James Galvin

Noticed this thread of appreciation for Nick Cave on boards.ie, it was the first time I’ve seen his letter to MTV declining his nomination for the MTV Music Awards from years ago.

TO ALL THOSE AT MTV,

I WOULD LIKE TO START BY THANKING YOU ALL FOR THE SUPPORT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME OVER RECENT YEARS AND I AM BOTH GRATEFUL AND FLATTERED BY THE NOMINATIONS THAT I HAVE RECEIVED FOR BEST MALE ARTIST. THE AIR PLAY GIVEN TO BOTH THE KYLIE MINOGUE AND P. J. HARVEY DUETS FROM MY LATEST ALBUM MURDER BALLADS HAS NOT GONE UNNOTICED AND HAS BEEN GREATLY APPRECIATED. SO AGAIN MY SINCERE THANKS.

HAVING SAID THAT, I FEEL THAT IT’S NECESSARY FOR ME TO REQUEST THAT MY NOMINATION FOR BEST MALE ARTIST BE WITHDRAWN AND FURTHERMORE ANY AWARDS OR NOMINATIONS FOR SUCH AWARDS THAT MAY ARISE IN LATER YEARS BE PRESENTED TO THOSE WHO FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THE COMPETITIVE NATURE OF THESE AWARD CEREMONIES. I MYSELF, DO NOT. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OF THE OPINION THAT MY MUSIC IS UNIQUE AND INDIVIDUAL AND EXISTS BEYOND THE REALMS INHABITED BY THOSE WHO WOULD REDUCE THINGS TO MERE MEASURING. I AM IN COMPETITION WITH NO-ONE.
MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MY MUSE IS A DELICATE ONE AT THE BEST OF TIMES AND I FEEL THAT IT IS MY DUTY TO PROTECT HER FROM INFLUENCES THAT MAY OFFEND HER FRAGILE NATURE.

SHE COMES TO ME WITH THE GIFT OF SONG AND IN RETURN I TREAT HER WITH THE RESPECT I FEEL SHE DESERVES - IN THIS CASE THIS MEANS NOT SUBJECTING HER TO THE INDIGNITIES OF JUDGEMENT AND COMPETITION. MY MUSE IS NOT A HORSE AND I AM IN NO HORSE RACE AND IF INDEED SHE WAS, STILL I WOULD NOT HARNESS HER TO THIS TUMBREL - THIS BLOODY CART OF SEVERED HEADS AND GLITTERING PRIZES. MY MUSE MAY SPOOK! MAY BOLT! MAY ABANDON ME COMPLETELY!

SO ONCE AGAIN, TO THE PEOPLE AT MTV, I APPRECIATE THE ZEAL AND ENERGY THAT WAS PUT BEHIND MY LAST RECORD, I TRULY DO AND SAY THANK YOU AND AGAIN I SAY THANK YOU BUT NO…NO THANK YOU.

YOURS SINCERELY, NICK CAVE 21 OCT 96.

You never know if the guy is completely taking the piss out of you or not, but it is great stuff either way. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds will be playing in Dublin Castle in a couple of days, it is disappointing that they didn’t make it to Cork, especially with The Marquee looking well below par this summer.

Two weeks since Radiohead shook the earth with their release on In Rainbows. Two weeks in which the blogosphere hopped like popcorn to the funky beat of ‘15 Step’.

Hire professional web designers

A good user experience is critical. Over on the iQ Content blog, they have outlined some of the shortcomings to the In Rainbows site from a design perspective.

• Make buttons look like buttons
• Use clear labels and call to actions
• Don’t present your users with unnecessary obstacles
• and most importantly, as the book says, don’t make me think!

More creativity is needed

In the age of torrents and social networks, bands need to move on from the 1998 homepage concept. The music industry saw the value of web design very early on, and even in 1997, a lot of bands and musicians had stunning websites. They should be leading the next evolution, away from your two dimensional internet brochure and discography, to something more like a band’s clubhouse, interactive and rewarding to its visitors. MySpace made a good attempt at modernising the way bands interacted with their fans, bringing them closer to each other, but it was also a load of shite and it crashes my browser, and I will instantly boycott any band that uses a MySpace page as their primary website.

People got In Rainbows from Torrents because there is no benefit to gain from navigating that awkward website and filling out forms only to download it for exactly the same price (€0). I don’t know what kind of incentives Radiohead should have offered to convince more people to download from the In Rainbows site - that’s something they’ll have to think up. Even if thousands of people who got the album from Bittorrent weren’t willing to pay anything, that’s OK - you still have your audience under your control, and you can more accurately track the number and nature of downloads.

Must be more accommodating to ‘tryers’

Dahamsta outlines the difference between scroungers and tryers. I paid nothing for this Radiohead album, but in fairness, I am a tryer. I occasionally purchase fully functional shareware software, and sometimes I even donate to non-profit websites that I use. I didn’t really like the last couple of Radiohead albums, so I had no intention of paying for this one. I’ve only listened to it a couple of times, but it sounds like a good album, and definitely worth at least $6 to me. What would it take for me to retroactively pay that $6? As far as I can see, I’d have to navigate that ugly awkward website again and mess about with shopping carts, and fake email addresses, and pretend that I’m buying a new album. Not a chance. There should have been a follow-up email a week after I bought it, “So, what did you think of it?”, linking me to a feedback portal/discussion forum. It invites me into the Radiohead online community, it tells me when they’re going to be playing in Cork next, and it has a big button allowing me to easily hand over my $6. A little bit spammy, perhaps, but I’m certainly not going to complain, because I enjoyed the album, and now I want to support them.

Online surveys more skewed than usual

Nialler9 references the results of the What Price Did You Choose survey, which was fundamentally flawed if it depended on volunteers to mention how much they paid. Some reports are confirming my assumptions that a large portion of mildly interested people like me who idly downloaded the album for free would not be as inclined to actively partake in a survey to label themselves as cheapskates.

Can it work?

Yes, despite some flaws in the execution, it appears to have done fairly well on this occasion. Give it another two years and it will all be worked out.

Does it work, in general like

The jury is still out on this one. How big a part did the hype and ‘Snakes on a Plane’ factor play in the success of the In Rainbows release? I’m guessing a good chunk of people paid for this album because they wanted to support this progression. Others wanted to give a smack in the face to the record industry… kind of like voting for the McElhinney twins in You’re a Star. That novelty has worn off now, and the reality is, if the Frank and Walters allowed you to pick your price for their new album at ARenewedInterestInHappiness.com, they would be lucky to get a couple of thousand visitors, let alone paying customers. Which brings us back to the most important point: #2 above - more creativity is needed.

Zoe Conway’s website has been relaunched to complement her new album, the Horses Tail, which has been getting great reviews since it was released a few months back (including a nine out of ten from Hotpress). The album is for sale online, with some more samples on Zoë’s website. Note to all Americans: this would make a great gift for Mother’s Day.

I’ll never forgive Jack for introducing me to Salad Fingers, by David Firth. It has been around for years, but this is the first time I’ve seen it. If you haven’t already seen these then I must warn you that it could leave you leave you scarred for life.

Another one that passed me by was the equally horrifying Basshunter, a Swedish band who topped the charts in several European countries with their song about an IRC bot. They also had a top 10 single about the Warcraft III game, DOTA. This is what happens when the internet and online gaming culture becomes mainstream. I have to admit, I laughed out loud on a few occasions.

I was so focused on release date that I didn’t notice the Shins have put nearly the entire new album online on MySpace. These guys are the anti-Metallica in more ways than one. The unfamiliar synths and atmospherics indicate that the Shins have deviated from the course that was set by their previous work. I don’t know yet if thats a good thing or a bad thing… I’ll have to listen to it a bit more before deciding, but at the moment I agree with this guy.

I went for an interview the other day and I found a load of money in my suit pocket (that I hadn’t worn in months), so I splashed out on a couple of albums… two bands that, in my opinion, have the potential to make the greatest track of all time.

Having spent the past three months with ‘Gold Lion’ on loop in beep-media-player, I needed no persuasion in choosing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ latest album: ‘Show Your Bones’. I’m very happy with it - I prefer it to their first album. ‘Way Out’ is a great summer song.

I also got Jack L’s new album, “Broken Songs”, mainly because I felt pity for him when I saw that he would be performing in the prestigious “Briery Gap” theatre in Macroom (bet ya U2 are shittin’ themselves). There’s nothing on it to rival ‘When the Moon is High’ or ‘Georgie Boy’, but some decent tracks make it well worth €10.

“Silence you furry fool. You’re finished here, you understand? I’ve had it with your whining. You’re cast out, you’re banished.”

Its Beep Beep Little Satellite all over again. I have been listening to this for the past three hours non-stop, thanks to Spacey.

Perfect weather, and just the right temperature for me. Got up early (around 13:30) to submit my final year project. It was the first day this year to really makes you wish you had a convertible… the radio playing, sing up to the eighth floor. I headed into UCC and each driver had the window down and the stereo louder than usual. Everyone has their sunshine songs I think, the ones you like to blast out on a sunny day like today when driving is a pleasure.

Its funny hearing the music as you pass each car… I probably could have guessed before I heard the it that the middle aged guy chilling in a parked car beside Horgans Buildings was listening to “Feeling Groovy”. A white Mondeo cruised past blasting Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” - a classic sunny day driving song. Of course the souped up Civic was blaring Fiddy Cent as usual.

Slightly disappointed in the MP3s I had with me - Tricky, Libertines, Flaming Lips, Mystery Jets, M. Ward… nothing to match the occasion. Thinking of the episode of Braniac I caught the other night, thats probably a good thing. Its not a show I would usually watch - despite their interesting topics, the AntandDec-esque style of presentation does not appeal to me. This time around they were discussing how different types of music affects your driving ability, and I knew exactly what they meant.

For me, as soon as the first few bars of Mr. Brightside kick in, the volume goes up and the boot goes down, and I soon find myself going 100mph on a small country road. Its one of the tracks that I have unfortunately had to remove from the iPod for this very reason. If the government introduced a law forcing us all to listen to Bach while driving, then I think we would see a major reduction in the amount of daytime accidents. Although knowing McDowell, he’d probably prefer Wagner

A good post by Stevie G last night to let us know that Kanye is coming to Cork. I have to say, I am delighted that the Marquee is growing in strength like this. Last year there was something for everyone - music to suit all ages and a healthy mix of genres. I only went to the Nick Cave concert, but there were half a dozen other performances that I would have gone to, like Brian Wilson.

I was slightly disappointed with the lineup this year, despite the quality of the acts (Bob Dylan, Art Garfunkel, Christy Moore, David Gray, Des Bishop, Robert Plant, Roger Waters, The Frames) they’ve all been around the block a few times and theres nothing really new or exciting there. If I haven’t seen them in the past, its because I didn’t think they were worth the fee (yes, I’m talking to you, Arthur). While I won’t be going to Kanye West this year, I am content to watch the marquee grow in importance, and hopefully this will continue as an annual event for years to come.