The CLUAS Archive: 1998 - 2011

Entries for May 2008

31

So, the rate of Irish acts visiting Paris has slowed to one per month. Not to worry - June's tourist is worth a calendar-full.

JapeJape, nom de rock of Richie Egan, plays the Flèche d'Or on Monday 2 June. Even though lundi soir is usually tumbleweed night at our favourite Paris gigspot, it should be a cracking show.

Egan has just released his third Jape album, 'Ritual', an exciting mix of up-for-it indietronica and downbeat bedsit-pop.

After his Paris visit Egan will be touring the no-less-glamorous towns of Ireland. That Future Days show with Dan Deacon at Vicar Street in Dublin on June 14 seems unmissable.

Jape will then be appearing at Glastonbury, no less. You can find full details of Egan's movements at the Jape MySpace page.

Here's the brilliant first single 'Ritual', 'I Was A Man', recorded for the Airfield Sessions on Channel 6. The line "I popped my cherry to 'November Rain'" deserves to be on the Leaving Cert English paper:


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30

Back at the beginning of May CLUAS relaunched its email newsletter. The first newsletter I must say was a bit of a stab in the dark, considering it was four years since CLUAS had sent out its last newsletter and in the intervening period newsletters have fallen to the wayside a bit as a means for people use to get info from or on websites (especially with the rise of RSS feeds and social networking sites). Nonetheless, call me a traditionalist or whatever, I still think a newsletter can still play a valuable role for extending the reach of CLUAS.

To get our newsletter out CLUAS is using the services of YMLP.com (Your Mailing List Provider) a well established and trustworthy third party for sending out newsletters (for those who wonder why we don’t just send it out ourselves using normal email software I should point out that a third party is really needed for newsletters with several thousand subscribers as sending such a number of emails in one go is no trivial matter with the growing number of restrictions ISPs have put in place to combat email spam). Anyways, I digress...

One of the interesting additional services these YMLP guys offer are detailed stats on how many people clicked on a link in the newsletter to reach CLUAS and what links were the most popular. As I like my numbers I thought I’d indulge a bit and provide some details below on what these stats threw up for the first CLUAS newsletter in four years.

The first thing I was looking out for after I hit the ‘send’ button for the newsletter was how many of the 6025 email addresses we had in our subscriber list would still be active and how many would were dead. Considering some of our subscribers emails went back to 1999 my guess was that about half of them would be dead addresses. I was surprised to see that just 30% of the addresses turned out to be the virtual equivalent of a black hole (of the original 6025 only 1834 addresses turned out to be totally dead, and were automatically removed from the mailing list). Of the remaining 4191 email addresses an additional 216 bounced back to us with what they call a 'soft bounce' (e.g. the recipient's mailbox was full). Such soft bounces will only be removed from our mailing list if there are 3 consecutive 'soft' bounces. All in all of the original 6025 a grand total of 3975 newsletters were delivered. The number of people who choose to unsubscribe was a very low figure: only 33 people unsubscribed (less than 1% of the newsletters delivered).

But how many people who received the newsletter bothered to open it and of those how many chose to click on a link in the newsletter to visit CLUAS? It is actually impossible to get accurate stats on how many people opened a newsletter (for a variety of valid reasons I won't bore you with here) but these YMLP guys provide us with accurate stats on the number of links in a newsletter that were clicked on. They were able to determine that a total of 462 links in the newsletter were clicked by those who read it. The most popular links that were clicked were:

The accuracy of the 462 links clicked in the newsletter I do not doubt and, at a first glance, it seems quite low for an email received by almost 4000 subscribers. However you need to dig a bit deeper to understand the full picture. The visitor analysis software used by CLUAS.com (the Google Analytics service) revealed that someone clicking on one of those links in the newsletter went on to view an average of was 3.3 pages on CLUAS. This means that those 462 clicks generated just over 1500 'page views'. Still, not massive number for a mailing received by 4000 subscribers. But my guess is that among those who chose to click a link in the newsletter there were many who would not have visited the site in a long time and, hopefully having liked what they saw, some of them will become more regular visitors to the site. It is this difficult to measure aspect of a newsletter's impact that is an important part of its real value, even if RSS feeds and the like are - for some - a more modern way to get updates on the latest stuff happening on a website.

I'll be looking out to see if this sort of figure (1500 page views, for an email received by 4000 people) holds up with our future newsletters. I guess my better judgement will again take a walk and I will end up blogging about it. You can start groaning now.


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30

Motley Crue are one of those bands who, if they were a surfer would be aerial pioneer Christian Fletcher. Sound Waves likes Christian Fletcher (pictured right), he is an antidote to all the beads, beards and ganja smoking Bali regulars. Christo is, in short a bad MoFo.

As a result, Sound Waves also loved 'The Dirt' and when we heard the boys in Crue (who look like they were separated at birth from Christo) were going to, in effect, transform it into a concept album of sorts, well, we were stoked to say the least. The title is to be decided and the release is slated for June. Happy days.

 


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30
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30

Times New Viking (live in Andrew's Lane Theatre, Dublin)

Review Snapshot: Times New Viking played to small crowd on a Monday night. They gave it everything though. They were trashy, noisy and superb.

The Cluas Verdict? 8 out of 10

Full Review:

Times New Viking released their third album 'Rip It Off' to much fanfare in blogs and, most importantly, Pitchfork. Being signed to Matador had not caused them to change their sound away from their lofi home-recording beginnings on the Stillbreeze label. Instead 'Rip It Off' is like early Pavement going punkier. It's so noisy that it almost gives you a headache. Importantly though, it sounds great.

So, on Monday night they brought their noise to Ireland. It was my first time in the new Andrew's Lane Theatre. It is a decent well designed venue, even if the artwork on the wall makes the place seem as though it's screaming out to be accepted by the Dublin 'scene'.

The gig started with little ceremony. The 'roadies' just picked up their instruments, tuned up, and started playing. I had wondered how well they could translate the sound they create on record to their live performance. Would they have to employ an incompetent soundman? Whatever they did, they captured the sound of the album brilliantly. The vocals were drowned out and the music was fuzzy. It sounded great.

With each track clocking in around the 1-2 minute mark, they fitted 20 songs into their short set. Highlights were 'Teen Drama' and '(My Head)', but many were so indistinguishable behind the raucous noise that it was hard to tell which track they were playing! Regardless of that, it was fast and it was fun.

After just 40 minutes, it was over. Drummer Adam Elliott headed outside for a smoke with the fans, while Beth sat on the stage talking to the fans. The guitarist just stood on stage and finished off the bottle of Jameson that the 3 of them had made impressive progress on during the gig.

There was no pomp about this band. There was no showmanship.There were no frills. They came on stage, made wonderful noise and left. And that's what Times New Viking are all about.

Garret Cleland


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29

Imagine if Podge & Rodge or Dustin were funny. Not just vulgar but funny too. Well, Fur TV manages to not only be far more vulgar than either the Ballydung brothers or that wizened bird but gosh darn funny too. Here is Fat Ed's guide to metal...

 


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28

Midnight Juggernauts (live in Crawdaddy, Dublin)

Review Snapshot: Midnight Juggernauts shocked the crowd's systems with overwhelming spacey sounds that were smothered with starry synth and disco beats. In short, amazing. But support group Late of The Pier upstaged them: their flamboyant, dramatic dancing set the night up for more than just yer usual gig...

The Cluas Verdict? 9 out of 10

Midnight JuggernautsFull Review:
When you wake up with a creak in your neck from dancing, you know that last night's gig was good. The evening began with a small boy at the foot of the stage, dressed in what can only be described as a batwinged jacket fashioned out of golden tinfoil. The boy (okay, he may have been about nineteen...) approached my friend LJ, announced 'I have a maraca', shook said maraca, and then jumped onto the stage like some kind of wonderboy athlete on stilts. It was then that I realised the boy (dare I say, young lad?) was part of the act - he started playing one of the four synths onstage and shook his entire body around like an electrified puppet. This four piece band, Late of the Pier, made my night. Yes, I judged them. Yes, they looked like they'd stepped straight off a Klaxons Costume Night. But, yes, they blew the crowd away and stole the show.  

With a set that included tracks such as 'Focker', 'SPACE', 'Random' and 'Heartbeat', the titles can only begin to describe the energetic space tunes they knocked out. What was it? Rainbow music on red bull? Psychedelic merry-go-round tunes? It was indefinable, but the combination of a singer in ridiculously tight white jeans dedicating a track to the mythical 'black pig of Dublin'; a bass player with big lips alternating between synth, guitar-playing and amateur dramatics; and a tiny, crazy puppet who encouraged the crowd to 'hit the person next to you' seemed to really float my boat. The finale was the best - 'this is the part where we shake your hands' puppet boy said. And the band exited the stage from the front, shaking everyone's hands as they left the venue the way the punters came in. Brilliant! Energising! Exhausting!

After all the dancing and jumping of the first act, by the time Midnight Juggernauts came on I was almost feeling the creak. Almost. The Juggernauts put on an excellent show, building up their starry sounds with distortion and synth. The drummer was the real star; he reminded me of Animal from Sesame Street with a fuzzy face and head that bobbed up and down continuously. For anyone who has never heard the Juggernauts, just think of Justice, Air and Daft Punk, and then mix in three lads performing the tracks live, and you've got a good idea of the kind of sounds they made. Unfortunately, lead vocalist Vincent didn't have his voice as up to scratch as in their recordings.

For 'So Many Frequencies' a multicoloured xylophone emerged and the drummer tinkled away on it. However, the best tune had to have been 'Tombstone', where guitarist Andy took the synth and vocoder, and the drummer stood up on his kit - the band rocked the entire audience with the wall of sound. The crowd's favourite was 'Into the Galaxy' (the telling sign was getting pushed towards the stage), which had everyone throwing their hands up, dancing like crazy, and the band loved it. The drummer later poured a bottle of water over the crowd, who at this stage were sweating out unusual scents of ketchup (hope that wasn't me...). For the finale, '45 and Rising', the drummer took up his snare drum, hopped off the stage and placed it right in the middle of the crowd. He gave his sticks to a couple of guys, one of whom really played along professionally to the track. Before the end, the hard-working gothic roadie came back to reclaim the drum, and when it went back onstage the band finished off the night with climactic distortion and fuzzy amp noise.

After the gig, the Bang Gang DJs kept the tunes going in Tripod until late into the night. Both bands were there too, dancing away, and chatting to fans. This was, by far, one of the most surprisingly brilliant gigs I have been to. I think the creaky neck was worth it.

Niamh Madden


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28

Jens Lekman (live in The Village, Dublin)

Review Snapshot: Jens Lekman returned to Ireland to play the last date on his tour. An excellent gig from one of indie pop’s greatest performers.

The Cluas Verdict? 8 out of 10

Full Review:
Last December, Jens Lekman played to an adoring crowd in Whelan’s. It was just him and his percussionist, with a cameo from Owen Pallett (better known as Final Fantasy). That gig stands out for me as the best live experience of 2007. It finished with Lekman and Pallett playing a final 5 songs in the alley way beside Whelan’s.

On Sunday night, he returned. This time he played next door at The Village. The place was crowded and there was an air of expectancy. Obviously, word had spread even further due to both his last performance, and his spectacular latest album, ‘Night Falls Over Kortedala’. As promised, he brought a full band this time.

He opened with “I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You”. Thanks to his accompaniment on bass, cello, violin and drums this time, the sound was much fuller and slick than his last visit. His voice was in fine form once again. The control he has over his voice can only really be appreciated live. It is flawless. The setlist consisted of nearly all of ‘Night Falls Over Kortedala’ interspersed with a few of his older tracks.

Lekman began ‘Black Cab’ by telling the story of a Turkish fan who approached him after a show disappointed that Jens had not played the song that goes: 'dooooo dooo’. Like the majority of the gig, ‘Black Cab’ was a splendid celebration of joyous pop. His performance of ‘Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo’ was possibly the happiest song I’ve ever seen played live. The horn section used on the record was replaced with a violin, which added another dimension to the song. Lekman commented that he felt it brought out the innocence of the song.

Jens Lekman is probably the funniest musician I’ve ever seen. I don’t think I’ve laughed so much at a gig before. His wit shows in both his lyrics and his on-stage banter. For the past couple of years he’s opened ‘A Postcard To Nina’ with the tale of how he visited his lesbian friend in Berlin, who had told her father that she was engaged to Jens, in order to hide her secret from him, before launching into song.

After just over an hour, he finished with a beautiful solo rendition of ‘Sirin’. It was a superb gig and Jens is a fantastic performer. However, it did not live up to the standards of his Whelan’s performance. It probably never could have. There was a bit more intimacy at that gig. The crowd were adoring that time where as they seemed colder in The Village, rarely joining in to sing. Only ‘Sweet Summer’s Night On Hammer Hill’ could get them to come out of their shell a bit. Sunday just was not special in the way that night in December was.

Garret Cleland


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27

It's hard to get solid information from Chinese music industry folks. When looking for figures they usually send me on to the "relevant government authorities." So I was happy when the other day Cluas got an interview with Wang Ju, vice president of state-affiliated China Audio Video Association (CAVA), the state-affiliated body which represents local labels. CAVA is leading a big Chinese delegation to the influential music trade fair London Calling in June, because “First, we want to make friends with our foreign counterparts and open a window for Chinese music.”

The Chinese government is giving CAVA cash to mount booths at Midem (in France) and London Calling this year, in what some China-based industry players see as a one-off effort by state trade bodies to make China appear visible in its Olympic year. But what's the payback to Chinese music? Polite-spoken Mr Wang talks like the career government official he is. "We want to examine the foreign mainstream music market to which we can show our music products and then gradually we can perfect our products and build up a all-round trading mechanism systemetically. Second, we want to know deeper from the London calling forums about what's going on in the international music market and about how has newmedia music affected the traditional music industry." In London, he says, the Chinese “would like to persue commercial cooperation in terms of copyright trading.”

Wang reckons CD piracy is on the wane in China because there’s less new music product about. “Personally i think piracy is decreasing. I think there are mainly two reasons. First, now they get less and less sources, for popular original music are decreasing in number. Because of the pressure from piracy and new media, benefits of original artists and company cannot be guaranteed. That's why we get less popular singers and popular songs. Second, the government has been keeping their attentions on piracy through relevant regulations."

The number of CD shops is falling, he says. There were 100,000 audio-visual shops across China registered with the State Association for Industry & Commerce (SAIC) in 2005 but the figure dropped to 85,000 in 2007, says Wang. "The problem lies in that not many people would like to open audio-video shop now."

He credits the drop to “pressure” from Internet and cell phone downloads. CAVA, says Wang, is encouraging shops to sell genuine CDs. The SAIC figures may not cover the shack-sized stores in China’s smaller cities which invariably sell pirated CDs and VCDs. But Wang suggests that these may be a dying breed. “There’s literally less new music around for pirates to copy. Artists are more reluctant to release CDs."

Because it's not profitable under the pressure of music from new media(Interet,cell phone,etc.) There were 100,000 or so audio-video shops in China, but now the number is decsending, but I do not get the exact figure.there are no new limitations for getting license, actually we are encouraging people to open more audio-video shops to sell genuine CDs.

 

Off to London to represent Chinese music industry, interestingly Wang doesn’t “know much” about the much heralded new system of collecting royalties from KTV bars. “You should check with China Audio video Collective Association, a new organization that is going to be formally established on May 28th. This agency is entitled by the government to deal with royalties.”

Equally, he doesn’t have figures for how much of China's CD and digital music sales are accounted for by local labels compared to international ones. Bon voyage and happy learning in London, Mr Wang. I'll look for more relevant government authorities to answer my questions.


 


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26

There’s a big party this Friday night in D-22 for Ian Sherman, rock scribe at Time Out magazine in Beijing. Always worth reading, Sherman is currently in Boston getting treatment for his cancer which affected the 30 something writer’s throat, an especially painful sounding affliction and described as a “fairly aggressive and rare form of cancer” by one of the concert organizers, Halla Mohieddeen in an email sent out yesterday.  

There’ll be t-shirts and CDs on sale on the night, organized by various writer friends, rockers and Tag Team, a local label for which Sherman moonlighted as publicist, DJ and author of the label’s regular, hilarious newsletters. Sherman got a wider audience for his monthly column in Time Out which went beyond music to Hunter S Thompson style musings on Beijing life.

 At RMB100 tickets are priced above-average for Beijing, especially give that the city has been awash recently with benefit concerts for victims of the Sichuan earthquake. But Sherman is a popular man about town, judging by a line up which includes local rock darlings Carsick Cars as well as punk-styled PK14. The decks will be manned by BBC's music man Steve Barker, a close friend of Sherman. Bands have donated CDs and t-shirts: Lonely China Day, who can't be there, are donating a 10th of the takings from their next four gigs.

Says Mohieddeen in an email: “The line up for this event is incredible, and there are so many bands who wanted to take part that proceeding are going to have to kick off very early indeed to accommodate everyone who wanted to perform.”

The gig starts at 6pm, first band on stage at 7pm.

 


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Nuggets from our archive

2007 - REM live in the Olympia, by Michael O'Hara. Possibly the definitive review of any of REM's performances during their 2007 Olympia residency. Even the official REM website linked to it.