A review of the album 'Carry The Meek' by Ham Sandwich

Review Snapshot: We could say that Ham Sandwich's debut is filling while having no filler, but that'd be very laboured and boring and 'Carry The Meek' is neither of those things. It's catchy and confident, drawing on '90s US college alt-pop and featuring an impressive performance from co-singer Niamh Farrell. With several radio-friendly singles already to its credit, this is the first of 2008's great Irish albums.

The Cluas Verdict? 8.5 out of 10

Full Review:
Ham Sandwich, a terribly bland name for a band? Au contraire! What other Irish act is getting this much attention just for their name? And it's surely no worse than calling your group something lame and unoriginal like Nirvana or Oasis.

At the other extreme, it's unfortunate that Podge McNamee's perceived wackiness has coloured many people's reaction to the band and their music. However crucial he may be to the band's visual image and live show, on record he couldn't be said to hog the limelight - he has few lead vocals, no epic guitar solos and there isn't any song here called 'My Name Is Podge'.

Contrary to those expectations, then, the Kells group's debut album is neither blandly boring nor irritatingly wacky. If anything, 'Carry The Meek' could have done with a bit more idiosyncrasy - it depends greatly on the familiar chugging rhythm of US indie bands of the last decade, and the slower tempo of the closing tracks (especially 'Sleep' and 'Thru The Grass') ends the album on a relative downer. That said, the anthemic 'Sleep' is a fine song, and second-last track 'Ashes' has an epic touch to it too.

The first half of the album has more character about it, thanks in no small part to the impressive Niamh Farrell. She swoons and soars her way through the charming 'St Christopher' and 'Keepsake' before turning on some serious rock n'roll attitude for 'Click... Click... BOOM!!!' The latter's thuggish bassline intro and triumphant chorus make it the album's standout track.

McNamee and his deep rumbling voice, as noted above, keep a relatively low profile and generally confines his vocals to backing or repeating Farrell's lines. Only in the middle of 'Never Talk' do the two sing different lyrics, and the song is all the more exciting for the dramatic tension it suggests. Perhaps this pair can capitalise on their strong personalities to greater effect in future, playing off each other more in their lyrics and arrangements to capture the two-up-front strike force of their live shows.

As for the album to hand, it's radio-friendly and well-produced by Karl Odlum, and the time devoted to recording it has paid off handsomely. And with all the attention lavished upon the band's two singers, let's not overlook main songwriter and bassist Johnny Moore, who has contributed some expertly-crafted pop songs (like 'Words') full of wistful romance and broken hearts.

Quite simply, this record sounds great. 'Carry The Meek' is a marker that other Irish albums of 2008 - and beyond - will have to match.

Aidan Curran

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The annual South By Southwest (SXSW) music convention opens today in Austin, Texas. Acts from around the world will perform in showcases and hope to catch the eye of record industry figures.

There's a sizeable French presence at this year's event. The French Music Export Office will hope to capitalise on a successful 2007, which saw worldwide sales of 27.6 million units for la musique française. As we noted in our recent Victoires de la Musique feature, though, that figure includes French-made albums by non-French acts like Feist.

Intriguingly, the French delegation will take part in what they call "a speed-dating session involving French and American music professionals." Always the old 'French lover' routine; works every time.

At the time of writing, 13 acts have been confirmed as representing la hexagone in Austin this week. However, like with Feist, the definition of a French act seems quite broad and almost arbitrary on the part of the French Music Export Office. The criteria is that the act's releases be produced in France, thus representing the French music industry. For instance, the French delegation is putting forward Digitalism - who are from Germany. But as their 2007 album 'Idealism' was released on the Paris-based Kitsuné label, the Teutonic techno duo find themselves on the other side of the Maginot Line for SXSW.

It's the same story for two other non-French Kitsuné acts. First, the LCD Soundsystem-esque Thieves Like Us. Two of their three members are Swedish and one is American, and the three met up in Berlin. And Los Angeles-based producers Guns n' Bombs were born in places like Italy and Denmark. No matter: for SXSW they'll all be wearing berets, going "ooh la la!" and so forth. Le French touch is certainly a useful flag of convenience for electronica acts hoping for an easy sale worldwide.

Similarly, many pop fans will be surprised to see the gentle indie-folk-pop of Herman Dune (left) lining out for France. Surely they're Swedish too? Well... no. The Herman Dune family have a French father and a Swedish mother, that's for sure.

But they see themselves as Gallic as Edith Piaf eating croissants while strolling down the Champs-Elysées: "The band is French," they unequivocally told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in January 2007.

There's also some confusion about the nationality of Yael Naim, also representing France in Texas. Born in Paris, she moved to Israel at a young age and grew up there. Naim returned to Paris in 2000 to begin her music career. The matter is complicated by current anti-Israeli feeling in France, including a call to boycott a prestigious international book fair in Paris because it features Israel as the country of honour.

In any case, Naim can claim dual nationality and as a French-based recording artist she (like Feist) also won a Victoire recently. Enjoying priceless exposure as the soundtrack artist to the current Apple MacBook advertising campaign, Naim is primed to be one of the big hits of SXSW.

No such nationality doubts about The Parisians. We featured their Libertines-influenced garage-indie back in 2006 when they appeared on the influential 'Paris Calling' compilation of new French bands. Continuing the Libertines connection are US-based Rock&Roll, chosen by Pete Doherty himself (so the story goes) to provide the music to fashion designer Roberto Cavalli's spring-summer 2008 collection.

Other French rock acts at SXSW are the Strokes-like Neimo and two Paris guitar bands with an eye to the dancefloor: Adam Kesher (actually a six-piece band with no member of that name) and Cheveu. The electronic contingent is completed by Fluokids, while The Rodeo (anagram of Dorothée, the singer's name, who also fronts a band called Hopper) will provide indie-folk back up Herman Dune (who are French, okay?)

So, those are the acts officially being presented at SXSW by the French music industry. But that's by no means the end of the Frenchness in Austin this week. Another 'Paris Calling' band, Brooklyn will be there, looking to build up momentum before the release of 'Clandestine' their debut album.  And you can count in yet another French electro act, The Toxic Avenger.

Here's our pick of the French acts at SXSW 2008: The Rodeo, performing 'I'm Rude':

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The 23rd Victoires de la Musique, the French recording industry's annual awards ceremony, took place at the Zénith in Paris last Saturday (8 March). The awards are the French equivalent of the Brit, Grammy and Meteor prizes. Your Paris correspondent was happy to see that many of our 2007 favourites were among the nominees, most of whom performed on the night.

The big winner on the night was Vanessa Paradis, who caused a minor surprise by taking the Best Female Artist honour that was expected to go to her competitor Zazie. The latter, a former model and voiceover artist turned singer, is insufferably self-righteous and makes bland, wishy-washy pop about fashionable social concerns (war is bad, consumerism is bad, you are bad, etc).

We were happy, then, that good triumphed over evil and Zazie was trumped by Madame Depp's harmlessly catchy radio-friendliness. Paradis also won the high-profile Best Chanson/Variety Album (code for Best Mainstream Album) for 'Divinidylle', written with French rocker M, a.k.a. Mathieu Chedid.

Zazie, smiling gamely through the snubs, gained some consolation when a tune she co-wrote won the night's most prestigious prize, Best Original Song. Regular readers will recognise the tune in question, 'Double Je' performed by Christophe Willem - a fantastic slice of disco-pop that was runner-up in this blog's equally-prestigious Best Song list for 2007. Thankfully, the award is presented to the singer and not the writer, so Willem accepted a much-deserved prize on his part.

The other headline-grabber, from a French perspective, was Renan Luce. The young Breton singer-songer (left) was voted Best Album Newcomer and Best Live Newcomer on the strength of his lively 'Repenti'.

However, in doing so he defeated French Letter favourite Emily Loizeau. Nonetheless, the marvellous Mlle Loizeau gave a typically dreamy performance of the title track from 'L'Autre Bout Du Monde'.

Your blogger had a particular interest in the Best Pop/Rock Album category. Three of the four nominees were Dionysos, Keren Ann and Manu Chao - numbers 1, 4 and 7 in our own album countdown last year. Yet the prize went to the fourth nominee: bland '80s veteran Etienne Daho. Nonetheless, Keren Ann did herself proud with a fantastic rock-out version of 'Lay Your Head Down' (which you can watch at the end of this article) - and Dionysos lead singer Mathias Malzieu climbed over most of the stage set during his manic performance.

Chao, the Che Guevara of rock, didn't appear at the awards. Strangely, he wasn't nominated in the Best World Music category, where the prize went to recent French Letter featuree Yael Naim and her happy-clappy, laptop-flogging folk-pop.

Justice prevailed in the Best Electronic Music category - literally, as the duo of that name beat the David Guetta / Bob Sinclar axis of evil. The electro-metal pair were also nominated for Best Video with their memorable 'T-shirt' video for 'D.A.N.C.E.' - but the prize went to Feist for her equally-clever '1-2-3-4' (right). Veteran rapper MC Sol--

 -- "Hang on a second, croissant boy" says you. "Feist is Canadian, and not even one of the French-speaking Canadians at that. And, video connoisseur that I am [this is still you talking], I know this video was made by US director Patrick Daughters. Explain me that!"

-- Well, says your Paris correspondent, Feist recorded her last two albums in France - and that, apparently, is enough for the French music export board to claim her as French for the purposes of their statistics. For instance, at the recent MIDEM music industry conference it emerged that, of the impressive total of 27.6 million units of French music shifted worldwide in 2007, the biggest individual album seller was actually the 700,000 copies of Feist's 'The Reminder'. As it's the same French music industry that organises the Victoires, voilà pourquoi Feist was nominated.  Does that answer your question?

-- "Indeed it does," says you, "and I bow to your superior intellect."

Grand, so. Anyway, as we were saying, veteran rapper MC Solaar won the Best Urban Music prize - and a younger version, slam-rapper Abd Al Malik,  was a surprising (yet deserving) choice as Best Male Artist.

But the real talking-point of the night came with the Best Live Show category. Among the nominees were none other than Daft Punk - and when their name was announced in the list of nominations, the camera cut to two men in rubber-fetish masks (1 min 24 sec) seated in the VIP section. A shiver of excitement went through the hall - is it really them? If they win, will they collect their prize? WILL THEY SPEAK? A theatre - a nation - was rivetted.

Of course, the prize went to another nominee (flabby '60s rocker Michel Polnareff). And thus was squandered an opportunity that we may never have again, a priceless rock n'roll moment lost forever. Will our children ever forgive us?

Apart from that might-have-been moment, here's our highlight from the 2008 Victoires de la Musique ceremony: the aforementioned performance of 'Lay Your Head Down' by Keren Ann. Lou would have been proud of her:

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Your blogger has never been happier to be in Paris. Life here is very busy and exciting for us these days - and award nominations back home are a fantastic bonus. We hope it stays like this. Unfortunately, our fellow Irishmen in Paris are not seeing la vie en rose at the moment.

Pat McQuaid (right), president of the International Cyclists' Union (UCI), is getting dog's abuse in France for threatening to sanction teams who compete in this year's Paris-Nice, due to start on Sunday. The row centres on ASO, the race organisers, and their decision to ban the Astana team from their events because of their record of doping scandals. As ASO also organise the Tour de France, and with their ban extending to Astana rider and defending champion Alberto Contador, a long-running dispute could spill over into this July's edition of the world's most famous cycling race.

For Jacques le Frenchman, having an Irishman threaten this year's Paris-Nice or Tour de France is akin to Michel Platini telling the Kerry team to withdraw from the All-Ireland final. Tough times for Pat.

Also feeling the strain in the French capital is Liam Neeson. It's just part of his latest film, though - 'Taken' sees the Ballymena man (left) dashing around Paris in a desperate race to find his kidnapped daughter.

Unfortunately, reviews have dismissed the film as a photocopy of vogue-ish TV thrillers like '24', so it looks like yet another turkey from an otherwise ultra-cool actor. Who's advising him?

And we're not mentioning the rugby again, alright?

Into this vale of tears steps an Irish troubadour for a Paris gig this weekend. Declan de Barra is supporting Nina Nastasia at the Nouveau Casino on Sunday night (9 March).

The Waterford singer-songer (right) is promoting his debut solo album, 'Song Of A Thousand Birds', released on his own Rogue Goat label. It's an atmospheric mix of Damien Rice's troubadour folk and Jeff Buckley-esque alt-acoustica. 

But the man isn't going to rest there - he's already hard at work on his next long-player, to be called 'A Fire To Scare The Sun'. 

You can listen to some of Declan's tunes over at his MySpace page, which also gives details of his upcoming gigs and the like. And if you stick around here until the bottom of this paragraph, you can watch him performing 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' on RTE's 'The View' back in October 2006: 

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Sensational news from Paris tonight - France's Eurovision entry for 2008 is none other than Sebastien Tellier!

Tellier (right) will perform his track 'Divine', which currently features on his recently-released third album, 'Sexuality'. It is understood that Tellier will perform a specially-adapted English-French version of his Prince-meets-Beach-Boys song.

The announcement was made by the contest's official site, who were informed today by the French Eurovision delegation. Tellier will not need to face a national selection contest in France.

This year's contest will take place in Belgrade on 24 May.

France has not won the contest in over thirty years, when Marie Myriam took the prize in 1977 with 'L'Oiseau et L'Enfant'.

The most famous French Eurovision winner, however, represented Luxembourg - France Gall won for the tiny country with Serge Gainsbourg's 'Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son' in 1965. The song has recently been covered by Arcade Fire.

Ireland's 2008 entry has not gone unmentioned in the French media, and already this year's contest is being presented as a duel between Tellier and Dustin, 'la dinde irlandaise' ('the Irish turkey'). Dustin, though, must first qualify from the semi-final stage on the preceding Thursday whereas Tellier goes directly into the Saturday night final.

There's no official video for 'Divine' yet, but the YouTube community has wasted no time in whipping up a patriotic home-made promo:

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Back in 2004, as part of its 5th birthday celebrations, CLUAS ran a readers' poll to identify the top 50 Irish albums of all time. Over 1300 votes were cast by CLUAS readers, giving the poll some sort of statistical legitimacy and indeed the majority of the albums that made the final top 50 were clearly deserving candidates.

Nonetheless the final results were not immune to raising a few eyebrows especially now, 4 years later, when you look through the list. For example, a Frames fixation among a certain part of the CLUAS readership back then resulted in a voting bias that helped push one two three four Frames albums to make the top 20. Indeedy. It's also curious to see that 10 of the top 50 40 albums came from the Paddy Casey-Frames-Bell-X1-Mundy-Damien Rice axis, but no surprise there considering the strong overlap of these acts' fanbases in Ireland in 2004.

Then a week ago the Irish Times "Ticket" supplement published its own list of the top 40 Irish albums of all time, as chosen by four of their journos. Again this was a solid list but one that also had its imperfections and its own bias. For example there is a rather strong affinity with albums released in one rather narrow 7 year window (1984 to 1991) by Dublin-based bands who ploughed the Baggott Inn-International Bar-McGonagles circuit (a total of six of their top 40 albums were released in this period by The Stars of Heaven, The Blades (2 albums each), Something Happens and A House). 

Reading through the two lists and noting their various strengths/weaknesses it occurred to me that a merging of the polls might just eliminate many (if not all) of their respective biases. The principle I set out with was a simple one - create a new 'Best Irish Album' listing made up only of albums that appeared in both the CLUAS and The Ticket polls. It turns out there are twenty albums common to the two lists so I went about ranking them in order of their total score (which in turn was based on their respective placings in the CLUAS & Irish Times polls, see note on allocation of scores below).

The resulting top 20 is below, I'll avoid any dumb temptation to declare it as some sort of definitive list. But I do think it is a credible listing of 20 thoroughly excellent Irish releases that marries the 'wisdom of the crowd' with the considered views of 4 seasoned music hacks. For everyone there will be at least one glaring omission in the list. For me it is Sinead O'Connor. She didn't make the cut as the one album of hers that was chosen by the CLUAS readers (the quite thrilling 'Lion & the Cobra' ) differed to that picked by the Irish Times journos ('I do not want what I haven't got').

Nonetheless the top 20 as its stands is properly distributed over the decades with 3 albums from the noughties, 6 from the 90s, 5 from both the 80 and 70s and 1 from the 60s. Nor does it reflect any bias I can see in terms of scene or genre. All in all, a balanced and credible list. And if you disagree, feel free to let it rip via the comments below. 

The Top 20 Irish Albums Ever (poll of polls)

1. My Bloody Valentine 'Loveless'
2. Van Morrison 'Astral Weeks'
3. U2 'Achtung Baby'
4. Whipping Boy 'Heartworm'
5. A House 'I am the Greatest'
6. U2 'The Joshua 'Tree'  (actually joint 5th with A House)
7. Thin Lizzy 'Live And Dangerous'
8. The Undertones 'The Undertones'
9. Bell X1 'Music In Mouth'
10. The Pogues 'Rum, Sodomy and the Lash'  (actually joint 9th with Bell X1)
11. Van Morrison 'Moondance'
12. Damien Rice 'O'
13. The Frames 'For The Birds' (actually joint 12th with Damien Rice)
14. Microdisney 'The Clock Comes Down the Stairs'
15. The Pogues 'If I Should Fall From Grace With God'
16. Ash '1977'
17. Planxty 'Planxty'
18. My Bloody Valentine 'Isn't Anything'
19. Therapy? 'Troublegum'
20. Rory Gallagher 'Live in Europe'

Note on scoring: Scores used in the ranking of the 20 albums that were common to the two original polls were calculated as follows: if a common album was a number one on either poll it got 50 points for its entry on that poll, if it was a number two it got 49 points, etc right down to it getting 1 point if it was a number 50. For each of the albums the scores it got for its position on each poll were then added up to get its total score.

The one flaw in this approach is that there were 40 albums in the original Irish Times poll, but 50 in the CLUAS poll. I had actually initially looked for albums that were common only to the top 40 of both polls – this threw up 18 albums. By extending the 'comparison check' to the full top 50 of the original CLUAS poll the number of common albums increased to the nice neat number of 20.

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Sebastien Tellier (live at the Centre Pompidou, Paris)

Review Snapshot: An unusual location for, it must be said, a singular performer. The hairy, scary electronician brings his French lover routine to the famous Paris contemporary art museum. Unfortunately, his new synth-ballad material is nothing to get excited about. But the stripped-down version of 'La Ritournelle' was marvellous - and Tellier is always an engaging and entertaining live performer.

The Cluas Verdict? 7 out of 10

Full Review:
Have you been to the Centre Pompidou? You know where we mean. Wedged between naff Les Halles, sleazy Rue Saint Denis and ultra-hip Le Marais. Ugly on the outside, conceptually-arty on the inside. Music blaring on the plaza in front of it, either cutting-edge Tecktonik dancers or hitsville buskers. From the top, a great view of all Paris.

No better location, then, for Sebastien Tellier to showcase his new album, 'Sexuality', on 29 February last. A mixture of naff late-eighties Bowie, sleazy mid-eighties Prince and ultra-hip Giorgio Moroder and, emmm, Jean Michel Jarre. A concept album about sex, wrapped in sleeve art that's supremely awful: dumb, sexist and ugly. It's a record that's fashionable and traditional at once, and overall that sums up Paris for us.

 A seated theatre within an art gallery is probably not the best setting for this music; it kills excitement and encourages pretentiousness. But Tellier, tall and hairy like his rugby-playing near-namesake Sebastien Chabal, used his assertive physical presence and erratic personality to great effect; he put on a highly entertaining show.

The new material featured a lot of slow, synthy, two-step ballads in an '80s R n' B style: the working title for a track like 'Divine' might well have been 'Love Theme From "Beverly Hills Cop"'. You won't need to hear it. Now and then a vocoder effect would remind us that we were in Paris and that Guy-Man from Daft Punk had produced these tracks for Tellier. In truth, apart from the Jarre-esque 'Sexual Sportswear' there was little to tell the new songs apart.

But why was there a baseball bat lying centre-stage? Would he symbolically smash up the keyboards mid-song and carry on with ukelele? No, it was only a phallic prop: halfway through the show Tellier kneeled over it to give it a few languid, suggestive strokes. That was the beginning and end of any on-stage raunchiness to match the album's theme.

Much sexier was Tellier hunched over the piano, pounding out the familiar rolling chords of 'La Ritournelle'. Even with him slowing down the sung verses and wrecking the romantic buzz somewhat, the song was still as enthralling as ever. It was Tellier's only concession that night to the folksy, shambling style of previous album 'Politics'.

Tellier's scattered unpredicability will always make for fascinating concerts, and it's a pity that none of this volatility has made it into his new material. But that's modern art for you; dangerous people making dull things.

Aidan Curran

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Firstly, a brief history lesson.  Once upon a time a younger and indeed more aerodynamic Key Notes was a fresh faced Marketing and Languages graduate.  Unsure of what to do with himself for the rest of his life, he decided that he might as well give marketing a go, seeing as he'd spent the previous four years studying Satan's craft.  While browsing various employment websites (amongst other things) he discovered a job in the marketing department of Hot Press. 

"I like music and I've studied marketing!" he thought to himself, filled at once with the prospect of getting free stuff furthering his career.  Having sent off a diligently prepared CV and cover letter (in which he mimicked the writing, ahem, "style" of Hot Press main man Olaf Tyaransen) he waited in expectation for a call to interview.  Alas, it was not to be. Interestingly, he did receive a letter from Hot Press thanking him for his application, but that his interests "did not match our criteria."  Ever since the day he was rejected by Hot Press for his interest in music, Key Notes has refused to buy a copy.

Now, Dickensian in drama and morality as the above tale might be; it is also a damning indictment of what is wrong with Hot Press and music journalism in Ireland.  The magazine, which has been in existence for over 30 years and has a circulation of almost 20,000 people, is not really very good.  Worse still, it's not really about music anymore.  How could Key Notes know this if he doesn't buy the magazine you ask?  Well buying and reading are two different things aren't they?

According to the Advertise with us page of its website (which was written, ironically enough, in 2005): "Hot Press is the leading and established publication of its genre. Now in its 30th year of publication, Hot Press is living proof that you don’t survive, much less move forward, by standing still.  Always a magazine that has kept abreast and frequently ahead of the times, Hot Press has entered the new millennium with a whole new look and sense of purpose. This in turn has allowed the magazine to break ground - increasing its quota of fashion, gaming and much more!"  

Now, before Key Notes is accused of being "a ranting leftie" (as Mrs. Key Notes is wont to accuse), one does realise that Hot Press is a commercial venture and that it lives and dies by its advertising which, in turn, feeds off its circulation.  Key Notes is aware of all of this, but commercial concerns shouldn't affect the quality of writing, the editorial content and, most importantly, the music content of a music magazine.  And therein lies the problem.  Hot Press, as a source of music content, just isn't relevant anymore.

Key Notes can't speak for everyone but if it wants to find information on music its first port of call is right here, on the magical world of the internet.  The recent Irish Blog Awards show the quality, and even more tellingly, the relevancy of online journalism/blogging.   These people are more in tune (pun intended) with what is happening in music in Ireland than most writers Hot Press can put forward. 

Hot Press have a very poor web presence, thanks mostly to the fact that they are one of the few sites to still charge visitors for access.  Even if Hot Press stopped charging for access to their site, how many of you would hold you hand up and say "Yes, I'd visit that"?  Why would you when you can come to sites like CLUAS and Muse. As Eoghan has pointed out before, in the past year over three times as many people have visited CLUAS than have visited the Hot Press site (see graph from Compete below).

How does this bode for State.  Well, they've made a good start in that their web content is free and they've appointed award winning blogger nialler9 to update it.  As regards the print version, Key Notes wishes them all the best but it is hard to see how they are going to be able to compete with Hot Press. As Jim Carroll has said, cautious advertisers may well push their clients in the direction of the more established magazine.  Is this fair; probably not, but then very little in life or in business is.  All Key Notes knows is that it won't change his reading habits.

To Key Notes, the present and the future of music journalism in Ireland is represented by the Friday morning freebies, the blogosphere and music sites such as CLUAS.  The Ticket and Day & Night provide a weekly fix of print media, while everything, yes everything, else that Key Notes needs to know, can be found on line.  Good luck to State, but it's really difficult to see how its going to establish itself without ending up as irrelevant to music as Hot Press is now.

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Singer under fire after shouting 'Tibet! Tibet!' after performing her song Declare Independence at Shanghai concert.

Here is a full report and a clip of the moment itself courtesy of The Guardian,

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