What with their national music day on 21 June and their national holiday last Saturday, it seems that the French party harder than the Irish. And they'll still be at it this Friday!

'French Friday' is a regular club night at Thomas House on Thomas Street in Dublin on the third Friday of every month. July's edition takes place this Friday night, 20 July. Entry costs zero euro and zero cents.

You can enjoy the best of French indie and electronica on the ground floor. Hopefully some of our recent suggestions (Pravda, Constance Verluca, Vanessa and the O's, Plastiscines and the like) will make the playlist.

Meanwhile, down in the basement, if you fancy a more traditional night out there'll be Celtic sounds courtesy of Breizheire, the Breton community in Dublin.

More info is available from the French Friday website or from Forum Irlande, the forum of Dublin's heaving French population.

[Read more...]

Its always funny to watch a young pretender try to steal the crown of a reigning monach, in this case Beth Ditto attempts the same sort of audience interaction and stage diving antics as Iggy at Glastobury but with perhaps slightly less success as it looks like the audience let her hit the ground when she jumped into the crowd after which she missed her cue; something Iggy, old pro he is, didn't do. Think Jack Black in a latex dress. She still gives an electric performance though.

Iggy & The Stooges: "I wanna be your dog"

The Gossip: "Standing in the way of control"

[Read more...]

[Read more...]

Right now, the hot album in estates and camper vans up and down the country  engaged in The Search is, "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" by Modest Mouse. This fine 2007 album, featuring guitar work by the great Johnny Marr, is the must listen to record for all discerning surfers who have been left cold by either the grandiose orchestral rock of Arcade Fire or that Aretha Franklin of Riot Grrl, Beth Ditto but are digging on Modest Mouse.

You heard it here, maybe not first, but certainly on good authority. Peace and love to y'all. Here is the video for 'Dashboard' featuring a bunch of salty old sailor dogs, aaargh Jim lad !

[Read more...]

First of all, it's not called 'Bastille Day' in French - it's simply la fête nationale or le 14 juillet. And there isn't even an event at Place de la Bastille in Paris (ironically, the column with the gold figure that now stands there commemorates the defence of the restored monarchy against an unsuccessful revolution in 1830).

The focal point of the French national holiday is the morning's military parade on the Champs-Elysées. This year there will be a contingent of Irish soldiers marching down the boulevard, along with troops from the other EU nations.

Then in the evening all Parisian eyes turn to the Eiffel Tower for a huge fireworks display. There will also be a massive free concert by '70s icon Michel Polnareff, who lived in self-imposed exile in L.A. for thirty years before returning to France this year for a series of lucrative nostalgia shows. However, Paris on the night of 14 July is a nightmare - drunken aggression, crowded public transport, firecrackers in the metro (in these terrorist-threatened times, scarier than you'd think). All in all, just like every Saturday night in Temple Bar (We'll watch the fireworks from La Défense, home of the Grande Arche and glass skyscrapers).

Tonight (13 July) in most towns there is the traditional bal des pompiers or fireman's ball. Every fire brigade station hosts a ball (these days, more like a disco) where French women go to leer at French firemen. The bal traditionally ends in drunken lewdness, lechery and fighting - again, just like Temple Bar.

If you feel like joining in the celebration... well, we've given you a great French soundtrack over recent times: new music from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Pravda, Ultra Orange and Emmanuelle, Justice, Plastiscines, Manu Chao, PacoVolume, Naast and Constance Verluca,  classics old and modern by Vanessa Paradis, Serge Gainsbourg, Yannick Noah, Amel Bent, Edith Piaf and Vanessa And The O's, and even some adopted French sounds by Malajube (from Quebec) and the resolutely ten-fingered Django Reinhardt (Belgian).

However, we've forgotten France's most-loved rock icon. So, for the French national holiday, singing 'Allumer Le Feu' ('Light The Fire') live at the Parc des Princes in 2003: ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.... here's Johnny!!!!

[Read more...]

The line-up of the Beijing Pop Festival (September 8 and 9) is finally out. And topping the bill is Nine Inch Nails, who play with Public Enemy and punks the Ramones and the New York Dolls. Brit rock will be represented by Brett Anderson, who, we're told, will play a mostly Suede set. The local acts are usual suspects: Brain Failure, Muma and Thin Man all made the cut.

The festival will happen over two days in a corner of sprawling Chaoyang Park in downtown Beijing. It's now into its third edition, and last year drew an eclectic mix - Placebo and Supergrass were outplayed by a raucous Sebastian Bach, fresh off a tour with Axl Rose. Organiser, rock fan and youthful real estate magnate Jason Magnus deserves credit for bringing international acts - and lining up the sponsors and endless raft of government permits needed needed to run such a big show in Beijing.

Authorities here are still nervous about anything that involves large outdoor crowds, and most Party cadres still don't get rock n roll. Given that ticket prices are kept low, Magnus needs to bring in corporations like Mastercard and Hennessy VSOP to pay the bills. Each festival makes a "modest profit," says Magnus in thisinterview with me after last year's event.

[Read more...]

There seems to be a trend among female singers in Paris at the moment: sounding like Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.

In the last twelve months there have been three noteworthy albums drawing on the Velvets' distinctive droning guitar sound and the spoken-word vocal style of Reed's solo records.

We've already mentioned Ultra Orange and Emmanuelle - the group fronted by Emmanuelle Seigner (right), the French actress and wife of Roman Polanski. The band's eponymous album was released earlier this year, led off by VU-esque single 'Sing Sing'.

Keren-Ann (left) is not French - she was born in Israel and raised in the Netherlands. However, she moved to France at age 11 and her early albums were in French - which is why she's filed among the French singers in Paris record shops.

Her self-titled fifth album was recorded in Paris and New York - indeed, its opening two tracks, the singles 'It Ain't No Crime' and 'Lay Your Head Down' sound heavily influenced by Reed's 'New York' album.

As for Keren-Ann's record, it's a fine album of intimate folk-flavoured songs that also draw heavily on Leonard Cohen.

However, trumping both Emmanuelle and Keren-Ann is one Vanessa Contenay-Quinones (right). Her band Vanessa And The O's (featuring James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins on guitar) released a fabulous album last year called 'The Story Of O'.

It's a veritable VU tribute album; not only does Vanessa sound like a more tuneful Nico, but she also drops numerous Reed references into her songs. There's even a track called 'J'Attends Lou' ('I'm Waiting For Lou').

If grabbing the attention of the great man was her objective then it's certainly worked - Vanessa has recently been recording tracks with Reed in New York.

From 'The Story of O', here's a very glamorous-looking Vanessa posing around London in the video for the unbearably catchy 'Bagatelle', the best French single of 2006:

[Read more...]

If you are one of those who attended Glastonbury 2007 and are now giving yourself a pat on the back because of the festival's eco friendly image and climate change campaign then you are in for a shock. According to New Scientist in an article on the festival, festival goers spent so much time urinating in one of the site's rivers, the Whitelake stream, that the river has been labelled an 'eco hazard' and has been sealed off  because, "levels of ammonia (found in the urine) are now high enough to pose a serious threat to the fish, frog and toad populations...and that the urine is contaminated with alcohol and drugs, which also affects the frog and toad population."

Nice work, kids.

[Read more...]

The Live Earth Concert in London began with the SOS Allstars: Roger Taylor (Queen), Chad Smith (RHCP), Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters) backed up by a team of drummers from around the world performing a dynamic percussion piece based around the International Morse Code Distress Signal (· · · — — — · · ·), better known as the SOS. Nothing demonstrated the mixed messages sent out by Live Earth better than this vibrant drumming piece, partly because it seagued into Queen's hoary old, classic rawk anthem 'We Will Rock You' thus acknowledging the troupe of dinosaur rock acts that were to take the stage in the name of a good show and partly because the SOS signal is usually sent by ships in distress such as the Titanic and the Lusitania which are already sinking. The only problem is that, in Earth's case there are no lifeboats to hand and, unless UFO obsessives are right, no passing spaceships to take us on board.  I am not qualified to argue either side of the coin in regard to climate change, but I do know as an experience diver and surfer that when you send out the distress signal, its already too late to save the ship.

Oh, and in case you thought that Al Gore's interest in Green politics began with 'An Inconvenient Truth', check out this spoof film made by President Bill Clinton just before he left office.

And finally, New Scientist asked its readers to calculate the electricity bill of the Live Earth gigs.

[Read more...]

I recently came across a version of Arcade Fire's 'No Cars Go', on their first EP which is available on i-Tunes. It is a song which, according to the All Music guide, "sounds like a blueprint for Rebellion (Lies)". What it sounds even more like is the re-recorded version of the same song that is the penultimate track on the band's sophomore album release, "Neon Bible". In fact, apart from a glossier sound, the new version is identical to the original, down to the guitar licks and the 'hey, hey' vocals. So, what is going on ? Are the band running out of ideas so soon into their career that they are already raiding their not exactly extensive back catalogue ? Are they perfectionists who felt that they could do even better re-recording this particular song ? Is it part of a canny plan to include one track from their first EP on every one of their later album releases? Answers on the comments board below, thanks.

[Read more...]