There's no better way to mark today's French national music festival than with news of new music from France's greatest living pop star.

Manu Chao will release his new album 'La Radiolina' on 27 August. The first single taken off the album is 'Rainin' In Paradize', and you can watch the video below. Warning: it's fairly ordinary stuff -  a real disappointment compared to his electrifying back catalogue. And the video's terrible too. But if you like it, the track can be downloaded for free from Manu Chao's website.

No news yet of European tour dates or an Irish show (he's currently doing shows in North America) - hopefully Irish promoters will have learned by now just how huge an international star Manu Chao really is. In summer 2004 he was booked to play an Irish show at...Whelan's. The show eventually took place at... The Point, which he could have filled three times over, such was the demand for tickets, even with Metallica playing at the RDS arena on the same night.

Some astute Irish promoter will surely book him for a huge outdoor show, certain of the fact that every Spanish, Italian and French person in Ireland (thousands, we assure you - and that's not even including the hordes of summer students) will flock to see him.

Anyway, here's the video for 'Rainin' In Paradize':

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COIS FHARRAIGE 2007 Ireland's First Surf & Music Festival
SEPTEMBER 7TH, 8TH, 9TH

A weekend of live music from the best of Irish and International acts
will be staged in a Kayham Tent, with a capacity of 4,500 each night,
over looking the Atlantic Coast in Kilkee Co. Clare.

Friday September 7th
Fun Lovin' Criminals, The Blizzards, Roisin Murphy, Majella Murphy

Sunday September 8th
Ocean Colour Scene, Republic of Loose, THE ENEMY, 28 Costumes

Sunday September 9th
Kila, Tom Baxter, Buffalo Souljah, Delerontos, THE WOMBATS, Amy MacDonald

Further acts to be announced.

A carnival of watersport activities will kick off across Kilkee bay
over the three day weekend and an official Surfing Event on the
breathtaking Doughmore beach in Doonbeg on Saturday the 8th in
association with the West Coast Surf Club.

Tickets for Cois Fharraige Surf Festival go on sale on Friday June 29th at 9am.
In person: From 99 Ticketmaster outlets Nationwide
24hr hotlines: Tel: ( ROI ) 0818 719 300 / 0818 719 330 ( NI ) 0870
243 4455 Buy online: www.ticketmaster.ie

Tickets for each individual day 29.50 euro
Early Bird Three day Festival Ticket 69.50 euro
( Available to purchase until August 18th 2007 only )

Three day Festival Ticket 84.50 euro
( Available to purchase from August 19th 2007 )

All tickets include booking fee

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I was having a few quiet beers with one of my mates the other night and the conversation turned to music, and shortly after, to heated argument as we struggled to agree who was and who was not a rock and roll star. It all started when I dissed Gary Lightbody and, for good measure, Chris Martin. My friend reacted badly to this as they are two of his favourite musicians and before we knew it we were citing record sales, critical reviews, respective fanbases, brands of endorsed musical instruments, favoured pastimes and anything else we could think of to attack or defend the general thesis. Finally, I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation and said, "Sweet Jesus, would Chris Martin look good in a black leather jacket ?" at which my mate froze, mouth open, pint in mid air and then exclaimed, "Say that again". "Ok mate, would any of your heroes look good in a black leather jacket?" "That's it, that's the acid test, isn't it?". he responded.

You see, you can talk all you like about popularity but when it comes down the wire, the real test, the black leather jacket test, is whether you look good in one and if you do then, regardless of whether you are a musician or even a dolphin trainer, then you are, without question, a rock and roll star. So, take a bow, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Bono and The Ramones, you all look great in the cowhide.

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In France, the longest day of the year is also the longest night - 21 June is Fete de la Musique, France's national music day. It's a bit like St Patrick's Day but without the parade, the rain or the streetside vomiting.

Every French city, town and village has organised free outdoor musical events of all genres. Many venues also enter into the spirit and put on free shows.

Two Irish acts will play in Paris for the festival. Our recent Eurovision entrants Dervish are in concert at the Irish Cultural Centre, near the Pantheon. Alternatively, Simple Kid is on the bill at the Maroquinerie, a cosy little venue in the east of the city. We know which of those we'll be at.

The festival is now celebrated in cities across the world, and Dublin's large French community is also getting involved.

'French Music Feast' at Crawdaddy features traditional chanson francaise from Thomasi, some self-explanatory rock sounds by Mon Cote Punk and some world music sounds from Killdahype and various other DJs late into the night.

Full details are available at www.myspace.com/frenchmusicfeast

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Back in the days when this blog was a column typed arthritically on a steam-powered abacus, we featured 'Paris Calling', a 2006 compilation of the French capital's most exciting new English-language guitar bands.

Pick of the bunch were Plastiscines, four easy-on-the-eye French girls who make equally attractive punk-pop in the tradition of The B-52s, The Ramones and early Jam singles. 'Shake (Twist Around The Fire)', one of their two tracks on the compilation, was an especially catchy song that made it into our end-of-year list of the best French music of 2006.

We had high hopes for their first album, which has just been released under the very functional title of 'LP1' - and it hasn't let us down. It's 26 thrilling minutes of punk energy, pop melody and Parisian attitude. Around half the tracks are in English, so it's likely that the album will be released in Britain, Ireland and North America - especially as the girls recently played in London (with Pravda, our other favourite French band of the moment) and New York. No news of any Irish dates yet.

Plastiscines' domestic fortunes have been mixed, however. Despite positive reviews and healthy sales, the record hasn't achieved the sort of chartbusting success anticipated by the huge advertising campaign that preceded its release (although the album fully justifies all the hype). In fact, most of the band's media exposure has been in the fashion glossies and teen bibles - photoshoots and modelling, rather than music discussion. As a result, their credibility has taken a battering.

Their music press appearances have raised hackles among the '4-Real' old punk brigade who can't take female acts seriously and point to the girls' well-to-do upbringing in the bourgeois suburbs west of Paris. However, they are veritable peasants compared to the New York punk wannabes who formed while in a Swiss finishing school, or to the British diplomat's son who followed up his private-school education by writing and singing punk anthems like 'London Calling' and 'White Riot'.

Embodying this blog's mantra of 'catchy tunes by glamorous people', here's Plastiscines performing 'Shake (Twist Around The Fire)' at a special live showcase at the Trabendo in Paris:

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Writing recently about the competition to find Ireland’s Greatest Living Musician gave me the perfect opportunity to delve into my record collection to remind myself of some of the contenders. In the process of completing this task I was taken aback by the sheer volume of music I possessed belonging to musicians now headlining the great gig in the sky. A quick check on my mp3 player showed that of the 100 most frequently played songs, 58 of them were by musicians who have already shuffled off their mortal coil.

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At the moment, adverts are running on the television for ‘Top Gear Anthems’, the latest BBC album to take advantage of both the popularity of the world’s greatest motoring programme and Jeremy Clarkson’s creaking taste in rock and roll. All the usual Dad Rock compilation favourites are here; Boston, Steppenwolf, Queen, Deep Purple, Sabbath, Hawkwind, ZZ Top, Motorhead and Queen to name just a few along with some more modern bands, Son Rock if you will, such as Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park and Feeder. I gotta say I wouldn’t listen to any of this stuff regardless if I was behind the wheel of a car or not. So, in honour of my misspent early teens, when one of my guilty pleasures was to whiz around Dublin at night on my Raleigh 10 Speed racer listening to ‘Heatseeker’ by AC/DC on my Walkman (its illegal and dangerous to listen to music whilst on your bike kids) I have put together this list of top notch, road tested driving music for your speed orientated listening pleasure, but I urge you to keep an eye on the speedometer if you listen to them, because Sound Waves advocates safe, responsible driving.

Track: New Sensations

Artist: Lou Reed

Album: Perfect Night Live In London

Verdict: “I took my GPZ out for a ride / The engine felt good between my thighs”. Lou Reed’s song is a paean to the simple pleasures of his Kawasaki motorcycle as he heads out from New York on a summer’s day for Pennsylvania and ends up in a road side bar. This live version of the song was recorded at the 1997 Meltdown Festival in London and it kicks ass, especially when Lou Reed instructs the band to, “Crack that Mother Fucker open”. Oh yeah

Track: Thunderstruck

Artist: AC/DC

Album: Live

Verdict: This song is like listening to bolt lightening making its way from Angus Young’s guitar to a massive speaker stack. The best example I can find of what I like to call “Live Energy Audience Transfer Dynamics”.

Track: Steve McQueen

Artist: Sheryl Crow

Album: C’mon, C’mon

Verdict: Sheryl was once engaged to the Texan thunderbolt that is Lance Armstrong, a man who began his autobiography with the words, “I do everything at a fast cadence” so she knows a thing or two about speed. In this song, she admits that she wants to be, “Like Steve McQueen / All I need’s a fast machine” before making sly comments about rock stars in the Whitehouse and pop stars who look like porn. I wonder who she is talking about?

Track: You Wreck Me

Artist: Tom Petty

Album: Wildflowers

Verdict: I first heard this on a country music radio station as I was driving down a highway in Kentucky. “Tonight we ride, right or wrong” sings Tom Petty as his band lock together to ride that tune down the road. Its one of his best songs and yet it does not appear on any of his Greatest Hits releases.

Track: Dominion / Mother Russia

Artist: The Sisters of Mercy

Album: Floodland

Verdict:  Anyone who thought that Jim Steinman’s work with Meatloaf was the pinnacle of more is more music production has never heard his work with British Goth rockers The Sisters of Mercy. This song is the opener for their hit album ‘Floodland’ and has it all, a massive drum beat, grandiose lyrics, a killer guitar lick, graveyard vocals, choir and a saxophone solo. If you are ever planning on driving through Death Valley make sure you pack this track.

Track: Cold Metal

Artist: Iggy Pop

Album: Instinct

Verdict: I saw Iggy Pop when he supported Madonna at Slane and he was brilliant, calling the disinterested crowd a bunch of mother fuckers and jumping around the stage like a seven year old that has eaten too much candy. This is my favourite track by the Godfather of Punk and features Glen Matlock and Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols on bass and guitar. “Threw my hide in an automobile / Heard a song called drive the wheel”. Sure, it’s a three chord trick but its one which ends with a prescient green message, “Better save a tree”. Trevor Sargent would be proud.

Track: Paper In Fire

Artist: John Mellancamp

Album: The Lonesome Jubilee

Verdict: ‘Jack & Diane’ was arguably John ‘Cougar’ Mellancamp’s biggest hit but this song is by far his best rocker; a lovely mixture of rolling guitar lick, Southern American instrumentation and drum kit fireworks.

Track: Tennessee Plates

Artist: John Hiatt

Album: Slow Turning

Verdict: This wonderful, country rock track tells the story of a car thief who steals a Cadillac with the aforementioned plates and takes it for a drive across Memphis with the police in hot pursuit before ending up in Tennessee Prison where he spends his days making, eh, Tennessee plates. If you ever find yourself on the run from the Gardai down the M50 this is the one to play.

Track: Keep The Car Running

Artist: Arcade Fire

Album: Neon Bible

Verdict: “Men are coming to take me away / I don’t know why but I know I can’t stay”. If that’s not a reason to get in a car and drive into the night as fast and as far as you can, then I don’t know what is. Once again, this is a song with a rolling lick and a fast paced beat and its opening echoes Steve Reich’s ‘Music for 18 Musicians’.

Track: Light of Day

Artist: Bruce Springsteen

Album: MTV Plugged

Verdict: No list of motorway music would be complete without the inclusion of a song by that poet of the open road, Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen. This was written as the title song for a Michael J Fox movie and was recorded live for an MTV special where Bruce discarded the acoustic instruments for his trusty Fender. “Been driving five hundred miles / Got five hundred to go / I got Rock & Roll music on the radio”. What else do I need to say? Take it away Bruce...

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Earlier this week, the Guardian asked a number of credible musos du jour (Mark Ronson,  Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips et al) to talk about a "classic" album that failed to light their fire. The article here delivers a masterclass in Sacred Cow slaying. Everything from Nevermind to Pet Sounds to The Stone Roses gets it in the neck.

Whilst I disagree wholeheartedly with Alex Kapranos slagging off Marquee Moon (how could he?!), I must admit that I found myself nodding vigorously to myself with descriptions of the Arcade Fire's  Neon Bible ("..an agglomeration of mannerisms, cliches and devices...") and Is This It (..the Strokes are the new Duran Duran; the new decadence for the new millennium...).

Of course, it got my thinking. Time to invite my fellow CLUASers to slay some sacred cows of their own. To start with, I'd like to nominate the two albums that adorn the top of the CLUAS Best Irish albums - Van the Man's Astral Weeks, and Loveless by that famous "Irish" beat combo, My Bloody Valentine. The directionless dirge that is Astral Weeks is knocked into a tin hat by  the delightful Moondance, whilst Loveless sounds like some recorded a bad album for their iPOD underwater. Now I know that the guitar layers and swoony indecipherable vocals are supposed to transport me to a nether world.... but there ARE NO TUNES!

Patti Smith, Horses. Neigh I say. Poetry recited over a sloppy bar band?

There isn't a single Dylan album that I can listen to the whole way through. Now call me a philistine (and I know some of you already think I am) but there are just too many words. Blonde on Blonde? I find myself skipping tracks. Visions of Johanna's genius is drained by is length.

Why are the Clash worshipped?! So many of their songs sound under-rehearsed and rehashed. And, the worst crime of all, they inspired the truly awful Libertines. Surely the most over-rated band of recent times, Up The Bracket is off-key, gravelly and ridiculously derivative.

 And so, my friends, I ask you this. What is the most over-rated album of all time? Do you agree with my choices or would you prefer to add some new and familiar names to the list? OK Computer anyone?

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An unforgivable omission from Jules' overview of music inspired by Joyce's masterpiece:

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Now that he's getting older and spending his summers in his south of France villa, Bono seems to have grown out his past habit of abusing elderly Frenchmen.

He is to contribute a song to the new album by Johnny Hallyday, France's veteran rock n'roll icon. The track is called 'I Am The Blues'.

It is not known whether the song will be in English or French, two languages which neither singer is believed to have ever really mastered.

64-year-old Hallyday is currently recording the album in Los Angeles, with a provisional release date set for October. He recently became a tax exile in Switzerland after failing to secure Belgian citizenship, which would have allowed him to avoid France's high rate of tax.

Bono and U2 are currently in Morocco, working on writing new songs with long-time production collaborators Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno.

Update: It's true! It lives! Check out 'I Am The Blues' by Johnny Hallyday, written by Bono and another noteworthy Irish frontman...

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