I think that people should be staying with the topic of best of 2004. Looking forward to the poll that Eoghan mentioned. Think that I posted enough acts up on my earlier post for everyone to be busy searching to support and discover new Irish acts.

good call on the wrens we share our US label with them lot, they're ace 8)

new acts of 2004 for me alphastates life after modelling the chalets gary dunne declan o rourke cathy davey the chakras established acts bellx1 turn ian archer i know im forgetting loads oh yeah kerb great thread and people less hostility - thers enough of it already in the world

Come back, Tilda!!! You rock!!!!!!!!!

just read all this all now. it's funny - flippermanfella turned up with his jove loving ways at a very convenient time, no? i think i know somebody in jove...the name sounds familiar. if i'm right, they are extremely careerist(nothing inherently wrong there,i suppose)...but it's interesting that a friend of mine recently made a remark to the guy(from jove) about how jove were just a bunch of muse copyists...judging by the statement that there is "room for both jove and muse in this world" it seems that it hit a sore spot(probably wasn't the first to suggest it either).i've never heard them.if they are a cut price muse then i'm not likely to love them, but fair enough. they sound naive and well meaning, and will probably eventually be mildly embarrassed by all this nonsense.

i think Jove have been rumbled,kerb, yer silence is deafening!

To be honest, I think rock bands per se are in a fallow period right now. The bands being mentioned, some of them are good, some of them so so but culturally - in America at least - country music is back on the rise, whether y'all like it or not. Bruce Springsteen and John Mellancamp (two of my fav artists and both respected within Nashville) went on the campaign trail against Bush but it was top Nashville denizens Brooks and Dunn who got played at the acceptance ceremony. Indeed it was country act Dixie Chicks that started the whole debate in the beginning. Which is why Hard Working Class Heros was behind the curve and, in my opinion, irrelevant to new directions in music. If y'all want to sign those acts, go ahead, but some of the hottest new acts in America right now are country: Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson and Josh Turner. And they sell records by the shedload.

Which gets back to my point that I don't think there is an act in this country regardless of genre that deserves a deal.

Plea to the well-respected CLUAS masses: Can we steer this – and, for that matter, all other - topics away from smug negative comments or insinuations? Let's keep it constructive (as the vast majority of you do). Let's try and avoid any temptation to derail topics off in directions different to that intended by the person who kicked off the discussion. If there is a new angle emerging from a discussion, start a new topic and off ye go on a constructive rant. Deal? The reality is that there's often enough a thin line between this discussion board delivering engaging discussions of interest to all and sundry and it lapsing into pot shots and anonymous jibes. I don’t want to have the moderating team to go all hardcore and stop blocking users or IP numbers (which we can do). It’s not our preferred style. And is it any surprise that a newcomer to these parts – flipperstired – thinks out loud about not bothering to hang around the discussion board any more after some of the cloak’n’dagger stuff that he saw going down? Look, I and many others have put enough effort trying to turn this discussion board and website into some sort of constructive resource for those passionate about muzak (and yiz ain’t seen nothing yet, baby). So let’s not turn newcomers away, because it is only through newcomers that the site will grow in terms of content and diversity of constructive opinion. Vandala was mentioning about IP numbers of users and the possibility publishing them on the site (What’s an “IP number” you ask? – in a nutshell, every computer that is connected to the Internet has a unique IP number that identifies it). While the moderators have access to IP numbers, I do not plan to publish them for all to see. And with regard to this thread I have checked out IP numbers of various people who have contributed to it and I have no concerns after my little investigation. Before I sign off I confirm that I am going to lock this thread and anyone who wants to continue to talk about its original theme (the best of 2004) can post something to this already existing thread which relates to the CLUAS 2004 readers poll: http://www.cluas.com/discussion/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3700 If you want to rant constructively about other points brought up on this thread then start off another topic. But keep it between the fences. Deal? Okay. Sorry if I sound a bit marmy and school teacher-ish but, bloody heck, it can get a bit, er, frustrating sometimes. Know worrah mean? Cheers. eoghan