All eyes on next U2 album after poor reissue sales

Jim Carrollon music

That sound you can hear in the background is the sound of the U2 machine cranking up. With a new album due in the next couple of months,­ the appearance of the perennial "U2 tapes stolen" story must be just around the corner - and the band have announced another batch of reissues.

The Live At Red Rocks DVD and the Under a Blood Red Sky live album will be released on September 26th.

The band, record label and assorted interested parties will be hoping this bout of catalogue pimping will produce better results than their last reissue campaign.

The revamped and remastered Boy, October and War albums have sold poorly in Ireland. In the three weeks between the release date on July 18th and August 7th, Boy and War accumulated less than 900 sales apiece, while October shifted just over 600 copies.

Of course, reissues have a limited appeal and are usually viewed as long-term catalogue products. However, U2's lavish reissues did receive a lot of media attention, and the poor sales indicate possible fanbase fatigue. The real attention, though, will be on the reaction to the next album. A new U2 record has always been seen as an event release and something that gets people into the record shops. But changes in how the retail sector operates, and especially in how music is distributed, has meant such event releases are now largely a thing of the past.

With this album due to appear on a Universal label as usual, any intentions the band may have had of doing a Radiohead with the release don't appear to have materialised.

Meanwhile, the band's new partner at Live Nation - which has inked a multi-million dollar deal with the band covering touring, merchandise and website activities for the next 12 years - will be hoping that the band hit the road early in 2009. That's where the real money is to be made - and the live shows may even help to flog more of that back catalogue.

Grotto get good buzz in US and gigs at home

The Guggenheim Grotto are a Dublin-based trio who have flexed most of their promotional muscles to date in the United States.

Aside from hugely positive reviews from the US print media for their Waltzing Alone debut album, the band have also enjoyed placements on a rake of TV shows, including Brothers & Sisters, One Tree Hill and Men in Trees.

What's helped their cause Stateside is important radio support from such taste-maker shows and DJs as Nic Harcourt at KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic on the Santa Monica-based KCRW and David Dye at Philadelphia's WXPN.

The band release their second album, Happy the Man, in September and play Irish dates throughout September and October.

The skinny indie cometh

There's always room in the live music bed for independent promoters.

The Skinny Wolves crew have been putting on "art-rocking music you can dance to" shows for quite some time in the capital, including Effi Briest, No Age, Numbers, Aeriel Pink, White Magic and Indian Jewelry.

Their October line-up features Lovvers (Boom Boom Room, 3rd), Brooklyn experimenters Telepathe (Whelan's, 4th) and The Creeping Nobodies with Anni Rossi (Boom Room Room, 11th).

They also have a co-promotion with Maximum Joy at Whelan's on October 17th with Chicago heavyweight post-punk mob Mahjongg, Belfast thrash-dance act Not Squares and Mervyn Craig of Redneck Manifesto's solo project, Cochon And On.