A review of the album U.F.O.s at the Zoo by The Flaming Lips

Review Snapshot:
Although guilty speculations of animal cruelty creep sidelong into the back of your mind with this gig in an Oklahoma Zoo, it’s far too easy to ignore them. This is as good a recording of a gig as you’re likely to find, especially when energy and surprise are that gigs main assets; if nothing else, with this DVD The Flaming Lips again prove themselves masters of gimmickry and sheer entertainment.

The Cluas Verdict? 7 out of 10

Full Review: 
A zoo, a UFO light-rig, giant orange balloons, confetti launchers, armies of dancers in fancy dress, little laser lights and Wayne Coyne’s now infamous plastic bubble antics are the stuff that great gigs are made of, apparently: they appear at each Flaming Lips gig – including last November in Dublin – and every Flaming Lips gig is, without a doubt, a great gig. But their effect is somewhat lost when the energy and immediacy of these shows is removed, and what normally seems quirky and on the lovable Lewis Carroll/Dr. Seuss side of fantastic now smacks just a little of desperate. Still, a Flaming Lips gig is a Flaming Lips gig, and so fans, especially those who missed out on last years gig, will be glad to see this.

Anna Murray

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

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British Sea Power (live in Whelan's, Dublin)

Review Snapshot:  I should have known not to listen when a friend told me that I'd 'never see a better band live' than British Sea Power.  In my head I was expecting magic not seen since Maradona picked up the ball in his own half and thought to himself 'You know what?  I think I've the beating of that Peter Reid bloke.'  No matter what British Sea Power did on or off stage, I found myself thinking throughout 'Is this best live band I've ever seen?'  The answer, sadly, was no.

The Cluas Verdict? 5 out of 10

Full Review:
Having heard only snatches of British Sea Power's first two albums - The Decline of British Sea Power and Open Season - I got my hands on a copy of their latest album - Do you like Rock Music - only because the answer is yes, yes I do.  Unfortunately, I didn't like the album quite so much.

However, given the almost reverential tones in which my friend had spoken of the band, I was more than willing to give them another chance.  Sadly, they weren't the greatest band I've ever seen live.  Sure, British Sea Power can put on a show, but no amount of stage diving or stage invasions can take away from the fact that, well, the band makes mediocre music.  While songs about Eastern European migration and Swans dying from Bird Flu are conceptually interesting, in reality, they are just too unadventurous in their delivery to warrant the comparisons that were being made to The Flaming Lips and Arcade Fire. 

Arcade Fire, two words that will probably haunt British Sea Power their entire career.  Had the Canadians not come along and stolen their thunder, British Sea Power could well be the biggest band in the world right now.  Certainly they show that, when they want to, they can make exceptional music.  Songs like Remember Me show that British Sea Power were making epic music before anyone noticed the smoke coming from the back of the arcade.  Alas, somewhere along the way, dressing like medieval farmers and horn solo's from the second floor of the venue seem to have replaced making interesting music in the band's list of priorities.

The lowlight of the evening (aside from Halves, the support band who try so hard to be as experimental as Radiohead that they end up sounding like the noise that comes from your radiator as it heats up) is No Lucifer, proving - as if proof were needed after John Barnes' "rap" - that football and music don't mix.  The chant of 'easy, easy' - you know the one you heard Ricky Hatton's fans chanting before Floyd Mayweather went on to prove just how easy it could be - signals the start of this song and just when you are expecting something exceptional to save the song, well, not very much happens. 

Overall, for the casual observer, British Sea Power frustrate more than they fascinate.  I'm sure, because some told me, that there were those who really enjoyed this gig, but for me it showed two sides of the band: what might have been and what they've become. Theatrics and antics only get you so far when the strength of your songs can't match the pyrotechnics of your performance.

Steven O'Rourke

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Critically-acclaimed French conceptual electronica producer Hector Zazou doesn't look too pleased with your CLUAS Foreign Correspondent (Paris).

It's April 2007 in the bar of La Flèche d'Or, the French capital's popular alt-music venue, just after a concert by Nina Hynes. In a sudden fit of professionalism, your Paris correspondent has decided to get a few words (and, more importantly, the set-list) from Ireland's astral-pop princess. We spot her in the bar, deep in conversation with someone or other but we resolve not to let social etiquette get in the way of our duty to the CLUAS readership.

As politely as possible, your blogger butts in to ask Nina some questions. The guy she's talking with (youthful-looking fiftysomething, bespectacled, neatly-trimmed grey hair and beard) looks a bit taken aback, but still offers us a polite 'bonsoir' as Hynes introduces him.

His name, Hector Zazou, is familiar to us. His 1994 album 'Songs From The Cold Seas' is something of a cult classic - electronic treatments of folk songs from Alaska, Siberia and the Arctic regions, sung by the likes of Bjork, John Cale, Suzanne Vega and Siouxsie - as well as astounding vocal performances by native traditional singers. Fans of Sigur Ros and their gorgeous icy bleakness probably already know and love it. Zazou recounts the geographical and technical challenges of making this album (for instance, why you should never record an album in the Hebrides, unless you fancy spending all day in a toilet) in a fascinating 1995 interview with Sound On Sound Magazine.

How come he's chatting to Nina Hynes? Well, she sung a track called 'Under My Wing' on Zazou's 2003 album 'Strong Currents', as part of an all-female vocal line-up including the likes of Jane Birkin, Laurie Anderson and Lisa Gerrard. It's a matter of speculation as to which of them (if any) owns the female bottom that graces one version of the album's cover.

In 1998, between 'Songs From The Cold Seas' and 'Strong Currents', Zazou recorded and released an album of traditional Celtic music entitled 'Lights In The Dark, featuring vocals by Katie McMahon, Breda Mayock and Lasairfhiona Ni Chonaola. The album sleeve does not feature any ladybuttocks, but rather a glowing crucifix on a black background that bears a remarkable similarity to the cover of Justice's 2007 debut long-player.

Zazou is back in the news with the release of his new album, 'Corps Electriques' (left). Recorded in the studios of Radio France in Paris, and leaning towards electro post-rock with its distortion and dark vibes, the record features former Daisy Chainsaw singer Katie Jane Garside, Norwegian jazzman Niels Petter-Molvaer, American singer-songer Lone Kent and occasional R.E.M. drummer Bill Rieflin.

It's an impressive piece of soundscaping. You can listen to tracks on the album's dedicated MySpace page.

If Nina Hynes doesn't feature this time around, that may be because Hector Zazou just didn't get a chance to ask her. Perhaps something - or someone - got in his way.

Here's a clip of Zazou and Bjork in the studio, recording 'Visur Vatnsenda-Rosu' for the 'Songs For The Cold Seas' album:

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We're not too enthusiastic about French indie's current flavour of the month, The Dø, back from last weekend's Eurosonic festival to blanket media coverage and radio playlisting in France.

By contrast, we'd much rather rave about The Dodoz (right), who even by their name alone are twice the band that The Dø are. We don't have to cut and paste obscure letters to write their nom de rock, or worry if we're pronouncing it correctly. And that 'z' must count for something too.

From Toulouse, they make a joyous indie-punk-pop racket. The foursome first came to prominence last September when they supported Siouxsie at her album showcase in (of all places) the Eiffel Tower.

Since then they've been snapped up by Nude Records (home of Suede) and their first single will be released in the UK in March. 'Do You Like Boys?' features lead singer Geraldine answering her own question in unequivocal fashion: "I HATE BOYS!" Let all French pop singles in 2008 be as glorious as this.

Tonight in the French capital The Dodoz are supporting those irritating English airplay-squatters The Hoosiers (bleurgh) at La Maroquinerie. Fortunately, in February they'll have better luck with their headliners, for they'll be opening for Babyshambles (whose 'Shotters Nation' was a fine album) in Paris and Lyon. After that, their own headline shows and world domination.

No news yet of Irish releases or dates for The Dodoz; we'll pass on any info ASAP. In the meantime, have a listen to some tracks on their MySpace page. Here they are on video, performing 'Do You Like Boys?' live. Just give them 30 seconds to get ready, okay?

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For the most part, Key Notes isn’t a fan of traditional print media.  Occasionally, modest individual that he is, he has been known to glance at reviews to see how they compare with his own.  On Monday, however, something caught Key Notes eye that raised a smile and yet caused him to sigh most un-contentedly.  Under the headline "Industry in Crisis as Album Sales Drop by 10%"  IRMA (the Irish Recorded Music Association) CEO Dick Doyle bemoans the fourth consecutive year of a double digit drop in sales.

Mr. Doyle was complaining that the Irish music industry was worth only €110m in 2007.  That's approximately 1.7% of the value of the US Music Industry in 2006.  Now, given that the Irish Population is about 1.4% of the US Population, this shows that the Irish music industry is actually performing better than its US equivalent as the industry here is worth around €26 per person, while in the US, home to the largest music industry in the world, it is worth only €21.75 per person.  Going even further – by taking into account the fact that only about 65% of the total population of Ireland and the US are of music purchasing age – those figures increase to €40 and €33.50 respectively.

Given that we are in the age of the digital download it is only fair to look at what this €40 could be worth to the Irish music industry.  Firstly, with iTunes the average price of purchasing an album is €9.99.  That means that Irish people (or those of music purchasing age) could have purchased 4 albums for their €40 last year.  With 140 Irish albums being released in 2007 that were valid for consideration for the Choice Music Prize, theoretically each of these bands could have sold almost 80,000 copies of their releases.  An impressive figure I’m sure you’ll agree, and one that should have IRMA encouraging the use of technology in purchasing music. 

However, IRMA appear to be more focused on illegal downloading and spending money on catching those evil boys and girls who 10 years ago were taping songs off the radio than they are on encouraging their members to embrace legal downloading, either through their own website or through facilities like iTunes.  How else can you explain why IRMA continues to utter nonsense such as "There are tens of thousands of jobs gone in the US and it is all to do with one thing only and that is illegal downloads."

Thinking about it for all of ten seconds Key Notes can list three other factors that might be equally responsible:

1. The general downturn in the world economy
2. Cheap imports of CD’s from the likes of Play and CD Wow
3. New music retailers like Starbucks and Tesco entering the market

At an industry discussion Key Notes attended yesterday evening (thanks KT!), key players within the Irish industry – from musicians to journalists and managers to label bosses – agreed that whatever the cause of the current problems, the solution was that everyone, from the musician right up to the label boss, had to up their game.  Could it be that the radical solution needed to ‘save the industry’ is – shock horror – creating better music as a musician and making smarter decisions as a label?  It couldn't be that simple could it?

So, do you agree with IRMA when they say that the industries only problems are with illegal downloads or, if you live in the real world, do you think that the problem is multifaceted and that perhaps not giving musicians obnoxious sums of money at the expense of other artists might actually be a good thing?  Either way, Key Notes would love to hear your comments below.

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Something that never fails to get up my nostrils is websites that use Macromedia Flash. Used when appropriate Flash can create nifty looking and often informative websites - I'll concede that - but such niftiness comes invariably with a pretty hefty downside for both user, and for the website.

In a nutshell Flash based sites break all sorts of well established best practices for user navigation in addition to making the website, for all intent and purpose, 'invisible' to search engines (i.e. invisible to one of most important WWW 'launching pads' for surfers around the world). A few years ago on the CLUAS Discussion board I let rip about such sites, pointing out the numerous shortcomings of this technology before I went on to name and shame various Irish music websites guilty of using Flash.

In the last week another prominent Irish music site that uses Flash came to my attention and, in so doing, gave me an opportunity to resurrect my Flashy rant. I'm talking about the official website of the Choice Music Award (www.choicemusicprize.com). The website is, if you ask me, the one weak link in an otherwise well organised, professionally executed and credible music award initiative. It is unfortunate though that when it comes to its official presence on the interweb the Choice Music Prize has fallen short. Big time.

For me there are five key reasons, all of them detailed below, as to why it has fallen short. I should note that while the reasons below are presented with regard to the specific case of choicemusicprize.com, each of these reasons remains valid for any music website tempted by the - er - seductive, skin-deep charms of Flash:

1. Non-standard user navigation: Normal WWW navigation practices go out the window with Flash. For example on the Choice Music Website if, after viewing the home 'page' you then click on 'Shortlist' on the horizontal navigation bar you will, as you'd expect, be brought to the Shortlist  'page'. Once you've read that to your satisfaction and you want to, say, go back to the home page you may – out of habit – click on the browser’s ‘back’ button thinking it will bring you back to home ‘page’. Wrong. It will bring you back to the previous website you were on before you hit the Choice Music Prize website. Why is this? Basically because your browser treats a flash-based site as a single web page, no matter how many ‘pages’ it has. It may look like it has several ‘pages’ to a human visitor, but it’s only got one in the eyes of the browser (and also in the eyes of search engines for that matter, which brings me nicely to the next point…)
2. Website content is invisible to Search Engines: While humans can read any text content of a Flash based website search engines still have major difficulty in doing so. In recent years Search Engines have started to work out how they can index content of such websites but they don't always do so and if they do it is done inefficiently and superficially compared to how they handle HTML based websites. For example the only bit of text that Google can read of the Choice Music website is the first sentence of the 'content' meta tag that appears in its HTML file. That's it. As a consequence the official Choice Music Prize website is not even in the running for many relevant searches for which it would - normally - be the number 1 result. For example try a search on Google for 'previous choice music prize winners'.
3. Very slow download speed for some 1 in 16 users: The usual practice when trying to access an individual page on the WWW is to tell the browser the address of the page you desire by either clicking on a link or typing in the address. The browser then scuttles off and downloads that single page, it certainly does not download every page of the website you are trying to access. However ChoiceMusicPrize.com insists you download, in the form of a 215KB Flash file, every single 'page' of the site in their entirety before you can see anything. That's kind of okay if you are one of the many who nowadays have some form of broadband connection. However it is a bit of a nightmare for the 7% of users who still use a dial-up modem when visiting an Irish Music website(*). For them they will typically have to wait a full 44 seconds for the website to appear in their browser (according to www.websiteoptimization.com). Does a website owner really want 1in 16 of his or her visitors to wait that long? This would not be an issue if they had used standard HTML, as CLUAS does. By comparison the CLUAS home page appears in a web browser after a super light 15KB HTML file and a 3KB CSS file are downloaded. There are also 38KB of images to download on our home page but, once the HTML is downloaded, all text-based content of the home page is visible to a visitor who can read it while the browser heads off to fetch the images (which, for someone on dialup connection, takes about 15 seconds). The rule of thumb to take from this? Flash websites often take much longer to download, and websites that take a long time to download are really, really annoying.
4. Plug-in Requirement: Today it is typical that 1 in 50 visitors to an Irish music website (**) do not have the plug-in installed in their web browser necessary to view a Flash based website. Straight off the bat, if you choose Flash for your website, you are excluding 2% of your potential visitors. Granted, many web owners are prepared to put up with such a loss of potential visitors if it means they can have a snazzier, more attractive website that a normal HTML based one, which brings me neatly to the final - and most preplexing - point...
5. Choice Music Prize's use of Flash brings no advantage over basic HTML: Every single ounce of content on choicemusicprize.com could have be presented in exactly the same way using standard HTML and CSS positioning. I would even go so far as to say that it could look even better using HTML+CSS. There was simply no need to use Flash for this website. Its use here was akin to cutting a piece of paper using a chainsaw - yes, it will probably do the job but a scissors would have been so much easier and more effective. The decision to use Flash, in this case, has not just brought zero design advantage but it brings all this other baggage outlined above.

Okay enough riffing about the problem. Time to talk solution. The period for the most intense activity on the site is going to be in the days/week just after the winner is announced, i.e. after February 27. A goal should be set to have the site converted to HTML by then at the very latest but ideally by mid February (in order to give the search engines the time to index any new version of the website). Doing this should not be too difficult as the site has, as far as I can see, a total of 11 'pages' embedded in the Flash file. Converting these into 11 HTML files (with a bit of basic CSS styling and positioning) should be a reasonable goal in the next four weeks for Red Berry, the design company who created the current site in Flash (who I am assuming have HTML & CSS expertise in-house).

So let's see it then, a revamped Choice Music Website that is primed and ready for a surge in traffic (both human and search engine) from February 28 onwards.

Final point: any bands or business out there who are thinking of launching a website where the content is embedded in a Flash file, think carefully. Very carefully. And those of you who are already lumbered with a Flash-based site? Time to start converting it to good ould reliable HTML.

References:

* Over the entire course of 2007 6.6% of all visitors to CLUAS.com for whom a connection speed could be identified used a dialup modem.
** Over the entire course of 2007 1.8% of all visitors to CLUAS.com had no Macromedia Flash plugin installed in their broswer.

(Both these percentages were then rounded up to nearest interger for purposes of this blog entry).

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MTV has launched a new reality show about a group of photogenic surfers in Maui entitled 'Maui Fever', and focusing on the sexy, good times lifestyle of surfers who are also, probably, professional models. The photo to the right says it all. The shows airs on January 20th on Mainstage Sunday, MTV Ireland.

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Halfway down the Champs-Elysées there's a huge statue of Charles de Gaulle. It captures the General in his glorious moment as he strode down the grand old boulevard on 26 August 1945, the symbolic act which confirmed the liberation of Paris from the Nazi forces. On the statue's plinth are engraved his famous words from that day: "Paris! Paris outragée! Paris brisée! Paris martyrisée! Mais Paris libérée!" (Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyrised! But Paris free!). It's an evocative blend of suffering and triumph, of tragic history and glorious destiny - and it's almost impossible to read those words without hearing in your mind's ear the opening bars of 'Je Ne Regrette Rien' as sung by Edith Piaf. Like de Gaulle, Piaf's singing more than symbolises France - it seems to embody it.

No doubt there'll be resurgent interest in Piaf now, thanks to Marion Cotillard's Golden Globe-winning portrayal of her in 'La Vie En Rose'. Strangely, that's not the film's title in France - here it's called 'La Mome', which means anything from 'the kid' to 'the chick' to 'the sweetheart'.

Cynics may sneer that Piaf's melodramatic life makes for lazy cinema; just point the camera at her squalid upbringing, triumphant success, tragic romance with the ill-fated Marcel Cernan (and his own glamorous world of '50s middleweight boxing) and the last years of sad decline, and the story will tell itself. And isn't Hollywood currently obsessed with rewarding biopic roles that are often just glorified impersonations? With beautiful actresses making themselves up as unglamorous, long-suffering heroines? Despite all that, Cotillard is a fine actress and fully deserves international recognition.

Piaf certainly merits lasting worldwide fame - and her singing is matched by her acting. That is to say, few other singers bring such dramatic range and emotional strength to their performances - and (even more rare) Piaf did it in both English and French with nothing lost in translation. Her most famous international songs are 'Je Ne Regrette Rien/No Regrets' and 'La Vie En Rose', but surely her greatest performance is 'Hymne A L'Amour' (sometimes known in English as 'If You Love Me' or 'Hymn To Love'). It begins with the singer reserved and hesitant with emotion, then moves into a middle section of self-questioning and fearful uncertainty, before ending with a powerful declaration of love that's as triumphant as de Gaulle's march down the Champs-Elysées.

Wouldn't it be strange if Cotillard's Piaf were to battle with Cate Blanchett's Dylan for an Oscar? Should Cate's Bob-job beat out Piaf, we can just console ourselves that there are greater prizes than shiny baubles. Here's 'Hymne A L'Amour' - if you're watching in your workplace, now would be a good time to pretend that you've got dust in your eye:

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