic (it’s in full swing on Mondays at 11.25pm) - just lets hope they don’t do what RTE would do with it and start shoving it round the schedules without telling anyone. For those who’s slept on this piece of TV genius from the streets of B-More, you can play catch-up on DVD and realise why no-one needs the Bada Bing when you’ve got Orlando’s.
The Police have confirmed an Irish show - they’ll play Croke Park on Saturday October 6.
Tickets go on sale next Friday. Given that the Rolling Stones at Slane sold out in a few minutes/hours, this one will probably go the same way.
You could say that they were the bits of the story that everyone ignored.
The big hullabaloo about EMI getting into bed with Apple concentrated on how the major music company’s catalogue will be available free from all digital rights management (DRM) restrictions for the very first time. But the fact that these tracks will also be available as higher quality downloads seemed to pass everyone by.
(more…)
Will there be an Irish Live Earth concert? Shows are already slated for New Jersey, London, Shanghai, Sydney, Johannesburg and Rio de Janeiro for July 7th, but on that day here the Oxegen bash gets under way in Co Kildare. So Al Gore’s attempts to raise awareness about global warming may take a back-seat in Ireland.
Among the many acts who’ve already signed up for Live Earth are Madonna, Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snow Patrol and Kanye West. The organisers hope the various shows will attract a global TV audience of two billion. Registration for tickets to the London concert begins today.
In May, the RTÉ 2FM 2moro 2our (see what too much coffee in the RTE canteen does to you) will take Choice Music Prize-nominated Messiah J & The Expert, Limerick shams Giveamananakick and the excellent Flaws around the land. In addition to the three acts, 2FM’s Rick O’Shea, Jenny Huston, Cormac Battle and Dan Hegarty will broadcast their shows from different towns on the tour.
This, though, is surely an ideal opportunity for ALL of 2FM’s jocks to get out there and meet the kids. Get Gerry Ryan to MC the Galway gig on May 21st. Have the Breakfast Show lads do their chortlefest in Dundalk on May 23rd. Allow Will Leahy to show off his commitment to public service broadcasting remit in Limerick on May 18th.
Lets hope it’s not the case that 2FM thinks these fine Irish bands should be confined to the alternative ghetto.
There’s currently a whole lotta Nina Simone in the pop ether. Ignore Timbaland’s butchering of Nina’s Sinnerman on his Shock Value album, but we really like the cut of Sea Lion Woman from Feist’s The Reminder album (yes, we know she’s renamed it from See-Line Woman but that’s artistic license for ya).
Now we hear that Common’s new album, Finding Forever, includes him adding some Simone magic to Misunderstood. The album, due in July, also features Lilly Allen, D’Angelo and productions from Kanye West and the late J Dilla.
Yes, I’m a sucker for remixes. I like the way some remixers take a tune which you might know like the back of your hand and turn it into something which now resembles the back of your ankle. Sure, there are some remixers and remixes which should never see the light of day, but we’ll ignore them for now.
(more…)
Fans of razor-sharp barbs and robotic funk, pay heed. Devo play Dublin’s Vicar Street on June 21.
Without Lou Pearlman, there would be no Louis Walsh or Simon Cowell. Pearlman was the boy band mogul who created the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync and crafted a template for how to make money out of intricately hair-gelled male muppets.
(more…)
Yes, there’s a new Irish Times blogger in the area.
Shane Hegarty is the newest blog on the ireland.com blogging block.
Who’s next? Have patience, all will be revealed soon.
Wolfgang’s Vaults is an extraordinary treasure trove of vintage poster art and memorabilia, but the real crowdpuller is legendary San Francisco promoter Bill Graham’s archives, especially audio recordings of nearly 400 concerts from 1965 until the late 1980s promoted by the man born Wolfgang Grajonc.
Currently available as free streams (and as paid-for downloads from April), the Vault includes shows by Van Morrison, Miles Davis, U2, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Costello, Rolling Stones and many more.
Tip of the hat to colleagues Martin Noonan and Colm Banville for pointing us towards them.
It’s not every day that Brian Eno tells an interviewer that a band makes him “fucking angry”, but that’s what how the producer, currently working with Coldplay, described The Books to The Ticket in 2005.
“I think ‘I should have done that!’ That’s when I know I am really impressed by something,” said Eno about the New York duo and their gorgeous brand of out-there electronica.
Feted for their albums like “Lost and Safe”, The Books will be making their Irish debut at Dublin’s Sugar Club on May 17th.
While hip-hop beefs rarely bother the headlines any more, here’s one which has been generating significant heat in New York of late.
G-Unit rapper Tony Yayo is facing assault charges after he allegedly confronted and hit a 14 year old boy. The teenager is the son of Jimmy “Henchmen” Rosemond from Czar Entertainment management, a mogul not on the G-Unit gang’s Christmas card list.
The story sprouted legs when the kid claimed that 50 Cent was present at the attack, something vehemently denied by Fiddy’s people.
However, this didn’t stop protestors armed with such banners as “Save Your Children” and “Ban 50 Cent” picketing the offices of 50 Cent and G-Unit’s parent label Universal Music. Civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton and opportunist Fiddy rival The Game have also entered the fray. The next outing for this circus? A New York courtroom on April 25th.
Watching So Hard To Beat, it was startling to realise just how rare quality music TV shows like this have become on our TV screens. In fact, it’s hard to remember any other music shows in recent years which could rival the knowledge, enthusiasm and thoroughness of Stuart Bailie’s two-part BBC documentary on Northern Irish music’s many twists and turns.
(more…)
It’s the last night at South By Southwest and there are a couple of hundred bands to see. The usual story in Austin in March.
(more…)
Looking for something for the well-dressed, sporty miserabilst in your life? These Joy Division trainers might do the trick.
Alan O’Boyle talks about “Little Sketches”, a Decal out-takes album now available to download for free.
These tracks were recorded at home in late 2004 when I’d dismantled my studio in Moore Street and had just bought a decent soundcard and a half decent computer. I was basically just messing around learning how to use Logic and guitar seemed like the fastest way to get some ideas down. The plan was that I would eventually flesh them out into a proper album but the tracks seemed to stand on their own - not as properly finished tracks but as what they are, little sketches. Martin Kelly (The Ruby Tailights) provided the lyrics and vocals for “Wake Up With The Sun Behind You” sometime in 2005. Rather than let them gather dust on my hard drive I thought I’d put them up for download.
Download “Little Sketches” including the fantastic “Wake Up With The Sun Behind You” and “Dancing Skeletons on Moore Street”. No DRM here.
Sorry for any heart attacks which that mischevious post title may have caused, but I couldn’t resist it.
While Bruce Springsteen is not slated to be coming to Dublin any time soon, “Live In Dublin” is a new CD and DVD release coming this way in June featuring Springsteen and The Sessions Band recorded in Dublin last year on the second leg of the “Seeger Sessions” tour.
The double-CD and DVD set will include 23 songs recorded at the three sell-out shows the band played at The Point last November.
The full track listing is as follows:
Atlantic City
Old Dan Tucker
Eyes on the Prize
Jesse James
Further on Up the Road
O Mary Don’t You Weep
Erie Canal
If I Should Fall Behind
My Oklahoma Home
Highway Patrolman
Mrs. McGrath
How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live
Jacob’s Ladder
Long Time Comin’
Open All Night
Pay Me My Money Down
Growin’ Up
When the Saints Go Marching In
This Little Light of Mine
American Land
Blinded By the Light
Love of the Common People
We Shall Overcome
For Boss watchers, the news is that he is currently working with The E Street Band on new material.
Steve Jobs and Apple are back on the music business news wires this lunchtime following an EU commission decision to launch an enquiry into the company’s pricing structure for its iTunes store.
“Consumers can only buy music from the iTunes online stores in their country of residence and are therefore restricted in their choice of where to buy music,” said EU competition spokesman Jonathan Todd.
The case comes on the back of complaints from UK consumer organisations of overcharging. A track which cost 0.79p (€1.16) from iTunes UK could be obtained from other European iTunes outlets for 99 cents.
John Collins was on RTE Radio One’s News At One talking about this earlier.
It was hard to avoid the sheer volume of coverage in the UK papers last weekend about the joys of spending a few days in the open air listening to music, drinking warm beverages and eating pies/noodles/burgers.
All of this came ahead of Glastonbury tickets going on sale (and naturally selling out). You have to hope that the various commissioning editors were not thinking about their own freebies when it came to drawing up the page plans.
It started with The Telegraph who came up with 10 alternatives for those who didn’t get a Glastonbury ticket.
The Sunday Times also asked “who needs Glastonbury?” and came up with a list of worldwide music hops.
If that wasn’t enough for one day, The Sunday Times also got Cosmo Landesman to pen a few words on why festivals offer a taste of real community.
The Observer, naturally, went for the mental wellness factor. Obviously, “mental wellness” will be a huge attraction at Oxegen and the Arctic Monkeys at Malahide Castle this summer.
The Electric Picnic have announced their first set of acts for the festival and our guesswork from last week was fairly accurate. No MIA yet. Or Peter, Bjorn & John. Or Wilco, come to think of it. Still, there are a few months to go for the bookers to make amends with their unfeasibly large chequebooks. And no, we don’t have any tips for Shelbourne Park on Wednesday night.
(more…)
EMI Records have become the first of the Big Four major labels to read the writing on the wall and proceed with digital rights management (DRM)-free downloads.
Their deal with Apple means EMI’s DRM-free catalogue will be available initially through the iTunes store. Naturally, you’ll be paying extra for the right to do what you want to do with the track - DRM-free tracks will retail for €1.29.
There’s a wonderful irony here that the deal is with Apple, a company who make some amazing gear but who are not adverse themselves to sticking limitations on tracks sold via iTunes. Just a pity the announcement wasn’t made yesterday.
Of course, there will be much puff about this in the coming days as other labels size up what’s going on and decide how it impacts on their own digital strategy. The fun is only starting, friends.
Yes, there is another Irish Times blog out there.
Conor Pope’s Pricewatch is now on the blogging block - check him out and be nice. Nice is good.
While some pundits continue to add adjectives and adverbs to their pending “death of the album” pieces (they’re a bit like those property collapse pieces which economic commentators had on hand for the last decade), you’ll find no such predictions of doom, gloom and obsolescence round here.
(more…)
