Not going to spend too much time on this, Dennis Wilson was a legend and was the only Beach Boy who could actually surf. His surfing in turn inspired Brian Wilson to write the soundtrack to the Californian Surf Experience, a legacy that Cali is still trying to shake off in 2008. 'Pacific Ocean Blue' was Dennis' masterpiece and it is now available in a deluxe legacy edition. Check it out at this link.

Pacific Ocean Blue

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Metronomy (live in Andrew's Lane Theatre, Dublin)

Review Snapshot: As it turns out, Sunday evening in town was dead. Due to a ghostly combination of rain, bleak wintery weather and possibly it just being Sunday, Metronomy attracted a small crowd. The result was disappointing.

The Cluas Verdict? 5 out of 10

Full Review:
Sunday evening in town was spookily quiet. When we arrived at Andrew's Lane Theatre punctually at 11pm, the lights were on and nobody was home. There were a couple of organisers standing around and when I mentioned I was on the guest-list they didn't even need to consult a list: 'Sure, yep, grand... but come back later, sound check is on now.'

Eek.

Funny vibes from the beginning. When we finally arrived back after 12pm, David Kitt's new project 'Spilly Walker' was bopping about onstage, playing to an almost empty venue. There were about twenty people sitting around. The act was somewhat akin to the new singer-songwriter type: basically an acoustic-based musician who has just discovered their laptop. This fad must end soon (I hope). There's something almost archaic about it: it feels that even though they're trying to go forward with technology it holds back real talent. I mean, how much can you clap for a one-man show with a machine? There might be someone out there who sees Spilly Walker as the next step for singer-songwriters, but to me it came across as stilted and dull.

In fact, the most exciting part of that support slot was the group who were throwing around those multicoloured bouncing balls you used to get in 20p machines outside sweet shops.

When Metronomy came on, the crowd swelled a little and in fairness they really danced like maniacs, despite there being so few people there. I just expected Joseph Mount to be onstage (the solo laptop affair again) but he was joined by musicians Gabriel Stebbing and Oscar Cash. The three of them performed Kraftwerk style dancing with their keyboards, and really got involved for 'Radio Ladio'. For me, it seemed more Kraftwank than Kraftwerk - it felt too much like a re-hash of something that's been done so many times before.

If you have ever been in a Euro shop frantically purchasing cheapo products for festivals, you may have spotted round lights that look like Mentos mints. Metronomy hung these around their necks against black tee-shirts and flicked them on and off at various points during the tracks. The act was a bit too gimmicky for me - it may have been effective in a larger venue but because the venue was so small, the lighting didn't really cut it. However it was a bit of fun and the lit-up guitars were pretty funky too. Again if there had been a larger crowd or a larger venue the effect would have looked a lot more exciting onstage.

Metronomy played a couple of their new tracks including 'Holiday', and the effects were quirky and upbeat. They also turned out some of the delightful circus-style music from 'Pip Paine.' The final track 'You Could Easily Have Me' was definitely the most energetic and bringing the electric guitars into the whole thing woke everyone up.

As Metronomy is one of my favourite artists, I was shocked at the small turn-out and equally astonished that the gig was a disappointment. The small crowd really gave it all they could though and Joseph Mount ended the gig by calling it 'a perfect ending to a perfect day.'

Awww. You can't get a sweeter ending than that.

Niamh Madden

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Dan Deacon and Jape (live in Vicar Street, Dublin)

Review Snapshot: Anyone in Vicar Street for last Saturday's Future Days Festival was in for a treat: Deerhunter, Dan Deacon, White Williams and Jape were all outstanding. Jape was somewhat of an anti-climax after Dan Deacon (who should have headlined), but the love at the venue was massive and the buzz after Dan was sweaty, electric, otherworldly. 

The Cluas Verdict? 9 out of 10

Full Review:
It was strange being at Vicar Street so early. The venue was close to empty when Brooklyn duo High Places came onstage. The gig warmed up slowly with a couple of curious onlookers nodding their heads to the beats. Though High Places knocked out a couple of wickedly intense tribal percussion pieces, the pair just didn't have enough charisma to warrant looking at. Ping-pong ball noises, shaky and scratchy erratic beats led into a more ambient Buddhist lounge style; Mary Pearson's vocals however sounded flat and she held a faraway look throughout the performance, as if trying to determine whether or not she'd left the iron on.

Remember those Mini Melodicas you had when you were growing up, before you realised that rockstars don't play instruments that are rainbow-coloured? Well it seems that at almost every gig I've been to lately, a band has played said instrument with renewed childhood gusto. White Williams did this, as well as mixing some funky electro indie with a more 90s sound and look (lumberjack shirts included). Some tunes had lots of alien synth effects while heavier, rockier tracks were purely for a crowd that the lead singer hoped were 'ready to mosh'.

When Deerhunter came on they exceeded all expectations. The crowd began to pick up the pace. Head-nodding turned into springing, springing turned into light jumping and dancing. The band mashed loud distorted sounds with a fiery harmonica on the stand-out track. They played a kind of old-school tingly rock with moments of euphoria, frenetic drumming, and fragments of stillness. When they finished the crowd was happy, shiny, loved up, anticipating Mr. Deacon - who of course had been wandering around the crowd chatting with everyone, smiling and generally just looking contented.

Everything about Dan Deacon is big. Big shorts, big glasses, big presence, big sound, big happy smile. And when the venue went pitch black for Dan, the crowd got bigger too. Everyone was close to bursting with excitement - you could almost feel everyone's hearts open. Dan Deacon doesn't do stages. He plays amongst the crowd, and has a light that he shines over the fans as he makes them do whatever he asks - at the beginning of the gig he told us all to 'Shut up! Shut up! You, shut up too!' Brilliant. We were then asked to raise our hands, form fists, point in the air and sink to our knees. The first track came on as we got up. Dan's trippy green skull was at the centre stage and flashed on and off as the crowd began moshing, hugging, crowd-surfing, going insane. It's been too long since gigs were like this; it makes you wonder where the whole nod-heading, thigh-tapping, style of gigs has come from. 'The Crystal Cat' made everyone go nuts. Dan made us form a huge circle around a wee spectacled boy in a Superman tee-shirt. 'Superman is gonna high-five everyone,' Dan told us. Every time you got a high five you had to run around in a circle high-fiving as many people as you could for them to join the circle. Just picture an entire crowd running around Vicar Street in a circle. For 'Snake Mistakes' we had to run through a line of people forming arches with their hands clasped together in the air. Everyone was smiling. Everyone joined in. When 'Wham City' came on people were completely at one with each other and the entire venue felt soaked with a kind of insane, sweaty, psychedelic love. The only negative thing about the performance was that Dan didn't play last.

When Jape took to the stage, the energy level was still up, but not quite as crazy. Richie Egan did look as though he were slightly off his face, but he put in a powerful, fun performance and was like a bubble of energy onstage. The crowd-surfing continued. Some of the tracks from the new album didn't sound as polished as they could have, but the crowd didn't care at that point. The final track had everyone dancing, bouncing, exploding. After the gig there was a buzz in the crowd that I haven't felt for a long time, and a sense that everyone had experienced the craziness of Dan Deacon. There's also something curiously close about sweat that seems to bind folks together.

Niamh Madden

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First things first, Sound Waves was against the Lisbon Treaty and viewed the YES lobby as attempting nothing less than selling out the Irish People and the Irish Constitution of 1937. In fact, Sound Waves took the view that either the YES lobby did not understand the true implications of ratifying the treaty or they were lying through their teeth. How against are we ? Lets put it this way, in the 2009 local elections we will be voting for Sinn Fein and to be honest Sound Waves would not be a Sinn Fein supporter. Let me qualify that, we are going to vote Sinn Fein but only as long as they do not strike a vote transfer deal with anyone, individual or organisation that supported a YES vote for Lisbon, or alter their position on Lisbon.

I'm not sure when or where the penny dropped that the EU, after enlargement, was not some big Pro-Paddy love in but I suspect, intimations of it came when Dustin was being booed at the Semi Finals of the Eurovision in the former stronghold of the genocidal mass murderer Slobodan Milosovic, Belgrade. Friendly people the Serbians, as long as you don't live beside them, or near them, or anywhere that they can reach by tank. I guess Dustin got off light, a little booing is certainly better then being raped, shot in the back of the head and then dumped in an unmarked, mass grave. But hey, that was back in the 1990s. Now I'm not anti the former Eastern Bloc, I'm just pro democracy and human rights, issues that EU member states such as Poland and Romania have an, at times, less than firm grasp as may be seen with regard to their role in rendition, something that the EU itself rebuked them over.

But I am digressing. You see, I didn't understand why we would send Dustin or even why some Irish people expected that he might do reasonably well. It appeared to me that Europe in general would not get the joke in the same way that Italian game shows would be incomprehensible to us in Ireland. I just didn't expect the booing and neither did all those Irish people tuning in to see Dustin roasted live on air. Perhaps, just perhaps the penny dropped that the EU was not that friendly a place to be and that we need to hold on to our existing assets, such as a Constitution so robust and vital that it ensured through the legal action of Raymond Crotty that we got to vote on Lisbon in the first place, for dear life.

In one sense Dustin's Serbian adventure was a failure, but on another level, I suspect we owe the bird a debt of thanks.

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Being involved in writing about music has meant Key Notes reading a lot of books about music and musicians in particular.  Some biographies, such as Heavier than Heaven, are really interesting because they give you a genuine insight into the person, warts and all.  Then there are those, especially the ones written by big haired 80's rockers, that focus more on the protagonists ability to snort the GDP of a South American country than on the person behind the haircut.

Every now an then though, a work of genius comes along.  For Key Notes, that genius is Mark Oliver Everett, or E to his friends.  Having only a passing interest in Eels (Beautiful Freak and Electroshock Blues remained in their packaging until this weekend) this blogs curiosity was piqued when its friend Alison informed him that E was, in fact, the son of Hugh Everett, originator of the multiverse or 'many worlds' theory in physics.  Key Notes likes physics because, more than any other science, it allows scope for imagination. 

Last week, Key Notes went to Rome on holidays (nice history, horrible airport, people & traffic - CLUAS Verdict: 4 out of 10) and brought Things the Grandchildren Should Know with him.  However, as can happen, Euro 2008 (oh yeah, and culture and stuff) got in the way of actually reading the book, that is, until the plane journey home.  Upon reading that E's first physical contact with his dad was holding his cold, lifeless body at the age of 19, Key Notes was hooked and read the entire book during the 3 hour journey home.

I'm not going to spoil the book for those of you who haven't read it.  But for anyone who thinks they're having a tough time of it at the moment, think again.  How Everett has dealt with the amount of tragedy around him, particularly its timing, is almost beyond belief.  An inspiring read, so much so that Key Notes removed Beautiful Freak and Electroshock Blues from their plastic wrapping this weekend and was very well rewarded.  If you read one book this month, make it Things the Grandchildren Should Know.

And here's the song by the same name:

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Back in October last year I predicted that within 6 months the Irish Times would remove its insistence on payment being required to access the vast majority of its content. Well, 6 months came and went and there were no such changes on ireland.com.

However it might be that my prediction was about six months out as, in the last week, there has been indications that the Irish Times is getting ready to restructure its online services, allowing free access most of its articles. The sooner they do, the better for them. And Irish web surfers.

But what about that other Irish pay-to-view website, Hotpress.com? When will they also see the light and knock down what is becoming a more and more pointless pay-wall?

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June 21 is Fête de la Musique, France's annual national music day. Towns and villages around the country organise free open-air concerts, while many music venues also drop their cover charge for the night. On a less positive note, there are buskers nearly everywhere.

Thanks to the Dublin branch of Alliance Française, French ex-pats and Irish music fans can join the festivities.  Let's French is a concert series that features an interesting line-up of quality artists from various genres. We feel the organisers should have called it Let's France (slogan: put on your red shoes and dance les bleus), but maybe that's just the Bowie fan in us.

The festival, now in its third year, opens at The Village on the night of Fête de la Musique, with the Paris jazz of Les Grandes Bouches and an afrobeat DJ set from Babalonia Club. (Aside from Let's French, at Crawdaddy the same night you can see the brilliant Keren Ann, honorary Frenchwoman.)

The party doesn't stop when 21 June passes; Let's French continues until the start of July. You can swing, go-go and twist to the retro sounds of Amsterdam Boat Club, who'll be DJ-ing at The Palace on 26 June. Admission is free.

We've already told you about the Plastiscines/Lauren Guillery show at the Andrew's Lane Theatre on 27 June. Those hard rocking French girls will be joined by The Urges for what promises to be an excellent triple-bill.

The following night at A.L.T. it's the turn of French DJ foursome Birdy Nam Nam. They've got four turntables and two microphones; expect serious mixing and soundclashing and stuff.

The festival ends in chic fashion on 1 July at the National Concert Hall. Jeanne Cherhal performs in the chanson française style that's loved by Paris bobos: poetic lyrics + skiffly backing music. It's not really our thing, but maybe you'll like it.

If you're going along to any of the concerts, come back and give us your impressions. Here are les mademoiselles des Plastiscines with their single 'Loser'. Irish guys, start practising your French chat-up lines: they're sure to be ultra-impressed by your "Alors, tu viens ici souvent?", "Tu sais, tu te ressemble à ma mère!" and especially "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?" Then let us know if you figured out what "Mais dégage, espèce de salaud! Au secours!" means.

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If you want to see what's hot in guitar bodies and hear what sounds good in amps or grand pianos, then be in Shanghai in the second week of October. That's when Music China hits town, a giant opportunity to source, sell or promote instruments in the work shop of the world. As I've reported here before, China is the world's number one maker of musical instruments - in quantity terms no one beats China for making and exporting pianos, guitars and drum kits. But China's middle class is growing and government here is spending ever-more money on public education programmes. Both are reasons why there'll be no less than five national pavilions at this year's Music China, set for October 9 to 12, at the Shanghai Convention Centre. Oxford University Press are joining the British Pavilion - they want to sell score books - while the Spanish Guitar Mastercraftsman's Guild will be showing off classical strings at the Spanish Pavillion. There'll also be special stalls from the Czech Republic and Taiwan. An eclectic grouping indeed. And all hosted (though the hard nuts and bolts work is done by Frankfurt Messe) by the China Music Instruments Assocation, whose chief mandarin Wang Getian was good enough to give me an interview recently. I'm now keen to talk to someone from the Music Industries Association in the UK for an insight into what the British pavillion, which it leads, wants from the show. Keep you posted.

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What’s the penalty for treason? For your Paris correspondent, supporting the Netherlands in Euro 2008 rather than his host country, the sentence was an evening of sublime football and explosive joy. By contrast, it was the French team and followers who were condemned to hard labour.

(Should our Irish readers judge us harshly, we need only mention that Ireland turned its back on the whole of Europe yesterday. Are you even watching European football any more?)

Last night Holland beat France 4-1 and played with a hyper-intelligent swagger, to borrow the words of David Winner, whose fantastic book ‘Brilliant Orange’ explains how Total Football expresses the Dutch psyche. Quite simply, this tournament is now Holland’s to lose.

Of course, they may yet lose it, seeing as how they’ve blown their share of World Cups and European Championships in the past. Bearing in mind that the reigning champions are dour Greece, football can be a game where rock beats scissors.

Your blogger watched the match in Le Port d’Amsterdam, a Dutch bar in the 2^nd arrondissement (postal district) of Paris. At kick-off the tiny bar was packed, half French and half Dutch (with one Irishman in the latter camp). By the end, when Wesley Sneijder decided to run down the clock by scoring a sensational fourth Dutch goal, the place was nearly all orange. Needless to say, the atmosphere there was incredible. A Dutch news crew was on hand to film this cell of orange subversives; our readers in the Netherlands may have seen us up the front of the bar, deliriously happy.

Les bleus, meanwhile, must now defeat Italy on Tuesday night and hope that Romania don’t beat the Dutch. But at least their fans have character. 3-1 down, the French supporters in the bar started passionately singing ‘La Marseillaise’ to encourage their team. Most of them blame coach Raymond Domenech’s conservative tactics and team selection; veterans like Thuram and Makelele looked past it, while young stars like Benzema and Nasri sat out the game on the bench.

Le Port d’Amsterdam is named after a song in French by Jacques Brel, a Belgian. Apart from showing joyous football, the bar’s DJs play kitsch, good-time soul and disco every Saturday night. If you’re in the French capital and up for a party, with none of the self-consciousness of most Paris clubs, we heartily recommend it.

Here’s Brel singing ‘Le Port d’Amsterdam’. Allez les oranges! Hup Holland!

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Talking with a friend doing business in Tianjin, host of several Olympics events (including soccer) this August, it's clear there's plenty of scams doing the rounds in the run up to the Games. In Tianjin foreign companies are targeted by scam Olympic-related events, says Juan Silvestre, who consults for companies like Airbus, investing in the industrial town a two hour train ride east of Beijing. He references a soccer tournament for foreign firms in Tianjin whose organizers disappeared after collecting participation fees and sponsorship. “It’s very common to be approached by people claiming special relations with government and Olympics.” Businesses, he said, are also often approached by local newspapers offering prominent coverage in reportage surrounding the Olympics in return for payment. 

Given the frequently cowboy nature of China's capitalism it's surprising there haven't been more scams. Unauthorised apparel bearing the logo of the Beijing Olympics is ubiquitous in Beijing. Enterprising businesspeople are all cashing in on the Olympic Games. A couple of foreign  businesspeople renting out apartments to Olympics visitors have been caught out by China's tightening of rules on getting Chinese visas. Beijing doesn't want anyone like pro-Tibetan or human rights advocates unfurling banners on Tienanmen Square. A Dutchman heading up the business has been left with a lot of real estate on his hands. But perhaps the hype about hotel rooms and homestay fortunes were all that hype: many visitors have been put off by China's new strict visa policies and the protests and counterprotests regarding China's policy on Tibet, earlier this year.

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