Guest post – Leagues O’Toole on Primavera 2010 – Saturday
On Saturday afternoon, I march straight into a schedule jam the likes of which I’ve never experienced before.
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On The Record »
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Guest post – Leagues O’Toole on Primavera Sound 2010 – Friday
Friday sees an early start for Owen Pallett at 4pm, but all is not well. Hope Sandoval’s soundcheck has stretched right up to the wire. While Pallett and his crew are trying to cobble together a linecheck, the venue has already opened the doors in a bid to accommodate the thousands of people queuing outside.
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Guest post – Leagues O’Toole on Primavera Sound 2010 – Thursday
When OTR heard that Leagues O’Toole was heading to Barcelona for Primavera Sound 2010 and when he said he was up for doing some reviewing, we were only happy to say yes (hell yes, in fact). I’ve always been a huge fan of the writer behind the much missed Foggy Notions magazine (and that awesome Planxty biography, “The Humours of Planxty“) so it’s a delight to feature his day by day reviews from the best festival in Europe. You can take it that he’s back in the game.
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That was the weekend that was
As OTR makes his way back from Barcelona, the floor is yours for a re-up of the ups and downs of the last few days. How was Primavera Sound 2010 for you? Full OTR reports to come later today, by the way. Words of wisdom about the other events of the weekend – yes, including the fecking hurling and the bloody Eurovision – are also welcome until normal service is resumed.
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This week in The Ticket – and your plugs
20 Acts You Must See This Summer: the sound of summer – 20 acts hitting the highways and byways of the country that you should check out in the coming months
Chic: Nile Rodgers talks, Sinead Gleeson listens.
R.S.A.G.: as he limbers up for the release of his third album, Jeremy Hickey AKA one-man Marble City band on why Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley influenced “Be It Right Or Wrong”.
Plus: reviews of new music releases from The Divine Comedy, “Kitsune Maison 9″, Lunasa, Smith Westerns, Ann Scott, Boa Morte, Operator Please and others, and new movies given the once over including Sex And the City 2, The Happiest Girl In the World, [REC]2, The Time That Remains and Fairy.
All this and more in The Ticket, in print, online and the best of The Ticket on the app.
As announced this morning, Interpol play Dublin’s Olympia on November 29. Tickets at €44.20 a go, are on on sale from next Wednesday.
The OTR plugging service is now open for business. Please feel free to plug and recommend stuff away to your heart’s content, but remember some simple rules. Declare an interest where one should be declared. Plugs are accepted on the whim of OTR and may be edited for length/clarity/common sense. Plugs which mention a commercial sponsor are really ads and will probably not be published in this slot. Plugs which plug the same stuff every week will also be deleted – if people ain’t interested by now, you should really get the message. For this week only, we’re from Barcelona.
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Why are Irish music fans heading for festivals abroad?
The seasonal exodus is underway. This morning, a couple of thousand Irish music fans are waking up in Barcelona after the first night of the Primavera music festival.
Between now and the end of the summer, the same scene will be repeated at other European festivals from Glastonbury to EXIT, as Irish fans go abroad in their droves to get their festival kicks.
Of course, the number of Irish fans heading off out foreign is small enough compared to those who will attend Oxegen and the Electric Picnic. The 65,000 people who were in Punchestown last July have not decided en masse to do Benicassim instead this year.
However, there is no doubt that festival tourism does make a dent in the size of the audience for domestic events as punters go abroad rather than go to one of the many Irish fests on the calender. At a time when sold-out festivals and gigs are very much a thing of the past, any slippage in numbers is probably viewed by promoters as a cause for concern.
So why are Irish music fans heading abroad? After all, when you factor in travel and accomodation costs, there’s not much ittle savings to be made by going foreign. It’s not like shopping at Aldi or Lidl.
But the appeal of a foreign festival experience is about more than just cash. A festival like Primavera offers a bill of acts which you will never get in Ireland because the demand for those acts is just not there to justify the same booking policy.
If you want to see Pavement, Broken Social Scene, Liquid Liquid, Thee Oh Sees, Sleigh Bells, No Age, Moderat, Les Savy Fav, Diplo and Harlem on the same bill, you really have to pay your own homage to Catalonia.
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#Now Playing – May 28
This week’s essential tunes on the OTR jukebox. Please feel free to add your own selections below.
Las Robertas “Cry Out Loud” (Produccion Automata)
Fuzzy, buzzy, warm-as-toast indie shizzle from Costa Rica’s finest riot grrrl mob.
Carolina Chocolate Drops “Genuine Negro Jig” (Nonesuch)
Dusty vintage jug band jives reworked and reshaped for the 21st century by a trio of youngsters adding some new-school attitude and fire to the mix.
Gil Evans Orchestra “Out of the Cool” (Impulse)
From 1960, Evans’ beautiful rhythmic impressionism owes a great deal to his work on three seminal albums for Miles Davis, including “Sketches of Spain”.
Not Squares “Release the Bees” (Pogo)
Banging new single from the Belfast punktronica trio sees them smashing the dancefloor into tiny little pieces before running out the backdoor.
Actress “Splazsh” (Honest Jon’s)
“The new Actress album is very deep, very special minimal techno which I’m really digging right now” (as selected by Flying Lotus)
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New Music – Lorn, B-Movie Lightning, Factory Floor
The latest New Music selections from the On The Record column in tomorrow’s edition of The Ticket. All recommendations for future New Music picks welcome below.
Hailing from the wilds of Illinois and signed to FlyLo’s Brainfeeder label, Lorn describes his music as “digital dirt”. What you’ll hear on debut album “Nothing Else” is a grandstanding display of dark, dreamy, occasionally menacing and always melancholic sounds.
New project from former Cane141 frontman Mike Smalle shows he hasn’t lost that deft touch when it comes to offkilter pop tunes with shimmering electronic frills and fringes. Debut single “Triple Trouble” out now and there’s an Ian Catt-produced debut album on the way.
Triple Trouble (Single Mix) by B-Movie Lightning from B-Movie Lightning on Vimeo.
Pulsating, post-punk grooves, metallic underworld disco and thundering noise from London trio and Factory Records’ fans now signed to Blast First. By all accounts, their live show is a thing of great magnificence.
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“Seamus Heaney? I’m not bothered”
Today in The Irish Times, a bunch of writers ‘fess up to the greats we’re supposed to like, but don’t.
There’s Fintan O’Toole on why he’s not a member of the Noel Coward fanclub, Brian Boyd dissing The Wire, Arminta Wallace shrugging her shoulders at Seamus Heaney, Rosita Boland talking about why she finds the work of Francis Bacon to be “ugly and aggressive”, Sara Keating going off one about Arthur Miller, the one and only Donald Clarke frowning about Charlie Chaplin and Peter Crowley explaining why he doesn’t mind mobiles going off in the theatre. Me? I write about how, despite my best efforts, I still loath Radiohead with a passion.
The piece is here and your views and sacred cows are welcome below.
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Electric Picnic 2010 – Foals, Dam-Funk, Cathy Davey and more on the bill
The latest set of acts heading to Stradbally in September for the Electric Picnic are:
Foals
Dam-Funk
Cathy Davey
These New Puritans
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
Beardyman
Archie Bronson Outfit
Philip Selway
James V McMorrow
And So I Watch You From Afar
Goodtime John
UNKLE (live)
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Joanna Newsom, Dublin, September
Per Ian Thrillpier and the Drag City website, Joanna Newsom plays Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre on September 14. No information as of yet on ticket prices or on-sale dates.
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The Far Side – playlist for Tuesday May 25
As played on The Far Side, Phantom 105.2, Tuesday May 25, 10pm-midnight
BLK JKS “Zol!” (Secretly Canadian)
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “Bright Lit Blue Skles” (4AD)
Clock Opera “A Piece Of String” (Maman)
Delorean “Simple Graces” (True Panther)
Factory Floor “Lying” (Blast First Petite)
LCD Soundsystem “Throw (Carl Craig remix)” (DFA)
Foals “Spanish Sahara (Deadboy remix)” (Transgressive)
Sleigh Bells “Run the Heart” (NEET)
Crystal Castles “Baptism” (Fiction)
Ratatat “Neckbrace” (XL)
1,2,3 “Going Away Party” (Chess Club)
The Like “He’s Not A Boy” (Downtown)
B-Movie Lightning“Triple Trouble” (Micropolis)
Gil Scott-Heron/Mos Def “New York Is Killing Me” (XL)
James Brown “Down & Out In New York City” (People)
Caribou “Kaili” (City Slang)
Toro Y Moi “Leave Everywhere” (Carpark)
Actress “Senorita” (Honest Jons)
Andreya Triana “Lost Where I Belong (Flying Lotus remix)” (Ninja Tune)
Untold “Stop What You’re Doing (James Blake remix)” (Hemlock)
Baths “Lovely Bloodflow” (Anticon)
R.S.A.G. “Be It Right Or Wrong” (Rare Production)
Steve Mason “Understand My Heart” (Double Six)
Peter Wolf Crier “Crutch & Cane” (Jagjaguwar)
Phosphorescent “We’ll Be Here Soon” (Dead Oceans)
Solar Bears “Trans Waterfall” (Planet Mu)
Lorn “Cherry Moon” (Brainfeeder)
Carolina Chocolate Drops “Trampled Rose” (Nonesuch) -
The lesser-spotted sold-out gig
What do Stevie Wonder, Gorillaz, Green Day, Paul MacCartney, Rage Against the Machine and Bob Dylan have in common? All of these marquee acts are visiting Ireland in the coming weeks and, at the time of posting, you can still buy tickets for all of their shows at your local friendly ticket outlet if you are so inclined. It would appear, however, that many people are not so inclined.
Not so long ago, tickets for all of the above would have been sold out faster than you can say “is this a recession I see before me?” But in 2010, it seems that sold-outs gigs are the exception, rather than the norm.
Yes, there are a few caveats to the above. The promoters will point to the fact that a lot of the cheap seats are already gone and that there are still a few weeks of hard selling to go. There are also, the promoters will say, gigs which sell out right away (Peppa Pig, Pearl Jam and Michael Buble). The fact remains, though, that there are several high profile gigs which were probably expected to fly out the door which are still open on the Ticketmaster system – and this is without factoring in the big festivals like Oxegen and Electric Picnic.
To most observers, there is only one reason for this slowdown. People just don’t have the cash right now for gig tickets, especially as such tickets are now a relatively expensive entertainment option. Any arguments that these gigs are “once in a lifetime” opportunities are rendered null and void by the fact that all of the first list (bar Stevie Wonder) are fairly regular visitors to Ireland at this stage. And we’re sure that Peppa Pig will also be visiting again really soon given the success of that booking.
It’s not just Irish audiences who are thinking twice before going through the Ticketmaster process. Noted industry curmudgeon Bob Lefsetz has been digging through Stateside data about soft gigs of late and coming up with a lot of under-performing shows. Lefsetz pins the blame on how shed owners and promoters are pushing expensive “packages” at the fans, a habit which thankfully hasn’t become the norm over here. Yet.
If price resistance is the only factor in the slowdown, though, surely promoters will seek to address this by lowering ticket prices? After all, the cheap seats are snapped up right away, so wouldn’t it be better to have a full room of happy punters than a half-full venue? But bringing those ticket prices down will require acts to take a reduced fee and that’s unlikely to wash for many reasons (one being greed and another being the fact that acts ain’t getting paid elsewhere in the same way as before).
In big picture terms, this raises some questions about the received wisdom that the live side of the house was going to save the music business. As we have pointed out here again and again and again, the live business was never in the business of breaking new acts, something which was always left to the record companies to do. Instead, the live business was where established acts with audiences (audiences they’d built up thanks to the patience and largesse of record labels) would have another few days in the sun. Now, though, it seems even that doesn’t hold true anymore.
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The randomiser says “hola”
The countdown for Primavera 2010 has begun in earnest. A clatter of OTR readers will be there in force – as will OTR, natch – so lob all recommendations, tips and questions this way and we’ll see what the wisdom of this crowd produces. Full post-event coverage of the best festival around to come next week.
Speaking of festivals, our friends at Oxegen have blogs! Yes, there are now blogs on the website penned by three folks behind the scenes – production manager Duchess, enhancements officer Niall and event control person Sinead. We reckon one of ‘em must be a shoe-in for an Irish Blog Award next year. Just a pity that (a) there is no way for people to comment on the blogs or (b) that Dinny himself hasn’t written one. Man, we’d pay mad money to read a blog from Dinny.
Best pop interview of the year! Forget about yawnsome trysts with the boring Courtney Love, here’s the real shizzle. Lady Gaga! Caitlin Moran! On the piss in Berlin! Literally!
Eircom begin their “graduated response” campaign against illegal music downloading today. Per John’s report, “during the pilot phase, Eircom has agreed to process about 50 IP addresses a week. Irma is using a third-party firm, Dtecnet, to identify Eircom customers who are sharing, and not simply downloading, a specific list of its members’ copyrighted works on peer-to-peer networks.”
The power of three: OTR is a firm believer in following up on any act or album or track which three different people recommend in the space of a few days. Last week, OTR reader Clom, our mate Paul and the mighty Flying Lotus all bigged up the new album “Splazsh” from Actress to us. Deep is the way of the walk:
Why Blur drummer Dave Rowntree decided to become a legal eagle
Organised by the Contemporary Music Centre, the one-day Future Of Music in the Digital World conference will feature words of wisdom (or otherwise) from Mary Hanafin (Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport), Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Gerd Leonhard, Andrew Dubber and Bill Whelan. The event will be held at the Coach House (Dublin Castle, Dublin 2) on June 11 and you can find out full information here.
You know it’s festival season when The Guardian start running stories like this. Also on the festival tip: music fests which are saying no to sponsorship and what does your choice of festival say about you. Expect the latter idea to be ripped off by a couple of commissioning editors by the end of the week.
Event for the diary: “Popical Island #1″ is the debut compilation from the Popical Island stable of acts including So Cow, Land Lovers, Yeh Deadlies and Groom, to be launched at an all-day bash at Whelan’s in Dublin on June 19.
From the “ooh la la” department: the Let’s French festival of all things Gallic returns to the streets of Dublin from June 16 to 21 for its fifth outing. Acts sur le block will include Sophie Delila, Mellino (formerly of Les Negresses Vertes) and Francis Le Bras and there will also be a screening of Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque), Joann Sfar’s new biopic of the Gallic singing and carousing legend. More info ici.
Via Maman Poulet, Tipperary North TD Michael Lowry gets on the Oxegen buzz. Let’s hope MCD did him a deal on those tickets. After all, as we’re sure the promoter remembers, the deputy was the one who helped to bring Feile to Thurles all those years ago.
The future for record stores: toned pecs and abs. We’ll let you decide if this a good look for your local customer-friendly record store clerk.
One for the musos in the audience – check out the various courses, schemes and awards on offer right now from Music Network including the Making Overtures course, the Performance & Touring Award and the Young Musicwide Award. Deadlines for all three are coming soon so don’t shilly-shally.
We’re practically salivating at the thought of “Mansion on the Hill” author Fred Goodman applying the tell-all treatment to Warner Music Group boss (and the man who wrote tunes for Celine Dion and Dionne Warwick, fact fans) Edgar Bronfman Jr. Hey, what do you mean you haven’t read “Mansion on the Hill”? Anyway, Fortune’s Fool: Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Warner Music, and an Industry in Crisis will be published this summer and we’re told to expect the story of “the Seagram heir’s music-business adventures at Universal and Warner Music, and what went terribly wrong.” Yep, OTR is excited.
Are we the only ones bored stupid by the sheer overkill of fawning newspaper and magazine features about the fecking Stones and the making of “Exile on Main Street”? It’s no wonder the music business is FUBAR when so many folks spend their time getting nostalgic about an album recorded nearly 40 years ago.
And finally, we did mention that we’re going to Primavera, right?
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New sales figures reveal an industry in perilous shape
We knew things were bad in the record business, but this bad? Last weekend, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) had their annual shindig in Chicago. Music retailers of every stripe schmoozed, supped and sang their hearts out to Cyndi Lauper, Taylor Swift and Melissa Etheridge.
But it wasn’t all fun and games. Over the weekend, Nielsen Soundscan, the company who collate US sales figures, gave what amounted to a state of the nation address to the gathering.
Per Soundscan’s numbers, 98,000 albums were released in 2009, with only 2 per cent selling over 5,000 copies. Yep, that’s right, most albums racked up less than 5,000 sales. There was also a sidebar that three-quarters of sales are still physical, but let’s concentrate on the marquee statistic.
While there is much headline focus on mainstream frontloaded acts like Lady Gaga, Susan Boyle and Justin Bieber, the bulk of album acts just aren’t getting off the block. It was always a given that the majority of acts signed to major labels never went into the black, but most of them could at least shift 5,000 copies even on their very worst day.
Of course, there are caveats to all of this. There are, for instance, sales which are not counted by Soundscan (ie albums sold at a band’s gigs) and there are also many bands who can quite happily survive and thrive on 5k sales.
But such a low number means it’s high time for the record (and live) business to realise that there are problems aside from the net slippage in sales. After all, if acts can’t get over the 5,000 sales mark, where are the breakthrough acts and venue-fillers of tomorrow going to come from?
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Villagers shine on the opening night of their tour
There are new chapters beginning every week in this story. A muggy Wednesday evening in Kilkenny, and Villagers are commencing a tour that will take them all the way up to the summer festivals.
Debut album Becoming a Jackal is out (it’s been the best-selling album in Ireland this week, in fact), the reviews are glowing and expectations are growing. This is when Conor J O’Brien turns into Buzz Lightyear: to infinity and beyond.
To all intents and purposes, O’Brien is Villagers. He’s the one who wrote the songs, cast the spells and marshals the magic. He does the talking in interviews, and it was his spine-tingling solo performance on Later With Jools Holland that has brought many people out to the Set Theatre on a school night.
But there’s more than just O’Brien on the stage tonight. It’s time for the band to resume their positions and remind folks of another side to Villagers. They’re here to colour in the lines in the songs and amplify the subtleties without losing any of the essence or charm.
They pull this trick off in the jagged atmospherics of Tommy McLaughlin’s guitar, which add suspense to The Meaning of the Ritual , for instance, or in the beautiful layers that surround and embellish Home and Pieces . It’s a visceral, sublime experience.
But the limelight remains fixed on the wide-eyed O’Brien and those magnificent songs of his. He may blink a little with all that attention – he talks afterwards about a bad bout of first-night nerves – but there’s no mistaking a steely determination. Oh yes, this is his time to shine.
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#Now Playing – May 21
This week’s essential tunes on the OTR jukebox. Please feel free to add your own selections below.
Various “Jamie XX mix for Colette” (Download)
Wobbly dubstep, dark bass and deep electronic beats courtesy of Jamie Smith from The XX’s mix for Parisian boutique Colette. Download it here.
Tame Impala “Solitude Is Bliss” (Modular)
Perth’s Tame Impala tee things up for their “Innerspeaker” debut with this smashing slice of sunnysideup pop.
Mount Kimbie “Crooks & Lovers” (Hot Flush)
Sonic futurists Dominic Maker and Kai Campos deliver a debut album which exceeds the expectations of their brace of early EPs.
Sleigh Bells “Treats” (N.E.E.T)
Filthy, freaky electrorock with any amount of chippy, discordant bells and whistles form Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss. Cracking tunes too. Album is streaming here.
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton” (Deram)
“I love the guitar playing on it, it’s an amazing sound. Listening to this really inspired me to write stuff I’d never have thought of playing before” (track selected by The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon)
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This week in The Ticket – and your plugs
The Divine Comedy: having recently batted for The Duckworth Lewis Method (and composed an alternative national anthem), Neil Hannon talks to Lauren Murphy about the tenth Divine Comedy album.
Cannes: our man in Cannes Donald Clarke on the ten things you always wanted to know about this great annual film beano in the south of France, but were too afraid to ask.
Neil Finn: it’s the week of the Neils in The Ticket as Tony Clayton-Lea talks to Crowded House’s Neil Finn about going back into the House after some solo forays.
Plus: new music releases reviewed from Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden (CD of the Week), Band Of Horses, Stornoway, David Holmes, Onra, The Black Keys, Katell Keineg, Simon Fagan, and others, and reviews of new flicks in the cinemas including Streetdance 3D, Bad Lieutenant, Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Times, Cop Out and Trafficked.
All this and more in The Ticket, in print, online and the best of The Ticket on the app.
The OTR plugging service is now open for business. Please feel free to plug and recommend stuff away to your heart’s content, but remember some simple rules. Declare an interest where one should be declared. Plugs are accepted on the whim of OTR and may be edited for length/clarity/common sense. Plugs which mention a commercial sponsor are really ads and will probably not be published in this slot. Plugs which plug the same stuff every week will also be deleted – if people ain’t interested by now, you should really get the message. Is it too early to get excited about Primavera next week?
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A line I never expected to use: I’ve started reading the NME again
Over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself buying and reading the NME again. I honestly can’t remember the last time I bought the magazine on any sort of regular basis – maybe the early years of the last decade? – but it has crept up on my radar again in the last few months.
While I’ve always had a glance at it in the racks, I’ve rarely picked it up. Like many long-running music titles, NME went through a long period of time when it was down in the dumps. In a media world where absolutely everything changed – and then changed again and again and again – the last surviving UK weekly inkie covering music was out of sorts. The days of massive circulation – when an issue could sell 230,000 copies – were the stuff of history and, despite all the posturing to the contrary, they were never coming back. These days, the mag makes do with less than 40,000 sales a week and the only way is down.
So, that’s the bad news. The good news? Well, even with sales on the slide and every single music news item or review of note just a click away, the NME has suddenly found some momentum. Chalk that down to incoming editor Krissi Murison who has overseen a good revamp of the magazine which re-established that the “M” in the title stands for “music” and not “myriad of other stuff”.
Aside from this newly recalibrated focus, Murison’s magazine is much more of a “read” than the title was under previous editor Conor McNicholas. As NME lost ground to online sources, McNicholas responded by being bolshy and conservative. What Murison has done is introduced some of the better aspects of online music coverage into an offline title without appearing too “hey, look at me!”.
While the emphasis is still on new music, there is also a focus on heritage acts when and where it makes sense. Though nowhere as comprehensive or indepth as the treatment meted out by the monthlies, the coverage of Ian Curtis (in this week’s issue) and Malcolm McLaren (last month) was as you’d expect from a 21st century NME.
Yes, I too would prefer a return to the NME of the 1980s, which happily gave pages of erudite and enthused coverage to acid house and hip-hop, but a splintering media landscape has put paid to that idea. Right now, as one of the last weekly men standing on the shelves of your local shop, the NME makes some strange sense.
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New Music – James Blake, Solar Bears, Cloud Control
The latest New Music selections from the On The Record column in tomorrow’s edition of The Ticket. All recommendations for future New Music picks welcome below.
There are currently a couple of record labels arm-wrestling for the right to release this London producer’s debut album. Listen to the lush electronic, dubby soul on his EPs for Hessle, Hemlock and R&S and you too might want to join in the chase.
Solar Bears
From Dublin and Wicklow, John Kowalski and Rian Trench are currently applying the finishing touches to “She Was Coloured In”, their forthcoming debut album for Planet Mu. “Children of the Times” is a lovely example of their pastoral electronica and soundtrack smarts.
The sumptuous melodies and delightful thrills of songs like “Gold Canary” and “There’s Nothing In the Water” are reasons to cheer this Australian band’s debut album “Bliss Release”. Indie gems a go-go from the Blue Mountains.
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The Far Side – playlist for Tuesday May 18
As played on The Far Side, Phantom 105.2, Tuesday May 18, 10pm-midnight
Tame Impala “Solitude Is Bliss” (Modular)
Sleigh Bells “Rill Rill” (NEET)
Smith Westerns “Imagine, Pt 3″ (Fat Possum)
Cloud Control “Gold Canary” (Ivy League)
Foster the People “Pumped Up Kicks” (Self release)
1,2,3 “Going Away Party” (Chess Club)
Delorean “Endless Sunset” (True Panther)
Acid Washed “Concorde In the Sunrise” (Record Makers)
Casiokids “Gront lys ialle ledd” (Polyvinyl)
LCD Soundsystem “Pow Pow” (DFA)
John Talabot “Sunshine” (Hivern)
Japandroids “No Allegiance To the Queen” (Polyvinyl)
Male Bonding “Franklin” (Sub Pop)
Kormac “Studio Sorcery” (Scribble)
Blockhead “The Music Scene” (Ninja Tune)
Vampire Weekend “Giving Up the Gun” (XL)
Las Robertas “In Between Buses” (Produccion Automata)
Flying Lotus “Do the Astral Plane” (Warp)
Solar Bears “Kill On” (Planet Mu)
Lorn “Cherry Moon” (Brainfeeder)
The Morning Benders “Pull Up the Roots” (Self release)
Villagers “Home” (Domino)
Wildbirds & Peacedrums “Peeling Off the Layers” (Leaf)
Ann Scott “Return to Die” (Raghouse)
Phosphorescent “We’ll Be Here Soon” (Dead Oceans)
Grizzly Bear “Graceland” (Self release) -
Ian Curtis in 2010
What would have happened if Ian Curtis hadn’t taken his own life thirty years ago today? Let’s imagine that he actually got up the following morning, headed to the airport and took the plane with the rest of Joy Division to the United States for their first American tour.
Would Curtis have sought and received medical help for his epilepsy and depression? Would the band have continued to record and tour? Would we have been spared New Order’s fat years, Revenge, The Other Two and Peter Hook DJ-ing? Would Joy Division now be on their third lap of the reunion circuit with a date at the Crawdaddy tent at the Electric Picnic on their schedule for September?
Of course, all young, tragic deaths lead to similar “what if” ponderings. You can apply the same questions to artists like Nick Drake, Kurt Cobain or Jeff Buckley, others whose music enjoyed far greater attention after their deaths than at any time when they were alive. In the case of Curtis, many have claimed such a tragic ending was inevitable as this hugely talented and fragile artist sought to come to terms with the problems and pressure of his life.
Yet the death of the Joy Division singer at 23 years of age means the iconography remains untarnished. There were no dodgy solo albums, no terrible comebacks, no reunion tours to dilute the legacy. You’re left with the music he made with Joy Division and the bones of his life story – nothing more, nothing less. All musicians want to be judged on the merits of their music and, in this case, there were no squalid and unsatisfactory contractual obligation albums to take from the classics. Whether there would have been more classics to come after “Unknown Pleasures” and “Closer” will never be known.
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Rescheduled date for Whale Watching II show with Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon and friends
Per Foggy Notions, the rescheduled Whale Watching II show with Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon, Ben Frost and Valgeir Sigurðsson will now take place at Dublin’s National Concert Hall on September 26. The show was supposed to happen in April, but was cancelled due to that bloody volcano. Tickets are €25 and are now on sale.
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Beach House, Dublin, November
Beach House play Dublin’s Vicar Street on November 22. Tickets go on sale this Thursday and will be €26 each. Support act to be announced.
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Foals and the stable door
Over the last few weeks, the new Foals’ album “Total Life Forever” has been a constant on the OTR stereo. It’s an album which ticks many boxes: new emotional widths and depths, fantastic tunes, splendid melodic complexity, really strong musical chops and an overall sound several giant leaps on from their debut album. Foals didn’t repeat themselves or take a ride down the same line again. They went in an entirely different direction and threw caution to the winds. All bands pay lip service to such ideas yet, in the heel of the hunt, they always rein in their wilder excesses. Not Foals: they finally walked the walk like they talked the talk.
Perhaps, then, I’d unrealistic expectations going into their Dublin show on Friday night. Yes, there were thrills and spills – that is, if you count the cliched idea of a lead singer stagediving into the crowd a few times to run the clock down as a thrill. Throwing a pair of drumsticks at someone who may or may not have thrown a pint at him inevitably counts as a spill. But the material came by and large from their debut album “Antidotes”, which made the gig more of an indie disco by way of Skins rather than the experience of a band taking their cues from the new album.
And yes, I know the counter arguments. The new album is just out! People don’t know the songs! “Antidotes” is great! They probably haven’t figured out how to play “Black Gold” live yet! Go see them in a few months time and it will be a different story! Jesus Christ, you man Yannis leapt into the crowd! Twice!
But the fact remains that while “Total Life Forever” takes the band into brand new terrain, the live show they played in Dublin at the weekend simply saw them stepping onto a familiar treadmill. Instead of following the trajectory set on the new release, where they ditch the angular template in favour of a more rounded and intriguing set of drafts, Foals have taken a few steps backwards. What could – and should – have been a chance to fly higher than the sun turned out instead to be a burst of energetic running on the spot.
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Bob gives new meaning to ‘one more for the road’
Bob Dylan realised that the music business times were a-changin’ a long time ago.
An advert for his forthcoming Irish show, which ran in various papers this week, is proof of that. It lists Dylan’s Irish shows down through the years, starting with his first appearance here in May 1966 at Dublin’s Adelphi Theatre, one of two Irish shows in the 1960s.
That was it with Dylan and Ireland until 18 years later when he visited Slane in 1984. He made up for lost time with two more shows
in the 1980s, eight in the 1990s and a whopping 12 in the last decade. It’s safe to say that anyone who wanted to see Dylan live has now had ample opportunity to do so.
Howver, the number of decent albums from Dylan went in the opposite direction during this period. While you can chalk this down to the fact that he creatively peaked many years ago (though there have been sporadic flashes of his old self on new material), there is also the fact that Dylan knows there’s more cash to be made from touring than recording.
He’s not alone. Every year sees another batch of heritage acts visiting Ireland for the umpteenth time. Once upon a time, you’d see Neil Young or Eric Clapton or Lenny Cohen once a decade at best. Now, you worry about their health if they don’t show up for the annual meet and greet with Irish pilgrims.
But diminishing returns are bound to set in at some stage, as audiences realise they’ve seen that show before. The acts and promoter, though, will be hoping that there’s still a few decent box office grosses to come before that inevitable day dawns.
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New Music – Babe Shadow, Kings Go Forth, Wild Palms
The latest New Music selections from the On The Record column in The Ticket. All recommendations for future New Music picks welcome below.
These Kent natives are already coming up trumps with swoonsome pitch-perfect harmonies and jangly melodies like new single “Sea Serpents”. The duo are currently accumulating lots of new fans on tour with Florence & The Machine.
Luaka Bop-signed troopers from Minneapolis who take their name from a Frank Sinatra second World War flick and their music from the old-school soul and funk side of the tracks. Band also wear cloaks onstage, which is always a bonus.
Formerly known as Ex Lion Tamers, London’s Wild Palms already have a bunch of songs loaded with edgy angles and dark, dramatic twists. Now signed to One Little Indian, new single “Deep Dive” is a taster for a debut album due out later this year.
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This week in The Ticket – and your plugs
LCD Soundsystem: James Murphy on LCD Soundsystem’s new – and final – album, This is Happening, which brings the curtain down on a decade of disco-punk
Lebanon: Samuel Maoz talks about his award-winning film shot mainly inside an Israeli tank which takes a long hard look at Israel’s actions in the area in 1982. Also, Irish Times security analyst Tom Clonan, who served with the UN and spent much of the 1996 Israeli-Lebanese conflict inside a tank, offers his own take on the movie.
Pop Corner: Pop muzik from New York, London, Paris, Munich with the dashing Ailbhe Malone
Plus: new music releases reviewed from Villagers (CD of the Week slot for “Becoming A Jackal”), Thee Oh Sees, Holy Fuck, Tracey Thorn, Our Little Secrets, Phosphorescent, Eli “Paperboy” Reed, Sandi Thom, RJD2 and others, and reviews of new flicks in the cinemas including Eyes Wide Open, Lebanon, Robin Hood, American: The Bill Hicks Story, Vincere and No Greater Love.
All this and more in The Ticket, in print, online and the best of The Ticket on the app.
The OTR plugathon is now open for business. Please feel free to plug and recommend stuff away to your heart’s content, but remember to declare an interest where one should be declared. Plugs are accepted on the whim of OTR and may be edited for length/clarity/common sense. Events with a commercial sponsor are really ads and will probably not be published in this slot. Plugs which plug the same stuff every week will also be deleted – if people ain’t interested by now, you should really get the message. It’s Foals Friday.
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#Now Playing – May 14
This week’s essential tunes from OTR. Please feel free to add your own selections below.
Foster the People “Pumped Up Kicks” (Self release)
The first tune of the summer from a Los Angeles band who know that the best way to ours hearts is via a sunny chorus, sassy melodies and – the key ingredient – a spot of whistling. Irresistable. Download the track here.
Onra “Long Distance” (All City)
Smashing hip-hop boogie and electrosoul from the Parisian producer behind the dashing “Chinoiseries” album whose new LP is due soon on Dublin’s All City label.
The Like “He’s Not A Boy” (Geffen)
Los Angeles pop lasses in thrall to the sassy sound of the Sixties get the Mark Ronson production treatment
Phosphorescent “Here’s To Taking It Easy” (Dead Oceans)
Peerless new-school American folk from Matthew Houck on his fifth and finest album as Phosphorescent. Download “The Mermaid Parade” and “It’s Hard To Be Humble (When You’re From Alabama)” from the album here.
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble “Heritage EP” (Choice Cuts)
Made-in-Ireland EP from the Chicago-bred, New York-based brassy brothers with the best festival rep of all. Download “Spottie” from the EP here.
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Replacing the Ryan Line
Today is JNLR Day when radio stations up and down the land get their quarterly bill of health. These raw statistics, outling which shows and stations are up and which are down, will be scrutinised closely and then spun to death in press releases which breathlessly claim that the station in question is top of the pops when it comes to 40-plus males in the south county Dublin area with a keen interest in military history, dubstep, crystal meth and extreme gardening.
Out in Montrose, the 2fm chiefs will look at the figures with a huge degree of sadness. The JNLR book was due out a week ago, but was postponed as a mark of respect to Gerry Ryan. Seeing as the late broadcaster was the man with the biggest audience on the station – almost twice as many as those who tune into the station’s breakfast show – and the show with the biggest slice of the advertising pie, today’s JNLR book will be a reminder of the monumental task ahead.
Replacing the Ryan Line is going to be a headache which new boss John McMahon never expected to have to face six months into the gig. But he got the job because he the one RTE radio chief Clare Duignan believed could make the hard, tough decisions on the future of the station so this is the first chance for him to show his mettle.
So who will McMahon select to fill that 9am to midday slot on a more permanent basis than Colm Hayes and Lucy Kennedy? There are a huge number of options open to him, which is either a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at these things. First of all, he had to decide if he’s really after another Gerry Ryan. Is that huge Ryan audience – 307,000, per the last JNLR book – going to stick around with a new presenter? Are the bulk of that audience, the middle-aged housewives, the core 2fm audience to begin with or are they people who simply tuned in to listen to Ryan and then tuned out when Rick O’Shea came on air? Sure, the ad revenue is handy, but is it possible to replace Ryan with a Ryan-a-like?
If McMahon is going to go after a high-profile personality who can drive the show and at least attempt to keep that audience rather than scrap the show and build a new programme from scratch, he has two options: he can stay in-house or go into the transfer market.
In-house means choosing from the RTE pool. This could be someone like Dave Fanning, who has stood in several times for Ryan in years gone by. It could be Ryan Tubridy. While it’s unlikely that he will move from his RTE Radio One perch, remember his best radio show and 2fm’s best breakfast show was The Full Irish, where Tubridy was produced by McMahon. After that. it’s the field and that could be Miriam O’Callaghan, Lucy Kennedy, Craig Doyle, Colm Hayes or anyone else who has bad cofffee in the Montrose canteen on a regular basis.
Then, there’s the transfer market. A few weeks ago, I interviewed McMahon and this is what he had to say about that route. “I’m interested in finding the next Ryan Tubridy and the next Gerry Ryan rather than going out and looking for big name people and spending a couple of hundred thousand euro on some presenter from another station. We’re not in the 2005 to 2007 period anymore when radio stations were doing the Ronaldo and galactico thing and throwing mad money at presenters. I’m not interested in that.”
That, though, was before Ryan’s sudden death and the now urgent need to replace him. If McMahon does go into the transfer market with a fat chequebook, he had many, many options. The question then becomes what is he looking for. Is he looking for a like-for-like replacement who can do the job straight out of the box or is he looking for a proven radio talent who is young enough and eager enough to stick around with 2fm for a good few years and become the lynchpin of a new long-term schedule? Right now, it’s more likely to be the former rather than the latter and that prospective list is as long as your arm, with the likes of Cork 96FM’s Neil Prendeville, Today FM’s Ian Dempsey and Ray D’Arcy and Newstalk’s Tom Dunne figuring on it. Interesting times ahead, then, at 90 to 92 FM.
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Picture of the week
When I first heard about an incident on Kildare Street last night, I assumed it had something to do with the head shops. Citizens annoyed at their inability to score plant food and bath salts were running amok in the city-centre! Forget the banks and the econony, this was the real hot-button issue which would send Irish people to man and woman the barricades! Viva la revolution! Etc!
But no… Last night’s scuffles at Dail Eireann came in the wake of a protest march against government policies which attracted between 500 and 2,000 people, depending on what news source you believe. Some urchins decided to have a pop at the guards outside Leinster House in an effort to rush into Dail Eireann and, er, do something. Twitter was ablaze for at least 10 minutes with breathless reports of the “my friend said” variety. Sky News stopped covering the return of the Tories to power in Britain to cover the Kerfuffle on Kildare Street. News desks all over the city went into a frenzy last seen when the vending machine ran out of Yorkies. It was an event.
This photo is brilliant. There are more folks with cameras than protestors, as citizen journalist proudly and bravely takes a stand against tyranny, aggression and a distinct lack of height. But, best of all, in the right-hand corner of the photo, you can see the one and only Vinny Browne and his big microphone. There is an evil grin on Vinny’s face as he takes in the scene, while making sure his TV3 cameraman is getting all the action. Vinny was on the Pat Kenny Show this morning to give his eyewitness account of the “riot”. I nearly crashed the car laughing at his report, especially his description of the young lad who made it past the guards and into the Dail grounds. “He looked lost”, reckoned Vinnie.
The revolution will be televised. Same place, same time next week, yeah? Man, there’s a lovely stretch in the evenings.
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The Far Side – playlist for Tuesday May 11
As played on The Far Side, Phantom 105.2, Tuesday May 11, 10pm-midnight
Wild Palms “Deep Dive” (One Little Indian)
Foster the People “Pumped Up Kicks” (Self release)
Babe Shadow “Sea Serpents” (Luv Luv Luv)
M.I.A. “XXXO” (XL)
LCD Soundsystem “Change” (DFA)
The Like “Fair Game” (Downtown)
Hjaltalin “Sweet Impressions” (Borgin)
Foals “Black Gold” (Transgressive)
Ratatat “Party With Children” (XL)
The Black Keys “Everlasting Light” (V2/Co-Op)
Male Bonding “Year’s Not Long” (Sub Pop)
Sleigh Bells “Tell ‘Em” (N.E.E.T)
PENS “You Only Love Me When I Tell You I’m Wrong” (De Stilj)
New Amusement “Gone to Sea” (Any Other City)
David Holmes “The Girlfriend Experience” (Canderblinks)
Holy Ghost! “I Will Come Back” (Green Label)
Orphan101 “Tribtek” (Saigon)
James Blake “CMYK” (R&S)
Lorn “Cherry Moon” (Brainfeeder)
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble “Moments” (Choice Cuts)
Gorillaz “Superfast Jellyfish” (Parlophone)
Camp Lo “Luchini” (Profile)
The Flirtations “Nothing But A Heartache” (Deram)
The Radiants “Ain’t No Big Thing” (Polydor)
Bukka White “Shake ‘Em On Down” (Snapper)
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band “The Past Sure Is Tense” (Virgin)
Phosphorescent “Nothing Was Stolen (Love Me Foolishly)” (Dead Oceans)
Leonard Cohen “Chelsea Hotel” (Columbia)
Villagers “Pieces” (Domino) -
Leftfield, Ireland, June
Aside from the already announced Electric Picnic appearance, Leftfield also play Belfast’s Ulster Hall on June 2 and Dublin’s Tripod on June 3. That’s “Leftfield” as in co-founder Neil Barnes, orginal vocalists Djum Djum, Earl 16 and Cheshire Cat and a full band. Tickets are £30/£28 (Belfast), and €42.50/€38.50 (Dublin).
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Where’s your head shop at? Probably closed for now
There are times when the Irish government moves fast. While our elected reps may take their time when it comes to dealing with, oh let’s see, criminal bankers, delinquent developers, drug dealing on Dublin’s Talbot Street and large potholes, it’s a different matter when it comes to synthetic cannabinoids, benzylpiperazine and piperazine derivatives, mephedrone, methylone methedrone, butylone, flephedrone, and MDPV GBL and 1,4 BD.
Thanks to a government order, the sale, importation, exportation, production, supply and possession of these substances is now an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977. It would be interesting to know what legislation has been put on hold so this order can be rushed through.
This probably means an end (for now) to one of the weirdest chapters in recent Irish life as head shops slowly became part and parcel of the urban landscape. Usually located between your local Spar and chipper, the head shops became ubiquitous around the country because of the huge demand for products which said one thing on the label and did something else completely when ingested. There was obviously serious money to be made from this sort of thing – 24 hour shops are not open for any other reason – so the supply was upped to meet the demand.
Leaving aside the fact that the righteous fuming over these products is never applied in the same way to the products sold in the local pub which are just as lethal and dangerous when misused and abused (in fact, many pub owners could be heard giving out yards about how these shops were taking away custom), head shops were another classic Irish solution to another Irish problem. They allowed Irish people to get out of their heads while believing that they weren’t dealing with nasty drug dealers.
To many, it was just a laugh and giggle. Sure, it’s just bath salts or fish food, they’d say, chomping down on God knows what. It was a different matter for the poor sods who went along with the giggle and ended their night carted away in an ambulance. That was not the trip they had in mind when they handed over a few tenners for a powder they didn’t have a breeze about in the first place. No amount of legislation is going to make people cop on about that sort of thing.
No doubt another set of dodgy legal highs will replace that list above. No doubt, another piece of legislation will be rushed through to deal with the new menace by concerned politicians, only too happy to spend time on a populist issue like this rather than tackling the real issues of the day. And, no doubt, we’ll have another day out fuming about head shops in the future. You can bring the plant food….
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Aftershock: the blame report to beat all blame reports
You’re really going to feel good about life after RTE’s Aftershock week. Since Sunday night, the station has been running a series of shows looking at the state we’re in as a nation, examining how we got here and exploring some notions about how we’re going to get out of the current mess.
We’ve already looked at the 650 ghost estates around the country, the amount of Irish-owned real estate in London and heard about possible solutions from four experts. There has also been a Frontline special, but that featured a politican who got us in the current malaise so, assuming that Pat Kenny didn’t tar and feather him, I’ll leave that one out. Frontline has sadly turned out to be Liveline on the box so I’ll assume there was just much anger and fuming and nothing more.
No matter how much some people keep insisting that it’s time to move on and crack on with the future, the flashes of anger, which a series like Aftershock will naturally provoke even more, are going to continue for some time to come. People are still trying to work out how we went from the most wanted nation in Europe to one of the least loved in the world in such a short space of time. They want answers, they want scapegoats, they want to vent their fury. No, we’re not the Greeks so we’re not going to take to the streets and throw concrete blocks through the windows of posh restaurants and banks. We prefer to do typically Irish, daft and pointless things like give Dail Eireann a dirty look or talk to Joe. We’re a harmless nation, really. We always have been. Even our revolutions down through history have been half-hearted. But we do anger very well.
I really wish, though, that RTE had started the Aftershock series by repeating a show which I’m constantly reminded about when talk turns to Ireland’s economic collapse. When people complain that the media and particuarly RTE never covered the impending bust, I think of Richard Curran’s fantastic Future Shock: Property Crash from April 2007. The show looked at what would happen if Ireland suffered a property crash and the impact of this on home-owners, the construction sector and the national economy. The show’s findings were dismissed, criticised and derided, yet Curran’s “irresponsible” and “wild” predictions all came to pass. We were warned, but many of us just didn’t heed those warnings.
The Aftershock shows to date have been good rather than remarkable. The Ronan Kelly-narrated feature on unoccupied or unfinished housing estates around the country had the look and feel of a fine radio documentary transfered to TV, though we learned nothing really new from the show. Yes, we overbuilt during the good times because we had 200,000 builders to keep in breakfast rolls and hi-vis jackets and yes, many of those builders didn’t finish those estates to resemble the lovely drawings in the sales brochures. Nothing new there.
But there was little said about the failure of county councils and their planning departments to do what they’re supposed to do in these situations. Was a little village in Co Leitrim which had 32 houses a decade ago really going to be able to support and sustain 320 dwellings a decade later? Instead of spending time on fancy camera angles and special sound effects, the programme-makers might have been better employed hitting County Hall and asking some tough questions there.
Last night’s Where To Now? show had Dan O’Brien, Matt Cooper, Richard Curran and Justine McCarthy having a look at what they see as the root causes of the current mess and offering some solutions. While I can imagine the guffaw of chuckles from the Law Library which greeted McCarthy’s plan for an abridged Constitution, Curran was one of the first commentators I’ve seen point out the very practical pitfalls of a smart economy and the need for a broader jobs policy.
There were some interesting notions in O’Brien’s call for a new political system where government ministers are appointed by ability rather than surplus quotas and geographical concerns, but I can see Cooper’s call for a form of drop-the-negative-equity-debt leading to a new civil war. On one side, you’ll have those who can’t handle the big mortgage they – grown, mature adults, lest we forget, who weren’t forced to take on that big mortgage – saddled themselves with. On the other side, you’ll have those who looked at the get-on-housing-ladder mania as a deluded charade and stayed well clear of it. I’m sure, though, that well known drop-the-debt advocate Bono may be interested in writing a song or lending a hand for Cooper’s campaign. Let’s hear it for Self Aid II: The Sequel.
(All the above shows are currently available on the RTE Player)
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The randomiser is in the mood for mischief
As reported by OTR last week, Gorillaz play Dublin’s O2 on September 22. Tickets at €59.80 a pop go on sale on Friday week (May 21). The press release refers to this as “Gorillaz Live Show to Ireland for First Time” which will come as news to those who saw the band at Dublin’s Olympia in June 2001.
Big thanks to everyone who turned up for the Bumper to Bumper headphone disco with myself and Michelle Doherty at the Dublin Dance Festival’s opening night bash in Meeting House Square at the weekend. It was fairly surreal to look out at a packed silent square bopping along to Battles. And yes, we’d love to do more of ‘em…
Excellent interview with Beggars Group boss and sharp operator Martin Mills.
What you’ll find on Malcom Gladwell’s iPod
While music sales went up in ‘09, it was a different story with DVDs with a 5 per cent dip in UK sales due to Ye Olde Recession. Would be interesting to know, all the same, if this also applies to TV box sets.
Megan McArdle shakes a fist at file-sharers, while a bunch of musicians deliver their own riposte at her article in The Atlantic.
Remember Himself? This was the Irish answer to Loaded magazine which hit the shelves in the late 1990s and didn’t really hang around too long. This piece on Joe, a new website aimed at Irish men, reminded OTR of Himself. “As a man who uses digital media a lot, I knew there was a gap in the market,” says site boss Niall McGarry. ‘‘I would regularly use sports websites, but I found they didn’t have an Irish slant. Digital just hasn’t found its feet yet in Ireland.” Stop the lights! “Digital just hasn’t found its feet yet in Ireland”? Jaysus, Niall, where have you been, lad?
Time magazine on alternative strategies for the record industry. Does not include any mention of signing Jedward and/or Crystal Swing.
Thumbs up again for MasterNation, the Ticketmaster and Live Nation love child. Let’s get it on! Wonder what’s next on the MasterNation shopping list? MCD? OTR? IKEA?
Snark-attack! Someone better tell Hot Press that they’ve mistaken lil’ Conor O’Brien for Frederick Forsyth as they seem to think that the new Villagers album is called “Day of the Jackal”. Wonder how long it will take ‘em to “fix” that one? Next week: Niall Stokes waxes lyrical about classic U2 album “The Joshua Three”.
Free Brass! You can check out “Spottie”, a cut from the new “Heritage EP” from the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble via Dublin label Choice Cuts, and a video on the making of the EP here.
I suppose it’s one way to get a free venue for the Christmas party. Bank Of Scotland (Ireland) now own Galway’s GPO nightclub as it goes into receivership .
LeBron James to become a New York Knick? Dream on, fellow Knicks fans.
And finally, OTR is in the mood for shenanigans this week. All decent offers considered. Bring it on…
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There are some things the public just won’t buy
It would appear that the Irish public have made their mind up about Chris Brown and they’re not buying him.
Back in January 2009, Brown played four sell-out shows to over 50,000 Irish fans at Dublin’s O2 and Belfast’s Odyssey. There was much chatter at the time about an open-air show that summer for the all-conquering r’n’b star.
However, Brown didn’t hit Ireland last summer and will return to the country next month for the first time since that outbreak of Chrismania, to play shows at Dublin’s Vicar Street and Cork’s Marquee.
Tickets for both shows, which have a combined capacity of around 6,500 or around half-an-O2, are still on sale. The Irish public look like they’re passing on Brown.
Brown’s career became a bit of a no-go zone when he assaulted his then girlfriend Rihanna in Los Angeles on February 7 last year.
Since that incident gave him a press profile which money couldn’t buy (or fix), Brown has done the predictable rounds of public atonement. But appearances on US TV shows like Larry King Live and 20/20 haven’t done him any good. The proof is in the sales figures: his latest album “Graffiti”, the one he boasted would see him matching Prince, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, turned out to be a commercial flop.
Despite all Brown’s apologies, protests (naturally, he blamed the media for his woes) and retractions (he claimed he “misspoke” when he said he didn’t remember the incident), the public has decided it’s not buying it.
No amount of PR spin or contrite TV appearances with his mother (and attorney) by his side will wash this one away. There are still some aspects of bad boy behaviour which we’re not prepared to condone.
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#Now Playing – May 7
This week’s essential tunes from OTR and guest selector James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem. Please feel free to add your own selections below.
Baths “Maximalist” (Anticon)
Ahead-of-the-curve, woozy, fuzzy boom-bap from Californian producer Will Wiesenfeld. Sonar bookers, sign him up. Video below or download it here.
Beastie Boys “Hey Ladies” (Capitol)
While we wait for “Hot Sauce Committee” to drop, a trip back to “Paul’s Boutique” in the meantime for some old-school hollering.
Mountain Man “Made the Harbor” (Bella Union)
The album of the summer from three Vermont-based singers with a fine line in folky, ethereal tunes. Playing Dublin’s Crawdaddy on July 2.
LCD Soundsystem “Drunk Girls (Holy Ghost! remix)” (DFA)
Holy Ghost! have yet to put a foot wrong in the remix game and here, they soak James Murphy’s snarl with much swish and swoon.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark “Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark” (DinDisc)
“I’ve been listening to a lot of the music I listened to when I was 13 for some reason, lots of OMD and Japan. This really hits me every time” (selected by James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem)
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This week in The Ticket… and your plugs
Courtney Love: The Hole queenpin shares stories and ketchup with Brian Boyd, including tales of Kurt, Bono, Lady Gaga and Bobby Sands.
Foals: frontman Yannis Philippakis on how reacting to a hit debut album and two years of touring will change a band
Hollywood’s history with history: ahead of Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood movie, Anna Carey asks does every film reflect the era in which it was made, rather than the era in which it’s set.
Plus: new music releases reviewed from The Rolling Stones (CD of the Week slot for the reissue of “Exile on Main Street”), LCD Soundsystem, A Guy Called Gerald, Pearly Gate Music, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, The Dead Weather, Roesy, Lee Konitz New Quartet, Seamus Begley & Tim Edey, Chuck Prophet, and others, and reviews of new flicks in the cinemas including Four Lions, The Back-Up Plan, Furry Vengeance, Hot Tub Time Machine and Nightmare On Elm Street.
All this and more in The Ticket, in print, online and the best of The Ticket on the app.
IMRO v music blogs update: Nialler9 reports on the outcome of the meeting between IMRO and himself, The Torture Garden and Asleep On A Compost Heap yesterday.
Bumper to Bumper plug: I’ll be DJ-ing at the Bumper to Bumper headphone disco with Michelle Doherty at the Dublin Dance Festival’s opening night bash in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 tomorrow night from 9pm. Admission is free but you’ll need to get a ticket in advance and bring a radio and headphones on the night. Full information here. Please drop by and say hello!
The OTR community noticeboard is now open for business. Please feel free to plug and recommend stuff away to your heart’s content, but remember to declare an interest where one should be declared. Plugs are accepted on the whim of OTR and may be edited for length/clarity/common sense. Events with a commercial sponsor are really ads and will probably not be published in this slot. Plugs which plug the same stuff every week will also be deleted – if people ain’t interested by now, you should really get the message. So, Nick Clegg turned out to be more Jedward than SuBo…
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New Music: The Phoenix Foundation, The Knocks, HT Heartache
Tomorrow’s music today: the latest New Music selections from the On The Record column in tomorrow’s edition of The Ticket
New Zealand readers of OTR will already know this band who’ve released a couple of fine albums at home already. Latest release “Buffalo” makes a grand statement with dreamy pop tunes, pitch-perfect harmonies and splendidly hummable choruses.
Manhattan-based production duo who’ve remixed Katy Perry, Passion Pit, Ellie Goulding and Marina & The Diamonds strike out on their own. New single “Blackout’” is a beautiful post-everything funky pop banger. Download a bunch of remixes here or “Blackout” here.
Perfect working name for the Los Angeles singer with a treasure trove of spooked, slow-motion old-country and West Coast blues. Check her sweet debut album “Swing Low” for more.
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Jolly good show, chaps
We shall miss them. Over the last few weeks, election junkies of every stripe have thoroughly enjoyed the UK election campaign. Of course, election junkies enjoy every darn tooting election which comes their way – ah, those local elections last year! – but the current bunfight over who gets the keys to the executive washroom in Number 10 has had everything you’d want from an election campaign. Bigots! Media kerfuffles! Posh toffs! Oiks! A well hung parliament!
There must have been many days when David Cameron woke up and cursed his decision to bring the Liberal Democrats into the frame for the live TV debates. It may have made sense on one level (though I’m sure that level has been well and truly bulldozed away at this stage), but it allowed Nick Clegg to enter British livingrooms, say “hello!” (or “hola!”) and sway voters with the novelty factor. Voters knew David Cameron as the posh one and Gordon Brown as the gruff one, so Nick Clegg provided the race with a bit of a spark. Policies? Are you serious? This campaign isn’t about policies, it’s about change yet again.
I finally worked out late last night that Cameron reminds me of Pete Campbell from Mad Men. He exhibits the same oily sales patter, the same unctuous demenour and the same dogged and wrongheaded belief that he and only he deserves the top job. That he’ll probably get the gig is probably not in doubt – c’mon, what’s the alternative? – but he’s going to have to squirm and shimmy for it.
One of the funniest incidents of the whole campaign for me was Cameron’s whirlwind visit to Northern Ireland this week. Yeah, there’s an election on up there too – part of Britain, my friends, no matter what you might think – and, despite Tommy Gorman’s half-hearted attempts to sell it as THE MOST EXCITING ELECTION EVER!, it’s as dull as provincal ditchwater. Anyway, Cameron bounded into town, thumped the podium a few times, cracked a volcano gag and promised he’d be back next week if he became PM. Dude was greeted as if he was Justin Bieber by the grey, grey men of Northern unionism. Well, I found it funny anyway.
Gordon Brown? Ah, jaysus, you’d have to feel sorry for him. After years of brooding and plotting, he finally got the top gig and then, kaboom, the very economy he’d arrogantly presided over collapsed like the Cork hurling team’s bizarre reliance on two lanky forwards. As a result, Brown has been going around for the past few years with a face like thunder and a dark cloud permanently over his noggin. I’d say there’s a part of him which will welcome getting kicked out of the job and shafted by his own party in favour of someone who looks not a little unlike Cameron.
Nick Clegg has had a great election thanks to his SuBo factor. People love novelty and the election campaign is just long enough for Clegg to brillianly exploit all that. The Lib Dems want to change how MPs get elected and, er, other stuff too. Fantastic. Go Lib Dems!
Anyway, they’re currently casting their ballots across the water and up there. The counting starts tonight and the swingometer will be dusted off for another outing. There will be a lot of stories to come out of this election and, if predictions prove right, one of these should be the huge turnout. This is an once-in-a-lifetime election and the British voters seem ready to seize the day and open the door to the wonderful world of coalition governments. Memo to the Brits: coalition governments are great.
Meanwhile, the wait for our own once-in-a-lifetime general election goes on. Given how support for the Lib Dems have jumped on the back of those TV debates in the UK, I’m sure the Labour Party will be clamouring for a threesome on the TV next time around. Given the recent opinion polls, they may well have a point – per the latest Red C poll, it’s actually FG and Labour who are the two biggest parties in the land. Wonder how RTE will react to that one.
If you’re in Dublin and want to watch the counts with your fellow election junkies, we recommend the Leviathan UK Election Special at the D4 Berkeley Hotel. Talking heads will include David “Maccer” McWilliams, Amanda Brown, Harry McGee (The Irish Times), Scott Millar (The Examiner), Mary Corcoran (NUI Maynooth), Killian Forde (ski superstar, former Shinner and current Labour Party councillor) and many more. Kicks off at 8pm and tickets are €15.
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More names for Electric Picnic 2010
The latest batch of additions for Electric Picnic 2010:
Eels
Friendly Fires
Laurent Garnier
The Fall
Fight Like Apes
Bonobo
Stornoway
Channel OneMore acts to be added in the coming weeks.
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The Far Side – playlist for Tuesday May 4
As played on The Far Side, Phantom 105.2, Tuesday May 4, 10pm-midnight
Lots of good stuff on last night’s show including a preview of “Becoming A Jackal”, the debut album from Villagers, and a spin of “The Roamer”, the brand new single from R.S.A.G.
DJing dates: I’ll be DJ-ing at the Bumper to Bumper headphone disco with Michelle Doherty at the Dublin Dance Festival’s opening night bash in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 next Saturday night. Admission is free but you’ll need to get a ticket in advance and bring a radio and headphones on the night. Full information here.
Operator Please “Back & Forth” (Brille)
The Knocks “Blackout” (Heavy Roc)
HEALTH “In Heat (Javelin remix)” (City Slang)
LCD Soundsystem “Pow Pow” (DFA)
Tanlines “Real Life (Basic Needs remix)” (True Panther)
Holy Fuck “Stay Lit” (XL)
Villagers “Home” (Domino)
The Phoenix Foundation “Buffalo” (EMI)
Everything Everything “Schoolin’” (Geffen)
Yacht “The Afterlife (The xx remix)” (DFA)
R.S.A.G. “The Roamer” (Rare Production)
Villagers “The Pact (I’ll Be Your Fever)” (Domino)
Pavement “Summer Babe” (Domino)
Jay Electronica “The Ghost of Christopher Wallace” (Promo)
Gorillaz “Welcome to the World Of Plastic Beach” (EMI)
Flying Lotus “Zodiac Shit” (Warp)
Gonjasufi “Duet” (Warp)
The Books “Beautiful People” (Temporary Residence)
Caribou “Found Out” (City Slang)
James Yuill “On Your Own” (Moshi Moshi)
Villagers “Pieces” (Domino)
Department of Eagles “Brightest Minds” (Bella Union)
The Morning Benders “Sleeping In” (Rough Trade)
Boa Morte “Wooden Floor” (Kicking A Can)
The National “Conversation 16” (4AD)
Mountain Man “Dog Song” (Bella Union)
Villagers “The Meaning of the Ritual” (Domino) -
To tweet or not to tweet
Like many of you, I learned about the sudden death of RTE broadcaster Gerry Ryan via Twitter. It was, I can safely say, the first time I’ve seen a news story “break” via Twitter, though it makes me wonder if “break” is the right word to use. Isn’t “breaking a news story” about being certain of your facts and knowing that you have a story which others don’t have, instead of simply being first with a rumour?
In the space of 15 minutes (you can check the timeline here), this story went from one or two slightly unsure tweets asking couched questions about Ryan to a flood of messages about his death (including the now infamous withdrawn tweet from Ryan’s fellow RTE broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan). There was also an interesting to-do between a number of journalists from two Sunday newspapers about morals and ethics, which some found akin to two bald men fighting over a comb. Man, if you’re not on Twitter these days, you’re really missing out.
In the early part of Friday afternoon, though, it was a case of unsubstantiated rumours and unconfirmed sources all groping for space in the dark. Not one of those early tweets was written with any certainty. They couldn’t be, because there was, as of then, no confirmation of the story. If a journalist did have confirmation of the facts, he or she was not prepared to call it as “confirmed” for various reasons. It was, as if often the case on Twitter, pure and simple speculation. There may have been journalists involved in the speculative process, but this shouldn’t make it any different – and here’s where things get interesting.
This story perfectly highlights how we in the media use and abuse Twitter. As has been the case with all social media tools since newsdesks discovered the joys of photo galleries on Bebo, hacks use Twitter all the time to find out about stories and to talk to contacts (look at how the volcano-related travel chaos from the last few weeks was reported, for instance). Some even use it to cause a little mischief.
We don’t, by and large, use Twitter to break stories because our respective editors would give us a bollocking for that. Breaking stories still means sticking them online or in print and using Twitter to point people towards these. Breaking a story in 140 characters or less is not (yet) how newsrooms work. Yes, there are some stories which will appear on Twitter first, but this is usually when one hack gets a press release from his or her PR pimp or industry source a few hours before anyone else. In fairness, that’s really about being good at cutting and pasting rather than breaking a news story.
What happened on this occasion was that an irresistible force (the informality of Twitter and how quickly a story gains ground) met an immovable object (the widely held belief that journalists only write about stories when they’re confirmed). Because there were journalists tweeting about the story before it had been confirmed in the usual way – and the sources for a confirmed story appear to remain the same in the new media world as they did in the old one – the story was immediately taken to be true. Even in an informal, anything-goes environment like Twitter, a journalist’s rep still seems to carry some weight which, I suppose, is something to be slightly cheerful about in these times of doom and gloom for the industry.
The fact remains, though, that a number of journalists were tweeting about this story before it was confirmed. A story of this kind would never have been carried in a million years without confirmation in their newspapers or on their websites. It may also have been the case that these public tweets were doing the rounds before some members of the late broadcaster’s family even learned about his death. Again, most newspapers would shy away from publishing a story in these circumstances.
While those who “broke” the story on Twitter will defend what they did on many grounds – the story was already out there, they had sources, it was in the public interest etc – it’s still the case that journalists were hopping onto a publishing platform other than their own newspaper to “break” a story. The need to be first, it appears, overcame all other concerns.
One argument which I’ve heard a few times over the last few days is that Twitter is somehow different to other publishing platforms. Let’s knock that one on the head rather quickly. Anything which is posted on Twitter is in the public domain. It’s up there with millions of other tweets and will appear in countless streams of information. Some people will ignore it but others, by virtue of who is doing the tweeting, will take it with a certain amount of credence. You may think of Twitter as a casual conversation between yourself and your followers about the football at the weekend, while others see it as a fantastic way to get news stories before they hit the mainstream media. Some call it a conversation and some call it publishing.
I’d wager that there will be a few media organisations drawing up or redrafting guidelines this week about the use of social media networks in the workplace, with particular emphasis on Twitter. You might claim that your views on Twitter do not reflect those of your newspaper, but is this really the case when the journalist and newspaper are so closely associated in the public mind? Last Friday’s episode won’t be the last time the ins and outs of Twitter become part of a big news story.
For more on this, see Sunday Business Post reporter Adrian Weckler’s post, Una Mullally’s piece from the Sunday Tribune and a very good post from Abigail Rieley.
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Girls, Dublin, August – and Pavement are in the country
The excellent Girls play Dublin’s Academy on August 24. Tickets are €17.50 and go on sale this Thursday.
And, more good news, Pavement are in the country. It was going to take more than a humpy Icelandic volcano to stop ‘em, especially as they arrived by ferry per the prompter. They play Dublin’s Tripod tonight.
UPDATE: Per promoter, Pavement onstage at 9pm SHARP
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