On The Record »

• The randomiser says “always look on the bright side of life”

  May 15, 2012 @ 8:39 am | by Jim Carroll

  RIP Donald “Duck” Dunn, the bass-player with Stax house band Booker T & The MGs. I had the pleasure of catching him in action with that legendary band at SXSW back in 2007 when they backed Isaac Hayes, William Bell and Eddie Floyd at Antone’s.

  Festival watch: change of name and dates for the festival formerly known as Live On Spike. It’s now called The Island Jam,, takes place on June 30 and July 1 in Cuskinny, Cobh, Co Cork and acts playing include Republic Of Loose, Cathy Davey and Fun Lovin’ Criminals. Tickets, though, don’t appear to be on sale yet. Wonder are the weekend tickets still €170 as was the case with the Live On Spike event?

  Are you ready for another social media network to take up some of your time? The team behind Diaspora give their elevator pitch.

  Band aid: some interesting takeaways from the Music Think Tank blog including why making a living is the new success for many bands, when ‘if anyone else likes it, it’s a bonus’ isn’t enough and the new deal on sponsorships.

  Mapping the world’s digital music markets.

  Meet the Moneyball of startups: “What Billy Beane is to baseball, Dave McClure is to technology startups. He is quirky, offbeat and unconventional, which is one of the reasons why entrepreneurs love him, and he’s also a marketing machine that can turn out slogans and brands like a finely-tuned copy shop on Madison Avenue.”

  Awesome piece by Questlove on the late, great MCA. And here’s another tribute:

  Waterboys’ fans, this is for you. Mike Scott will be reading from his forthcoming memoir A Waterboy’s Adventures in Music and discussing that book during the Dublin Writers Festival in June. This old-school Waterboys’ fan will be chairing the discussion.

  Two fine examples of why music writing and reviewing still matters: Niall Crumlish on what sounds like a mighty night out with The Gloaming last weekend, while Michael Hann remembers getting hooked on Trouble Funk and go-go in Washington DC.

  Why everyone’s a journalist on Twitter. More bad news for hacks: the robots are coming. Personally, I welcome our new robot overlords.

  Meet the data brokers

  Inside M.I.T.’s media lab

  Record label moguls talkin’ loud: excellent interview with Cooking Vinyl boss Martin Goldschmidt on why 2012 is a great time to be running an indie label, a good profile of XL Records’ geezer Richard Russell and Island founder Chris Blackwell on moving from selling reggae to flogging rum.

  Why we still subconsciously desire some kind of visual feedback when flipping through multiple pages of content.

  Do you remember Turntable.fm? Go on, you do.

  Why cracking down on Pirate Bay is unsustainable

  It’s that time of year when US TV networks nix certain shows and bring in new ones. NBC, for instance, have announced 16 new shows for the upcoming season, while CBS have put the kibosh on shows like Richard Price decent police procedural NYC 22 after a handful of episodes. It’s a rough, tough business as the New York Times notes: “the failure rate for network television rarely changes — only the names of the shows do. For most people in the television industry, it’s perfectly normal for hundreds of scripts to be pared down each season, “Survivor” style, to just one or two hit shows. These people rarely stop and wonder if there’s a better way of doing business.

  Feck Frank Zappa, here’s the real story on the origins of that “writing about music is like dancing about architecture” cliche

  Tune!

  

• The Easter 1916 commemorative randomiser (does not include lad in balaclava reading his notes)

  April 11, 2012 @ 9:13 am | by Jim Carroll

  Is this a bubble I see before me? Good piece from Frédéric Filloux in The Monday Note on how Facebook’s “contempt of privacy and Wall Street frothy expectations” could cause problems for the post-IPO Zuckernaut. And remember, this piece was published before Facebook paid a billion bucks (well, a billion bucks in cash and share options) for an iPhone app, making Instagram worth more than the New York Times, Revlon, Office Depot and Papa Johns Pizza. Meanwhile, expect investors to be looking closely at ventures started by ex-Facebook staffers. Still waiting for someone to write a piece like that about ex-Rondomondo staffers.

  Speaking of bubbles….the Pinterest chart goes all the way up to 17.8 million users.

  Excellent piece by Patrick Kane on the demise of AU magazine, government funding for arts ventures and Northern Irish tourism.

  TrócaireLive’s show on April 28 to highlights its global campaign will feature Fred, The Hot Sprockets, Katie Kim, Dembe Troupe, Talking Drums, Manila Rhythm, Daniel Scannell and the Groovement Soul DJs. Admission is a tenner.

  What’s that Resound? Fronted by cello-playing bold print name Kate Ellis, Resound features a stellar cast of musicians includling Laura Sheeran, Chequerboard, Francesco Turrisi, Adrian Hart, Billy Ramsell, Linda Buckley and Jane Cassidy and will be playing their first ever show at Dublin’s Button Factory on April 19 with support from the ace You Can Call Me Frances, Buzz Aldrin Allstars and Ryan Taylor Doyle. Visuals from Donal Dineen, Hector Castells and Jane Cassidy. Admission is €12 or €10 in advance.

  Festival update (1): the Bray Jazz Festival hits the Co Wicklow seaside town for its 13th outing from May 4 to 6. Top of the bill is Susana Baca, but the bill of fare also includes the Tord Gustavsen Trio, Don Byron’s New Gospel Project, Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Matthias Loibner, Warsaw Village Band and such Irish acts as OKO, ReDiviDer, The Swoo-Beh Project, Mixtapes from the Underground, Sandra Melo Band and many more. Full info here.

  Now streaming: you can swoon over “Sweet Heart Sweet Light”, Spiritualized’s rather excellent new album, here.

  When the mob take over: Michael Hann on the online reaction to Viva Brother’s split and Amanda Brick’s daily mail column.

  Raving, we’re raving: Deadmau5 hits page one of the New York Times.

  Festival update (2): full details of who will be playing the Knockanstockan beano will be announced this coming Friday. The sixth run for the festival happens around the Blessington Lakes with 150 acts playing from July 27 to 29.

  9 simple ways to disrupt your business.

  Festival update (3): the only festival which thinks of itself as “Burning Man meets Braveheart”, the Festival of the Fires returns to the Hill of Uisneach in Mullingar on May 5 with 70 acts playing six stages including Bressie, Hothouse Flowers, Jape, Hawkwind, Royseven, Donal Lunny, Kíla, the Kilfenora Céilí Band and many more. Tickets are €39.50 (plus some Ticketmaster kindling)

  Why (some) people get so irrationally angry online and the reasons for the rage.

  Twitter, the FBI and you.

  Very good interview with vertan artist manager Peter Leak on the trials and tribulations of that particular trade in the current marketplace.

  Datamining the SXSW attendees.

  Festival update (4): Drop Everything is a free arts fest featuring music, culture, design, fashion, parties, rants and much more happening on Inis Oírr (the smallest of the Aran Islands) from May 18 to 20. Full line-up to be announced and there’s a FundIt campaign in full swing if you have a few spare bob.

  More datamining: what the journalism business can learn from Moneyball. Oh yes.

  More disruption: how some acts are causing a rumpus with the live gig streaming business. And speaking of disruption, how do you like those Wilco apples? Jeff Tweedy and co take a punt with dynamic ticket pricing for upcoming gig.

  If you’re looking for the most inventive, audacious and barnstorming Irish album of 2012, the good news is that it has arrived. It’s “The Brutal Here and Now”, the second album from The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock, and it’s on another level entirely to their fantastic debut and everything else around on their home patch right now. Brazen, blazing and brilliant, it’s such an exhilirating blast of sound that you’ll want everyone you know to also fall under its dark, enticing spell. Album goes on release Friday, it’s streaming in full here and the band are on tour around the country over the next few weeks. Dig in.

  

• The randomiser says “boo!”

  March 5, 2012 @ 8:48 am | by Jim Carroll

  It’s Choice Music Prize week, my friends. Can you feel the excitement in the air? Or is that just some pre-Cheltenham jitters? All 10 of this year’s nominated acts are playing at Thursday’s live event at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre. For those who won’t be there, the show will be broadcast live on Today FM. I wrote about my years behind the scenes with the Prize for Friday’s Ticket and you’ll find the piece here. Please note that the piece and panel contain opinions which may not be to the liking of certain acts’ street teams.

  The west’s awake: first acts for the Galway Arts Festival Big Top are James Vincent McMorrow, Lisa Hannigan and Elaine Mai (July 26) and The Coronas, Bressie and The Kanyu Tree (July 27). Tickets for the former are €33.50 and for the latter are €30 and go on sale on Friday. Limited early bird tickets will be available for both shows (The Coronas €27 and James Vincent McMorrow/Lisa Hannigan €30) via the festival website.

  This time next week, OTR will be billeted in Austin for SXSW 2012. For acts heading to TX, here’s a guide to some guerilla marketing methods, while here’s what Musicmetric’s data-mining around acts playing SXSW in 2011 and 2012 has discovered.

  Seems that Apple are dealing with TV channel executives regarding streaming plans in the exact same way as they dealt with the music biz in the past: it’s Apple’s way or the highway, dudes. Now that’s we call disruption. The always excellent Monday Note also considers the issue of Apple and TV.

  We had another full house (our fourth in a row) for a very lively, interesting and thought-provoking Banter last week. Rip It Up & Start Again featured Frank Fitzgibbon, Brian Fallon, Gavin Sheridan and Paul Mallon talking about the current and future state of the journalism trade and media business. It was quite invigorating to ignore such red herrings (as old media vs new media) for once and instead have some practitioners talk shop and stretch their predictive abilities for two hours. Thanks to all four for being good sports. For more on last week’s session, check out the #journobanter thread and reviews by Shane O’Leary and Lisa Cunningham. Yes, there will be a podcast at some stage (and yes, we’re tardy about them). Next Banter will be in April on The Attention Economy (dates, panelists and details coming soon).

  More journalism links: the fuming over aggregation and curation goes on (and on). And why the data journalist will rule the game.

  Musos, is it time to quit your band?

  The 10 most innovative companies in music, per Fast Company. No sign of IRMA in the list. Shome mishtake, shurely?

  Have really enjoyed the last few episodes of Miriam Meets, especially Miriam O’Callaghan’s encounter last week with a mischevious bunch of Horslips and yesterday’s words-from-the-horses-mouth with Ted and Ruby Walsh.

  Good advice for anyone planning a music hackathon.

  Pinterest? Pah! Twitter? Snarf! We’re all about Manteresting, Weibo and Thre.ad this week. We’re also all over This Is My Jam, Herd.fm and Cred.fm,

  ChicXSW: very smart booking by the CorkXSW folks as Chic are confirmed for this year’s event at Lissard House over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

  The kids are alright: excellent piece from a few weeks ago by Brian O’Connell on the CoderDojo initiative. Plus, why Microsoft are backing Daniel Brusilovsky’s Teens In Tech Labs project. Feeling a little left out, non-teen OTR readers? Well, here’s why you should check out CodeAcademy or Decoded.

  The fallout from Channel 4′s Great Ticket Scandal show continues with an admission to Music Week from Live Nation that they have “never listed tickets in the secondary market without the participation of the artists or management”. Oh yes, your favourite act knows all about this kind of price-gouging. Methinks that there are lots more worms to come out of this can. And fair play to Radiohead, who have moved swiftly to speak out against this and endorse and partner with the Ticket Trust, a fan-to-fan ticket exchange service.

  Sometimes, it snows in March: much acclaimed French psych-folk duo Natural Snow Buildings play Whelan’s, Dublin next Sunday (March 12) and you really should get along to see them. Reasons why here, here and here.

  Kenny Powers is BACK!

  

  One of our favourite albums of the spring season is “Black Radio” from the Robert Glasper Experiment. To mark the release, Frolab and All the Way Live have compiled a series of live recordings of the band with special guests including Q-Tip, Pete Rock, Bilal, Doom and many more. Get bopping here. It’s the return of the cassette bootleg, innit.

  What can Miles Davis and Duke Ellington teach businessmen and entrepreneurs?

  Sweet oblivion: really good analysis of how music start-up Beyond Oblivion fell apart.

  Alexis Madrigal tracks how and why 104 different companies are following his online movements.

  More distortion in the headphones please: mastering music for the iPod age.

  Saying no to Twitter.

  Mark Mulligan on the UK music industry’s CD-driven crisis. “The music industry is being entrapped by a demographic pincer movement: on the left the emerging Digital Natives lack a product strategy that meets their needs, on the right the traditional CD buyers lack a format succession cycle.”

  Dexys Midnight Runners are back! Now known as Dexys. C’mon Irish live bookers, get ‘em over here.

  Icestival: the icy charms of Igloofest

  Donal Dineen is back! We last heard from my old mucker Donal Dineen last December when he brought his seminal Small Hours radio show to a close. Now, the Kerryman has popped up online with this Sitting Room Interview with the ace Maverick Sabre. Did one of you mention No Disco?

  

• The randomiser is back, back, back!

  February 6, 2012 @ 8:52 am | by Jim Carroll

  They came, they saw, they kept the strobe lights on: Factory Floor’s Dublin debut on Saturday night at Tripod could well have been mistaken for something else given the amount of beer promos in the venue and especially on the stage (and yes, the band noticed too). Playing at a meat-and-two-veg indie night like Banquet was always going to be slightly incongruous, yet the band’s creeping menace, basstastic boom and thumping psychedelic raves conquered all. They’re back for Forbidden Fruit in June.

  Wow, bet you didn’t see this coming: M.I.A. is just so damn predictable

  Make your own randomiser! The randomiser appears here every couple of weeks, but I know that many of you are probably looking for reading material and interesting links on a more regular basis so it’s time for some randomiser DIY. I get my links and stories from a huge number of sources and some of best (free) digests for me are The Daily Chord (SXSW’s daily news round-up), CMU Daily (Complete Music Update’s daily email bulletin covering everything, per themselves, from copyright shenanigans” to “incidents of tabloid note”), Media ReDEFined (fantastic media, entertainment and technology newsfeed from Jason Hirschhorn) and the new Daily Music/Tech Digest (PIAS Head of Digital Darren Hemmings’s round-up of music and tech news). Sign up and get reading.

  I’m sure we’ll be able to add a few to this list of spats between pop stars and pundits before the day is out.

  Speaking of SXSW, it’s nearly that time of year again (memo to self: hire the bike). If you have any bands you want to tip from this monster list of acts playing the music fest, please do so. I’ll also be out there for the film and interactive conferences too – good to see that Irish start-up 45Sound has made the final of the Music Accelerator competition, where they battle the likes of Onesheet and Swarm.fm for the crown.

  Content aggregation kills!

  Bizarre music festival story of the month: the well-regarded End of the Road festival have moved to deny claims, which initially arose on this thread, that they have links to the Church of Scientology. “Two of the directors are scientologists”, goes the statement. “The remaining directors and management are not. End of the Road has no connection with the Church of Scientology, financial or otherwise. None. In any case, philosophical inclinations are personal and have nothing to do with a music festival. Anyone who has been to an End of the Road Festival will already know that.” OTR is now wondering about possible murky connections between certain Irish festivals and the Mormons.

  The story of FAME studios and the Muscle Shoals’ sound.

  Quantos jazzers que é preciso para trocar uma lâmpada? Improvised Music Company’s 12 Points jazz-fest takes up resident in Porto from February 16 to 19. Anyone who fancies some spring jazz fest tourism can feast their ears on such acts as Actuum, Machinebirds, Girls In Airports, Divanhana, Livio Manafra and many more.

  The lay of the land at YouTube

  More festivals out foreign: we had a blast at The Great Escape last year in Brighton. Those who fancy some rock’n'roll by the sea this year should put May 10 to 12 in their diaries when acts like Friends, Zulu Winter, Grimes, Eagulls, Perfume Genius, Francois & The Atlas Mountains, Young Magic (we love Young Magic) and hundreds more will be playing.

  It’s the online newspaper heavyweight wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am contest of the year between the New York Times (that’s either the incredible shrinking NY Times or the media corp with the successful digital strategy which has landed 400k subs, depending on where you click) and the Daily Mail (the Yanks explain the Daily Mail to the Yanks). And here are the scores on the doors.

  10 threats to the golden age of the internet. We hear that IRMA and Sean Sherlock took the 11 and 12 slots.

  What’s the easiest way to get an act to send you their brand new album before they release it so you can leak it on the interwebs? Er, send them an email asking for it.

  We must sort out an aul’ Tumblr now that we’ve finally said goodbye to Bebo (you have seen The Ticket Tumblr, right? Shamefully, The Ticket never had a Bebo page). In the meantime, some words of wisdom from Mr Tumblr

  Or maybe we should start a Pinterest page first? Here’s why the new social media whizzkid, which allows people to pin stuff they like on a page, is spreading like ragweed.

  OTR’s favourite new word. Yeah, we’ve juvenile like that.

  Holy crowdfunding! 10 per cent of the films at Sundance this year were funded via Kickstarter. Will be interesting to look at similar group stats for Fundit in the future. Meanwhile, the flicks that got the applause and love at Sundance.

  The future of journalism, part 23,597: “how a tightly paywalled, social-media-ignoring, anti-copy-paste, gossipy news site became a dominant force in Nova Scotia”. Would you pay $360 per year for the Tipperary Star?

  Why teens share passwords. And, more teenage kicks, teen pirate vs the FBI.

  There’s a reason behind labels launch acts in January and it ain’t the BBC Sound of Whenever poll. Per Adam Sherwin, you launch in January because it only takes 30,000 album sales to get to the top of the charts. The sub may have to rewrite that headline after this story.

  Anyone care to hazard a guess about what class of a yoke is the Google device? Our money is on a wi-fi enabled pager.

  And finally…. Hill Street is JJ Rolfe and Dave Leahy’s documentary on Irish skateboard culture, based largely around Clive Rowen’s legendary shop on Hill Street in the north inner city. It’s screening at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival on February 19 and here’s a taste of what to expect.  

  

• The randomiser is now available in purple, blue and lime green

  January 9, 2012 @ 8:58 am | by Jim Carroll

  If it’s the second week of the year, that can only mean one thing for the Irish music scene. The Choice Music Prize shortlist is announced on Wednesday afternoon and, as has become the norm, we’ll carry all the fuming, arguments, raging, spitting, bickering and entertainment here (please bring your own popcorn as we’ve had to get rid of the vending machines due to cutbacks). Anyone who fancies guessing which albums will make the cut can do so below and, to help you, there’s a comprehensive list of all the Irish albums released in 2011 here to give you a dig-out. DOI: I used to be Choice, but I’m non-scene now so I can make predictions too. The 10 acts I reckon will make the cut are And So I Watch You From Afar, Bell X1, Cashier No 9, Lisa Hannigan, We Cut Corners, Tieranniesaur, Pugwash, Snow Patrol, Little Xs for Eyes and The Minutes.

  Ups and downs in the start-up saloon: a good end of year for Bandcamp (and thanks to OTR reader Carnie for pointing us towards this interesting post about how Bandcamp is turning search queries and would-be pirated albums into sales) and Soundcloud, but no such luck for would-be – and unfortunately named – innovative music start-up Beyond Oblivion, which was part-owned by the all-tweeting (has he met Prince AlWaleed bin Talal yet?) Rupe Murdoch’s News Corp and had a $87 million war-chest at its disposal. Did someone say “oops”? Meanwhile, here’s a look at how traditional music biz stocks performed in 2011.

  It’s not just music start-ups which are getting jiggy with investors. Online rep-ranking service Klout got a bundle of cash in the last few weeks so it’s here to stay for a while. Some, though, wonder if there is such a thing as too much social media buzz.

  Internet next big things from the UK.

  Very interesting post by Wayne Fahy from Sleep Thieves about what happened when the band’s debut album “Heart Waves” hit file-sharing sites.

  Why the new school of US TV shows are taking chances.

  Two profiles to make you go “hmm” and make the subject’s respective PR mavens purr with delight. Forbes calls Spotify dude Daniel Elk “the most important man in music”, while the New York Times gets in a tizzy over Monocle publisher and high-flyer Tyler Brule. Bet Ty would agree with Edward Aten on why beautiful wins in 2012.

  It’s great to see Offset back on the events’ calendar again. After taking 2011 off, Dublin’s premier creative festival resumes business at the Grand Canal Theatre from March 9 to 11 with a very strong line-up of speakers and delegates from all over the world. More info here.

  Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you.

  From the supposing-supposing dept: would Adele still have been the big hit of 2011 if she was on a major label?

  Could Facebook become the new Ticketmaster?

  OTR will be Groningen next weekend for Eurosonic fun and games, but if we were here, we’d drop along to the Ones to Watch 2012 festival which happens in Dublin’s Whelan’s and The Village from January 11 to 14. Tickets are a tenner for the weekend or a fiver per day and acts performing we highly recommend include Elaine Mai, Hello Moon, Melodica Deathship, Bantum, Last Days Of 1984, Daithi, Reid, Trophy Boyfriend, Simon Bird], School Tour, Bouts, Alarmist and The Dying Seconds.

  Word with rappers: Big Boi and Fabulous on their love for the Words With Friends app

  #bandtips2012: why this will be the year of the artist-entrepreneur.

  First 2012 sighting of “the future of journalism” meme

  Via Ronan Casey, the evolution of the live music audience from the Sixties.

  Poor John Lydon is blaming The X Factor for the fact that he can’t get a record label to release the new PiL album. Memo to Johnny boy: put some of the cash from your butter ads into the project and sell the album via Bandcamp.

  Essential reading for everyone reading this, I bet: how to master the art of passwords

  The good, the bad & the ugly are coming as the Spaghetti Western Orchestra hit the highways and byways for an Irish tour next month. Hear a fistful of Ennio Morricone classics from a bunch of western classics played in a very idiosyncratic manner at Killarney’s INEC (22), Dublin’s Helix (23), Galway’s Black Box (24), Cork’s Opera House (25) and Belfast’s Ulster Hall (26).

  

• The randomiser says “ho, ho, ho”

  December 19, 2011 @ 9:16 am | by Jim Carroll

  On your marks, get set, go: the next Banter is The Joy of Running where we’ll be extolling the virtues of putting one foot in front of the other and working out how and why running has become so popular (again) in Ireland. On the panel: Ian O’Riordan (Irish Times and author of the excellent “Miles To Run – Promises To Keep”), Barry Redsettaz (POGO and Jam the Box DJ and marathon and triathlon veteran) and Raedi Higgins (Run Like A Girl). Couch to 10k newbie: me. It happens at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1) on Thursday January 19 and full details are here. By the way, if you missed our recent Review of 2011 panel, you missed an all-guns-blazing brilliant session with Miriam O’Callaghan, Sinead Gleeson and Conor Pope – plus some very enthusiastic members of the Bantering classes in the audience – giving it socks. Podcast to follow so keep an eye on the site for it.

  There’s cash in them boutique festivals as the MAMA Group take over Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway’s Vintage Festival, which is “a celebration of creative British cool from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s with music, art, design and fashion.” But MAMA Group itself may well have new owners soon given parent company HMV’s ongoing lousy figures and its need to get some cash from somewhere.

  Speaking of UK fests, really digging the line-up for next June’s Field Day fest in London.

  2011, the year the music business turned a corner? And yes, the question mark is in the headline. Of course, if you were someone who was quids in thanks to sponsors and brands, you had a blooming great year.

  Welcome to Hitlantis, a new way to discover music using visual bubbles.

  Coming soon, an Apple store at Heuston Station?

  23 tech superstars for 2012 and beyond.

  Google Music’s chief dude says hello.

  Sneaker pimps to the podium please: are these really the 10 best sneakers of all time?

  We haven’t had a new streaming service in at least a fortnight (that was Deezer – anyone tried it out yet?) so it must be time for a new one, right? Make some room on your browser for Rara, a new service from Omnifone which is aimed at a market where “80 per cent of consumers have never done anything digital with music”. Gazooks, it sounds like the people who still shop in Golden Discs.

  One of our favourite music biz writers – and songwriter and musician when she’s not writing said articles – Helienne Lindvall on her experiences with music streaming bad boy Grooveshark.

  Any journalism data-mining fans in the audience? Forbes weighs up if short, snappy news stories or long-form, indepth journalism work best online.

  First world problems: “we just thought it was time to get a little organized, to put it in place before there was an incident,” committee member Phyllis Merhige, an MLB senior vice president, told the AP. “There’s no one who expects reporters to wear a suit and tie. But with the advent of different media, there are now individuals who are not part of a bigger organization that may have a dress code.”

  The 10 hottest scripts in Hollywood right now

  The importance of Twitter to TV shows

  R. Kelly, baby, he’s in the news. On the one hand, the dude’s mansion in Illinois – featuring eight full baths, six half baths, four fireplaces, an indoor pool, a theatre room and a private lake – is now available for “just” $1.595 million, down from $2.9 million. On the other hand, the man’s still working – do you want to go on the Love Letter Cruise with Kelly? A snip at $1,500 per head. The gag about special rates for minors has already been tweeted.

  One of the most posts which got a lot of action on OTR in 2011 was our TV recap post back in June so if anyone has any gems to add to that list or, indeed, this list, please do so below.

  For the week’s that in it: the kid’s got game

  

• The randomiser is making a list and checking it twice

  December 6, 2011 @ 9:15 am | by Jim Carroll

  Congrats to Irish band Little Green Cars who’ve just inked a deal with champion indie label Glassnote. Here’s label boss Daniel Glass on the label’s successful streak, thanks to acts like Mumford & Sons, Childish Gambino and Two Door Cinema Club.

  Our next TV fix? That looks like being Homeland, based on this piece. Of course, that’s once we’re finished with the excellent Boss.

  Last call for the Banter: don’t forget that Banter’s Review of 2011, which is always one of the most entertaining nights ouf of the year, happens tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Twisted Pepper, Dublin. On the panel: Sinead Gleeson, Miriam O’Callaghan and Conor Pope, with me acting as devil’s advocate. Full info here.

  Here’s a headline you don’t see every day of the week: “Ticketmaster giving concert-goers a refund”. Wonder does that class action extend to Ticketmaster Ireland?

  This is what life was life for the music business before fecking Napster came along. And this is what life looks like for Argentian film and TV fans in 2011 thanks to Cuevana.

  Voting is now underway here for the fifth annual Irish Festival Awards. There are 20 categories in all and the winners will be unveiled after voting closes on January 31st. It’s co-ordinated by the Cherrycool folks behind the Castlepalooza festival and the good eggs that they are have removed themselves from consideration in all categories in the interests of fairness and full disclosure.

  Aul’ media lads say no to Twitter. Are you with ‘em or against ‘em?

  OTR continues to find new social media networks to replace Twitter, Facebook and Bebo (our Bebo page rocks). This week’s new arrival: Pinterest.

  More people giving out about people giving out about stuff online.

  Scary headline of the week award.

  It really is the season for lists. Here are the albums of 2011 lists from NPR, the Beeb’s music writers, Stereogum, Paste, Gorilla vs Bear, The Quietus and the Guardian. I will be listing my top albums of 2011 next Monday, once voting has closed for The Ticket Awards (you have voted, haven’t you?)

  More lists? Sure, why not? Here’s the longlist for the BBC Sound of 2012 malarkey (unlike the Mercury Music Prize who keep the guilty parties hidden from view, you’ll find a list of the people to blame for these selections here). And, because there’s no such thing as a definitive list, here’s the Blog Sound Of 2012 list as chosen by 32 UK music bloggers.

  Very interesting piece about now we should give new artist platforms a bit more time to prove themselves. All new plays can’t be iTunes overnight.

  Following on from that, Steven Levy considers the issue of Facebook, Spotify and the future of music. If you only read one piece this week featuring the line “this brief blessing from the Pope of Poke presaged a turning point for the entire music industry”, make sure it’s this one.

  And more from the future of music world: focus on the tech startups stepping in to help artists market their tunes as the big boys leave the pitch

  Anyone for some tapas from “a nice Irish kid making Spanish food”?

  Do you need a proper camera when you have a snazzy iPhone? Ars Technica do some comparing and contrasting.

  Hip-hop branding dude Steve Stoute tells his story (his book “The Tanning of America” should be on your to-read list) with lots of references to Hova, who turns up here talking about “Decoded” and other stuff.

  Mo’ hip-hop:” classic Ol Dirty Bastard. You’d miss him. Tip o’ the hat to Faulkner for pointing us towards the clip.

  

• The randomiser is now thinking about selection boxes

  November 21, 2011 @ 1:32 pm | by Jim Carroll

  Feck Twitter, I’m off to WhoSay.com! It’s OTR’s kind of social media network judging by this. Or perhaps I need to work up a version of Jogabo for hurlers looking for winter games?

  One of the very best Irish albums of 2010 was “Doom Your Cities, Doom Your Towns” from the mighty Melodica Deathship. Seeing as MDS have sold tons of vinyl copies of the album and are now gearing up for a new EP to be released in the coming months, they’ve decided to give away the album for free via their Bandcamp page. Fill your boots!

  Dodgy the band have a very interesting ponder on the future of the CD from their perspective. VIa d_e_v

  Staring at crotches should be my only problem: Louise Bruton on Dublin music venues and accesibility.

  Why the end of cheap coffee is nigh. Via Sasha Bond.

  Christmas stocking filler ahoy: my Ticket colleague Tony Clayton-Lea’s new book “101 Irish Records You Must Hear Before You Die” is now available for purchase. Albums featured include works from U2, Taste, Villagers, Therapy?, Lisa Hannigan, Planxty, Damien Rice, Rudi, Fight Like Apes, Yeh Deadlies, The Blades, David Holmes, Horslips, The Pogues, Cathy Davey, A House and Van Morrison, to name but a few. Dude is now on Twitter too.

  20 innovative start-ups for you to mull over and invest in.

  The headline says it all: How Ryan Raddon Became the $200,000-a-Night D.J. Known as Kaskade. The US raving continues.

  Are you experiencing a wave of nostalgia for the recent digital past? Yep, there’s an app of some kind for that.

  Fascinating piece about why the current generation are far more entrepreneurial than oldsters.

  Anyone for a world premiere by Nico Muhly? The Crash Ensemble’s Young Americans concert features said premiere at Liberty Hall this coming Friday (November 25). There will also be performances of works by new Yank composers Sean Friar, Missy Mazzoli, Timothy Andres and Ken Ueno, as well a pre-show public interview by Lyric FM’s Bernard Clarke with Muhly. More information here.

  Meet the guy behind Dwolla, the start-up looking to axe credit cards. Fairly sure there have been other people who’ve tried that one out before but, hey, best of luck to him.

  Talkin’ all that jazz (again): Jazz Is… is a mini-festival taking place in various Dublin city-centre venues from November 22 to 26. Jazzers on the stage for “five days of gritty funk, smooth tones, hard-hitting jazz, acoustic instrumental and experimental improvised music” include LiMEN, Locoswing, Tongue Bundle, Mob Fandango, Creamy Goodness, Sandra Melo 4tet, Roller Trio, Concrete Soup and many more. Full information on dates, times and venues here.

• The randomiser is thinking about mince pies

  @ 9:11 am | by Jim Carroll

  Monday morning good news dept: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band are coming to town – well Europe anyway. “The European dates run from the middle of May until end of July and are being announced this week”, per Bruce’s people. We hope this run includes an Irish date. New album coming too.

  Date for your diary: Florence & The Machine plays Dublin’s O2 on March 2 next. Support from The Horrors and Spector (yes on both counts). Tickets go on sale on Thursday next at €39.05 a pop (plus Ticketmaster gravy).

  Speaking of TM (how’s that for a link?): you may just have a smidgin of pity for Ticketmaster execs after you read this. Dramarama: “people want to eat my kids they’re so angry”

  Futuretech: notes from the Techonomy 2011 conference with Sean Parker and Jim Breyer predicting what comes next. Parker is advising a few punts on the music publishing sector.

  Meet the media: you’ll find a podcast of the (excellent! entertaining! informative!) media panel from the recent Sligo Music Industry Day, featuring Jenny Huston, Una Mullally and myself, below. Links to all the other panels from the day here.

  What if your most dedicated fans paid you a dollar (or euro) a month? Interesting thinking to be filed alongside 1,000 True Fans and assorted other what-if-ery.

  Some quotes from the recent U.K. Festival Conference, chiefly Festival Republic (and Electric Picnic) dude Melvin Benn talking about festivals signing exclusive deals with acts to ensure they don’t play other UK or European events.

  Best reading of the day: Stefan Goldmann on the mechanics of excellence in music. Cheers to (deletia) for the link. And, on a related tip, economics prof Joel Waldfogel does some chinscratching about the quality of recorded music since Napster (thanks to OTR reader Willie for the tip)

  20 years on from the release of “Achtung Baby”, Bill Flanagan, the man who wrote the best book on U2 (“U2: At the End of the World”) recalls what it was all about. A lot has changed since 1991 – you don’t get thousands queuing up outside a record shop at midnight any more. Warning to old-school record biz people: you’ll weep when you see this video.

  The view from the pit: music photographers on how things look through their lens.

  Fascinating podcast (with Broadsheet-like transcript) on how movie money works.

  One for the future-of-newspapers students: superb piece by Michael Shapiro on what happened at the San Jose Mercury News, the Silicon Valley newspaper which almost seized the future.

  Martin Aston on the life and times of Tim Buckley’s amazing “Song to the Siren” from his peerless “Starsailor” album, which is about to get some long overdue reissue treatment. We’re still wowed every time by the original

  

• The randomiser says “cheese”

  November 7, 2011 @ 9:35 am | by Jim Carroll

  Some respect, please, for the death of the “one million pound” record contract, though we feel that particular horse left town a good few years ago. And did those X Factor winners (and losers) really do the maths or just go along with the advice of their permanent establishment lawyers and accountants?

  Hey artists, why bother playing someone else’s festival when you can put on your own event? You won’t be demanding those XXL fees from your own festival, right? Of course, it doesn’t always turn out according to plan – just ask Blur bassist and cheesemaker Alex James.

  More obituaries: OTR is not the only one who thinks we’ll miss record labels when we don’t have ‘em to kick around any more. On the back of Pete Townshend’s diatribe last week, The Word’s David Hepworth laments the demise of the label model.

  Billboard magazine asks labels (they haven’t gone away, you know) how much cash they get from streaming services like Spotify. Interesting aside: during the course of an entertaining Meet the Media panel at Sligo Music Industry Day, 2fm’s Jenny Huston noted that a single play on the station is worth €3.50 to a band. You’d be a long time pressing “play” on Spotify to get that kind of lucre. Maybe that’s why Coldplay are blanking Spotify for their new (not very good) album, though the move does pose more questions than answers.

  Music journalism 101: good indepth interview with veteran music hack, editor and Rock’s Backpages dude Barney Hoskyns

  Music blog journalism 101: the new 10 (OK, 14) commandments for music blogs.

  Music marketing 101: 10 tips for the new school music marketing dude from Emmanuel Legrand

  Music management 101: managers Brian Message and James Barton on the lessons to be learned from the industry formerly known as the record business (see, everyone is at)

  DIY Media 101: Dublin city underground newspaper Rabble (see sample issue here) are throwing a fund-raising ruckus at King 7 (Capel Street) on November 19 with Fran Hartnett, Lakker, Sunken Foal, T-woc, Section 4, Jobseekers and The Dubtones. Admission is a fiver before 10pm or €10 afterwards.

  Put your hands in the air and wave ‘em around like you don’t care if you like snazzy graphics. Here’s your biscuit: the evolution of western dance music from American marching bands to dubstep.

  Interesting take on the power of Dropbox (especially seeing as it’s apparent that Apple’s iCloud is attempting to eat its lunch), plus good piece about the current lie of the land in the cloud

  If you liked The Killing, you’ll probably like Homeland too.

  It’s 20 years since Bill Graham, the most charismatic live music promoter of them all, dided in a helicopter crash. If you’re looking for a good book for the C*****m** list, check out Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock & Out. A true one-off.

  Female bloggers on the abuse they receive from the brave souls who throw their grenades and spears from behind their keyboards.

  Why the record industry should have listened to Sony boss Andy Lack when Steve Jobs came calling a decade ago.

  Gig recommendation: the Robert Grasper Experiment hits Dublin’s Workman’s Club next Saturday night for some Blue-Note-jazz-not-jazz-meets-Dilla ramalama. Check it here, though sadly Lupe Fiasco won’t be in the house.

  Onetwothreefour

  

• The randomiser has some reading to do before the bank holiday weekend

  October 26, 2011 @ 8:51 am | by Jim Carroll

  Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? Pah, so 2009 the lot of ‘em. It’s all about Diaspora and Chime In for OTR these days. Meanwhile, let’s not forget Foursquare: it may not have taken off Over Here as much as it did Over There but it’s definitely still king of its own frontier.

  You know social media has jumped the shark when live music lads start to wonder if they can leverage the aul’ Twitter to sell tickets. The rest of the Billboard Touring Conference will hopefully concentrate on how to spot when the promoter is purchasing the backstage rider from Aldi or Lidi and a guide to hoodwinking tour managers at settlement time.

  And speaking of social media, whatever happened to your friend Tom from MySpace?

  Nile Rodgers was one of my favourite interviewees from the last few years (how it could not be with tales of Sesame Street, the Black Panthers and sex on airplanes?) so I reckon his autobiography Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny is going to be a must-read book too.

  This is what the new record business looks like to our friends at The Economist. And, yes, label execs are also all up in yo’ grill about social media.

  Sigur Ros have always said no to the Mad Men in red braces looking to use their music in ads. Yet, the band still come across some interesting, er, tributes to their sound. Here’s a selection which, per the band, put the fromage in homage.

  Lovely piece from Roy Wilkinson on managing his brothers’ band British Sea Power and dealing their zealous fan – their dad. Contains the brilliant line “”Do it for your mum! Do it for the Butthole Surfers!”

  Huzzah, another first world problem solved

  Brian Eno on bizarre instruments: “the Telharmonium was built by a man called Thaddeus Cahill in 1906. He built three versions and the biggest weighed 200 tons. However, it was probably the first truly portable electronic music instrument. It was carried in 30 railway carriages and it was a series of tone-wheel generators, a little bit like a Hammond organ, though in a Hammond the generators were about 1.6in in diameter whereas in the Telharmonium they were 8ft tall.”

  Def Jam, the lotus position years. After three minutes of meditation, Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons discuss the life and times of “the last great record label”.

  Good interview with John Doran from the excellent site The Quietus

  Alternative career guide: how to be a top-ranking go-to TV soundtrack guy (or gal)

  From crowdsourcing to crime sourcing – the rise of distributed criminality

  New-school jazz-meisters to the stage please: Improvised Music Company and Jazz Kitchen’s next Whirligig session featuring new capital city jazzers OKO, Zoiband, Thought-Fox and Umbra happens at the Grand Social on November 2. Admission is €12 or €10, depending on how many Charles Lloyd albums you own and actually listen to.

  A date for Bank Holiday Sunday: Sound Now, Seek & You Will FInd is a special celebration of Arthur Russell’s life and music with performances from Angkorwat, Patrick Kelleher, School Tour, TR One, Quarter Inch Tape Collective, Conor L, David Kitt and Louis Scully plus The Eatyard food festival and an exhibition of Arthur Russell memorabilia. I’ll be having a Banter conversation with Tim Lawrence, the author of the fantastic “Hold Onto Your Dreams” biography of Russell (and the excellent “Love Saves the Day” history of 1970s’ American dance culture). It happens at the Bernard Shaw in Dublin, admission is free and proceedings get underway at 2pm.

  

• The randomiser has questions to answer about expenses

  October 4, 2011 @ 9:37 am | by Jim Carroll

  It’s the 450th Strange Brew night out on Thursday October 20 and they feel fine. Live sets from Tieranniesaur (we heart Tieranniesaur), Retarded Cop, Daithi, Squarehead (debut album “Yeah Nothing” is quite bodacious), Moths, Elaine Mai, Kid Karate, We Are Losers, The Depravations, Kool Thing and The Debutantes. Gugai on the decks playing club faves and future faves. Doors open at 8pm and admission a tenner or a fiver in advance online. Get on it, people.

  The cool factor: what makes one brand cooler than another. OTR is cool, right?

  Smashing double-bill for brass fans with the ace Hot 8 Brass Band (representing New Orleans) and the excellent Kings Go Forth (from Milwaukee) playing Dublin’s Village on October 27. Tickets €20 (plus fees).

  Handbags (Dub-bags?): James Blake throws a hissy fit over Skrillex, Korn and brostep. Meanwhile, US dance music fans have a little more to worry about than clubs closing early and not being able to serve the gargle.

  We’re really digging the new album from DJ Shadow “The Less You Know, the Better” (check it out here), but we’re also digging his article on the 10 Things Shadow Hates About the Music Industry (now that deserves capitals).

  Here’s your listening list for the next couple of months: all the new albums you can expect to see real soon in your favourite download store (or bricks and mortar outlet, if you have one).

  Sacre bleu! Sizable drop in French music sales, but digital sales and streams are on the up. Same story in the UK, it seems. Wonder at what stage we’ll stop hearing stories like this? I suppose it’s a bit like Irish property prices.

  Miles Davis, the chilli years.

  Branding and bands, part 12,559

  Band aid one: what you should be selling at your merch stand and why

  Very interesting interview with music supervision queenpin and Chop Shop boss Alexandra Patsavas.

  If we had any cash to invest in new music tech, we’d be throwing a few euro at Turntable.fm and joining some heavy-hitters at the table.

  More future tech: interesting look at music-ID apps like Shazam and Soundcloud and capture culture.

  How Portugal the Man used social media to get in, stay in and succeed in the game.

  Band aid two: how to get a booking agent to take your band on and, more importantly, book some damn gigs for you.

  You have met Les Lascars before, haven’t you?

  

• Unblogged

  September 12, 2011 @ 9:43 am | by Jim Carroll

  OTR is closed for blogging business until Friday September 23. We shall talk and type to you then.

• The pre-Picnic randomiser

  August 29, 2011 @ 8:56 am | by Jim Carroll

  If you only read one interview today which features brilliant stories about Jigga and Diddy, it should be this one with our favourite bowling alley DJ ?uestlove from the Roots doing a 15 year rewind.

  WTF story of the week. No contest.

  Following on from last week’s post about cancelled shows, here’s the back-story on why the Lord of the Dance at the Cliffs Of Moher event didn’t go ahead.

  Factory Floor aren’t the only act who were on the Electric Picnic line-up and are now missing from the bill. You can also add Niki & The Dove (thanks to sharp-eyed Joanna for the spot), Killing Joke (Ken spotted that one) and, it seems, The Vaccines (though the band have the show still listed on their schedule) to the AWOL list. Amanda Brunker must be getting very excited.

  So how much do you think SXSW’s 10 days of interactive, film and music conferences and shows are worth to Austin, Texas? That’s right, $167 million.

  The pie has it: 30 years of record sales and changes in formats. If you’re wondering what this pie might taste like a decade from now, read this.

  Brilliant piece from Ronan Casey on Big Tom’s recent soiree at the Marquee in Drumlish.

  On the Fringe: theatrical readers (or readers who like theatre, even) will remember us wowing about Shaun Dunne’s play I Am A Home Bird (It’s Very Hard) earlier this year. Dunne’s latest piece Do You Read Me? looks at “the culture of psychic mediumship and alternative spirituality in the wake of the collapse of all the institutions we once had faith in” and will run at the Boy’s School, Smock Alley Theatre from September 10 to 16. If that doesn’t tickle your tastebuds, you’ll find at least one or two flavours which will in the Fringefest’s gigantic programme.

  Aside from doing their thing at the Electric Picnic, National Ploughing Championships (strangely, a first mention for that event on OTR) and Fringe in the coming weeks, you’ll find the Nighthawks art collective back in situ at the Cobalt Cafe (North Great Georges Street), Dublin on September 17. On the bill: Barry Murphy, The Lazy Band, The Gonzo Club, Tommy Nicholson, Trevor Byrne, Novastone and Tomie James. Tickets are €13 and can be bought from the Oxfam shop on Parliament Street.
            
  If David Byrne made iPhone apps….

  Did he park the car in Harvard Yard? Superb documentary from the RTE documentary team on Boston politician William Bulger and his gangster brother Whitey. Some brilliant docs to be found in the back-catalogue.

  One for the #bandtips brigade: 10 ways to screw up your album release campaign.

  An oldie but a goodie as The Quietus goes soaring. Very relevant, especially if you’ve had to review the new David Guetta album.

  The view from the music PR’s desk. Includes photos of journalists’ desks which will be very familiar to many of my peers.

  Good piece from Peter Preston on a confused future for newspapers online and in print.

  Brand New Retro is one for fans of old Irish magazines and fanzines with Dundalk man Dougie Devlin providing the scans from the past.

  Meet the management – IE Music’s Tim Clark talks shop

  Community of Independents is a new music TV series which will air on Dublin Community TV later this year featuring six bands from the indie community telling their story on the small screen, All six acts – Patrick Kelleher and His Cold Dead Hands, Axis Of, Lafaro, Owensie, Windings and Junior 85 – will play at Whelan’s, Dublin on September 6 and admission is a fiver.

  One from the unforeseen circumstances dept: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes’ pre-Picnic Dublin show this Wednesday has been upgraded from Crawdaddy to Button Factory. Tickets €14 plus TM charges. I suppose we could always say “we saw this coming”.

  And finally, don’t miss ‘em in Stradbally.

  

• The randomiser says “Davy Fitz for prez”

  August 8, 2011 @ 9:32 am | by Jim Carroll

  Musicians remember their worst ever gigs. And writers also relive the worst live show they ever saw. What about you lot? The worst live show I ever saw was the reformed Velvet Undergound in Paris in June 1993. They were absolutely horrible and it put me off (a) reunions and (b) Lou Reed for life. Still like Paris, though.

  Pointyheaded read of the week, darlings: why pop and narcissism go together like jelly and ice-cream (or RTE hurling commentators and “John Mullane is fired up”)

  Speaking of which…. the Cats are back in Croker on the first Sunday of September for the sixth year in a row and thus, the good people of the Marble City who were planning to go to the Electric Picnic will be spending their cash elsewhere. It was a game of two halves yesterday with both Kilkenny and Waterford putting on an entertaining spectacle in the first half before turning in a soporific second half. It was like watching two aul’ dinosaurs pawing at each other and missing every time or listening to the Fat Boys battling the Sugarhill Gang. Kilkenny surprisingly didn’t kill off the game as quickly as they once were capable of doing and Waterford just don’t the players with the skills to take them right now beyond their heart-and-soul street-fighting get-up. All that fired-up emotion just didn’t work yesterday for Davy Fitz’s men. We’ll see who’ll meet them in the final next Sunday when Tipp (who spent the weekend in Cork) do battle with Dublin (who’ve been doing some training down Clare/Galway way).

  Meanwhile, are you a muso who feels you’ve been bullied into playing for free at some charity or some fundraising do? Take heart, stout yeoman or yeowoman of the stage, your union has your back.

  Meet the Android fans: our own Shane Hegarty and his soulmate Chamillionaire.

  The five best moments on Yo! MTV Raps. Yeah, MTV is 30, but you knew that already. Meanwhile, some hip-hop moments which (gently) shook the world.

  Well, he won’t be doing that again. Cult artist (ie your ma has never heard of him) John Maus puts a sock in it after slagging off record shops in a Pitchfork interview. A back-pedal worthy of an Irish TD.

  What your fave pop act is investing their spondoolicks in these days. And here’s one reason why they may be onto a winner.

  Why no publicity is good publicity for some indie bands. The last line in the piece is a keeper.

  LIke the cut of this blog post’s jib: just what would be the point of bringing back Top of the Pops? Can also be applied to people looking to put the genie back in the bottle by reviving other blasts from the past (TV shows, record shops etc).

  Pitchfork gets a mild kicking. 7.1

  Welcome to the new-school music biz, Spotify. You may have one million US users already, but you’re also going to be seeing a lot of Lionel Hutz and his legal eagle mates.

  Interesting post-Winehouse piece from Helienne Lindvall about whether record labels and managers have a duty of care to their artists. Of course, the piece would probably never had appeared or been commissioned if it were not for sad events….

  It’s a wrap! U2 take down the Crab, pay the bills and make sure the net from the tour’s $760 million gross from their current tour is invested in the right places. Reminds me of a quip which manager Paul McGuinness made at a Billboard awards yoke years ago about being astonished that everyone knew everyone’s else grosses in the US touring business: “the gross really was gross” (it was the way he told ‘em). Bono and Edge will probably send some cash to the Spider-Man financial controller, Adam has to pay the Bob the Builders working on his gaff in the South of France and Larry will be putting his under the mattress (and buying some new banging records – we think he’ll like the new album “Leave Home” from The Men).

  Loving this tune

  

• The randomiser recommends the fish

  July 18, 2011 @ 9:52 am | by Jim Carroll

  You can pack a lot into a 24 hour trip to Galway especially when the Galway Arts Festival is in full flow. My arts’ hits included the superb old-fashioned acrobatic display by Les Philébulistes, using two giant wheels plonked in the middle of Eyre Square; Hughie O’Donoghue’s evocative new exhibition The Road, which is still showing all this week at the pop-up gallery at Galway Shopping Centre; a rollicking live show from The Vaselines (I didn’t realise I knew so many of their tunes) and some surreal flights of fancy with the Whose Line Is It Anyway? cast. But the highlight of the trip was Cillian Murphy’s powerful performance as small-town loner Thomas Magill in Enda Walsh’s Misterman. Magill may be seen by his fellow inhabitants of Inishfree as a harmless aul’ eejit always scribbling in his little notebook as he goes in search of Jammy Dodgers for his mother, but there’s a lunacy and darkness to the character which Murphy brings to the fore. Part religious zealot, part odd-man-out, part Wall-E, part demented innocent in a world gone made: Murphy’s portrayal of Magill will stay long in your memory. If you’ve a ticket for any of the remaining shows in the run, you’re in for a treat.

  Regular OTR readers will have come across Ian Wright over the years as someone who has often contributed to lengthy threads here. When he’s not getting stuck into debates or getting mistaken for a former Arsenal player, the Kildareman also makes music as The Former Soviet Republic and will be releasing his debut album “The Former Soviet Republic Is Made Of This” on August 19. He launches the album – which features Charles Bissell from The Wrens playing guitar on one track, was co-produced by Tom Burns (The Kimballs) and mastered by Bob Weston (Shellac) and includes a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” – with a show upstairs at Whelan’s on August 20 with support from Big Monster Love and At Last An Atlas. The album is now streaming here.

  Really like the look of Onesheet, a new-ish site for bands which allows them to let users check out all their web activities, from Twitter to Soundcloud, from one page. Yet another answer to the life-after-Myspace question. Thanks to Akafino for the heads-up.

  FastForward is a new buzz from music blog aggregator Hype Machine which turns a set of your favourite music blogs into a bunch of radio stations. Give it a spin.

  Lessons for bands in what to do from sport: how Brian O’Driscoll manages his brand. Via Mulley.

  Lessons for bands in what not to do from numpties: it seems that Morrissey has truly lost the plot. Forget about his diva-like demands on festival-goers, searching fans for meat products, canine run-ins or whinging about his lack of a record label, the old codger has gone stark raving mad this time as he bans his own fans from gigs, the only people keeping him from the poorhouse these days. You really couldn’t make this up.

  If you’re not doing so already, subscribe to the Monday Note, Frédéric Filloux and Jean-Louis Gassée’s sharp and concise weekly briefing on technology and media.

  U2 and PJ Harvey manager Paul McGuinness says hosanna for the end of the age of free – but Mark Mulligan has a slightly different take on the freemium business model.

  The hip-hop angle to the News International and News Of the World shitstorms.

  If Dinny thinks it’s tough spinning the Punchestown fiasco, the dude should move to China. Interesting take on the nascent Chinese festival scene.

  The ins and outs of Google’s anti-piracy filter.

  Superb piece by Graeme Thomson on Mowest, that unheralded outpost for Motown’s California soul.

  We’ve already said goodbye to Sony’s original tape Walkman and now, it’s the turn of the company’s MiniDisc Walkman to shuffle off the conveyor belt and into the sunset one last time.

  Where Brooklyn’s at: ten great hip-hop anthems from assorted Brooklynati rhymers celebrating their local hoods.

  The people vs Ticketmaster class action looks set to go to trial. Back in 2003, two American punters sued Ticketmaster over its “delivery fees” (the company claimed this charge was simply a cost of sale but the two lads claimed the charge came with profit built-in). While an out-of-court settlement had been reached and Live Nation had set aside $22.3 million to cover costs, a Los Angeles judge ruled that this sum wasn’t big enough to cover all possible claims and the case is now set to go to court later this year.

  Good news for the young soul rebels in the audience as the latest iteration of Dexys Midnight Runners led by Kevin Rowland prep a possible first album in 26 bloody years. The last time we came across Rowland, he was waxing lyrical about burlesque clubs.

  How Hollywood is set to repeat the mistakes made by the music biz in recent years.

  The Small Print guide to summertime apps. Feel free to add your own recommendations.

  Incoming: Grimes plays upstairs at Whelan’s, Dublin on August 3. She was supposed to play in May, but blanked us to support Lykke Li in the U S of A. I saw her at SXSW earlier this year and she was quite superb.

  

• The par 5 randomiser

  June 20, 2011 @ 9:34 am | by Jim Carroll

  A good weekend on the hurling pitches with Tipperary and Dublin reaching the Munster and Leinster finals. The final score from Limerick probably flattered the victors a bit, given how much of a challenge Clare posed in the first half, but Tipp powered on helped by those rake of goals. As they head off to face Waterford, the most worrying aspect from yesterday is probably those dozen wides – time for Tipp to relearn some supersharpshooting skills. And the less said about the awful, woeful, cliche-ridden commentator on TV3 on Sunday the better. Dublin skinned Galway with great panache in Tullamore on Saturday night to set up a re-do with Kilkenny, who will probably come swinging into that match with points to prove. For now, though, kudos to a very fine Dublin side for getting there, though it was a very poor, uninspiring performance from Galway, who probably wish they were back hurling in Connacht on that display. Perhaps sticking this article on the dressingroom wall backfired?

  Hard Working Class Heroes returns to the streets of Dublin from October 6 to 8 for the festival’s ninth outing. Bands and photograpgers who would like to participate can apply here. Keep an eye on OTR this week for more HWCH-related news.

  More, more, more: latest additions for this year’s Castlepalooza festival (Tullamore, Co Offaly from July 29 to 31) include Mercury Rev (last year’s headliners back for more), Krystal Klear (check out Declan Lennon’s fantastic “Tried for Your Love” for All City from late last year, especially the brilliant HudMo remix), Andy & Jez from Doves (doing a spot of Big Top DJ-ing), Dry the River (one of the acts who really impressed me at Eurosonic earlier this year), Somadrone, The Kanyu Tree, Ghost Estates and tons more. Two-day tickets including camping are €74 and three day tickets are an extra €15 (prices exclude service charges).

  What James Murphy did next. Next thing you know, dude will be appearing on Come Dine With Me.

  From the “you can’t keep a good man down” department: Vince Power is planning to get some stock exchange love this month (£6.5 million worth of love) for his Music Festivals company with its interests in the Hop Farm Music Festival, Benicassim and London Feis, which happened at the weekend. Power has no plans to do a festival in the aul’ sod, leaving 1993′s Fleadh Mor in Tramore as the only Irish festival entry in his back-pages.

  The Reich Effect is a five day bash at Cork’s Opera House from July 27 to 31 marking the 75th year of Steve Reich with performances from Kronos Quartet (the Irish premiere of WTC 9/11), London Sinfonietta, Synergy Vocals, Efterklang, Daniel Bjarnason and their Messing Orchestra, the Johann Johannsson Ensemble, Crash Ensemble, Íarla Ó Lionáird and Gavin Friday. As part of the festival, there is also the Reich Drumming Remix Competition open to musicians, DJs, producers, remixers and Reich fans who want to create their own original Reich Effect. Full information on the remix competition here.

  The book every live music promoter – and live music fan – should read this summer.

  You think you’re a mad-for-it festival head-the-ball because you did Primavera in May, Body & Soul at the weekend and are probably hitting the Electric Picnic in September? Amateur hour! Say hello to IQ magazine editor Greg Parmley who plans to motorcyce to 26 festivals in 13 countries in 30 days starting at Glastonbury next weekend. Wonder how many bands he’ll get to see – and how many he’ll see more than once?

  One of the festivals not on Parmley’s itenary is our old friend Italia Wave, which is upping sticks and moving from Tuscany to Puglia. On the bill for one of our favourite European summer fests this year: Jimmy Cliff, Paolo Nutini, Lou Reed, Kaiser Chief and dozens more. If you want to head to Lecce to check it out, it takes place from July 14 to 17 in the city’s football stadium, airport and beaches.

  Note for the Law & Order fans in the audience (and I know there’s lots of you): Patti Smith made her TV debut last night in a a ripped-from-the-headlines Criminal Intent episode based on Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark.

  Hit the north-west! Some must-see events at this year’s Earagail Arts Festival in venues all over Donegal from July 9 to 24 include the amazing Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, Breathe Owl Breathe (with Little Wings), the Crash Cabaret and Lisa Hannigan, playing a date on her never-ending Irish summer tour.

  Mo’ festivals: like the sound of some of the Culture Works talks on the schedule for Kinsale Arts Week, especially the ones on how to make a living from writing, art and cultural entrepreneurship. Kinsale Arts Week runs from July 9 to 17.

  Behold, the world’s highest paid musicians! And they’re Irish, begorrah. Cue radio producers and researchers shoehorning this and the planned Glastonbury protest next Friday into a 10 minute package sometime this week.

  You dancin’? You askin’? Your favourite indie snobs’ indie snobs swear by monthly club-in-a-pub bash Glider, which happens next Friday night (June 24) at the Workman’s Club, Dublin with AU magazine duo Jonny Tiernan and Chris Jones joining the indie/alt/shoegaze/electro fun. Admission is free.

  How Web Sherrif is cleaing up town, one polite email at a time.

  The story behind Penny & The Quarters’ “You and Me” as featured in the movie Blue Valentine:

  

• The oopsupsideyourhead randomiser

  June 8, 2011 @ 9:04 am | by Jim Carroll

  Podcasting, we’re podcasting: the latest Irish Times’ Culture Podcast, hosted and presented by arts blogger Laurence Mackin, features Fintan O’Toole talking about how Irish theatre is avoiding the big issues, while Una Mullally and myself have a chat about Forbidden Fruit, Primavera and other music festivals. Have a listen to what we have to say here.

  Wonder will any Irish festival extend in the future to two weekends? Actually, I wonder will there ever be the demand for an Irish festival to extend to two weekends. That’s what has just happened with Coachella which will happen next year over two weekends in April. Per the organisers of the Californian fest, “we will attempt to produce two identical festival weekends. That means same lineup, same art, same place, different people.”

  Q-Tip is coming to town (Dublin) in August (24, Button Factory) and, hopefully, we’ll also get to see Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, Michael Rapaport’s documentary about his former band which opens in the U S of A in July, over here too. Q-Tip himself has had, er, issues with the doc.

  Radio moment of the year: a listener to the Ronan Collins Show on Monday claimed that Villagers “The Pact” sounded very like the theme tune to Postman Pat. Ronan played the two tunes back to back and scratched his head, as did most of the listeners. Later, it transpired that there was another theme to Postman Pat in addition to the one Ronan played but the DJ had, sadly, left his Postman Pat compilation CD at home.

  Want to go on a cruise with Diplo, Tommy Lee, Skrillex (I know some OTR readers are already panting with excitement), Fatboy Slim and other electronic music dudes? Thought so.

  U2 just can’t catch a break, can they? Tax issues, Spider-Man problems and now, number 74 with a bullet. And you thought number 74 was a bus not a chart position. Boom-tish.

  Something for the homeboy who has everything.

  Crowdsourcing is the new rock’n'roll. Here’s Colin “Son of Tom” Hanks on why he used Kickstarter to get the cash to fund All Things Must Pass, a proposed documentary on Tower Records. Meanwhile, Ten Past Seven are using FundIt to record a not-for-profit EP and, good news, the Mixtapes limited edition artists book from the Glucksman Gallery in Cork is now fully funded. And crowdsourcing really is the new rock’n'roll: per Hypebot, Kickstarter has added over $13 million to the music economy in just two years.

  When young Hanks finishes his documentary, he could always bring it to the Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival in Gortahok, Co Donegal. This year’s festival runs from June 10 to 14 and its 30 strong programme will feature such docs as Better This World, Donor Unknown and Men Of Arlington.

  More crowdsourcing: if you have an idea for an innovative, exciting, creative or ground-breaking panel or solo presentation at next year’s SXSW, the SXSW PanelPicker wants to hear from you. The PanelPicker will be seeking ideas from June 20 to July 15. To get you in the mood, have a look at some of the 2,500 proposals from last year’s PanelPicker here.

  Happy birthday Kerrang! The metal and hard rock mag is celebrating 30 years on the racks at the moment. It’s outlived Sounds, Melody Maker and tons of other music titles.

  Champion cauliflower grower and former bearded Maltese falcon Billy Lyons turned us onto Kreayshawn at the weekend. You’re going to love this…

  

• The pre-Primavera randomiser

  May 23, 2011 @ 9:28 am | by Jim Carroll

  This post is brought to you by hundreds of Irish music fans crossing their fingers because of this.

  Those not heading to Parc del Fòrum for the weekend should head instead to Whelan’s in Dublin on Thursday night or the amazing Camden Palace Hotel in Cork on Friday for a night with Jinx Lennon. If you can’t make the gig, make sure you download “Hungry Bastard Hibernia” from his Bandcamp site, a free album of tracks which didn’t make it onto his last two albums “Trauma Themes Idiot Times” and “National Cancer Strategy”. Album goes live on Thursday.

  Or you could check out Sade at Dublin’s O2 on Wednesday night (a gig I’m not happy to be missing). Here’s the story of Sade’s wild years.

  And if you’re still stuck for something to do, check out the Katie Kim and Laura Sheeran gig at Whelan’s in Dublin next Sunday (May 29) which is to mark the release of a new split-single on the Flaming June label.

  “What’s Goin’ On” is 40 years old this year and naturally, there’s a box-set on the way to mark the occasion. OTR wants one.

  OTR readers will remember our good friend Alexander Mamut from a few months ago when the Russian multi-billionaire bought into HMV. Now, Al (as we call him when we meet for a game of bridge) has purchased Waterstone’s from the group for £53 million. The plan now is to reposition the chain as “a regional and local community-orientated bookseller”.

  Good analysis from Ben Sisario on eMusic, now that it seems intent on saying hello to EMI’s catalogue and saying goodbye to the likes of Domino, Beggars and Merge.

  From the songwriting department: the men and women in the shadows who write the hits and the songs which changed some songwriters’ lives.

  The only way in which Julianna Barwick’s gig at the Unitarian Church in Dublin on Friday night would have been better is if we’d replaced the pews in this wee diamond of a venue with beanbags. A gorgeous balm for the ears, Barwick’s ethereal set soared higher and higher as the night went on. Smashing opening set from Elaine Mai too. Thanks to Leagues at Harmonic for asking OTR to get involved with this show.

  One of our favourite Irish albums from Zero Ten was “Doom Your Cities, Doom Your Towns” from Melodica Deathship AKA Tim Ording and George Brennan. Check ‘em out at work on old and new tracks in 2fm the other week here.

  Who gets what from Limewire’s $105 million fine.

  Am I the only one who hasn’t noticed new ticketing agency Ticketgroup doing business in the Irish market? Yeah, I reckon I am.

  Here’s Kool Herc’s guide to old-school New York hip-hop venues. Or you could join JDL from Cold Crush Brothers on his walk around the Big Apple’s hip-hop haunts.

  Rejoice, hungry indie rock peasants, Steve Albini is in the kitchen! At long last, people can link to an Albini article which is not this.

  Live Nation goes raving! This can only mean one thing: MCD will be bringing back Hi-Fi before you know what’s going on. Or buying the Life festival.

  Money, money, money: the Warner Music deal without any mention of any bands or acts.

  Divatastic. We canI blame the husband, right?

  And finally, some new Diddy to send you on your way. You have seen part one, right? Big up Crego for the links.

  

• Unblogged

  May 9, 2011 @ 8:08 am | by Jim Carroll

  On the Record is off the record until Monday May 16 due to, er, stuff. I’ll be updating comments during the week so please feel free to use this post to recommend gigs and new albums, give out about stuff, make random observations and the like. I’ll be at The Great Escape in Brighton from Thursday so all recommendations about bands I should see there welcome. Full report on TGE to come next week.

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