The CLUAS Archive: 1998 - 2011

Blogs

From 2007 to 2010 CLUAS hosted blogs written by 8 of its writers. Over 900 blog entries were published in that time, all of which you can browse here. Here are links to the 8 individual blogs:

14

Firstly, the albums in question were all listened to on surf trips around the Irish coast this year and were drawn from a shortlist of albums with a copyright of either 2006 or 2007, as albums recorded in 2006 may have, on occasions, only been released in 2007.

Secondly, consideration was duly given to how ‘new’, as in original, sounding the music was.

Thirdly, consideration was also duly given to how much of the album could be listened to without the desire to skip tracks. As a general rule of thumb, if the album contained less than three tracks that Sound Waves wanted to listen to repeatedly and then transfer to the official Sound Waves ‘albums of the year’ test site for further consideration, or as I like to call it, the MP3 player I got free when I ordered some printer cartridges, then it didn’t make the cut.

Fourthly, the albums are arranged in order of preference from one to seven: 

  1. Modest Mouse 'We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank'
  2. Regina Spektor 'Begin to Hope'
  3. Laura Viers 'Saltbreakers'
  4. Maximo Park 'Our Earthly Pleasures'
  5. Newtown Faulkner 'Hand Built by Robots'
  6. Xavier Rudd 'Food in the Belly'
  7. Prince 'Planet Earth'

There are two notable exceptions to this list which I would like to comment on. Firstly, there is no ‘Neon Bible – Arcade Fire’. This is because I am increasingly coming to belief that they are to the Irish music fans of today what Chris Rea and David Gray were to Irish music fans of previous decades. The band smacks to me of having a charisma deficit and have tried to counteract this by turning into a kind of secular, revivalist prayer group. I obviously haven’t seen the light it appears.

Secondly, there is no ‘Magic – Bruce Springsteen’. Partly this is because I have only got the album in the last week and it is probably too soon to judge its merits. However I do find that the sheer “Hey guys, I just plugged my Fender into a bolt of lightening’ rock ‘n’ roll power of ‘Radio Nowhere’ is unmatched anywhere else on the album. As a fan of live Bruce favourites such as ’Ramrod’ and ‘Light of Day’, to which ‘Radio Nowhere’ is a noble successor, I would have hoped that ‘Magic’ as whole would be a bit more up tempo. Although, as I say, its probably too soon to judge.

One final thought on a different subject. 2007 will also be remembered by me as the year that music journalism finally stopped being about music and became focused on technology, law and finance instead.

Three stories defined this trend:

  1. The rise of the 360 contract
  2. The download issues surrounding ‘in rainbows’ by Radiohead
  3. The fiasco that was the Barbara Streisand concert in Castletown

I think it is a dispiriting and negative trend that cheapens the art and practice of music thus suggesting that music, by itself, is not that important to begin with and so is not worthy of serious discussion. It didn’t help that a substantial amount of the coverage given over to the above stories was written by people who were not themselves expert in the areas of finance, technology or law. A particular case in point was the many articles devoted to Prince’s decision to release ‘Planet Earth’ free with The Daily Mail, the coverage of which dwarfed that which was given over to the discussion of the music contained within that same album. And with postings on DRM, Starbucks and short term record contracts, Sound Waves was not immune to this sad trend either, going so far as to state that, "As far as I am concerned, the single most important thing that happened this year in music was MCD being taken to task by the National Consumer Agency over the farce that was the Barbara Streisand Concert" although my underlying reasoning was that if the music business started to focus on customer satisfaction we might see a greater focus put back on signing and releasing new acts.

What can I say, I am to blame as much as anyone although a substantial amount of this blog in 2007 was devoted to music, surfing and, eh, George W Bush's love of mountain biking.

My response was to buy the reissue of Barney Hoskyns’ “Say it One Time For The Broken-hearted; Country Soul in the American South”, a truly beautiful and learned book about music whose heartfelt goal was, “to bring some of those records into your world”. I doubt that the same could be said of much else I read this year in the music press.


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13

Life is full of tough decisions; Monty Python or Father Ted, (not the real) Ronaldo or Messi, the Red Pill or the Blue Pill? However, these are decisions you can make yourself without the need to consult anyone or anything. But what happens when you have to take a decision that someone else has to agree 100% with? Key Notes faced this quandary recently when attempting to choose the song that would mark his marriage to Mrs. Key Notes. 

As those that were there will probably frustratingly attest to, the first dance was one of the few traditions that Mr. & Mrs. Key Notes were willing to adhere to in our recent nuptials. However, if Key Notes had of known it would have taken almost two years to decide on a song, it may have been another tradition he was willing to eschew. Having agreed that it had to be something both parties were happy with, a veto system was established. 

The first choices were Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper & Sarah McLachlan and Freewheel by Duke Special. Both were vetoed as being, respectively, "too soppy" – Mrs. Key Notes and "too popular now" – Key Notes (music is the one area of ones life where snobbery is acceptable). First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes was then suggested and for a while it seemed that it would make the grade, but it too was to fall by the wayside because of "musical differences".  With the wedding only a couple of weeks ago, and the DJ emailing on a daily basis for a decision, Key Notes was unsure if a compromise could be reached. 

However, Mrs. Key Notes, as is her way, was to come to rescue. "What about ‘South’?" she suggested absentmindedly one day. A furious search through one’s mp3 collection came to nothing and it was only thanks to Key Notes new Brother in Law/Son (don't ask!) that we were even able to listen to the song, let alone choose it.  However, upon first listen (Key Notes had heard the song before of course, but never considered it for this particular situation) the decision was made. Given the circumstances it was the perfect song, and Key Notes learned a valuable lesson that day; Mrs. Key Notes is always right! 

So here it is, South by Pilotlight, formerly Polar. 

Key Notes doesn't enjoy talking about himself, so would like to know what you chose/would choose as your first dance and why?

 


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13

Stepping off the train this morning for another hard day's contributing to France's GDP, we were a bit emotional on seeing the old cattle-wagon draw away. One gets fond of one's public transporter, like a partner who's familiar and dependable (and, as can be the way with partners, regularly ridden by half the town and beyond). For the next week or so, however, a ride's out of the question.

France's latest transport strike starts this evening. Unlike last month's few days of stoppage, no one's sure how long it will last and many fear a fortnight of trainlessness. The dispute over public pensions is still unresolved, and next Tuesday the train drivers' unions will be joined on the streets by the civil service and state agency unions. The transport workers have already been supported by the students' unions, who are protesting against planned university reforms. The students' preferred means of protest is to make for the nearest train station, occupy the train tracks and bring iron-horse traffic to a halt. Obviously, from today they'll need something more effective than sitting on idle rail lines.

We won't be too put out by the transport strike. Regular readers will know that your blogger is something of an athlete - and Château French Letter, overlooking the Seine, is only an hour's stroll from the day-job near Saint Lazare and the Opèra. More importantly, the weather forecast for the rest of the week says 'cold but dry'; nice one.

Spare a thought, however, for the live music community in Paris. To what lengths (literally) will punters go to see live shows during the coming strike-struck weeks? It just so happens that this week is a cracker for concerts. Even just counting the Irish visitors, this week there are Paris shows by Roisin Murphy, Sinead O'Connor, The High Llamas and Nina Hynes. Other attractive or high-profile shows include those by P.J. Harvey, Rachid Taha, The National, Josh Ritter, Souad Massi, Les Rita Mitsouko, Femi Kuti, Lucinda Williams and Vanessa Paradis.

However, big-name shows may not be so badly affected because ticket-holders won't want to see their money wasted (and in the case of P.J. Harvey, that's €74 or so). It'll be the smaller shows and venues that'll take the hit. During the strike, 'walk-up' punters (i.e. those who pay at the door) will be both literally walk-up and relatively few. Band nights will especially suffer, as they depend on walk-up punters and venue regulars.

Nina Hynes, for instance, is heading the Saturday night line-up at La Flèche d'Or, where entry is free. No ticket means no commitment to go, so even die-hard regulars may be tempted to give Saturday night a miss if it means having to walk for ages there and back. You see, the Flèche is a good distance from the city centre, too far even for your marathonian blogger to foot it. Other popular venues in the same 20th arrondissement district face the same problem. However, the area is home to a young demographic for whom, conversely, it'll be too far to go to the city centre, and so venue-owners are hoping that gig-goers will shop locally this Saturday - and subsequent Saturdays too.

With Paris hotels reporting cancellation rates of up to 25% this week, there's the silver lining for the dark cloud hanging over the leisure and entertainment industry in the French capital this week.


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11

It started with a Van Halen album when he was 11. “That was first album that blew me away totally,” says Hua Cai, editor of Painkiller, China’s only national magazine dedicated to heavy metal music. Hua Cai's tastes have gotten louder and heavier since that first encounter with big haired, cheesy hard rock on an imported casette purchased on a backstreet Beijing music store.

The September issue - number 26 - of Painkiller, which comes out every two months, features Californian trash metal pioneers Testament on a cover flagging other articles on Scorpions, Pain Of Salvation and Nightrage. There’s reviews of albums by Behemoth Blitzkrieg and Heaven Shall Burn. The magazine's New Found Power section features Chinese band Puppet Butterfly.

Readers of the 25,000 copies of Painkiller published each issue are mostly students and blue collar workers. A national book distributor and Post office subscriptions get the magazine from Painkiller's Beijing office to fans around the country. An A4-sized glossy, Painkiller has been around for more than three years, born out of fanship and a commercial choice. “Yang the boss predicted this music will be big in China.” Hua read the first issue during his second year in high school. “I said ‘wow we have this in Chinese!'" says the man who signs himself “Dirty F” in his emails.

Sitting at a glass table in the corridor outside Painkiller's office in an anonymous commercial centre in Beijing's college-cluttered Haidian district, the 24 year old Beijinger speaks English with a fast fluency. He thanks Iron Maiden for that. “I wanted to understand the lyrics,” says Hua, who has never been abroad. “Van Halen is about entertainment. Maiden is more about faith...” Iron Maiden remains his favourite “because they have everything I want, power melody and great lyrics, epic personality. I like everything epic.”

The hardest part of an adolesence listening to Iron Maiden and Metallica was getting the CDs. “Before there was so very little chance to get into the music... I needed to be an angry teen,” says the very mild-mannered Hua, who introduces himself as Freddy. Broad and bulky, hair shaved to a neat one-centimetre stubble, it’s like he’s overcompensating for his normal down-to-earth-ness. “When I was 11 or 12 I realized that popular music would kill me.”
 
With those neat black rectangular-framed glasses resting on his nose, he could be the accountant or an advertising salesman most of his class mates became. They however would unlikely wear his olive-green sweater, emblazoned with the flame-like logo of Swedish metal band In Flames, who gave it to him. A thick ring on the right hand is styled like an Iron Cross, with a Coptic star in the turquoise-coloured centre. Ozzy Osbourne wore something similar in his Black Sabbath days. “A British friend got it for me,” says Hua, happy I notice.
 
Heavy metal was why he majored in journalism and communications. After graduating at the Xinan University of Nationalities he came back to Beijing – Chengdu had “hot girls and hot pot,” says Hua in an endearingly naïve way nice rock stars have of confirming to the rock star cliché of sex, drugs and rock n roll. He talks the talk, and in December walked the walk, in to Painkiller to ask for a job. "I was talking to chief said I was biggest fan since school.” A week later the clearly impressed publisher called back inviting him to start.
 
The editorial job has gotten easier as more bands add China to their tours: Testament and Slayer played here, while Linkin Park play Shanghai later this month. Hua wrings his hands with delight while describing the phone interview with vocalist Tom Araya, known for his trademark shouting singing style. “We got the first China interview with Slayer!”
 
That chat was set up by Universal’s branch office in China. Labels are keen to set up interviews for each issue. Smaller, specialist heavy metal labels have a contracts with Painkiller to contribute two songs for the CD that goes with each issue. Most of the tracks are by Western bands, says Hua because there’s not enough local talent good enough to make the cut. Yet most of the music isn’t available in china: readers have to buy online.
 
For the rest of its content Painkiller searches the international fanzines and magazines for Section 8 Crazies: whacky stories behind music like the world’s most famous husband-wife bands. Painkiller staff also write an Audio Powers section, its title borrowed from the film Austin Powers. “It introduces classic albums and pioneers of rock,” says Hua.
 
The latest issue of the magazine runs the gamut from hard to classic rock, with a few pages on horror films in between. “At the start we were very focused on metal and now we’re more open minded.” Stories on local punks Brain Failure and Sonic Youth-admiring indie stars Carsick Cars are a sop to local non-metalheads. Painkiller fills pages dedicated to the local scene with words and photos of local CD releases and shows at local venues such as 13 Club and Yugong Yishan. “We pick the best of new bands and predict the future stars,” says Hua.
 
Coverage of indie artists is part solidarity in a music scene where rock music of whatever variety remains a minority taste, banished from national radio and TV. “In China metal belongs to the indie scene…” The two will grow together. The rock fanbase is getting bigger, society accepts this kind of music than ever before.”
 
Painkiller's horror film section is staple fare for fans of gothic rock. “We want to be a heavy alternative magazine.”But Painkiller can only follow the rock code of rebellion so far. “Some people realize this music stands for power showing people to truly believe in yourself and fight for what you want, but not politically.”
 
Getting the magazine onto the street was tough enough to begin with. The publisher had to drive two days south west from Beijing around Henan province to find the state-owned sponsor every publication needs to get the magazine a barcode. A book publishing company in Zhengzhou was eventually persuaded. Changchun and Harbin are tops of the 20 mainland cities - the publication is also distributed in Hong Kong - where Painkiller sells. “People up there are more aggressive probably,” shrugs Hua.
 
A staff of six in a cosy-but-cramped office in one of Beijing's anonymous fast-built new real estate development whose unfinished glass exterior suggests the developer got the location wrong. Two in-house designers spend periods between issues mapping out designs for the stacks of t-shirts piled on office shelving either side of the office door. Most are original designs meant as tributes to well known metal bands.
 
Most of Painkiller’s advertising comes from instrument makers and sellers. The other half of Painkiller’s revenue comes from concerts. Beijing-based Twisted Machines recently headed a Painkiller six-band show that included seasoned groups, newcomers and bands with new albums. Finding good bands is hard, says Hua. “Most Chinese musicians talk about their instruments and equipment but pay little attention to the music… Some of the musicians don’t know how to match melody and singing.”
 
A new wave of bands singing “more and more” in English is also proof of the lack of originality. “Even in Heilongjiang bands are just copying western fads. That’s the biggest problem now, there’s no originality.” China made better metal in the past, when the country was far less plugged into global music trends. Hua’s pick of the best Chinese bands, Overlord and Tang Dynasty, retired in the late 1990s. Spring and Autumn, formed by core members of the latter, is a pale shadow of the original, says Hua.
 
The medicine Chinese metal scene needs is more live music: “more chances to see good metal.” Even though 1,000 people showed up to see Testament’s summer gig, high ticket prices are proving prohibitive to fans. “No one, especially students will pay RMB300 for an hour and a half long show.”
 
Proof that China has fans willing to travel: die hard fans from Tianjin and Heilongjiang paid up to RMB660 for tickets to a recent Beijing show by Swedish glam metal band Arch Enemy at the Haidian Exhibition Hall. The band, which features on a recent Painkiller cover story, drew 1000 Chinese fans, “not bad on a Wednesday night,” nods Hua. But high ticket prices are not sustainable in China, says Hua. “I couldn’t believe what some people were paying, 660 yuan is half my salary!,” says Hua.
 
The solution is to bring younger, lesser known bands who are willing to share some of the costs and sleep in cheap hotels. A May concert at Beijing’s Star Live club by Denmark-based Hatesphere organized by Painkiller drew sponsorship from a Danish corporation while concerts in RMB50 and RMB30 in Zhengzhou, Xian and Shenyang were helped by distributors of Schecter guitars in the cities. The band took trains between venues packed with attentive fans and local musicians keen to learn some new tricks. The Zhengzhou bill support came from a brutal death metal band while in Shenyang several black metal bands - "the screaming type" opened for the Danes. “The crowd went wild.”

Tours by foreign bands are growing the fanbase for metal music, says Hua. Arch Enemy took a week off after a Japan tour to check out the Chinese scene before going on to Australia. Painkiller estimates 900 people gathered at the Painkiller Stage at the recent Modern Sky music festival in Beijing. The indie label organising the festival gave Painkiller a stage to fill for one day. Several Japanese bands have via Taiwanese promoters, paid their own way.  

The increasing mobility of young Chinese is grooming Chinese heavy metal fans - and Painkiller readers. Reviews and interviews come from Chinese students in Germany, Canada, Finland and London. “They’re fans of metal music and emailed us and said want to be your writer or distribute you.” One of them, a Chinese-born German, Yang Yu, has brought connections and PR know how. Webmaster and PR for Painkiller Yang Yu is also the force behind www.rockinchina.com

 “Metal music will grow by us organizing shows and writing about them,” says 'Dirty F.' "We have to show people how cool this music is, and help them understand this music’s expression.” 


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07

Thomas TruaxLast night your blogger went to the Flèche d'Or in Paris to see New York singer-songer Thomas Truax. Nothing strange in that, says you.

Well, in fact, everything about this man is bizarre. First, his music is of a genre he calls 'steampunk'. Furthermore, he plays his steampunk on the most unlikeliest contraptions - instruments that he made himself.

For instance, there's the Hornicator - a gramophone horn fitted up with a microphone and the type of sound-making gadgets you'd find in a Christmas cracker or a Kinder egg. There's also the Sister Spinster, a sort of spinning-wheel drum machine. Then there's the Stringaling, which (as the name suggests) is a roll of string with a tom-tom, ventilation tube and lots more little gadgets attached. (He also plays a rather conventional steel guitar - but with the spinning blades of a little plastic fan.)

And the man himself has the lanky, wild-eyed look of David Byrne or Kramer from 'Seinfeld'. Between songs he reaches for another queer instrument and continues talking to the audience even when he's away from the microphone and no one can hear him.  His performance sometimes stretches 'quirky' into 'irritating' - during 'Full Moon Over Wowtown' he does the tired old down-from-the-stage, play-in-the-audience, run-around-the-room routine. God punishes him by having him miss a step and fall on his arse.

Thomas Truax with his Hornicator (Sister Spinster in background)But, for the most part, Truax is highly entertaining. His instruments are genuinely fascinating in their ingenuity and intricacy; more importantly, they sound fresh and intriguing. As for his songs, some are a bit too self-consciously oddball ('The Butterfly And The Entomologist' drags on and gets boring) but plenty others are catchy, witty and a little bit scary in their skewed world-view. We're reluctant to used that much-abused word 'genius', but there's certainly something special about this man: he reminds us a little of our beloved Jonathan Richman.

Truax toured around Ireland earlier this year, as support to Duke Special (who also played in Paris last night) - did any of our readers see these shows? The American, resident in England, has no concerts upcoming in Ireland, unfortunately - and without the visual impact of his instruments, his recordings just don't capture the essence of his act.

You can listen to some Truax tracks on his MySpace page, and you can find out more about his music and inventions on his website. Here's the video for our favourite song of his last night, 'Prove It To My Daughter'. Chapeau to Louisa and Céline for bringing your blogger along to see him:


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06

So I thought, what a minute, why don't I just stick my albums of the year up on the blog when I do them? So that is what I am going to do. Once I get a minute to myself in the next couple of weeks.Oh, an another thing they will be in order of merit. The basic criteria will be that they were released in the last year and I have played them in the car on surf trips, other than that, eh, they are music.


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06
 
While in Salvador’s Café, a great hangout in Kunming, I met the Tribal Moons an American-British-Chinese-Irish quartet playing gigs around southern China. The band is fronted by the garrulous John 'Nevada' Lundemo from Reno, Nevada, – “some people call me 'jeronimo,' that was my stage name for years while playing in and around Reno and Lake Tahoe, and up and down the Sierra Nevada mountains in Nevada.
 
He plays rhythm guitar, harmonica, percussion and sing. From Ireland, bandmate Mark Corry plays slide guitar. Londoner James Martin plays lead guitar and harmonica. The band’s Chinese member is drummer Ma Tu, a Kunming native. Like the two Europeans in the group he’s versatile: all three take turns at bass, drums and join with Lundemo on vocals. 
 
John told me about the band’s gigs and plans for a sunny winter in Thailand the Philippines. Given that he’s a better story teller than me, below I’ll run a transcript of our chat:
 
“Over Halloween the band played in Kunming on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. We opened for Brandon Thomas, from Texas, an extremely wonderful blues-rocker and guitarist currently on a 16 city tour in China, playing our own show at the Halfway House Club on Thursday night, which really went well and was packed. The band then played two Halloween performances on Friday and Saturday nights at the Dragonfly in Dali, Yunnan.
 
We met last summer, in July, in Dali, where my wife Caroline (a university English teacher, and from Australia) and I got married. Caroline has been acting and has become our manager and chief 'organizer' and there are so many things we just couldn't do without her! All of our four children and friends and familes from the USA and Australia came for the wedding; we needed a band for the wedding party and dance, and some friends brought Mark, who was living and playing in Dali, and James, our friend of 4 years from central China, who had been teaching and playing music in Xiamen in eastern China, together. We met Ma Tu in Kunming and soon the four of us had settled into Ma Tu's studio and began rehearsing.
 
We play original music, in a variety of styles: blues, rock, reggae, country, and some jazz-oriented or jazz-flavored songs. We also do some covers of famous blues musicians, such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson; and old rock 'n roll songs by the Kinks, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Santana; and country songs by Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Hank Williams... just to name a few famous people and bands we like. But we choose what we personally like, and don't do the cover versions exactly, but rather, do our own 'take' or concept of the basic song. It works out quite well. I write many of the songs for the band and have been writing music and playing in bands all of my life. Now Mark, James and Ma Tu are also contributing songs they have written and also their specially selected cover tunes.
 
Our lucky break came when I had submitted my own personal resume and Youtube videos of some of my songs, and a background of the band to the promoters of the Lijiang Music Festival. I wasn't sure, nor were we at all convinced the Tribal Moons would be selected to play. We worked hard and our performances in Kunming prior to Lijiang, and then at the festival, and then through jamming and playing at the after-hour parties and bars in Lijiang during the festival, and meeting people and promoters and agents, our band began to get some notice and now more and more gigs and opportunities are coming out way. Since the festival we've had to make a few changes in our lives: Mark has moved from Dali to Kunming and is living with James, Caroline and I and James are all university English teachers, so we have had to make some band decisions around our teaching schedules. We have really began to 'switch around' with all of us playing various instruments to build exciting and interesting sets of our music, and finally, we're making some future plans.
 
I guess our next thoughts have to do with playing the holiday and shows that come up around the Christmas and holiday-New Year seasons. But beyond that we are now developing the itinerary and schedule to get all of us to the Philippine islands, and then on to Thailand for the months of January and February. We have some connections in both countries and are now looking at some resorts and clubs in the warmer climates and scheduling what we can. It will be a perfect time to take a winter break and 'go south' while at the same time keeping us together on the road for a couple of months where we can really work hard on the music and polish our sets. We have dozens and dozens of good original songs and we want to present a variety of sets we can keep in a constant evolving cycle so when we play two or three nights in a row we can keep things exciting and interesting for the audiences.
 
Beyond that, we'll see. Of course, we must get into the studio and record some CDs to take along with us, or maybe we'll face that recording thing in the spring. We are in no rush and at the present just enjoying playing together. I've played with a lot of musicians in my life, but these three young men are about as easy to work with and get along with as I've ever wanted. We enjoy each other's company, we're good friends, and we have loads of laughs. I have a lot of band and music experience behind me, so they look to me for some direction -- but really, Mark and James are very creative and accomplished writers and musicians and when we all are together, there is a wealth of musical knowledge to draw on, talk about and everyone contributes.
 
This week the band is resting, rehearsing, and preparing for the Kunming Outdoor Music Festival which will be held about 45 minutes from Kunming on Saturday November 10th. There won't be as many bands performing as at the huge Lijiang Music Festival, but still, lots of local bands, some foreign and most Chinese. All types of music will be represented -- from rock to punk to metal, to..well, us!"


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05

DionysosYour blogger generally has a backlog of CDs to listen to, and is usually quite methodical about it - new music to the bottom of the pile, the back of the line, while the older stuff gets played first. It's our token attempt at being professional.

However, today the new album by French band Dionysos (right), 'La Mécanique Du Coeur', got to skip the queue, slip inside the velvet rope, step in ahead of the ordinaries.

Eric CantonaWhy? Well, it's not every record that features Le Roi himself, Eric Cantona. And there he is on the very last track, 'Epilogue'. Our heart skipped a beat; we skipped right to the end of the album...

Alas, Eric doesn't sing on this track; his contribution is spoken word. 'La Mécanique Du Coeur' is based on a novel by Dionysos singer Mathias Malzieu that tells the story of a dreamy romance in a dark, nightmarish world (similar to Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'). Cantona's role is merely as storyteller, to wrap up the tale in the manner of his other profession: actor (he's been getting positive reviews recently for his performance in crime flick 'Le Deuxième Souffle').

Anyway, the album is a fine one - dreamy, imaginative cabaret-pop (that's cabaret like Kurt Weill, not cabaret like Sonny Knowles) that fans of Regina Spektor, Rufus Wainwright or Duke Special would like. Malzieu's voice is a bit thin for the topsy-turvy melodies he crafts, but it's his collaborators who make this record special. Apart from Eric, there are impressive turns by French chanteuse Olivia Ruiz (Malzieu's partner), venerable actor Jean Rochefort, and the marvellous Emily Loizeau (yes, we're raving about her again, we know. We can't help it).

You can listen to some extracts from 'La Mécanique Du Coeur' on its dedicated MySpace page. This promo for the album will give you an idea of what it sounds like:


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05
Before most shops were stuffed with generic local guitars – my first one was an RMB300 (EUR30) Starsun made in Fujian province in the deep south. Thick neck and head, strings far off the frets - but fine for a beginner. Since then (2003) a lot of the large international marques like Gibson and Yamaha have stared building guitars here. Now you walk into an instrument store and get the best brands for a fraction of EU/US costs because low labour costs allow the big brands to sell guitars locally while exporting the majority to international markets.
 
On a trip to the southeastly city of Suzhou the other day I acted on a good tip off from a local musician. The best instruments store in town, the Blues Music Store, is run by a local blues musicians who knows his stuff, I was told. When I found the small, crammed store I also found he spoke the truth. Proprietor Robin Cao, a pony tailed blues funk enthusiast and band member took me through his guitars and his dozens of real and photo-shopped photos of him and famous guitarists. Cao's infectious knowledge (the shopkeepers I bought the Starsun off, in a state-run department store, didn’t have a clue) meant I ended up trying out a dozen guitars and nearly buying one.
 
A Gibson Les Paul at the Blues Music Store in Suzhou costs RMB2,000. It looks like the real thing but it’s not quite. Some enterprising hands at Gibson’s factory in China have been siphoning off guitar bodies. Cheaper, Chinese pick ups are later added and the guitar sold locally. "But you'd never tell the difference," said Cao, whose Blues Music Store located just off the Shi Quan Lu entertainment strip gets business off the sizeable tourist hordes who come to visit Suzhou's famous gardens (it's only 40 minutes from Shanghai to here on a new bullet train serving the region).
 
The real Gibsons are shipped out of China and often come back in as imports, says Cao. An imported “real” Gibson Les Paul retails for RMB11,000 at his store. Gibson in 2002 chose Qingdao on China’s east coast as the location for its first foreign factory – and the first company-owned plant producing Epiphone guitars.
 
Yamaha acoustic guitars sell  for RMB900 at Blues Music. They're not fakes, rather “produced in China to Yamaha specifications” according to the label. That means outsourced to a Korean company who build the guitars at a factory in Dalian and Qingdao, two cities in Shandong province within easy flying district of Korea and Japan. The brand has an edge in China, says Cao, because Yamaha motorcycles are known and admired here.
 
Chinese music shop owners like Cao are getting a lot more sophisticated too. That’s maybe down to more gigging opportunities. Many of Cao's Beijing counterparts also run instrument shops to supplement gigs they play at the bars that have sprung up in Chinese cities. Their methods often differ however. Yesterday I took an Epiphone Les Paul (Chinese made, RMB2,500) to a place on Xinjiekou, a street in Beijing’s old low rise quarter. To change the strings the technician took a pliars and cut the strings just above the guitar bridge. Messy, though he got the strings on in 20 minutes and charged me RMB10 - a euro - for the job.

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04

The ARIAs are the Australian equivalent of the BRITs - when all the great and good in the Australian music industry indulge in a night of backslapping and self-aggrandising. I watched the show principally because the legend that is Nick Cave got inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. But, unexpectedly, the highlight of the evening didn't involve the long-haired Grinderman. The organisers of the BRITs tend to throw a strange collaboration into the mix - remember Tom Jones and Robbie Williams, or Bjork and PJ Harvey, surely one of the more bizarre and well worth another look. Well the ARIAs chucked hippy John Butler and country singer Keith Urban together for a "jam". And it was surprisingly wonderful.

 I reviewed the John Butler Trio's latest record, Grand National, a few months ago and it really is a bit of a stinker. He lived down to his reputation when he accepted the award of Best Independent Release and launched into the kind of left-wing agenda driven speech that even Michael Moore might have baulked at. Keith Urban, a bona fide country superstar here in Oz (as well as being the hubby of one Nicole Kidman), also received an award for Best Country Album. I refuse to listen to the record because of its name - Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing. Jeez...

So when they came together, I really didn't expect much. How was I to know that Urban was an incendiary guitar player and that Butler could put aside the politics and thrash out a great tune? It really is well worth a listen - make sure to hang around for the last couple of minutes.

 

 


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2008 - A comprehensive guide to recording an album, written by Andy Knightly (the guide is spread over 4 parts).