Broken Social Scene Presents... Kevin Drew (live in Tripod, Dublin)

Review Snapshot: With a blistering new album and a back catalogue of modest repute to boot, Kevin Drew must find it hard not impressing audiences. Here with BSS aficionados Brendan Canning, Justin Peroff, plus members of American Analogue Set and Treble Charger, the capacity Tripod is gradually stirred from any ideas of a relaxing Sunday evening.

The Cluas Verdict? 8.8 out of 10

Full Review:

Starting off slowly with an acoustic rendition of Gangbang Suicide, Drew gave a slow greeting until the drums kicked in with a controlled ferocity by Peroff. Things gradually picked up as Drew knocked the complementary booze back. Introducing the audience to his so-called solo work with Tbtf, F--ked Up Kids, Lucky Ones, Frightening Lives and the quite magnificent single Backed out on the…, it’s hard to find any defined distinction in the general sound from Broken Social Scene. That is of course a thing to be cherished. I, like many, was none too happy at the news that the super group were on hiatus indefinitely after their Electric Picnic appearance in 2006. 

Songs from the Spirit if… album all have that familiar precise carelessness to their sound: light acoustic guitars, magnetic riffs, effective electronic touches and the ever-present jangle that is the trademark BSS sound. But Drew is back with a new fire in his belly and socks on his wrists (no one seemed to know or care why) and judging by the leaner Brendan Canning song that was played, the prospect of further Broken Social Scene presents… albums is indeed something to wait for with bated breath. The band have one or two forgetful moments but it's done without losing any vitality to the set.

Whilst his own songs will inevitably be embraced as part of the new BSS canon, it is Cause=Time (the "best song in the world" according to the dude in the toilets), Stars and Sons (the song that eventually kickstarts the gig) and Lover’s Spit that received the most applause. With time the latest will most likely fit comfortably with these classics as crowd favourites.

The sound, as at any BSS type gig was a bit ropey at times and at times bordered on distortion due to the movements and instrument changes, but it was reigned in and harnessed the sound, giving some of the softer songs a harder edge.

My one problem with the gig was its lack of Ibi Dreams of Pavement or KC Accidental purely from a disappointed fan point of view, but I am convinced that Kevin Drew and co. have the potential of playing the perfect gig in any situation. Whether it is dance, chill out acoustic with jazzy trumpets or straight up rock, (not forgetting the sweet sleaziness of a drag queen that imbues his songs with a gentle, yet adult, nip to the lyrical ear) the Broken Social Scene crew can seemingly do it all

As the unfortunate end approached the audience were reluctantly compelled to belt out U2’s Where the Streets have no Name. The look on most people’s faces said “screw it” and let rip with knowing smiles, and it's that unabashedness that makes Drew such a likeable performer. Drew teased the crowd with his chant of “where was the kid who f—cked me in the ass”, the opening lyrics to the ten minute show-stopper It’s All Gonna Break but instead we were sent home to the merry singalong of When it Begins.

The rest of the band crowd around mics at stage right as Brendan Canning strums along and Drew conducts the audience to end a superb gig. It seems to be a goodbye to friends old and new rather than an anonymous crowd in a nameless city.

Daire Hall

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We saw Quebec indie-rockers Malajube at La Maroquinerie in Paris last night. Despite a sluggish start (with - our bad luck - a relatively listless version of 'Montréal -40°C', our favourite song of theirs) they soon picked up steam. Literally - the place was roasting and clouds of mist were rising from the overheating crowd.

No one suffered more from the heat than lead singer Julien Mineau. For some reason he had decided to wear a platinum-white moptop wig that hung sheepdog-stylee down to his upper lip, completely covering his eyes and nose.

He was obviously hot under there - two songs in and already the poor guy was leaking buckets of sweat (and probably nostalgic for the minus forty degrees of home). Perspiration was pouring off him, running down the front of his guitar and spraying the front row teenage girls whenever he made a sharp movement. We hadn't seen such hot sweatiness since that time in Pigalle when we [Snip! - CLUAS Legal Department]

Despite Mineau's socially embarrassing discharges, his band played a storming set made up mostly of cracking tunes from their 2006 album 'Trompe L'Oeil'. We dug the music, but even your blogger (with his fluent French) had problems comprehending the band's Quebec accents - and they didn't help matters by deliberately exaggerating or putting on fake French accents. The Quebec accent is a source of ridicule in France - only today someone explained to us why punters last night were playfully heckling Malajube with shouts of 'Skiddooo!'

La Maroquinerie (the name signifies the building's former life as a leather goods factory; the 'maroc' comes from Morocco, traditional land of leather production) is a smashing little venue - the gig space is a cavernous cellar, and up on ground level there's a nice, spacious bar and restaurant. Already this year we've been there to see excellent shows by Peter Bjorn and John, The Decemberists and Simple Kid (who gave a masterclass in winning around an audience). It's in the 20th arrondissement, a bohemian district of Paris that's full of fine little bars, restaurants and concert venues (our beloved Flèche d'Or is there too).

As for Malajube, they now have a healthy following in France. As well as playing Paris, they also visited Rouen, the city where Joan of Arc also suffered badly from the heat. Warding off the flames, here's Malajube treating local website Domino TV to an acoustic version of 'Montréal -40°C'. That's 'mon-ray-AL MWAN kar-ONT' to you:

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Variety reported on 16/10/2007 that Apple in the United States was cutting the price of songs it sold via i-tunes that did not have copy protection software (DRM) from $1.29 to $0.99 per song. Although Apple said this was not in response to Amazon's entry into the market in September 2007 with an offering where songs without DRM sell for $0.89 to $0.99 it does appear to the casual observer that the consumer is regaining some of their traditional fair use rights in relation to copyright material as a result of Amazon's entry and this is more significant than the just announced price drop which puts songs without DRM at the same price as those with DRM.

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Suffering from how-Radiohead-have-utterly-changed-the-music-industry fatigue yet? Yeah, me too. Despite this I have one final blog entry relating to the release of 'In Rainbows'. It'll be the last one from me, I swear.

I wrapped up my 'Radiohead in smooth download shocker' blog entry last week hoping that techie details of how Radiohead delivered the album would be released so that other acts in a similar position could at least go about a similar venture in an informed way. The details I was hoping for? They are at last out.

This weekend some fascinating (well, fascinating to a saddo wanna-be geek like me) information emerged about the infrastructure used to deliver 'In Rainbows' last week. If you downloaded it on its release date you probably saw the MP3s, despite my fears of a meltdown, coming at you really, really fast. To be honest I was baffled at how they managed to do it, but there was no denying they had pulled it off in style. Now we know how.

Cutting to the chase Radiohead - as I hoped - brought in some proper guns to help deliver the album. They tapped the services of PacketExchange, a UK-based company who basically have a global infrastructure in place that allowed Radiohead to (wait for it - we are concentrating aren't we?) bypass the public internet.

It took me a while to wrap my head around this but basically it means that when you clicked on the link to download 'In Rainbows' your request was sent over the internet to Radiohead's server but (still concentrating?) the ZIP file containing the MP3s was not sent back to you via the internet. If it had been sent via the internet the ZIP file would, in order to get to you, have been routed through any number of 'routers' on the public internet that direct traffic to its final destination. In the developed world these routers (imagine them as traffic lights at a junction) are usually quite robust and nifty but they can get 'clogged' with extreme surge events (such as 10s of thousands of fans suddenly trying to simultaneously download a 48 MB ZIP file from a single server). To overcome this potential meltdown-of-part-of-the-public-internet scenario Radiohead did a very smart thing: they bypassed the whole damn internet. As you do, like.

In real terms the full 'journey' of the ZIP file from Radiohead to fans took place on an extremely fast, private global network owned / managed by these PacketExchange guys (see it as a dedicated highway with traffic going in only one direction and with no junctions). Only at the last possible moment (i.e. when the 48MB file was within relative spitting distance of your internet connection) did the ZIP file leave the private network and hop on the internet to complete the last virtual mile of its journey to your PC. Yes, yes, I have simplified it all a bit but, in essence this is what happened. A simple idea, but very, very smart.

It is only now clear to me that what happened last week - very fast, problem free, digital delivery of a brand new album by a major artist to 100s of thousands of fans on a single day without any record company support - was not a once off. There is now no doubt that any established act in a similar contract-free position as Radiohead (stand up Trent Reznor and, er, Oasis) now have no excuses to digitally distribute their future recordings - and to do so competently - with all this knowledge on the table.

May they just tip their hats to Radiohead in recognition of their mother-of-all proof-of-concepts for music downloading. They have turned into reality something that probably started out as nothing more than an idea scribbled on the back of a beer mat.

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A judicial hearing in Toulouse has granted conditional early release to Bertrand Cantat, singer with French rockers Noir Désir.

Cantat (43) has served three and a half years of an 8-year sentence for killing his girlfriend, actress Marie Trintignant, during a violent argument in a hotel room in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2003.

The court agreed with lawyers for the singer that Cantat had been a model detainee and had 'made efforts at social readaptation'.

However, the judgement stipulated that Cantat is not allowed to make any public comment on the case or his offence.

This essentially precludes the singer from performing or recording any songs that refer to the death of Trintignant or to his culpability in the matter.

Noir Désir's record company, Universal France, have previously stated that the band's contract remains in force and that new material is awaited.

Cantat will leave the prison in Muret, near Toulouse, tomorrow (16 October). A media frenzy awaits him, as does renewed controversy and public debate about a perceived lack of adequate protection for women who are victims of domestic violence. France has also been rocked by recent cases involving repeat offences by convicts on early or temporary release, though the court in Toulouse today was satisfied that Cantat would not re-offend.

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So all of France is in a state of gloom after being knocked out of 'their' Rugby World Cup by the old enemy.

And if that wasn't depressing enough, there'll be a transport strike this Thursday. President Sarkozy wants train drivers to give up their extra pension benefits so that they'll have the same retirement age and wrinkly-money as the rest of the public service.

To Sarko's surprise, the train drivers would prefer to keep their benefits - and so the rail unions are all out on Thursday. There's a legal obligation on the unions to provide a minimum transport service on strike days, but it remains to be seen if this will be honoured. There's also the possibility that the strike could continue for days or even weeks, as happened in the winter of 1995.

Anyway, the strike reminds us of a French song you sometimes hear on the radio in Ireland and elsewhere - a jazzy little ditty that goes "Je ne veux pas travailler..." You know the one we mean?

Of course you do. The song is called 'Sympathique'  (which means 'nice') and it's from the 1997 debut album of the same name by a 12-piece jazz-lounge-pop band called Pink Martini (left). Strangely, despite the heady Gallic flavour of the song, the band aren't French - they're from Portland on the west coast of the USA, home to The Dandy Warhols, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and many other alt-rock bands.

Also, even though it sounds like an authentic artefact from the days of Edith Piaf and Josephine Baker, the tune was written by the band's core duo, singer China Forbes and pianist Thomas Lauderdale. But they didn't write the lyrics, which come from a piece of whimsical verse by the celebrated early 20th century French poet and man-about-town Guillaume Apollinaire. (Among his other feats: he coined the word 'surrealism', was accused of stealing the Mona Lisa, received a serious head wound in the trenches of World War I, died of Spanish flu two days before the Armistice and was buried in Pere Lachaise.)

The song came to prominence when it was featured in a TV ad for the Citroen Picasso (very useful in times of transport strikes), and it seemed to spread in popularity by word-of-mouth and occasional radio play. Your future blogger, before The Great Leap Frenchwards, recalls hearing it a few times on Ray D'Arcy's show on Today FM around 2001-02.

However, you might be surprised to learn who claims to have been the first to play the song in Ireland - none other than football commentator George Hamilton (right, on television). Now, we hasten to add that George wasn't spinning discs during Irish international games - he hosts a fine little music show called 'The Hamilton Scores' on Lyric FM on Saturday mornings. George also writes an interesting classical music column for the Irish Independent every Saturday.

[On a related football commentator/music DJ point, did you know that the Irish Top 30 chart show on RTE radio in the 1960s was originally presented by Jimmy Magee?]

For such a sweet little song, 'Sympathique' is actually quite subversive (the French rail unions would no doubt approve). The chorus goes: "Je ne veux pas travailler / Je ne veux pas dejeuner / Je veux seulement oublier / Et puis je fume" - in other words (i.e. English ones), "I don't want to work / I don't want to have lunch / I just want to forget / And so I smoke". In both French and English, 'smoke' here is clearly understood as being of the Cheech-and-Chong kind.

Pink Martini have just released their third album, 'Hey Eugene', which continues the band's cabaret sound and tradition of terrible titles and album covers (their second record was called 'Hang On Little Tomato').

Anyway, out of solidarity with our fellow-workers, here's Pink Martini and 'Sympathique'. The video is anything but sympa, by the way:

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Mos Def (live in the Village, Dublin)

Review Snapshot: With technical difficulties and a delayed start, Mos Def needed to win over the impatient crowd in a big way. Unfortunately, due to the patchy nature of his set, this didn't happen and ultimately made for a disappointing gig.

The Cluas Verdict? 4 out of 10

Full Review:
9pm: I've been standing here, waiting for Mos Def to arrive, for so long that I'm expecting three Mos Def's to come along at once. I am a sweaty member of an impatient crowd waiting for things to kick off. According to our tickets, the gig is from 8-11pm, so most of us arrived about an hour ago. Three hours seemed an unlikely duration for a hiphop gig, so I was expecting a support act or at least a DJ set before Mos Def's appearance. Instead, for the past hour they've been playing what sounds like a brass band/hip-hop mix-tape over the soundsystem. It was vaguely distracting for the first half an hour but now I'm trapped in an uncomfortable full-bladdered, cold drink-craving limbo; too afraid to leave my sardine tin position for fear the mighty Mos Def will finally emerge.

10pm: The crowd begins to vocalise its impatience. The initial murmurs of dissent build to a crescendo of booing, which spreads through the venue like a disgruntled mexican wave. I join in enthusiastically.

10.45: Finally, yes finally, Mos Def emerges, citing technical difficulties for the delay. (Actually I can't hear him very well but I presume that's what he said.) The crowd are surprisingly forgiving and the boos metamorphosise into welcoming cheers. It seems the audience are determind to enjoy the show now that it is finally underway.

The show begins and the biggest crowd-pleasers seem to be from Mos Def's acclaimed 1999 album, Black on both Sides. 'Mathematics' and 'Ms. Fat Booty' go down particularly well with the audience. After rambling on about his respect for fellow artist Madlib (who is apparently at the gig) for a bit, he also showcases a brand new track called 'Auditorium'. He either says that this was inspired by Madlib or a collaboration with Madlib, but given the seriously dodgy sound quality of the ill-fated Village, I can't make out which. There is also some old school material in the form of a track by BlackStar, his early collaboration with fellow hip-hop artist, Talib Kweli.

His performance of these tracks is energetic and the crowd is responsive. However the overall gig is far less than the sum of its parts, making it difficult to fully enjoy. The flow of the set is interrupted by random accapella warblings and intermittent DJ sets. Don't get me wrong, his DJ is playing some great tunes. Marvin Gaye's 'What's going on', for one, is a fantastic track. If I heard it on an average night out, I'd be more than happy. It's just that, after paying to see Mos Def, I was expecting to hear, well, Mos Def tracks. As though sensing the crowds' impatience, he lanches into a particularly stirring rendition of 'Umi says'. It is certainly a gig highlight, but coming so close to the end of the set, it is simply a case of too little, too late.

12.30: An unusually subdued audience obediently files out of The Village to the welcoming cool air outside. Expectations were high and due to problems with the quality of the venue and Mos Def's patchy performance, this gig simply failed to deliver. The general atmosphere on leaving the gig is one of resigned disappointment.

Máire T Robinson

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"It's just interesting to make people pause for even a few seconds and think about what music is worth now. I thought it was an interesting thing to ask people to do and compare it to whatever else in their lives they value or don't value."

Those are the words of one Jonny Greenwood, whose band, you may have heard, released a record yesterday.  They were in answer to the following question:  'Why give people the option to pay whatever they want?'  Posed by the New York based Gothamist blog.  It's rare for Key Notes to swear out loud in work but, upon reading Greenwood's comments, an expletive or two may have slipped out.

You see Key Notes, working as he does in the marketing industry, (and yes, thanks, he does know he's the spawn of Satan) was less than impressed with all this talk of Radiohead changing the face of the music industry and, alongside Promenade and other blogs, was very sceptical about In Rainbows and its 'revolutionary' method of distribution.   While yesterday was D (for download I assume?) Day for most of the interweb and blogosphere, Key Notes bored the soon to be Mrs. Key Notes to death lamenting the demise of CDs, of tapes, of vinyl and of Commodore 64's. 

'Cheap publicity stunts will be the death of music!' was one of the phrases uttered but, having read Greenwood's interview this morning, Key Notes is prepared, possibly for the first time ever, that it may have been wrong.  The thought of placing a value on what music is worth had just occoured before.  Key Notes, like most people, usually just buys its albums in the €15 to €25 price range, grumbles for a bit about 'rip-off' and forgets about it.  But to place a value of a piece of music, something that you may well have been waiting months or years for, well that's something totally different. 

Key Notes wonders then, of the thousands of people who paid very little or even no money for In Rainbows yesterday, how many of them consider the record as worthless or indeed, upon listening, how many regretted not paying more?  Of course, the answer is probably going to lie in the amount of people who order, or, more tellingly, don't order the Disc Box.  

However, Key Notes would be interested to know how much you paid for In Rainbows, and how much you think it is worth?  Answers on a postcard or you could just comment below.

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