On The Record »

• The Great Northern Songbook at the Ulster Hall

  April 4, 2012 @ 1:17 pm | by Jim Carroll

  One of the finest venues on this here island has to be the Ulster Hall in Belfast. I’ve seen some great shows there over the years – I remember The Waterboys playing a stunner back there when I was a lad – and I’m sure Belfast gig-goers have their own memories of the beautiful venue on Bedford Street.

  To mark 150 years of shows at the Ulster Hall, BBC Radio Ulster are running a special gig at the venue on May 24. 10 acts including And So I Watch You From Afar, Cara Dillon, Boxcutter, The Answer, General Fiasco, RAM’S Pocket Radio, Brian Kennedy, Katharine Philippa and others will play on the night. The plan is that they’ll play one of their tunes plus one from the list of songs which BBC Radio Ulster listeners have selected as their favourite Northern Irish compositions.

  The show will be broadcast live on BBC Radio Ulster but tickets are now available for the event via a lottery here.

  Anyone care to guess what songs have made the cut of top Northern Irish tunes? “Alternative Ulster”? “Teenage Kicks”? “Screamager”? “Chasing Cars”? “Shining Light”?

• The OTR news catch-up

  March 26, 2012 @ 8:30 am | by Jim Carroll

  Yes, I know, OTR has been amiss with the aul’ updates due to being Stateside and a couple of hours behind y’all, but here’s a round-up of news stories which you may know about and news stories you may not know about, complete with occasional funny bits.

  This week, we’re looking forward to finding out what Sea Sessions have up their sleeves for 2012, aside from freckled arms. Festival launch takes place on Thursday. Anyone care to do some guessing? I bet they’ve got “surfing dudes”

  Speaking of festivals (1): megatastic fest line-up for this year’s Vital festival at Belfast’s Boucher Road Playing Fields on August 21 and 22. Foo Fighters and The Black Keys are in the frame for the first night, while there will be lots of father-daughter bonding with The Stone Roses (still waiting for that second Phoenix Park show to be announced – sure, the radio ads were done and all) and Florence & The Machine playing the second night. Tickets £49.50 (plus Ticketmaster poke) per day.

  Anyone for some Banter? The next installment in the ongoing series of discussions, debates and devilment will be The Attention Economy on Thursday, April 26. We can confirm that this panel will feature Michael Foley, the author of the fantastic The Age Of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes It Hard to Be Happy. More details to follow.

  Next OTR Presents show will be a return visit to Dublin for Walls (who were fabulous supporting The Field last November), who will be playing the Twisted Pepper on May 24. Tickets for this one will be a tenner a pop (or €8 if you’re a Bodytonic member).

  Speaking of festivals (2): Iceage, Sway, Bastille, Alpines and Polarbear are the acts playing the OTR night at Camden Crawl Dublin at the Workman’s Club on May 11. Full information on the festival here.

  Paul Simon is coming to town! We’d heard a rumour that he was due to play in a very large field in Dublin 8 but instead, he’s playing at The O2 on July 12. It’s the show where he will perform “Graceland” in full, a bit like his seismic Dublin show in 1987 (1987! 25 years ago! OTR feels as old as he looks!). Tickets for this one range in price from €54.65 to €116.00 (you’ll get a free trip to South Africa with that one) – prices don’t include the Ticketmaster tickle.

  Speaking of festivals (3): the seventh Life festival takes place at Belvedere House, Mullingar, Co Westmeath from May 25 to 27 with acts including Jamie Jones, Emalkay, Engine Earz Experiment, Matthias Tanzmann, DJ Marky, Martyn, Jovani, Planetary Assault Systems, Blawan, Nicholas Iammatteo, Synkro and oodles more. Tickets now on sale at €109 each (plus “booking fee”) – prices go up from April 1 by a tenner.

  Indie screams all round with Explosions In the Sky (who were mighty – just mighty – when I saw them at Primavera Sound last year) pairing up with Low for a show at Dublin’s Vicar Street on July 10. Tickets now on sale at €28 a go (plus the usual TM cream)

  Feck SXSW, it’s all about WMC this week. Here are 10 acts Rolling Stone reckon will be all over Miami this week.

  On a SXSW tip, hat-tip to OTR reader O Murchu for pointing us towards NPR’s Best Of SXSW feature or, as they put it, “100 handpicked festival highlights and thrilling discoveries in a meaty but digestible microcosm of SXSW”.

  Speaking of festivals (4): tt’s the return of The Beatyard. Bodytonic’s fifth weekend-long festival at Dublin’s Twisted Pepper and Bernard Shaw from May 3 to 6 will star Matthew Dear, Benga, Kerri Chandler, James Pants, Kuedo, John Daly, Kormac, Daithi, Hunter Gatherer and tons (and I mean “tons”) more. Full info here.

  One for anyone who has ever had a bad run on the blackjack tables.

  From the casting couch: Michael K Williams (yep, Omar) is set to star as Ol Dirty Basard in Dirty White Boy, Joaquín Baca-Asay’s directoral debut on the last few years of the Wu maverick’s life. Speaking of the Wu, get ready for The Street.

  I’m an indie musician and here’s a breakdown of every penny I make.

  If you only read one piece today on the art of pop songwriting and collborations, make sure it’s John Seabrook’s brilliant piece from the New Yorker on same.

  He’s back: Lenny Cohen plays his aul’ stomping grounds at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainhaim, Dublin 8 on September 11 and 12 next. Tickets for LC’s pension plan upkeep go on sale on Friday “priced from €79.50″ (plus TM lollipops).

  They’re back: Franz Ferdinand play Roisin Dubh, Galway (May 18, tickets €33/€30), Dolan’s Limerick (May 19, no ticket details available) and Pavilion, Cork (May 20, tickets €30).

  This is what summer (it’s coming!) sounds like in our world

  

• The problem with Chris Brown

  February 20, 2012 @ 8:30 am | by Jim Carroll

  Every time Chris Brown’s name comes up – and it has come up a lot in the last week – I think of the over-priced baseball caps. It’s January 2009 and Brown is in Dublin to play four sold-out Irish shows. Because of OTR readers’ “who the hell is Chris Brown?” puzzlement when he sold 50,000 tickets in the blink of an eye, I’ve been despatched to interview the r’n'b singer. It’s a bizarre experience for many reasons, not least because the interview is arranged alongside the fanclub meet-and-greet before the show. Around two dozen women have each paid $200 a head to meet Brown, have their photo taken with him and get the chance to buy special merchandise, such as the aforementioned baseball cap.

  Later in his dressingroom, the then 19 year old Brown talks about this in the same terms as you’d expect to hear from any canny CEO. “With the way the economy is right now, you have to have the business side wrapped up. If you don’t have the money end of what you do together, you’re doing yourself no favours. If you don’t know what your revenue is going to be or how you’re going to make your revenue and what’s going to continue to bring you in revenue, you’re going to end up with nothing to fall back on if you want to stop singing.”

  10 days after this interview took place, Brown assaulted his then girlfriend Rihanna in Los Angeles and left her bloodied and bruised. Suddenly, no-one was talking about Brown as the new Usher or new Justin Timberlake any more. Suddenly, the Chris Brown industry was facing a very large problem: the CEO himself.

  Three years on, that problem remains. The harder the Brown industry tries to ignore it and move on, the more attention the problem receives. Last weekend, Brown won a Grammy for Best R&B Album and headed to Twitter to have a go at his detractors who, he feels, are still on his case three years on from that horrific incident. In the world of Brown and his fans (and his business), three years is a lifetime.

  But three years on, Brown has still not shown any signs that he understands why so many people are still disgusted, outraged and horrified by what he did. He’s still capable of throwing public temper tantrums when the question is raised – just ask the team at Good Morning America - and his gloating tweet (since, naturally, deleted) indicates a man who doesn’t get why so many people are not prepared to forget what he did to an innocent woman (even if, as some reports have it, there’s now talk of collaborations again – that’s the record industry for you).

  Actually, there really does appear to be a concerted effort on the part of the entertainment industry to rehabilitate Brown with talk of “second chances”. That was the line peddled by Grammys’ executive producer Ken Ehrlich talking about why Brown was one of the performers at the glitzy show. “I think people deserve a second chance, you know. If you’ll note, he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years and it may have taken us a while to kind of get over the fact that we were the victim of what happened.” A whole two years without Brown doing his yellow pack Usher act? A whole two years since US TV audiences have had to see a man who bashed his girlfriend and has never showed any true remorse over it? A whole two years? Truly, the TV world is another planet.

  Thankfully, some people don’t think that what the world needs now is a comeback from a thug who thinks hitting his defenceless girlfriend is a classy thing to do and has yet to show any inkling about why this is wrong. From Laura Snapes’ brilliant post for the NME to Billboard’s unprecedented open letters to both Brown and Rihanna, a lot of people are quite excercised about what’s happening.

  And rightly so: entertainment stars like Brown need to understand why domestic violence of any ilk is wrong. That their punishment consists of public opprobrium and a loss of valuable opportunities is only the half of it. When you have some women responding like this to the spectacle of woman-beater Brown at the Grammys, you begin to see the bigger, more horrific picture. Do we really want a world where some women seem to think that domestic violence is OK?

  As someone in the public eye, Brown is a role model. If he thinks that beating up Rihanna is OK and does nothing to show any understanding of why society should be angered by this behaviour, we still have a problem that no amount of community service or legally mandated apologies is going to solve. It’s high time for Brown to cop on and realise why so many people both within and without the industry which has given him a good living are so angry at what he continues to do.

  The more people concentrate on this side of Brown’s character, the more chances are that his future shows will be greeted by a lack of interest rather than sold-out houses. That, after all, may be the only way for Brown and the large entourage who rely on him for their money will get it into their thick heads that what happened in that car with Rihanna in January 2009 is not something to be forgotten or glossed over in a hurry.

• A FYI memo for musicians and producers

  January 31, 2012 @ 2:12 pm | by Jim Carroll

  We’re big fans around these parts of the Red Bull Music Academy and how it works. A school for DJs, producers and music makers, you’ll find many of the RBMA’s past pupils in your record collection. Craftsmen and women like Hudson Mohawke, Flying Lotus, Katy B, Mike Slott, Mr Hudson, Onra, Aloe Blacc, Andreya Triana and Jamie Woon are just some of the hundreds of producers, artists and musicians who have come through the RBMA.

  The RBMA sets up shop in a different city in every year and, over a fortnight-long term, music makers come together, attend lectures from music legends, work their asses off in the academy’s studios and then get to perform in that city’s clubs and halls by night. For anyone involved in music who is looking to up their game, it’s a huge opportunity. As you can see from the list of academy graduates listed above, the RBMA has ample talent-spotting game. You’ll find a full list of all previous participants and lecturers here, including a list of previous Irish participants. You’ll also find videos and podcasts galore from students and lecturers, as well as an ace online radio station, on the RBMA website.

  RBMA 2012 will take place in New York in October/November and is seeking applications from “interested producers, musicians, DJs, instrumentalists and vocalists”. Download the application form (which will be online later this week), spend some time on it (some weirdbeat questions in there) and send it and your music demo to the RBMA HQ before April 2 to be in with a shout of being one of the 60 participants heading to NYC.

  To help folks get their heads around the RBMA concept and see if it’s worth their while, there will be workshops at the Harlem Café, Belfast (March 2) and No 5 Spencer Dock, Dublin (March 3) with words of advice from Kerri Chandler and Just Blaze. Places at the workshops are available on a first come first basis so email ashlee@admarketingevents.com if you’re keen to attend and tell ‘em that OTR sent you.

• The 9 o’clock news headlines

  January 18, 2012 @ 9:00 am | by Jim Carroll

  It may have been rather quiet in the last few months but Dublin’s O2 still puts a lot of bums on seats. The venue was the fifth best-attended music arena globally in 2011, with ticket sales of €36.26 million, per Pollstar.

  Balam Acab AKA Alec Koone is coming to town.The kid behind last year’s evocative, memorable and rich “Wander/Wonder” album plays Dublin’s Twisted Pepper on February 11. Tickets are €12. A week later, it’s MMOTHS, Jack Colleran’s renamed buzz electronica which hits the same venue to launch his debut “Heart” EP. Tickets for this one are €8.

  Smashing line-up of singers for the forthcoming album “Voice of Ages” from The Chieftains including Lisa Hannigan, The Low Anthem, Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Civil Wars, The Decemberists, Imelda May and others. Hear Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon singing “Down in the Willow Garden” here.

  January festival (1): The Indiependence month of gigs is now ongoing at Crawdaddy, Dublin with the Delphi and Bluestack labels hooking up next Saturday (January 21) with live sets from The Debutantes, Hush War Cry and Adultrock, with DJ sets from Go Panda Go and Sacred Animals. Quarter Inch Collective launch their “Quompilation #2″ on January 27 with Ginola, Turning Down Sex, Simon Bird, Girl Band and Cloud Castle Lake, while Popical Island are in the house the following night for the Walpurgis Family album launch. Admission to all gigs is a fiver.

  The bears are coming: Hot Chip offshoot (believe me, there’s a ton of ‘em) and the pair behind the excellent “Be Strong” album, The 2 Bears play Dublin’s Button Factory on February 17. Tickets are €15 (plus TM fees) and support comes from Benoit & Sergio.

  January festival (2): the Once Upon A Time Back the West weekender in Galway’s West End stars Grandmaster Flash, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Katie Kim, Kopek, The Shoos, TR-One, Stevie G and tons more playing in a rake of Galway venues from January 26 to 29. Full details here.

  OTR moves to Camden: OTR is joining forces with Nialler9 to put on a show at this year’s Camden Crawl in London. The festival happens from May 4 to 6 in various Camden venues and the line-up is going to be sweet. More information to come and, for anyone who is eyeing up a trip to London for the event, early bird tickets are now on sale. Meanwhile, stay tuned for news on the Dublin Crawl.

  The results of the 39th annual Pazz & Jop Poll of US critics for 2011 are now live with Tune-Yards’ “Whokill” topping the album list and Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” getting the best single nod.

  Jimmy Castor RIP

  

• David Bowie at 65

  January 10, 2012 @ 1:46 pm | by Jim Carroll

  It will not have escaped your attention that David Bowie turned 65 at the weekend. There were a few gigs to mark the birthday, plenty of lengthy articles hailing the man hitting the bus-pass milestone and a lot of Bowie on the radio. What was missing, though, was Bowie himself. The man behind Ziggy Stardust, the Thin White Duke and Bowie bonds sat this one out.

  But there’s nothing new about this: Bowie has been absent from the music business coalface for quite a few years now. There’s the odd murmer from other parties (such as this to-do about Bowie’s retirement when a biographer did some musing to flog a book) and there’s always chatter about a new album, but the Duke abides.

  What’s fascinating about this silence is how it has amplified our view of the performer. While many of his peers spend their time doing heritage band tours to grow the pension pot (slowly demeaning themselves and causing lots of back problems as they do), Bowie just stays quiet. You won’t find him, as Alexis Petridis points out, telling us about his daily grind on Twitter. You won’t find him plotting a comeback by appearing on The X Factor or American Idol. There’s a dignity in Bowie’s refusal to play the game. Why bother with the industry stuff when the myth is far more enticing and exciting? And that legacy continues to shine brightly the longer Bowie stays away.

  It’s just guesswork to think about a new Bowie album or even what it might sound like, but you can be sure Bowie would know exactly what he was doing and what he was after long before he goes into the studio if that ever happens. I read Nile Rodgers’ fantastic “Le Freak” over the Christmas break and he talks in the book about working with Bowie on the “Let’s Dance” album.

  When the artist and the producer first talked about the album, Rodgers remembers Bowie going on about “the freedom to be flexible and do music the way he wanted…he was compelled to find what was beyond the horizon”. While this was music to Rodgers’ ears, who was keen to find new experimental means of composition at the time, what Bowie wanted was an album with hits. As simple as that. He wanted Rodgers to give him hits. And he got an album full of radio hits.

  At the time, Bowie didn’t have a record deal so he paid the bills for “Let’s Dance” himself which might explain why the recording sessions in New York with the band recruited by Rodgers took just 17 days. “Let’s Dance” revolutionised Bowie’s career. It may not be remembered as fondly as those albums from the Seventies like “Low” or “Station to Station”, but it’s the one which set up Bowie as a commercial giant and got him back on mainstream radars when it came to radio and tours (the subsequent Glass Spider tour fetched up in Slane in 1987).

  On that occasion, Bowie got what Bowie was after and there’s little to suggest that it wouldn’t be the same next time out – if there’s ever to be a next time. An artist like Bowie doesn’t get to this position without weighing up the options, taking wise counsel and recruiting the right people every time. Perhaps he’s just waiting for the right people to come along. Perhaps he’s decided that there’s little he can add to the story right now. Perhaps, indeed, he’s decided that silence is the best policy in his golden years.

• Oxegen cancelled for 2012

  December 21, 2011 @ 9:17 am | by Jim Carroll

  The elephant in the room has finally made an announcement about its future plans: there will be no Oxegen in 2012. Per MCD PR supremo Justin Green, “Oxegen, like Glastonbury, is taking a year off in 2012 and will be back July 2013″. Sadly there was no mention of our old friend “unforeseen circumstances”, which has had a quiet year when it comes to getting togged out to provide excuses for this kind of thing. As regular OTR readers know, we predicted this back in July.

  Six questions to mull over about this news: will the cancellation have any effect on the thousands of Stone Roses and Red Hot Chili Pepper tickets still on sale? Will MCD get to put the second Stone Roses’ gig they’re believed to be holding for the Phoenix Park on sale or have to yank it (by the way, the capacity for the Phoenix Park shows now turns out to be 45,000 not the 36,000 initially mentioned)? Will MCD schedule another camping festival for 2012 or will the Oxegen kids have to find other ways to amuse themselves next year? Are there any friendly UK or US agents who’d like to let us know if any of their acts are on hold for such an event? Does this news mean some other promoter might jump into the breach or is it too late to book a rake of acts for summer 2012? And finally, will Oxegen return to Punchestown or even return at all? We’ll miss it….won’t we?

• The news at 10: OTR vs Nialler9, Other Voices, Unthanks etc

  September 7, 2011 @ 10:00 am | by Jim Carroll

  Let’s get ready to rumble (again): for the second year in a row, there’s going to be an OTR v Nialler9 night at the Hard Working Class Heroes festival in Dublin. The venue is the Workman’s Club, the date is Saturday October 8 and the bands on the bill are Moths, Cloud Castle Lake, Tieranniesaur, The Depravations, The Danger Is and Last Days of 1984. Now, that’s a bill and a half, innit? Full times and dates for all the HWCH gigs here. Weekend tickets now on sale at €40 a pop (plus charges) and you can get a fiver off if you buy a track by any of the participating bands before the festival begins. HWCH takes place in various Dublin venues from October 6 to 8. Information on The Knowledge, HWCH’s industry convention talks and panels, to come.

  The Other Voices’ show is heading to New York City. The bijou Dingle TV-gigs-in-a-lovely-church series will be taking place in Le Poisson Rouge, New York on October 27 and 28 with performances from Laurie Anderson, Bryce and Aaron Dessner (The National), Sam Amidon, Thomas Bartlett, Iarla O’Lionaird, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Martin Hayes and many more. There will also be readings by Joseph O’Connor and Colum McCann. Tickets are $35 (available here) and all proceeds from the shows will benefit the Fighting Words Creative Writing Centre in Dublin. The gigs are part of Culture Ireland’s Imagine Ireland initiative.

  One of the sweetest gigs I saw at the Electric Picnic last weekend was The Unthanks playing on the Body & Soul stage. They’re back for a show at Dublin’s Whelan’s on December 13 where they will perform the songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons. Tickets are €29.50 (plus charges). The date is already marked in my diary. They’re also playing in Cork’s Cyprus Avenue on December 15 (tickets: €20 plus fees) and, as there’s a free day inbetween, I expect they’re also playing somewhere else so once the promoter wakes up and lets me know, I’ll add it to the list too.

  The singer-songwriters are here! James Yorkston, Adrian Crowley and Alasdair Roberts team up for a short tour next month calling at Limerick’s Belltable (October 5, tickets €17.50, €15 and €12.50), Cork’s Triskel Christchurch (October 6, tickets €20 and €17), Dublin’s Peppercanister Church (October 7, tickets €20) and Kildare’s Riverbank Arts Centre (October 8, tickets €20).

  We love a good weekender and the Rhythm Weekender in various venues in Dublin and Cork between October 13 and 16 looks promising. Acts playing include Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Mulatu Astatke, Cut Chemist, Modeselektor, Ben Simms & Kirk Degiorgio, J Rocc and many (many) more. More details here, with full info on tickets, venues and dates to be announced on Friday.

• The Middle East call it a day

  August 3, 2011 @ 8:47 am | by Jim Carroll

  It seems that we’ll have to make do with that fantastic EP “The Recordings Of the Middle East” and debut album “I Want That You Will Always Be Happy” when it comes to Australian band The Middle East, a big favourite of this blog. Via their Facebook page, the band say they’re “ceasing” due to “a whole lot of reasons that I won’t list here”. They played their last show at the Splendour in the Grass festival in Queensland at the weekend. The band were one of the big wows at SXSW 2010 and played two Irish shows that year at Dublin’s Sugar Club and Oxegen.

  (Thanks to Sarah Paker for the tip)

• OTR’s news round-up. Not presented by Eileen Dunne

  July 27, 2011 @ 12:42 pm | by Jim Carroll

  Music from the Congo: Damon Albarn, Actress, Dan the Automator, Kwes, Jneiro Jarel, TEED, XL label boss Richard Russell and others are currently recording a DRC Music album as part of an Oxfam-sponsored project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. First sample from the project below

  Hubba, hubba, hubba: Far Side favourite Skrillex is coming. He plays Dublin’s Academy on December 2 (tickets €25 plus TM fees) and Belfast’s Mandela Hall on December 3 (tickets £18.50 plus TM charges)

  With A Little Help From Our Friends is a benefit gig to raise cash to help Lir pay off their legal costs after a 14 year court battle with a former manager over a 1995 US tour. Joining the Dublin band, the subject of a forthcoming Shimmy Marcus doc Good Cake Bad Cake, will be David Gray (Lir bassist Robbie Malone is in Gray’s band) and Pugwash. Gig happens at Dublin’s Vicar Street on September 24 and tickets are €26 (plus TM charges)

  Sam Amidon is back. He does a I See the Sign AV show at Dublin’s Sugar Club on September 17. Tickets go on sale on Friday at €16.50 (plus TM charges) a pop.

  Didn’t hear about this until yesterday but the great Jerry Dammers will be spending the bank holiday weekend on our highways and byways as he spins some tunes in Dublin (Button Factory, Thursday), Galway (Roisin Dubh, Sunday) and Cork (Crane Lane, Monday). Maybe he’ll come back again to do that Spatial AKA Orchestra gig which was on and then off back in 2008?

• One for the musicians and producers in the audience

  February 4, 2011 @ 12:09 pm | by Jim Carroll

  It’s the place which joins the dots between Hudson Mohawke, Flying Lotus, Katy B, Lunice, Mike Slott, Mr Hudson, Arveene, Onra, Aloe Blacc, Andreya Triana, Jamie Woon, Jneiro Jarel and hundreds of other producers, artists and musicians.

  The Red Bull Music Academy is a travelling boot-camp for beat-makers, musos and producers which sets up shop in a different city in every year. Over two fortnight-long terms, new-school music makers from all over the world come together, compare notes on what they’re doing, listen to laidback lectures from pioneering music maestros, spend the rest of the day and night in the academy’s studios and then get to perform in that city’s clubs and halls.

  For someone who is becoming immersed in the production game especially, it’s a dream opportunity and a workshop like no other. And, going on the list of academy graduates listed above, the RBMA certainly has ample talent-spotting game. You’ll find a full list of all previous participants and lecturers here.

  RBMA 2011 will take place in Tokyo in October/November and the application process is now underway. Download the application form, fill it out and send it and your music demo to the RBMA HQ before April 4 to be in with a shout of being one of the 60 participants heading to Japan. Per the press release, they’re looking for everyone from “singer-songwriters to DIY synth designers and orchestral composers or digital beatmakers” so there could be a spot on the workshop for you if you’re promising enough. To find out if it’s worth your while, just talk to one of the past participants.

• The afternoon news bulletin (Anne Doyle not included)

  December 8, 2010 @ 2:35 pm | by Jim Carroll

  Free music: Irish ISP eircom have just launched their new Spotify-like site Music Hub. It means free streaming for eircom broadband subscribers (€6.99 a month if you’re not with the Big E), with different price levels if you want to download certain quantities of tracks. Eircom say the Hub already has four million tracks with “1000s of songs” added every day. Any record label types lurking on OTR care to let us know how much revenue 1000 streams of a track will generate for the act or label (and if there will be an additional split on any advertising revenue)? Meanwhile, eircom have confirmed that they’re still in the “combating copyright infringement in the form of illegal file sharing” business.

  Gig announcement (1): Mona, the band who will be bigger (and better?) than the Kings Of Leon this time next year play Whelan’s, Dublin on February 17. Tickets are €12 (plus TM fees).

  Gig announcement (2): the Cork-born Patrick Wolf plays Dublin’s Sugar Club on March 21. Tickets for this one are €18 (plus TM fees).

  Gig announcement (3): Rihanna is obviously a big advocate of advance playing. She’s just announced shows for Belfast’s Odyssey (October 1, tickets from €47 plus TM fees) and Dublin’s O2 (October 3, tickets from €54.80 plus fees). Eagle-eyed readers will notice she’s doing nothing on October 2 so expect a second show in Dublin or Belfast.

  Tour announcement: the Certain Three tour will pack The Ambience Affair, We Cut Corners and Windings into a van for trips to Galway (Roisin Dubh – the OTR Xmas bash will be at the Roisin next week – January 13), Dublin (Workman’s Club – we like that venue loads – 14), Dundalk (Spirit Store – we love the Spirit Store – 15), Cork (The Pavilion – our favourite venue that used to be a chi-chi cinema – 20), Cavan (Gonzo Theatre – no, I haven’t been to a gig in Cavan yet – 22), Clonakilty (De Barra’s – had a lovely 99 in Clonakilty last August – 28) and Limerick (Dolan’s – another fine establishment – 29). No details on ticket prices in the press release to check with the venues.

  Gig announcement (4): we liked the cut of The King Blues’ gib last year (especially the Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip remix of “What If Punk Never Happened?”) and they play Dublin’s Academy on April 26. Tickets are €16 (plus TM fees).

  And finally, yesterday in the courts: report from the first day of proceedings in the Eamonn McCann v Denis Desmond case over MCD Concerts (as the case is currently before the courts, comments not allowed).

• Dong! Dong! Dong! OTR news update!

  December 2, 2010 @ 9:53 am | by Jim Carroll

  Forget the lobbying to host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022, WOMEX may well be coming to Dublin. Per this press release from Temple Bar Cultural Trust, the city is one of three shortlisted to hold the world music trade show, conference and showcase in 2013. One small correction to the press release: it states that “if Dublin wins the bid, this will be the first time that a music industry event of this scale will be held in Dublin”. However, international music convention In the City was held in Dublin in 1996. The other cities shortlisted for WOMEX 2013 are Cardiff and Glasgow. A WOMEX delegation will visit the city in the coming weeks for a look-see.

  Oxegen 2011 rumours: yes, we know it is snowing outside and there are icicles hanging from your nose, but some people are already thinking about a muddy field in Co Kildare next July. State magazine are tipping Foo Fighters (who are playing T In the Park), Faith No More and Metallica. OTR is hearing strong word that Lady Gaga, Black-Eyed Peas, Blink 182 and Pulp may also be heading to Punchestown Racecourse next summer.

  First Fortnight takes place at Dublin’s Button Factory on January 15 with appearances from And So I Watch You From Afar, Dark Room Notes, Le Galaxie and Codes. All cash raised (tickets are a tenner) go to Amnesty International Ireland to support its campaign challenging mental health prejudice and discrimination.

  Our man in Dingle: Tony Clayton-Lea will be blogging for OTR from the annual Other Voices beano in Dingle this weekend. Expect his daily reports – and food reviews – on the proceedings from Saturday onwards (provided he actually gets to Co Kerry in the first place).

  Attention Whatmans’ fans, voting in the annual Nialler9 Irish albums and songs poll is now underway. It’s been a damn great year for Irish music (new-school cliche number 13,455) so let’s see who tops the lists.

  Doing it for charity: The Script play a late-night gig at Dublin’s Olympia on December 17 with all cash from ticket sales going to Dublin Simon Community and Temple Street Childrens Hospital. Tickets are a tenner with circle seats to be auctioned.

  Incoming: the Dum Dum Girls play Whelan’s on April 1 (tickets €17.50) and The Low Anthem play Vicar Street on April 10 (tickets €21). Tickets on sale from tomorrow and prices do not include Ticketmaster or tickets.ie charges.

  Snow patrol: Laetitia Sadier’s show in Dublin’s Grand Social which was scheduled for tonight has been cancelled (she couldn’t get over as Gatwick Airport is closed) and will now happen in February (thanks to Valerie Francis for that update). Also, tomorrow night’s Si Schroeder gig at Dublin’s Mill Studios is now off till January (thanks to Dudley and Confused Eclectic for heads-up). If you know of any other gigs nationwide cancelled due to the Big Snow, let us know in the comments below.

• There are some things the public just won’t buy

  May 7, 2010 @ 10:24 am | by Jim Carroll

  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.

• The 4 o’clock news headlines

  March 11, 2010 @ 5:10 pm | by Jim Carroll

  Bong! R Kelly on his belly! The “controversial” r’n'b dude has yanked his entire European tour, including a Dublin date at the swanky Grand Canal Theatre, due to “nodules on his vocal cords”. All dates to be rescheduled.

  Bong! Yakking! Billed as a “conversation for the nation”, Mindfield takes place at Dublin’s POD complex over the May Bank Holiday weekend. Brought to you by the folks behind the Leviathan events, Mindfield will feature debates and discussions on sport, economics, politics, architecture, media, art and much more with such guests as Gil Scott-Heron (who also plays Tripod on May 2), Alastair Campbell, Jon Snow, Robert Fisk, Simon Napier-Bell, Howard Marks (yawn – do you really want to hear more dope tales from this eejit?), John Cooper Clarke, DBC Pierre and many more. Full details here.

  Bong! Bob’s back (again)! Bob Dylan plays Limerick’s Thomond Park on July 4 to make even more shekels for the pension plan.

  Bong! Beat(yard) on the brat with a baseball bat! Beatyard takes over Dublin’s Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1) on Saturday with live gigs, a music fair, Banter talks, film screenings and more. Admission is free and full details are here.

  Bong! Gigmania! Full details have been announced of the IMRO Showcase Tour for 2010. Gigs will be held from March 25 to May 1 in Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Dundalk, Derry, Kildare and Limerick featuring such acts as Nakatomi Towers, Not Squares, Strait Laces, The Cast of Cheers, We Cut Corners, Brian Deady, The Ambience Affair and tons more. Full details here.

  Bong! And finally….

  

• News of the OTR world

  February 11, 2010 @ 10:55 am | by Jim Carroll

  Owen Pallett, take two. The violin maestro formerly known as Final Fantasy will now also play Dublin’s Whelan’s on March 19. The more I listen to his new album “Heartland”, the more I dig it. And he’s fantastic live too. Tickets at €24 each on sale from today.

  Google goes all Public Enemy and shuts ‘em down. When not launching yokes which are a mixture of many other yokes (hey, whatever happened to Orkut?), the internet behemoth-owned Blogger service shut down a bunch of MP3 music blogs earlier this week. The reason for the 86-ing? The music posted on the blogs allegedly violates Blogger’s terms of services. Odd because in most cases, the blogs were simply posting or streaming MP3s given to them directly by acts, labels or PRs and so there didn’t appear to be any violation involved. Many of the blogs in question, including the excellent Pop Tarts Suck Toasted and It’s A Rap have now moved to their own domains.

  More oddball interweb behaviour: Warner Music may be about to stop licensing its songs to free music streaming services like Spotify. Warner chief executive Edgar Bronfman Jr pontificated that “free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry and as far as Warner Music is concerned will not be licensed”. Hold on a darn tooting minute: don’t Warner Music and friends get paid royalties for Spotify streams? Isn’t this the way the industry was supposed to be moving? Is Bronfman Jr (the man who wrote “To Love You More” and “Whisper in the Dark” as recorded by Celine Dion and Dionne Warwick, trivia fans) about to send in the lawyers again? Do I hear whoops of delight from well-upholstered legal eagles everywhere? Or is this the first shot in a negotiating battle with streaming services to make sure that the latter don’t get to kick the record labels in the hoop as happened when Steve Jobs came along with iTunes?

  Illegal downloaders, who loves ya baby? Alan Kelly MEP, that’s who. The Tipperaryman and Labour MEP for Munster told the EU’s Internal Market Committee yesterday that “individuals who carry out a small level of downloading of illegal material should not be the subject of any legal sanctions”. Much of what Kelly had to say made sense bar the bit where he seemed to mix up IMRO and IRMA. One letter, a world of difference.

  Members of Westlife, this is your future.

  John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, Coldplay’s “Yellow” and now, Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”: bringing a new meaning to the expression “jaysus, he’s murdering that song”. Tip of the hat to FO’C for the link.

  And finally, let the fuming begin! Patrick Kelleher, So Cow AND Hunter-Gatherer blanked by Linda Martin and RTE’s Eurosong 2010 judges in favour of John Waters, Boyzone’s Mikey Graham and, I kid you not, the runner-up in the German version of American Idol. I assume someone is going to start a Facebook campaign today….

• More Haiti benefits

  February 4, 2010 @ 10:47 am | by Jim Carroll

  Yes, I know, every second gig at the moment seems to be a Haiti benefit gig and you have to hope that audience fatigue is not about to set in. Many of those I’ve spoken to in the live gig business over the last few days have questioned if those putting on the gigs actually know what they’ve taken on, especially at a time of year when ticket sales for many shows are quite sluggish. Nevertheless, the gigs are still happening so if you can, support them.

  The latest one to be announced has Cathy Davey (who should have a new album out this year), Julie Feeney, Villagers, The Chapters, The Chakras and many more to be announced playing Dublin’s Vicar Street on February 11. Tickets are €20 each and all cash raised goes to Trocaire’s Earthquake Appeal. The gig will also try to raise awareness about the Drop Haiti’s Debt campaign. The country owes some US$890 million to the International Monetary Fund and other creditors to pay off national debts ran up in the past and the campaign is lobbying for this debt to be dropped to allow the country to be rebuilt.

  Mavericks for Haiti: finally, a charity single which might actually be some cop. Shane MacGowan has rounded up Nick Cave, Bobby Gillespie, Chrissie Hynde, Glen Matlock, Paloma Faith, Johnny Depp and Mick Jones to record a cover of Screamin Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You”. The single will be released later this month, with all money raised going to Concern Worldwide. It’s going to be a hoot. And speaking of hoots: if you haven’t read Will Hodgkinson’s off-the-wall account of a mad night out with MacGowan in Tipperary for a recent issue of Mojo magazine, read it here. Maybe we should start a campaign to get Tom Creagh into Dail Eireann alongside Michael Lowry and Mattie McGrath?

• And now, the news headlines from Eileen Dunne

  December 10, 2009 @ 10:43 am | by Jim Carroll

  Nialler9 wants you! Well, your votes at any rate. It’s his annual Irish albums and songs of the year poll. Voting has already started (and runs until December 16 at noon) so make your voice count, Coronas fans! For those of you living in Baile Atha Cliath, Nialler has also been doing a really useful guide to the gigs of the week for the last while so check that out too. Dude should turn it into an email list or iPhone App (when he gets the time, like).

  Song of the decade? What about Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip’s “Thou Shalt Always Kill”, which was the first ever OTR Tune of the Week? That’s one of the choices in the RTE Guide’s poll which runs until December 18. Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” is leading the way, but that could always change. Hey, why don’t we start an OTR campaign to manipulate that chart and put something else at Number One? Sure, the Guide would dig that. They love OTR at the Guide. Especially since we pointed out that they were, er, borrowing ideas from Entertainment Weekly. Love you too, guys!

  He used to be in Oasis! He used to be in Ride! He used to be in Hurricane #1 (but we’ll forget about that if he wants to)! He is Andy Bell and he is now hitting the decks. Bell DJs tonight at the Good Bits (Store Street, Dublin 1) alongside Clampdown duo Arveene and Johnny Moy, Steve Reddy, Orlando and DJ Sharpie and there will also be live sets from Howlin Dowlin, The Ramparts, Kid Karate and Chewing on Tinfoil. Doors open at 8pm and it’s €8 to get in.

  New round-’em-up website. Any Decent Music is a one-stop shop which rounds up what various critics and reviewers have to say about new releases and gives them an ADM rating. There are a few sites like this (Metacritic, for instance), but I like the look and useability of this one.

  Ragged Words gets into the promotional game. The rather swell web-mag is throwing a gig with Adrian Crowley, the awesome Hunter-Gatherer (his album, which is released tomorrow, is just off-the-hook) and Holy Roman Army at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1) on December 20. Tickets are a tenner.

  Late-minute Foggy Notions show: Kurt Vile plays the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1) on Sunday next, December 13 with support from Lie Ins. Tickets are €13.

  Finally, if you are in a band and you only read one blog post today, make sure it is this. A fantastic state of the nation address from Pampelmoose and Gang of Four fella Dave Allen.

• The Week of the Cat continues: singer blames “gallons of Guinness” for audience unhappiness

  November 18, 2009 @ 5:37 am | by Jim Carroll

  Per report in today’s paper, Yusuf “Cat Stevens” Islam was “utterly shocked” by the response to his now infamous Dublin gig on Sunday night.

  The singer addressed the issue in a post on his blog. “It was something I’d never experienced for most of my musical career”, he wrote. “The tendency of some to drown away the blues of a hapless draw with a few more gallons of Guinness….obviously didn’t help either.

  He also states that the audience’s reaction will mean changes for future shows. “One thing is clear: many of the fans didn’t know much about the Moonshadow section – and some thought I wasn’t coming back on stage. That can easily be fixed with a free program for the night and me personally informing the audience of what’s going to happen. Perhaps a shorter segment of the Musical will also help tighten things up, and we’re already working on that.

  “If the advertising was in anyway sending out a different message, then I can only apologise for that – but my name, ‘YUSUF’, can’t practically be printed any bigger.”

• From the news desk…. Tweak, Spotify, PiL, Mercury Day etc

  September 8, 2009 @ 2:15 pm | by Jim Carroll

  It’s back (part one). Multi-media fest Tweak returns to Limerick for a second year from September 21 to 26 with workshops, performances, exhibitions, films and happenings of every sort. Find out more about this year’s array of bleeps, clicks, pops and hisses here.

  No more free Spotify for Irish folks. Many OTR readers will have received an email from Spotify today announcing a clampdown on those using proxy servers to access the service for free.

  “While we are really happy that you are enthusiastically using Spotify, we are unfortunately going to have to restrict access to your free account. Spotify is currently available in six countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain, France and the UK. We never intended to allow use of our service outside of those countries and we do not run any adverts on your account like we do in the launch countries. For this reason we have to restrict your account, you will be able to log in to Spotify and view music and playlists but not listen to any music.”

  I wonder will all those folks who have been using Spotify for free now sign up for the Premium service (actually, hold on, can Irish users sign up for Premium) and available of Spotify for your mobile?

  It’s back (part two). Seeing as he made such a great success of his other reunion, John Lydon has put the PiL train back on the tracks, though without founding members, guitarist Keith Levene and bass-playing legend and all-round nice guy Jah Wobble. I’m currently reading the latter’s forthcoming autobiography, “Memoirs Of A Geezer”, and he has some less than complimentary things to say about Lydon. Indeed, when I interviewed him in 2004, Wobble said that, while “I don’t think I would have become a musician if John (Lydon) hadn’t got me into PiL”, he found the PiL experience to be “dark, destructive, nihilistic”. The following year, when I talked to Lydon, he said he’d work with Wobble again “in a heartbeat. I have total respect for him and I think he feels the same way.” Anyway, PiL on tour and there’s talk of an Irish show.

  In case you missed it over the weekend, OMM is back.

  As announced by herself onstage at EP09, Marina & The Diamonds play Dublin’s Academy on November 11. Tix, at €14.80 a pop, go on sale on Friday.

  Finally, it’s the day of reckoning for the acts on this year’s Mercury Music Prize shortlist. Our prediction: Florence & The Machine.