Key Notes argues that the music industry is still blaming the wrong people when it comes to declining music sales.

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Key Notes decides to go all Mystic Meg in his attempts to predict which acts will make it unto the shortlist for the 2008 Choice Music, details of which will be announced tonight.

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Key Notes is a wee bit delicate after its Christmas party last night but still dragged itself (literally!) to the nearest PC to bring you the third instalment of the 'critically aclaimed' Key Note Speaker.  Ruairi Ferrie (multi instrumentalist and vocals) of Dark Room Notes has taken time out of a busy schedule that includes recording for the new series of Other Voices to become this week's speaker. 

Favourite Songs from the Past Year Roscoe - Midlake...

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This edition features A Lazarus Soul; the Dublin band whose recent single, Day I Disappeared, had those righteous boys and girls in Sinn Fein up in arms (if you'll forgive the pun).  Graveyard of Burnt Out Cars, the bands sophomore album has also been nominated for the CLUAS Album of the Year 2007.  Here, lead singer Brian Brannigan becomes the second Key Note Speaker. 

Favourite Songs from the Past Year Racing Like a Pro - The National; Pass This On - The Knife; Little King December - Pat Barrett; Lost & Found - Future Kings of Spain...

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As tempting as it was to use the Krusty school of spelling for the title, Key Notes has instead concentrated on taking the stress out of your musical Christmas shopping.

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Welcome to the first edition of Key Note Speaker. Each week Key Notes will ask a band/artist 15 (mostly) music related questions and then allow that band/artist the opportunity to let you – the much valued Key Notes reader – know what they’re up to next.

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Well, protest music actually. For some light Friday reading Key Notes looks at the history of the protest song and its modern examples

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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...

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Maybe Radiohead didn't change the music industry, but it may well have changed how Key Notes thinks about music.

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Congratulations to Key Notes readers Ciara Lee, Lena Sy and Graham Smyth who correctly answered (or googled!!) that the Future King of Spain is none other than Crown Prince Felipe of Asturias (or Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y de Grecia to his mates!)

Their prize, a pair of tickets to the launch of the Future Kings of Spain new album Nervousystem, will be distributed this afternoon.

Entry levels were very impressive (apologies to those who missed out) and so Key Notes hopes to run more competitions of this type in the near future.

In the mean time, for the winners and losers, here is a live video of Syndicate for your viewing pleasure:  





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Your chance to win 2 tickets to see the Future Kings of Spain launch their new album, Nervousystem, in The Village on 28 September 2007.

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It was Alexandre Dumas who said 'Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.'  It was Key Notes who added 'Imbeciles were probably too busy texting in their votes for Ireland’s Greatest Living Musician.' 

Proving once again that the Irish general public should not be trusted to make decisions (see any General Election 1921-2007), Christy Moore has been awarded the mantle of Ireland’s Greatest Living Musician. Now, aside from the cruel jibe that he only knows nine chords and rations them to no more than three per song, the reality is that Christy Moore (as a music making entity at least) has been virtually retired for the last decade and will always be best known as an interpreter of other peoples music.

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You may not know this, indeed you may not want to know, but Key Notes will be getting married in 57 days time. You're probably also unware of the fact that one of this blogs favourite bands is Biffy Clyro, a band who just happen to have a song called 57.

Feeling bored this morning; Key Notes set its mp3 player to random. What song should happen to play first? Yes, you’ve guessed it; Hannigan by Fairuza. However, 57 did pop up somewhere between Neil Young’s Rockin' in the Free World and Mercury Rev’s...

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It would be very easy for Key Notes to slam the Mercury Music Prize as yet another example of ‘musos’ coming together to congratulate themselves on how cool and diverse their collective taste in music is, and as this blog likes nothing better than easy, that’s exactly what it will do.

As part of Key Notes never-ending quest to increase its knowledge and understanding of indie music, and in particular the Irish music scene, it tends to read a great deal of Irish music journalism. Recently, it has noticed an almost formulaic approach to certain aspects of ‘musalism’ and so presents the first in a series of light-hearted examinations of the profession: The Album Review.

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Key Notes continues its quest to unearth the best music from around the country by focusing on Limerick.

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They're not really. However, Sinn Fein Cllr. Dessie Ellis would have you believe that their new single, The Day I Disappeared, is attracting kids to crime. But of course, he hasn't listened to the song.

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The lineup for this years Hard Working Class Heroes Festival has been announced.  Taking place in the POD complex over the course of 3 nights (28th, 29th and 30th of September) HWCH '07 will see almost 100 Irish up and coming (and indeed some more established) bands given the chance to perform around Dublin in a festival like atmosphere. 

For me, the outstanding bands in this year's line up are Alphastates, Ham Sandwich, and Dark Room Notes.  Alphastates were the first band I saw at my first HWCH.  A cold shower inducing fusion of sultry soul and near erotic electronica; the Alphastates sound is augmented perfectly by the breathless vocals of Catherine Dowling.   If you don't believe me, check out the video for Kiss Me, a track from their...

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We all enjoy music, but when was the first time it really stopped you in your tracks and became more than just noise?

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One of the worst things about living in Dublin is that you become very lazy when it comes to finding new music. In my defence, it’s possible to go into town almost any night of the week and find a decent gig without very much effort at all. Recently though, as a result of writing this blog, I have decided to spread my musical wings in an attempt to unearth some musical treasures from the rest of the country.

For the first in this "Beyond the Pale" series of blogs, I’m going to start with Westmeath, a county, according to Wikipedia at least, famous for cattle, lakes, pewter and élan. Famous Westmeath people include Michael O’Leary...

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The recent trend of multinational companies using alternative/indie music in their advertisements raises an interesting question, namely, are musicians who use their music to promote products selling out or just being smart?

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As part of the annual People of The Year Awards, the 2007 edition will see a special award being presented to Ireland’s Greatest Living Musician. The 15 most popular nominees, chosen by the general public, will be whittled down to one by a “top class adjudication panel.”



The People of The Year Awards website gives some indication as to what genres they think most people will look to when casting their vote. Amongst the names mentioned are Phil Coulter, Enya, Paul Brady and Ronan Keating,...

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Ham Sandwich are a victory for substance over style. Proving that great music will always inspire people to listen.

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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.



Admittedly, that list has a lot to do with an on-going obsession with all things Elliott Smith. More...

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