To be honest, although I am a big fan of both Johnny Cash and Ray Charles I was not that hot on their respective biopics 'Walk The Line' and 'Ray'. After seeing them, one after the other, I got the two of them mixed up so similar were they in terms of the base storyline; dirt poor Sourthern boy, guilt ridden over the death of his brother and struggling under the influence of hard ass domineering parents, leaves home to make his way in the music business. So 'Dewey Cox' was, to the say the least, fresh air, skewering the po-faced storytelling and pretensions of those target films in much the same way that MAD magazine would send up big hit movies within its pages. Having said that, any movie which features Lyle Lovett and Jackson Browne doing what they do best, gets my vote. Here is a personal favourite moment from 'Dewey' in which the too sweet by half lovey dovey performance of a certain country music duo is lampooned to great effect.

 

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Forget pubs and clubs. The best place to find a typical Chinese 20-something at 1am on a Saturday morning is at a karaoke palace. Karaoke is only in its infancy here, compared to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Top of the pile, Taiwanese owned Partyworld, runs 15 outlets on the Chinese mainland (six in Shanghai, four in Beijing and two in Shenzhen). The company only has 17 in Taiwan, where the market is more mature, a Partyworld executive told me today. Like many Chinese bosses he's very tight with details and figures. The call was to tell me the company is scouting cities for new clubs. A Partyworld means jobs. Each club hires an average 300 staff though four hundred staff man the company’s largest, spread over a massive 10,000 square metres near Eastern Huixin Bridge. 

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Artist: P.I.L

Title: 'Album'

Released: 1985

Note: Although the single 'Rise' put Johnny Lydon and co back in the charts and onto Top of the Pops, 'Album' worked as a cohesive whole and was selected by none other than the South Bank Show as a highlight in their 1985 end of year review.

Best Track: 'Ease'

 

Artist: Robie Robertson

Title: 'Robbie Robertson

Released: 1987

Note:  Daniel Lanois, U2 and Peter Gabriel all collaborated on this album which completes a trio of classic 80s albums that include Joshua Tree and SO.

Best Track: 'Fallen Angel'

 

Artist: Kate Bush

Title: 'Hounds of Love'

Released: 1985

Note: Possibly the greatest concept album of them all and certainly the sexiest sounding. 'Cloudbusting', 'Running Up That Hill' and the title track are all classics but our favourites are 'Under Ice' and 'Jig of Life'.

Best Track: 'Cloud Busting'

 

Artist: The Cult

Title:  Love

Released: 1985

Note: The guitar lick for 'She Sells Sanctuary' is possibly the greatest of them. Dark, gothic and containing probably the silliest lyrics ever heard on a classic album

Best Track: 'Rain'

 

Artist: The Sisters of Mercy

Title: Floodland

Released: 1987

Note: This record actually contains the silliest lyrics ever heard on a classic album and represents the zenith of Jim Steinman's producing career. If a mountain could write music, it would sound like this.

Best Track: 'Dominion / Mother Russia'

 

Artist: Simple Minds

Title: Once Upon A Time

Released: 1985

Note: The black, white and gold cover art and the stadium wide sound production were obvious influences on the Joshua Tree which was released two years later but, for my money, this is more fun. Over the top lyrics were married to epic soundscapes which, combined with a fantastic Croke Park gig that climaxed with a lightening storm make this one of my all time favourites.

Best Track: 'Alive and Kicking'

 

 

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A review of the album 'Opium' by Mark Geary

Review Snapshot: Well, it's not poppy, and neither is it addictive. Unadventurous, overserious, monotonous and lacking in individuality and personality, 'Opium' embodies all the worst traits of the Irish acoustic singer-songer sound.

The Cluas Verdict? 4 out of 10

Full Review:
In August 2004, promoting his album 'Ghosts', Mark Geary gave an interview to the Irish edition of the Sunday Times. In it, he was at pains to distance himself from "the Whelan's lock-in crowd" (the Dublin singer-songer circle that frequented the well-known bar and venue) and "the Glen and Damo scene".
 
Recounting his experiences with American record companies and promoters, he also spoke of "fighting for your right to fail" - a line from the album's title track. (Angered by this self-contented lack of ambition, your reviewer criticised Geary in an opinion piece on the conservatism we saw as rife in the Irish music scene.)
 
Four years later, Geary is back with his new album, 'Opium'. The intervening time has seen him grow closer to the Glen and Damo scene - Hansard provides a photo for the record's poster and lyric sheet. And 'Ghosts' enjoyed favourable reviews and punter interest, so he can't claim to be a loser any more. Can he?
 
But no, on 'Opium' Geary's worldview hasn't changed. He's still less 'I came, I saw, I conquered' and more 'I feel, I fall, I fail' - three ideas that recur through the songs here.
 
Musically, 'Opium' is unremarkable and predictable; it mostly tends towards the downbeat alt-country rhythm favoured by unimaginative acoustic-strummers. Ann Scott's sweet vocals on 'Facin' The Fall' make a refreshing change, but she can't save the track from its maudlin destiny: "We got nothing, nothing at all / Facin' the fall." There are no memorable melodies or instrument parts on 'Opium'; all the musical content is unobtrusive strumming or shuffling, subordinate to Geary's monotonous delivery.
 
True to singer-songer form, whenever Geary takes a break from tracking developments in his navel it's to attack The Man. From under the bandwagon he takes half-hearted potshots at the usual distant targets like "the corporate climb" in 'Atrophy', "the churches and your killing fields" in 'Always' and "the soldier / Drunk on power" (and not "drunk on Powers", as your reviewer thought on first listen) in 'The King Of Swords'. Someday, some brave and intelligent singer-songer will take a deadly tune to concrete local issues like criminally under-resourced health services, so that The Man will lose an election. It could even be Geary, if he starts taking some chances with his music.
 
We found it a bit rich to hear these lines in 'Tuesday': "I don't like your catwalk eyes / Leave your prejudice aside". This is the traditional singer-songer attack on soul-less superficiality, here equated with narrow-mindedness. But isn't a singer on stage just as much a role-playing performer as a model on a catwalk? Fortunately, a couplet from 'Always' neatly sums up the sensitive, self-centred singer-songer persona: "If you're listening, I'll begin / To pay for pleasure, gonna bruise my skin."
 
Lots of people love this genre of music, and that's fair enough. But it's comfort-food for the overserious indie-kid, no more or less artistic and soulful than your Vegas MOR diva showboating about love cutting her heart like a knife. Unlike more inventive and idiosyncratic peers such as Mumblin' Deaf Ro, Cathy Davey or Simple Kid, there's nothing on 'Opium' to distinguish Geary from the masses of self-pitying bedsit buskers.

Aidan Curran

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

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A review of the album 'The Tiny Pieces Left Behind' by Joe Chester

Review Snapshot: The album overall left me cold. I was disappointed because it's always good to hear a new album from an Irish artist that is fresh and has the potential to wow, but I'm afraid that didn't happen for me here.

The Cluas Verdict? 5.5 out of 10

Full Review:
I admit, often to others' disdain, that I am a singer-songwriter fan. Rufus Wainwright, Sam Beam, Glen Hansard, Ryan Adams, Sufjan Stevens and many others count among my favourite singers. All have different styles but  they each have a unique, strong voice and the ability to speak through their music. They're my trusted voices, and I'm always happy when I go back to their albums, any of them. Unfortunately Joe Chester is not going to find a place up there with them just yet, not with this album.

I came to Joe's new album with eager anticipation. I enjoyed 'Murder of Crows', Joe's 2004 debut, but I found there was too much going on with this album. The move away from the acoustic sound of his earlier stuff just didn't work for me. The songs blended together and save from a few highlights the album didn't leave too much of an impression.

The album starts out strong but to my mind doesn't deliver after that. There is sameness to it, I'm not sure if it's his voice or the melodies but I found myself skipping some of the songs as I listened to it for the third or fourth time. 'Maybe This Is Not Love' opens the album. It's a catchy track and sounds like it could be a possible summer single, I imagine it would get radio play. It's upbeat and to my mind the best track on the album. 'Something is Better (than nothing at all)' follows and doesn't quite measure up; there's not enough variety in it and the repeated chorus just crawls along.
 
'The Bodies Start to Move' sounds more like Joe from his earlier work so I was disappointed when the music took over and all but drowned out his voice. 'Fluorescent Light' showcases some nice harmonies with Gemma Hayes. Their voices work well together but again I don't know if there was enough there to sustain five minutes. 'To Hold Onto Melting Love' has a melodic, piano tinkling intro and a simple arrangement. It veers towards a traditional air as the track progresses and it actually works well.

'Why Things Break' never rises above its lacklustre beginnings, nor does'Long Distance Friend' where again I found his voice competing with the music. 'Alarms' unfortunately is my least favourite song on here, I actually found it difficult to stick with it for the entire five minutes 25 seconds. It's repetitive and the least melodic song on here.

The album is one to have on in the background but I don't think the songs jump out at you, save for a couple. I think the length of the tracks also had something to do with it. Four of the tracks are over five minutes long and it's hard to sustain a good melody for that length. 

Celine O'Malley

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A review of the album Colours of Sound by Autamata

Review Snapshot:  Electronica didn't really do much for me before listening to this record, and while listening to it hasn't inspired me to go clubbing in Ibiza (or wherever it is kids go these days) this summer, Colours of Sound is certainly a record that can be loved by those whose musical taste hasn't previously stretched to electronica.

The Cluas Verdict?  8 out of 10

Full Review:
Going to a disco in a small County Kildare town left you with two options.  You either liked grunge, and therefore moshed, or you liked 'rave' (or at least 2Unlimited's watered down version of it) and wore X-Worx jeans. There was no middle ground allowed, lest you wished to be associated with country and western.  It was a tough and unforgiving upbringing with lasting consequences as my decision to wear striped jumpers and ripped jeans while listening incessantly to Nirvana was one that has distanced me from electronica since.

So it was with apprehension that I approached Colours of Sound, the third studio offering from Ken McHugh and co, otherwise known as Autamata.  I was aware of the band, but I can't say I had to much inclination to listen to, let alone purchase any of their material.  Album opener Effervescent changed all that.  A beautiful instrumental piece, it's haunting melody doesn't so much set the tone for the rest of the album as pull you in to its arms like the whispered words of a new lover and then bang, by the time Cathy Davey lends her vocals to Cloud Seekers you've embarked on a full blown love affair with Colours of Sound.

Like all relationships, it has its rough patches.  Come Party at my House and Inter-railing don't feel as natural as the rest of the album and at 6 minutes and 33 seconds A Drive Through the Countryside comes across as a little self-indulgent on the part of McHugh but to be fair, if I could play as many instruments as he can, I'd be showing off too.

The best review I can give Colours of Sound is that it made me feel like I'd woken up in a Joan Miró painting.  Initially the minimalism drew me in but the more I explored the more I found myself in awe of the mountains of sound and rivers of colour.  It's an experience I'd highly recommend. 

Steven O'Rourke

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In the late afternoon of New Year's Eve 2002 I was in a record store in Pamplona, Spain. The shop was in a modern quarter full of apartment complexes, not the old bull-running town centre. There wasn't a great choice of records to buy. The only one that interested me was 'I'm So Confused' by Jonathan Richman, because one of the songs, 'When I Dance', had caught my ear late one night on the radio and it sounded like my kind of catchy alt-pop.

But I wanted to save my money for going to Paris two days later, so I left the CD on the shelf. I didn't buy 'I'm So Confused' by Jonathan Richman in that small music shop in Pamplona, and that decision has had a disproportionately huge effect on my life.

In Paris I looked for the album but I couldn't find it. I went to nearly every record shop across the city and it wasn't there. I became a bit obsessed with it. This was bad news for the French girl with me, who was being dragged across town and back so that I could find some obscure CD. Later, I would wonder why things didn't work out with her.

Back in Dublin, it wasn't in any record shop either. I knew this because I forensically searched all of them. And so, instead of picking it lovingly from the tree of music, I had to descend to the level of ordering it from some warehouse in Arsebucket, Illinois. (Not only do I never order music, but I never download it either. Like with books, I have to find records in the shop after much traipsing over town and rummaging through racks.)

The album arrived and I loved it; multicoloured alt-pop songs with a pitch-black undercoat of despair and loneliness. The songs are from the time of Richman's divorce, and in all of them he's at less than top-of-the-morning form. He's either feeling socially awkward ('When I Dance'), physically threatened ('Nineteen In Naples'), rejected ('The Lonely Little Thrift Store'), insecure ('Love Me Like I Love'), heartbroken ('True Love Is Not Nice') or depressed ('I'm So Confused'). And these are the uptempo numbers.

Of course, listening to the album got me thinking of the French girl, which made me feel like Richman in those songs. So, I was consoling myself with a record which went some way to bringing me down in the first place. "What if I had bought it in Pamplona...?" I wondered.

The following year Richman brought out a new album, 'Not So Much To Be Loved As To Love'. He was happily in love again, and his new songs were every bit as drippy and naff as the title. I was so appalled that I felt the need to warn the wider world. So I wrote my first CLUAS review. Four years later, here I am back in Paris and still writing for CLUAS.

It feels somewhat strange and significant, then, to see Jonathan Richman play here in Paris last night at the Nouveau Casino. These days he's still relentlessly lovestruck and happy, so there's no room on the setlist for any of those dark songs from 'I'm So Confused'. 

However, Modern Lovers fans still get to hear acoustic versions of 'Pablo Picasso' and 'Girlfriend' (spelt "G-I-R-L-F-R-E-N"), and the more recent cult favourite 'I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar'. But Richman's uneasy relationship with his own back catalogue, like your blogger's discomfort with using the first person singular pronoun, means that he doesn't play the remarkable 'That Summer Feeling'. (He didn't sing 'Give Paris One More Chance' last night, so Irish fans shouldn't hold their breath for 'Rockin' Rockin' Leprechaun' or 'Just Because I'm Irish'.)

Richman plays the whole show in Spanish-guitar style, as well as singing several numbers in Spanish, so the set tends to blur into one flamenco-lite medley. His only accompaniment is his long-serving drummer, the admirably stoic Tommy Larkins (also his wingman in 'There's Something About Mary'), who gets plenty of solo time whenever Jonathan decides to drop the guitar and start dancing. You'll either buy into Richman's innocent joie de vivre or you won't.

After Paris last night and London tonight, Richman has a short Irish tour this weekend, starting at Whelan's in Dublin on Saturday night (10 May). He then heads up to Belfast on Sunday for the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, and finishes at the Roisin Dubh in Galway on Monday 12 May. Go and see him.

Here's a song you probably won't hear Jonathan Richman play this weekend; the title track from 'I'm So Confused'. You know a bit too much about your blogger now, we fear:

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Looking for something to do over the June Bank Holiday weekend?  Then look no further than The Pod Complex on Harcourt Street where Soundtrack 08 kicks off, showcasing past, present and future soundtracks to the venue.  Tripod and Crawdaddy in particular have been favourite venues of Key Notes since their re-development and so this blog has no trouble recommending Soundtrack 08 as the perfect way to kick off Ireland's festival season, and best of all it's indoors, so you don't need your wellies!

Taking place over 9 nights, all tastes and orientations are catered for.  While there are lots of interesting acts performing; the following three bands are without a doubt the highlights for Key Notes. 

Tapes & Tapes
There are stupid reasons to like bands - for example Key Notes has a fondness for bands with long titles - but Tapes & Tapes are a favourite for this blog because of one of those 'hillarious' mis-hearing of lyrics episodes that we are all prone to.  Being the militant vegetarian that he is, Key Notes once ranted and raved about the Tapes and Tapes song 'Hang the Bulls' for fifteen minutes saying how it was a terrible attitude to have to animal rights etc.  It was only later, and more sober, that this blog went on to discover the song was actually called 'Hang Them All.'  Since then Key Notes has quite enjoyed what he's heard, especially 'Le Ruse', taken from the bands 'Walk it Off' album.

You can check out the video for 'Hang the Bulls Them All' here:

Midnight Juggernauts
When people like Justice and Pedro Winters start calling you their favourite band of the year, you know you must be doing something right.  It's not really hard to see why they are so popular either.  Mixing a blend of cosmic disco and synth-rock, every review seems to describe them as a meeting between two relatively different artists.  Not being one to buck a trend Key Notes would like you to imagine Air jamming with T-Rex whilst experimenting with various illegal substances.  Beat that Pitchfork!

See for yourself with 'Shadows' taken from the recently released 'Dystopia' album.

Public Enemy
Not only is this Public Enemy, but this is Public Enemy performing 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back' - in Key Notes humble opinion the defining moment in Hip Hop's history - in its entirety!  Often mentioned in various 'Greatest Album' lists, it's influence is huge, most likely because of the way it showcased other artists talents by using a huge range of samples (approx. 75) over the albums 16 tracks.  Time magazine famously described this album as 'Loud, obnoxious, funky, avant-garde, political, uncompromising, hilarious.'  It's all of those things and it's a lot more besides.

Don't believe the hype?  Okay, well here's 'Don't Believe the Hype.'

Tickets for Soundtrack 08 are available from all good ticket retailers.   More information on the festival can be found on the POD website.

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On a call this morning with Betty Heywood of NAMM, the US-based international body representing makers of musical instruments I learned that one of the least likely victims of the economic turn-down in the USA are Chinese instrument makers. Ambitious local brands like Pearl River are hurting as house-building slows down means fewer grand pianos are going into the living rooms of middle-class America.

The slump in the USA and rising raw materials costs globally (caused largely by China's rise) means rising costs for instrument makers Jumps have been particularly sharp in traditional Chinese instruments – often made of imported hardwood – rose 162 percent. Liu Sheng, Maketing manager at Shanghai Piano Co.Ltd, a private company exporting 20 percent of its mid-to-upper level pianos - The US and Europe and US, Germany and France are top three markets tells me that rising wood and metal costs are forcing the firm to spend 5% of the revenues are spent in R&D “We'll stimulate our sales by improving our technologies.”

Some of the companies I've talked to, like massive Korean-owned Sejung which makes guitars and pianos in Qingdao, say they're cutting costs through  local sourcing of parts like wood and strings. Others will just sell more at home, to ever-wealthy Chinese. Nanjing Moutrie & Schumann Piano Manufacturing Co sells two thirds of its 6,000 pianos to Fujian and Guangdong. 

 

Like its cars though, China's instruments definitely have an image problem. Guitars made in Japan and the US boast better materials and sound quality, says Wu Ligen, a technician at the maintenance department at GAid, a rare guitar. “You can easily tell the difference in listening to the timbre of a Chinese and then a Western or Japanese made guitar.”

It may all just be a matter of time before China has a brand of its own to rival Gibson or Steinway. I also talked earlier with Wang Gentian an avuncular bureaucrat who runs the China Musical Instrments Association from a comfortable new office in Beijing’s Fengtai district. “If western peers compete with us in making traditional Chinese instruments they wouldn’t be able to match us,” he said. Wise words.

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It was the summer of 1987. I'd just turned 13 and I was working for my father as a labourer, mixing cement and carrying blocks on a building site on an orchard farm in County Armagh. I was earning 10 quid a week. I was working with grown men for the first time, trying to appear worldly and mature. That didn't last long once my uncle found out that I fancied the orchard owner's daughter and that I was too scared to do anything about it. (I found out that she fancied me too. That scared me even more.) I remember being glued to the Wimbledon tennis championships as a I was a rabid Stefan Edberg fan (so was the orchard owner's daughter...). But mostly I remember attending my piano lessons on a Thursday evening when Victor, my piano teacher, would spend most of the lesson playing records - The Alex Harvey Band, Led Zep, The Pet Shop Boys (!)... The summer of 87 was great, I was growing up and I was growing to love music.

That summer was also all about the Michaels - Jackson's Bad and George's Faith. Surely two classic of the finest pop albums of the 80s, I agree... but, for me, Midnight Oil's Diesel and Dust was the album of the year, if not my childhood. It was sensational. Beds are Burning was an incendiary single (pardon the pun). A song that evoked the outback and heat and was as uncompromising as Peter Garrett's haircut. I bought the tape from Gene Stuart's Record Shop on Irish St and, quite literally, played it until it died. I'm sure I had at least three copies of that album in a short period of time (do you remember when your tape player used to chew up only your favourite cassettes?). 

Colombia are re-releasing the album complete with a DVD documentary of their outback Blackfella/Whitefella Tour, an experience which inspired the album and its focus on Aboriginal rights. Alongside Beds Are Burning, Dead Heart is the emotional hart of the album and the classic Sometimes ("Sometimes you're beaten to the core/Sometimes you're taken to the wall/But you don't give in") was a clarion call to the original inhabitants of Australia - don't give up. Just a few months ago, the newly elected Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, apologised to all Aboriginal people for past wrongs. No doubt Peter Garrett, his Minister of the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, was a proud bystander.

For me, Diesel and Dust is the classic Australian album. This re-release is a great excuse to get acquainted with one of the best rock bands of the past three decades. Unfortunately I never got the experience an Oil live show - did any of you?

 

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