To get more info on Colm Lynch check out his website colmlynchmusic.com

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AC/DC may have once observed that Rock 'n' Roll aint noise pollution but trying to enjoy your music in Ireland's modern urban landscape is driving Sound Waves to distraction and that is because, to our sensitive ears, the levels of ambient noise that exist in urban centres like Dublin are far too high for the output of the average set of headphones. In fact, it is getting to the stage that the only place SW can listen to music is in the safety of their car at night on an empty road or overlooking a deserted beach at dusk. People, vehicles (SUVs and 4WDs are the worst), buses, construction sites all conspire to obliterate the ability to simply hear what is on your MP3 player and consequently you find yourself racking up the volume control just to assess what it is that is playing.

In fact, noise pollution is becoming such a problem that the Department of the Enviroment has issued a guide to noise regulations within Ireland. Perhaps its time for rockers to tell noise polluters to shut it.

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Last week I followed up Mosh, an intriguing Chinese url I'd seen on some rock concert posters and met the website's operations manager Roy – Chinese name Wei Xian - who told me about Mosh in the meeting room of a modest two floor office in the hulking mass of the Soho office towers near the Dawang Lu subway stop in Beiing’s business district. Mosh is a facebook for fans of trendy music and art. Corporate hotshot Zhang Rui left his job at Morgan Stanley to run the operation. “A lot of people thought he’s crazy but he thinks people need to meet people offline.”

Members "play together, watch shows and go to eat together," says Roy. With 200,000 registered members – they add up to 300 on a good day – the site has added 20 staff in a year to reach a headcount of 30. Mosh staff and promoters post event listings on the site but the idea is that members and users do the work: posting and commenting on shows, while arranging lifts to and from gigs with similar-minded music fans. The site takes a percentage of tickets it sells for venues like Starlive. Revenue from ticket sales however remains “very little and Mosh doesn’t intend it to become a main source of revenue.

“If there’s a show and you want to go you can find out who is going and you can then add them as a friend,” explains Roy. People check out your concert photos and which concerts you’re going to and then add you as a friend. Male members are in the majority but girls use the site functions more. Two areas he’s sees growing is sports and travel: members will seek travel companions.

Since most staff and users are rock fans Mosh now seeks art and, dare say, pop fans to join up. Management is particularly keen to have more content on local art events. Perhaps because it’s free an art show gathers a lot more user buzz: 300 friends will often group up on the site to visit an exhibition whereas the biggest crowd we’ve seen go to a rock concert is 100. Over 100 Mosh fans went to see James Blunt, also at Starlive, though Roy reckons he’s unimpressed: “in the UK he’s not that popular anymore.”

Most Mosh users are 25-35 year old professionals with the money to afford a James Blunt show. Arty-type students use the site to find like-minded fans of art and music.The site went into overdrive after the Sichuan earthquake, when rock stars organized charity gigs to raise funds for victims. “Big crowds came out to see 90’s legend Dou Wei play the Starlive venue near Ditan Park.

Most puzzling perhaps is where the money comes from. There’s no venture capital but “we don’t lack for money,” says Roy. Advertising hasn’t taken off yet. Stickers to pass around and plaster on venues and youth hostels as they go. Just as people crash together when moshing we want them to crash together on the website.

there are lots of ways Mosh.cn could make money. Music fans often trade CDs and DVDs on the site. Mosh.cn showed its distribution potential in the aftermath of the quake when members teamed up on the site to deliver relief supplies: Roy overheard a man in a supermarket telling the shop assistant he was sending two big boxes of milk powder to Sichuan via mosh members. “That made me very proud.”

An environmental science graduate, Roy spent much of his university time wandering between cities, looking for music and like minded types. Whereas Beijing has the best rock scene – “definitely the most bands” – he sees a regionalization of tastes. Shanghai fans like Britpop, the northern Chinese like metal and punk. Southern Chinese are more into “art music – they want thinking music, they don’t care about riffs or solos.” Northerners are obsessed with genres and copy. “They think, ‘I have to play just like the Americans or British’.”

This Radiohead fan like local band the Sand and Sober but dislikes the most talked about band in town, Carsick Cars, “because they’re too much about noise, like Sonic Youth.”  Carsick Cars have a huge following among Beijing's university community. The large shows are out of the reach of students who spend their RMB700 college allowance on CDs and books. “In a month they can usually only afford one show.”

The Mosh crew has plenty of time to tweak the systems since most rock concerts have been cancelled (partly due to a government clamp down on outdoor events in the wake of a pro-Tibet outburst by Bjork at her Shanghai show). The thinking is if there’s nothing maybe it’s a good thing. Before the summer slumber a memorable gig was the Children’s Day concert, June 31, by Muma to launch the band’s third album.

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No doubt you queued in the rain from the crack of dawn to buy the new Coldplay album, 'Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends'. Or maybe you just ignored it.

Either way, perhaps you noticed the album's cover (right), which reproduces a very famous French painting. As you've no doubt shouted at the computer, it's Delacroix's 'Liberty Leading the People', otherwise known as 'Liberty Getting 'Em Out for the Lads'.

The painting, from 1830, commemorates that year's overthrowing of Charles X, king of France under the Bourbon restoration. It depicts an idealised barricade scene from the French Revolution of 1789. (The dapper-looking rebel with top hat and bayonet is believed to be Delacroix himself.)

You can see this painting at the Louvre in Paris. It hangs in a grand hall of oversized French classics just around the corner from the Mona Lisa, probably the most famous painting in the world.

On the same wall as Delacroix's famous barricade scene is another iconic French masterpiece that has been used on an album cover. We're talking about Géricault's 'Raft of the Medusa', which was used by The Pogues for the sleeve of "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash". We hasten to add that the original painting doesn't feature the heads of the band.

While Delacroix's painting is a bit naff to modern viewers (much like Coldplay), Géricault's great work is still immensely powerful in its depiction of human forms twisted in agony.

There's a connection between 'Raft of the Medusa' and our other featured painting. Delacroix was the model for the young man slumped on his legs in the left foreground. (On the album cover, he's just over the word "The" of "The Pogues".)

Both Géricault and Delacroix are buried in the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, famous as the resting place of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde.

Have you been to the Louvre? If you've visited Paris as a tourist, perhaps you've dashed through in one afternoon to see the greatest hits: the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. It takes a full afternoon's brisk walk just to see all the paintings; the sculptures, Egyptology and other artefacts are each another day's work.

Fortunately for those of us who live in Paris, the Louvre is open for free on the first Sunday of every month. So, we can just stroll in and take the great museum one section at a time. The other major galleries of Paris, such as the Musée d'Orsay and the Centre Pompidou, are also free on the first Sunday. We've said it before; life here is good.

From the Louvre-referencing 'Rum, Sodomy And The Lash', here's a very '80s-London video for one of The Pogues' own masterpieces, 'A Pair Of Brown Eyes': 

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This edition features Daragh Anderson of Codes, who has taken time out from a busy schedule that includes gigs in London, The Academy and Oxegen, to become the Sixth Key Note Speaker.

Favourite Songs from the Past Year
Radiohead - All I Need
M83 - We Own The Sky
Idiot Pilot - In Record Shape
Unkle - Keys To The Kingdom
MGMT - Time to Pretend

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2008 will see Oxegen become a four day event for the first time.  Punters who have decided to stay on Thursday night will get to enjoy the Swamp Circus Theatre whose line up includes the smallest banjo orchestra in the world , a Headphone Disco and The Rocking Back the Clock Stage that will feature the likes of The Stone Roses Experience and AC/DC cover band, Hells Bells.

Friday July 11

Friday night see’s the Main Stage being headlined by the Kings of Leon and Interpol while the O2 Stage features the likes of dEUS and the Future Kings of Spain. For those of you who like their music a little more electronic, Aphex Twin, Battles and God is An Astronaut will all be appearing on the Pet Sounds Stage.

Irish interest on Friday centres on the Green Room which hosts the likes of BellX1, Mundy and (Key Notes’ personal favourite [/sarcasm]) The Kinetiks.

Key Notes One to Watch: Sugababes Cat Power – Pet Sounds Stage

Saturday July 12

REM and The Verve can be seen strutting their stuff on the Main Stage on Saturday night. Key Notes first ever gig was The Verve in Slane and he has a rather interesting tale to tell about the night. However, such immoral, not to mention illegal, activities should never become public knowledge. Saturday will also allow festival goers play ‘will she, won’t she’ with Amy Winehouse being the special guest topic.

The Manic Street Preachers, Echo and the Bunnymen, Vampire Weekend and The Ting Tings are all part of a cracking Green Room line up, as are the mental, which obviously means brilliant, Brian Jonestown Massacre. Irish bands performing on Saturday include Codes (IMRO New Sounds Stage), Concerto for Constantine (Green Room) and Belfast’s own Oppenheimer (IMRO New Sounds Stage).

Key Notes One to Watch: Codes (IMRO New Sounds Stage)

Sunday July 13

Far from being the start of a wind down, Sunday has quite a strong line up. The Main Stage plays host Rage Against the Machine amidst rumours (started by, and only known to, Key Notes) of an imminent album announcement. Elsewhere, dance is well represented by Does it Offend You, Yeah (Dance Stage) and Chemical Brothers (02 Stage). 

The British invade these shores (don’t mention the war - Ed) in droves on Sunday with The Kooks and The Fratellis both playing the Main Stage while Ian Brown and Reverend and the Makers can both be found in the Green Room. 

Irish performances on Sunday come from Oscar winner Glen Hansard and Roisin Murphy (Pet Sounds Stage) as well as The Blizzards (Main Stage) and Fight Like Apes (2FM New Band Stage). 

Key Notes One to Watch: Band of Horses (Pet Sounds Stage)

For those of you who want to wake up hungover, tired and dirty on Monday morning, but having enjoyed a great weekend of music, a limited number of weekend tickets are still available for Oxegen from the usual outlets.

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A review of the album Explode From The Center by Rubies

Review Snapshot: Swedish (we think) five-piece debut with a sound collection of works that - regretfully - seem too comfortable in their own skin to reach out and engage the listener in an anotherwise worthwhile listen.

The Cluas Verdict? 5.5 out of 10

Full Review:
Rubies are a five-piece built around the longstanding pair of Simone Rubi and Terri Loewenthal, and while all of their promotional material manages to avoid details of their geographical heritage, Rubies are as Swedish as Ikea – you know they’re Swedish, but don’t know exactly how you can distinguish it that way, it’s just something you know.

‘Explode from the Center’ is a very solid and distinguished album, and doesn’t at all sound like a debut. Whether this is a good thing or not is another matter – the album seems to lack the distinct, urgent freshness that classifies a great debut. Perhaps Rubies just aren’t that kind of band.

Despite the synthesis, the album has a consistent sense of timelessness, ably sitting comfortably in mental images from late 80’s warehouse raves to third millennium wine bars. The opening half of the nine-track opus is a promise of more energy to come; the latter, however, mostly disappoints, save for ‘Diamonds on Fire’, which hits stride with repetitive smacked guitar and muttered vocal riffs. Lyrically the strongest song of the album. “I could make it / so much easier on you / but it’s hard, it’s so hard”, sing the band, before growing into lush counterpoint with comforting warmth.

Opening with light funk guitar, ‘Room Without A Key’ settling into a light Sia Furler-esque groove before hitting an 80’s chord in the chorus, yet embellished with distinctly modernist vocal tweets, and smacks of a 4am red wine crash in a city centre shoebox, being followed by the lush acoustic and intimate synthesis of ‘Too Bright’.

'Signs of Love'’s Wurlitzer opening is reminiscent of Semisonic, and offers the first chance for Simone Rubi to really push her melodic chorales. “Lovin’ each other ‘til the end of Summer / into the Fall under we find another way / to stay inside our hearts” sings Rubi, with the kind of elegance that Morcheeba made an easy career from.

With a synth opening that Duran Duran could have relaunched with, lead single ‘I Feel Electric’ is made for a nightclub scene from an edgy independent drama (think Juno or the Sugar Rush TV series). A multiminded song, it ebbs, flows and glides its way through four and a half disco-tinged minutes with alarming invention and creativity, although sounding like a Casio keyboard’s workout demo song once it settles in the middle eight.

Second single ‘Stand In A Line’ opens sounding like it was tailor-made for an Orange ad with summery streetscapes and gently syncopated beats, and then flirting with funky hip-hop before detouring into the slap bass identikit R&B you’d hear in a mental image of a Topshop. “Did you notice your mind’s on fire?” asks Rubi during the hip-hop phase of this awkwardly adolescent opus – awkward in the sense that the song seems to take on phases just as arbitrarily as your average teen.

Elsewhere, 'Turquoise' opens with groggy plucking and settles into a sunburnt bop suspiciously like Bell x1’s ‘The Money’ before discovering gospel at the end with blaring saxophone and searing vocal backup, while the closing couple of Silver Mornings (conjuring images of tamely driving down a straight country road with nothing to amuse on either side and only one tape for the stereo. “This is what it’s like when it’s lonesome at night”, eh? Too right) and The Truth and the Lies bring the album to a muted close.  On the latter in particular, coming after eight songs desperate for a strum, when it comes it’s misspent on lazy, Feist-y (sic) oozing without direction. If you were to play the album coming in at 4am, this one would lead to a steady slumber.

‘Explode from the Center’ is a work of real promise but is ultimately crippled by its comfort in its own skin and the absence of a desire to reach out and engage. A good album in that it’s open for engagement, but not a great one without offering it in return.

Gav Reilly

 To buy a new or (very reasonably priced) 2nd hand copy of this album on Amazon just click here.

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It could be a landmark in China’s protection of music copyright: the music industry is sueing Baidu, China’s leading search engine by traffic, because it claims, much of the company’s wealth is down to its illegal downloads to users by deep linking or reorganizing song data into play lists in order to draw users.

In a case taken by major labels Universal, Warner and Sony – though not EMI, which has a contract to supply music to Baidu – are seeking US$9 million in damages in the case, which was filed with the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court. Outside the courtroom smaller music firms and bodies like the Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) are seeking other ways to hurt Baidu into action. Companies like R2G the court case is simply a test run: if found guilty Baidu is likely to be fined a small amount (Chinese courts limit the awards to RMB200,000 (EUR20,000 euros). But a guilty verdict could open Baidu up to a slew of further cases, in Chinese as well as foreign courts. The company’s US investors will surely be worried.   

I’ve been talking with Matthew Daniel, vice president of R2G, a local firm selling rights to international music catalogues in China, talks about wanting the big corporations and especially advertising companies involved. A well informed veteran of the local music industry, he sees the best chance for success in a multi-pronged offensive. Aside from tackling Baidu in court the music industry will also target its advertisers. By contacting its advertisers individually as well as bringing the company to court, it presents Baidu with a nightmare scenario of losing the case and its credibility with major corporate brands whose advertising spend has helped make Baidu one of China’s most wealthy and recognizable corporate names. Baidu has portrayed itself as a Chinese David against the Goliaths of the multinational music majors. Hardly the case, but it's a tactic that has some currency in ultra-nationalistic China.

Most encouraginly though, Baidu's hand may be forced by local Chinese record firms, whom bodies like the IFPI have been busily signing up as members. In the letters sent to advertisers Qu Jingming, vice president of the Music Copyright Society of China, pointedly asks advertisers “do you want to be associated with pirated music?" Qu's organisation represents 80 percent market share in China out of its well located and appointed office in Jingfang Plaza. The willingness to invite international press (though at short notice) to a recent press conference suggests a new intent to protect local music industry among state-sponsored bodies like the MCSC.

Protecting digital content is ever more important for the music industry. Global music sales took another tumble last year according to the IFPI, which represents the recording industry. A 34% increase in music sold online did little to compensate for the 13% drop in sales of CDs and music DVDs, which account for the bulk of the market. A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers forecast that spending on all forms of recorded music will continue to decline as youngsters turn to other outlets.

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When I first launched CLUAS.com in 1999 I used Microsoft’s FrontPage to publish and maintain content on the site. While FrontPage was, er, cutting-edge back then it today is a massively out-dated technology (indeed Microsoft announced several years ago that they are retiring FrontPage and will no longer support it from next year on). So in 2005 I started looking around for alternatives to FrontPage out of necessity.

I was acutely conscious that whatever choice I'd make would be vital for the site's future and so it took me over a year of pure procrastination to come to a decision on what technology I would deploy on CLUAS. In the end I went for an open source Content Management System called DotNetNuke ("DNN") which, after months of testing, I finally installed on CLUAS in November 2006.

DNN is actually a peculiar beast - an "open source software" project built on top of proprietary Microsoft technologies, a company considered by many to be the antithesis of Open Source Software. DNN is in fact today the biggest open source project today based on Microsoft technologies, and its active community strives to continually advance and improve DNN and oversee a release of a new improved version of the core technology every 3 months or so.

Another reason I selected DotNetNuke was that it has an extensive number of 'pluggable' add-ons (called 'modules') available that introduce new features to the core DotNetNuke platform, so users are not limited to the ‘core’ functionality. Some of these 'modules' are free and some you have to pay for (such as 'Active Forums' which drives the CLUAS Discussion Boards). However one thing I never appreciated when I initially chose DotNetNuke was the dependency CLUAS would come to have on one of the freely available modules – the Blog Module. This module allows for basic blogging functionality and we now use it on CLUAS for publishing all album and gig reviews, in addition to maintaining all the CLUAS blogs. In a nutshell a huge proportion of new content is today added to CLUAS via this module. The problem is that the blog module lacks much of the functionality and, let's call it, "visual panache" that comes with leading blog platforms such as Wordpress, Blogspot and others. The DNN blog module more or less 'does the job', and often not efficeintly or prettily

When I came across these limitations in the blog module I would, instead of grinding my teeth, submit an enhancement request to the DNN Blog Module team via the ‘Enhancement submission’ procedure they have put in place. To my pleasant surprise some of my  enhancement  requests got integrated into subsequent releases. I also became a regular on the official Blog Module forums and struck up some off-forum contact with other heavy users of the Blog module, including members of the team that are developing new versions of the module. Cutting to the chase , all of this resulting in the blog module's Team Lead Antonio Chagoury offering me a slot on the official blog module team about 2 months ago (as a QA tester and not as a coder, thankfully, considering I am not capable of writing a line of code if my life depended on it).

The last month has seen a flurry of activity behind the scene as the team - which also includes the very excellent Don Wortherly, Rip Rowan, Jim Bonnie and Dario Rossa - prepares the next version of the blog module (v3.05). I have been very active in all of this (identifying bugs, scoping out new functionality that would improve the user experience, etc) and I must say that the next release is really shaping up to be an amazing improvement.

While it won't be released for another month or so I plan to 'dog food' it here on CLUAS in the next week and the differences will be visible immediately to CLUAS regulars. While the CLUAS gig, album and blog sections will all look snazzier, some of the most important improvements will be invisible to casual visitors. There are a number of enhancements that will make the publishing of gig & album reviews and - of course - blog entries, so much easier for CLUAS writers. For example, those who publish content to CLUAS today will in the future be able to do so without even opening their web browser as the new version of the blog module supports the possibility for writers to publish content direct from their desktop (using the free 'Windows Live Writer'). The writers have for too long had to put up with a inadequate and cumbersome method of publication, now they will have a smoother route to getting content to CLUAS readers.

There are a rake of other improvements with the next release but I've bored you long enough so I'll put on the brakes, for the moment that is. What I will say (as I allow myself to get carried away about it all) it will be one of the biggest improvements to CLUAS in quite a while. Excuse the cliché but, watch this space.

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