A very special edition of Key Note Speaker sees your blogger in conversation with Brian Carroll, organiser and indeed founder of Hard Working Class Heroes.  The 2008 event takes place this coming weekend (September 12-14) and some tickets are still available from here.

Favourite Albums from the Past Year?
One of my favourite albums from the past year has been Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours (and I actually have the pleasure of tour managing these guys). Dan Whitford’s song writing is so masterful especially on this record, and it translates so well live - I should know i've seen them about 100 times!! Another record from this year I love is MGMT's Oracular Spectacular. I know I will love this record for the rest of my life!

Favourite Albums Ever?
Wow, I’m always stumped when it coomes to these types of questions. I could list 50 records ranging from Iron Maiden to Fleetwood Mac to The Strokes to ELO but if pressed for an answer I would have to say Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and possibly Alice in Chains’ Dirt album or Unplugged would be very pleasing to listen to for eternity.

Favourite Albums by Hard Working Class Heroes 08 Bands?
It's awesome to be asked that question as when HWCH first started out most of the bands didn't have records or the means to make them! Thankfully times have changed!  My favourite albums would be SEBP, the very eagerly awaited debut from Fight Like Apes along with albums by Crayonsmith, We Are The Physics, The Vinny Club and, obviously, the excellent Sons & Daughters!

Favourite New Bands/Artists?
God there's so much new music available it's hard to find the really great stuff, but since I tour a lot I do get to see so many bands. As I've already said MGMT rock me big time and Cut Copy are new enough for me.  Others i'm loving right now are Vampire Weekend, Japanther Of Montreal (new for me!), but 3 words you will definitely hear in 2009 would be my dear friends "Matt & Kim". You have been told!

Favourite Bands/Artists Ever?
The Strokes/Fleetwood Mac/Alice In Chains/Abba/CCR/The Band/Iron Maiden/The King/Motley Crue/Bon Jovi/Men Without Hats/The Boss/The Fat Man/Van/Queen/The Jam/Thin Lizzy...

Favourite HWCH 08 Bands?
HWCH 2008 is the most interesting line up yet. I'm really happy with how it's turned out and I really think the line up is killer! Bands you should not miss are: Frightened Rabbit, Kill Krinkle Club, Nakatomi Plaza, Pocket Promise, Angel Pier, Little X's For Eyes, More Tiny Giants, The Spook & The 13th Lock, Bats... You see there's so much I just had to mention!! It's all awesome!

Favourite Gig So Far This Year?
Sex Pistols at Electric Picnic. Having been a huge pistols fan when I was younger in the hopes of pissing my parents off, it was great to finally be able to say I've been to a Pistols show but it's just novelty really.

Favourite Gig Ever?
Fats Domino, the National Stadium somewhere in the 80's, I can barely remember it. What a complete living legend. Plus my dad got to meet him after the gig which, to him, was probably more exciting for him than my own birth!

Favourite HWCH Performance Ever?
Well Peaches in 2006 was pretty awesome but over the years HWCH has hosted many bands who don't exist anymore. One of these was The Subtonics (fronted by The Mighty Stef) in the first year (2003). They blew my mind though sadly they had broken up by the following year.

Favourite Venue?
In Ireland, Meeting House Square. Elsewhere, Revolver in Melbourne, Australia is the best sounding room I've ever heard.

Favourite HWCH Venue Ever?
Well MHS (as above) is just so special and The Button Factory is probably the best spec'd venue in terms of production but you just can't beat a packed, sweaty Dorans when it's rockin!

Download/CD/Cassette/Vinyl?
Definitely download as I seem to move a lot, but vinyl is the most beautiful and special.

Most Listened to Radio Show?
I don't have a radio where I live plus they speak in Swedish (cos I live in Sweden) and I haven't a cluas [boom boom - Key Notes] what the hell they are saying.  However, when I'm in Dublin Phantom FM speaks to me.

Most Anticpated HWCH 2008 Performance?
I'm always working so I actually never get to fully see a bands set but I’m gonna try my best to check out Frightened Rabbit, Pocket Promise, The Spook & The 13th Lock, Fangs. I think i'm just kidding myself though, I'm gonna be so busy!! But fans should check out all the bands on www.hwch.net to have a preview.

What Will Make HWCH 2008 A Success for You?
If everybody has a great time and gets something out of it, whatever that may be. The fact that HWCH still exists year after year and Irish bands, in particular, still have a festival they can call their own that is enough for me.

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Cois Fharraige, Day 3 (Kilkee, Co. Clare)

Review Snapshot: The third and final day remained without highlight until Travis gave us what we wanted to hear - the hits!

The Cluas Verdict? 5 out of 10

Full Review:   After a promising opening night, and a slightly less solid second, I feared the final night would continue the downward trend. This was not helped by the admittedly poor line-up. But, it was the unlikely Scots, Travis, who saved the night from mediocrity.

Oscar and Simon from the dad-friendly Ocean Colour Scene performed their acoustic-driven set to an early crowd. Like a hotel-lobby band, they pleased the punters with their familiar sing-a-long anthems. Oscar and Simon, however, seemed surprised to be playing to such a small crowd, but I was surprised there was even a crowd at all.

I’ll admit I was highly skeptical of the reggae addition, Natty, to the line-up, not least because of all the typical Bob Marley comparisons. But, after opening with a catchy song and singing “this is just the intro…”, he proved just that, carrying on to play a pleasant and enjoyable show. The songs of revolution and oppression went down a storm with a merry Irish crowd, and he left me feeling a little more hopeful for the rest of the line-up.

Starsailor couldn’t seem to top this, though, playing a mildly diverting set of bottom-drawer Britpop. Strangely, they opened with their hit, “Alcoholic”, which was instantly recognisable but set a pace they could not keep. Though unmemorable, the set was not unpleasant to listen to. “Four to the Floor” was notable, giving brief respite from unimaginative album-fillers. The crowd seemed to enjoy them, as they did every single act, singing along to a cover of Oasis’ “Champagne Supernova” at the end. Not strong enough to be on so late in the evening, we were left looking forward to Travis.

After the ordeal that clearly was “playing the new stuff”, Travis slipped into a more comfortable mode and showed us doubters why they were headlining. They churned out all of the hits to what was regrettably the smallest crowd of the three days. No one could resist Fran Healy’s friendly chat and novel approaches to engaging the crowd. At one point, he encouraged everyone to goad on their Swedish keyboardist for his solo by shouting his name – “Claes! Claes!”. For their inevitable encore, the band huddled around one microphone performing “Flowers in the Window”. After taking up their instruments once more, they closed with “Why Does It Always Rain On Me?”, sending the crowd into a singing frenzy and ending the festival on a high note.

Barring the likes of The Futureheads and Supergrass, the Cois Fharraige festival had very few acts to draw music fans. And, at three days, the thin line-up seemed a little strained. It has a long way to go to compete with the likes of Electric Picnic, but if you’re looking for a weekend on the lash, this is the festival for you!

Christine Cooke

• Check out the CLUAS reviews of Day 1 and Day 2 of Cois Fharraige 2008.

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A review of the album 'The Hare's Corner' by Colm Mac Con Iomaire

Review Snapshot: The solo project of trad-meets-world from the Frames violinist is well-played and thoughtfully crafted throughout. But you yearn for a spark of electricity to liven up the unrelenting politeness of the whole affair. By no means a bad record – just uneventful and ultimately featureless. Let this hare sit.

The Cluas Verdict? 6 out of 10

Full Review:
The first cinemas put a piano-player at the foot of the screen and he would plink-plonk along to the action in the film, enhancing the onscreen sentiment and prompting us how to react. Today, we almost invariably describe instrumental music as ‘cinematic’. It doesn’t exist independently, but serves to soundtrack something. We expect it to evoke epic landscapes and hyperdramatic situations.

Regardless of this, Glen Hansard’s nixer, as uncinematic as cinema music can get, has earned him an Oscar. Now here’s his Frames colleague Colm Mac Con Iomaire with his own solo project, eleven instrumental tracks that will no doubt have listeners judging it against the movies in their heads.

The titles and sleevenotes to ‘The Hare’s Corner’ are bilingual, half Irish and half English. The record itself follows similar lines, mixing traditional Irish influences with a fashionably cosmopolitan range of classical and world sounds. As you’d expect from the Frames fiddler, violin is prominent in the arrangements.

However, the VU/Bad Seeds avant garde screeching of his band work is replaced by tastefully melodic lines. As a result, this record is unfailingly polite to the point of near blandness. There’s little in the way of personality or character on show here. Most of the airs are slow to mid-tempo, with only the jaunty ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry Timber/Ná hIompar Adhmad’ jarring things up a bit. Trad arrs like ‘The Cuckoo Of Glen Nephin/Cuachín Ghleann Néifin’ and ‘The Court Of New Town/Cúirt Bhaile Nua’ are played with safe hands.

Back to our opening proposition: instrumental music always being reduced to soundtrack work. In this light, ‘The Hare’s Corner’ can be called incidental music. Not in the sense that it’s packed with incident, but that it stands unassumingly in the background while something more interesting grabs your attention.

Aidan Curran

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Cois Fharraige, Day 2 (Kilkee, Co. Clare)

Review Snapshot: Improved weather but fewer highlights.

The Cluas Verdict? 6 out of 10

Full Review:
Having waited two hours from the original gate time yesterday before seeing a band, today we decided to soak up the sun and atmosphere prior to the gig. However, on arriving 50 minutes after gates opening, we found that the second act had just begun their set. The inconsistent start times meant we had missed an anticipated gig by UK band 28 Costumes.

So, the first act of our day became The Broken Family Band. Playing to a handful of people in a near-empty marquee, their lively set may have gone down better in front of a larger audience later in the night. They managed to win over the minor crowd, not with their music, but with chocolates they cast from the stage, claiming they belonged to Travis.

The trad-jam session that was Kila drew the crowds in from the sunshine and treated them to a string of indistinguishable songs. This was punctuated only by brief banter and annoying, gratuitous bongo solos. Nevertheless, their live shows enjoy a baffling popularity with the Irish public, and this was no exception.

Seasick Steve riled up the crowd initially with his novel country-flavoured act, but the novelty soon wore off, and after an hour the whole thing felt a bit over-stretched. The stop/ start pace and generic blues sound did little for an act that was, essentially, warming up for Supergrass. While he wasn’t bad, this weathered character, drinking Jack Daniels straight from the bottle and sporting a grey beard and denim overalls, seemed a little out of place, and a slightly mis-judged attempt at being hip by the organisers.

Despite a series of successful hits to choose from, headliners Supergrass launched into the beginning of their set drawing mainly from their latest album “Diamond Hoo Ha”. Although enjoyable, the tracks by no means match the instant catchiness of early singles “Alright” and “Caught by the Fuzz”, and an unfamiliar two-song encore proved the point.

The best time of all, however, was had by the staff. The on-stage camera-men enjoyed picking out fans and security staff from the crowd to be displayed on the giant screens, turning the cameras on themselves at one point. The video editor had a great time utilising cheesy effects throughout the night, and one of the members of security even managed to perform a rudimentary jig on stage with Kila!

Although the weather improved, this second day did little to outshine the first, in musical terms, at least.

Christine Cooke

• Check out the CLUAS reviews of Day 1 and Day 3 of Cois Fharraige 2008.

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It seems that every second French act is playing folk-tinged acoustic indie-pop. It's something of a fashion here.

So far this year we've featured Syd Matters, Barth, Cocosuma, St Augustine, Poney Express, The Rodeo, The Dø, Roken Is Dodelijk, Da Brasilians and adopted Frenchie Micky Green. All of them are clearly in thrall to the likes of Nick Drake and Elliott Smith, which is no bad thing.

Now, lest you think we only have ears for soft-spoken strummers, here's something loud and swaggering.

Pussydelic (right) are a self-styled "girls' rock n'soul band" from Limoges in central France. An all-female six-piece, the group clearly take their lead from Beth Ditto - they make a Gossip-esque punk-funk racket that's high on attitude. Three of the six - Natty, Mayhia and Myriam - are singers, and the band's three-up-front line-up certainly goes for power. But the vocal trio can also harmonise to good effect.

In the often macho world of live gigging, their sense of sisterhood is all the greater - they augment their line-up with Justine the second bass player and Caroline the sound engineer. 

The band's most noticed song to date is called "Dick For A Brain". While it could never reach the dizzyingly high expectations you have of a song called "Dick For A Brain" by an all-female rock band called Pussydelic, it's still enjoyable. They also do a rocked-up version of Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang".

You can visit Pussydelic's MySpace page to hear tracks from their recent EP, "Six, Sex And Fun" (a pun on a Serge Gainsbourg hit called "Sea, Sex And Sun"). Here's the band live, playing a song you won't hear on that EP - the raucous "I Don't Need This":

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Lately, during the 29th Olympic Games, animal rights action group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Asia-Pacific (PETA) went around the city checking out “healthy, humane” restaurant options in china’s capital. Not easy, given that the Chinese brag about eating everything with four legs and its back to the sun, besides tables.” Dog and donkey meat are easily found in Beijing: vast suburban dog markets are often blamed for supplying back street butchers on quieter days. Seeing shivering kittens, puppies and even ducklings for sale on the streetside in Beijing’s commercial areas I know this is not the most animal-friendly country in the world.

To show there are better dining options than bull’s testicles (available in many Beijing eateries) PETA selected three city vegetarian restaurants and ranked them gold, silver and bronze. Its number one choice was what it says is China's oldest Buddhist vegetarian restaurant: Godly Vegetarian at No. 58 Qianmen Street, which specializes in dishes like King Kong Huo Fang (stewed mock pork), sweet-and-sour mock ribs and fish, lion's head (mock meatballs) and preserved leafy vegetable steamed stuffed bun. Pure Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant took PETA’s silver ranking: run by Tibetan monks who use only natural organic ingredients to make creatively named dishes such as "hot tears fill the eyes glazed noodles" and "countenance of mercy, words of love stir-fry." Third ranked is Still Thoughts, a newer establishment inside the Meijuan Hotel in an old-town laneway. PETA claims an increasing number of world-class athletes are chucking cholesterol-packed meat and dairy products from their diets including former track-and-field star Carl Lewis, winner of nine Olympic and eight World Championship gold medals.

In Beijing to push the organisation’s operations here – it’s not clear if he’s actually managed to open an office - PETA's Jason Baker asks “who needs heart attacks, diabetes, and obesity, which are all linked to meat consumption?”
More interesting than the ranking is PETA’s activism in mainland China, which is sensitive to criticism of its animal (not just human) rights standards lest it effect its ambitions to become a regional champion of the clinical trials and cosmetics testing industries: testing new products against nasty things like toxicity. It’s very hard to get anyone in either government or industry to go on the record on this subject this summer. Partly because a new EU law outlawing sales of animal-tested cosmetics coming into force next year will make it very hard for cosmetics made in China (which makes testing on animals compulsory for cosmetics sold in the country) to be marketed in the EU. PETA, which has for some years had a presence in more liberal Hong Kong, has been trying to engage the Chinese government, to at least make conditions at testing labs better. We wish them well, but they’ve got their work cut out for them in China. I’m also looking forward to trying some of Still Thoughts’ spicy mock-pork intestines dry pot and shredded veggie duck pancakes. 

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Artist (live in Venue Name, City)

Review Snapshot: An excellent start to the Kilkee festival, with an outstanding performance by the Futureheads.

The Cluas Verdict? 7 out of 10

Full Review:
“Who gives a f**k about the rain? It's a deadly festival!” So remarked Danny O'Reilly, lead singer of The Coronas on this, the first (and hopefully wettest) day of the Cois Fharraige music festival in Kilkee.

First up were Galway band The Kanyu Tree, performing their first live show as a four-piece. Their unoffensive pop rock was well-received by the gathering crowds, but their music and manner fails to establish them as anything more than a support band.

Next up were The Coronas, hailing from Dublin, but equally at home on the soundtrack of an American teen drama series. Their sound was rockier and their presence more charming than The Kanyu Tree, and it's not surprising that they've built up such a loyal fanbase in Ireland. Radio-friendly songs such as “Grace, Don't Wait” went down well with the ever-increasing crowd. After witnessing a mass chorale to their big hit, “San Diego Song”, you can believe them when they claim never to get sick of playing it live.

After a lengthy gap, The Futureheads kicked off their energetic set with their new single, “Walking Backwards”. It was the first in a series of lively numbers that showcased their enjoyable brand of power-pop rock. The beginning of their set seemed to fall on deaf ears. Many people didn't even appear to know who they were, turning their backs and consuming their beer. But, with their interactive banter and intense likeability, The Futureheads won over this distracted crowd. And, by the time they launched into “The Beginning of the Twist”, everybody seemed to to have caught on. This was followed by two more crowd-pleasing songs; their popular Kate Bush cover, “Hounds of Love”, and the last track from their debut album, “Man Ray”. Their songs transfer well to a live setting and are executed with such confidence and gusto that even the most distracted viewer can't but love them.

Following this class act, were questionable headliners, The Zutons. Their gimmickery (a giant neon “Z” against a scenic backdrop, superfluous female saxophone player) only highlighted their shortcomings as serious song-writing talents. The set list included all of their hits. Their most popular song was undoubtedly “Valerie”, which they decidedly played mid-set. A strange choice, considering they themselves remarked afterward “That was our biggest song.” This meant an unfortunate early peak for The Zutons, who paled in comparison to The Futureheads.

Despite the torrential weather, this was a promising start to the last festival of the summer.

Christine Cooke

• Check out the CLUAS reviews of Day 2 and Day 3 of Cois Fharraige 2008.

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