OK, I really have to post this because someone sent me the link to the full gig filmed at the Metro in Sydney which is the last gig of the tour that finished last week so this is the last gig from The Drones for this year. I will not type very much because as you will see this is a very, very long video or it's a playlist but I'm going to just embed it in full just as you would be watching them live but off course it's not the same thing well, it's close enough. So thanks to Prettycrap for filming it all, cheers mate.
The setlist: The Best You Can Believe In I’m Here Now The Minotaur Jezebel Cold And Sober Luck In Odd Numbers River Of Tears Sitting On The Edge Of The Bed Cryin’ I Don’t Ever Want To Change Sixteen Straws Oh, Sister (Bob Dylan cover)
Well, I don't know if it is a totally great read from begining to end because it's writers or should I say journalists which Nick Cave seems to hate most of them so maybe good, bad and ugly read would be more appropriate. To kick this off as well, the last few years has been the most disappointing time to be a fan of his, with Grindermandebut, the Bad Seeds' DigLazarus album which should have been Grinderman too just with Mick Harvey filling in on guitar and few other extras, the silly dead rabbit book, the nextGrinderman. I have enjoyed the soundtracks more: The Road, The Assassinationof Jesse James and the last totally great thing he's done The Proposition which of course he was more involved with writing the screenplay plus the music. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis' The White Lunar, double CD compilation is the best release in that time by far because you don't have to listen to his now shit lyrics. The last great album would have to be the Bad Seeds'Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus from 2004. Don't get me wrong he's done bad albums before or one's I didn't think much off like 1996's Murder Ballads, 1990's The Good Son and 1985's The First Born is Dead are not great maybe one or two songs are great but not as whole albums. His 2007 to 2010 projects are his first run of pretty weak work, it makes me realise just how good his music before was.
So this is the latest in a long line of books about Cave and this will be my very last blog post about him until he does something at least good, I will not say great because I think it impossible at the moment and I'm sick of bagging him out too. Anyway I was reviewing a book about him here. The best interviews are the two by Phil Sutciffe for Mojo magazine in 2008 and 2004. The worst are two for NME and Q magazines which I won't name their names. It's funny the choices Mat Snow the editor made because I know I've read better stuff than in this book about Cave. There is only one interview for The Boys Next Door and The Birthday Party each, a few more for his drug fucked years in the 80's, only four from his cross-over years in the the 90's which you have to ask why? And the rest are from 2000's which starts on page 108 and the book is 240 pages long. I think I could have put togther a better book with Cave interviews but maybe I'm being way too negative. It's worth reading it just for the unedited Phil Sutcliffe interviews but there are others which are great like the full Debbie Kruger interview which is wicked.
What happens in this because it goes chronological even though I just said those last two interviews are the best, it seems growing older he's done his best to turn his life into just an office job with his wife and kids at home, just totally getting rid of any kind of chaos eg: the 90's and 80's. Like say did you know his first two sons Luke and Jethro where only born just ten days apart in two different countries and off-course by two totally different women. As well he was still on the drink and drugs until just 2001 but he's been sober and clean since then. I love those few albums for early to mid 2000's but after the Aussie Western movie he's lost his way a little really. Also that you find out that the writing of that film started at the No More Shall we Part album sessions too so it's even easier to group that time period together.
Anyway this book I would rate 3 stars or three out of five, it's just OK like most of his recent work to be nice about it, it's just OK. I guess we will see what Cave does next, He's writing the next Bad Seeds album now or if he can write another masterpiece before 85 which is the age he'll probably make it to according to this book.
Just to finish off here's him back in the good old days singing Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door, the picture is a bit jumpy but sound is pretty good. It's from around the mid-80's so its amazing it's been uploaded to youtube at all.
The top image is the book cover and the middle photo is for the mid-90's by Polly Borland.
Right, I have to do something else other than this 50 Nick Cave songs list, it's going to drive me mad (if I'm not already). So, what can I write now? Well, who's far better than him? The Drones that's who. No doubt they would have be the band/artist of the the last decade, the 2000's. The four unbelievably brilliant albums, if not totally perfect albums in a row: Here Come The Lies, Wait By The River..., Gala Mill, Havilah. With each album quite different but still the same The Drones but building upon the previous record. Also just releasing all the kind-of out-takes album: The Miller's Daughter, in the middle of all that is brilliant as well. No other band has had such a perfect run and under the noses of most people too. We will have to see what's next for the band. Next week Gareth Liddiard lead songwriter and singer is to release his debut solo album Strange Tourist, in the true sense of the word, just all by himself.
You can not possibly find another band who ripped up the rule book, then set it on fire, pissed and shat on it, kicked it into a bloody mess then just flicked it into the corner. I can not possibly praise them too much. If you don't know it yet they have already changed the Australian music landscape forever. Everyone will ask you in the future did you see The Drones live? And if you can say "Yes" well, you and I are the lucky ones. You can hopefully forget about horrible bands like The Living End, Wolfmother, Jet now. Even now Nick Cave is getting too popular for my liking which maybe is why he's getting a bit of a bashing here in my blogs but I'm not the only one with what Mick Harvey said. Now Liddiard joins in on this too. In a paragraph in the Aussie Rolling Stones magazine Liddiard say America is on it's way out, Aussies don't have to do that anymore and names an old Cave song but really he could have said Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Why does Cave name drop U.S.A. cities in the last lead Bad Seeds single and title track for that album, other than to sell some more records to them. It's false, it's just as bad as like Molly Meldrum on Countdown in the 70's and 80's. Looking for validation in America is a waste of time (unless maybe you are one them) but that old mentality of the U.S.A. is the best place in the world, which should be shot between the eyes with a double-barrel shot gun, who better to do that that Gareth Liddiard and his band The Drones? So it's beyond doubt or should have been long, long time ago for Australians to stop mythologizing America. Don't get me wrong now, The Drones don't really have to get as stupidity big as the above bands or artists because they're already just as or more important that any of them in so many other ways and done it all their own way too.
So anyway this blog is called video tape because I'm going to link a youtube playlist I put together at the end of this blog based on a video tape (did I need to say that?) I've still got a couple of boxs in the back room which I recorded a television show called rage but too much about the past. I'm trying to catch up with the twenty-first century, I've got a mobile phone lately, started a blog here and joined facebook the other day. The last time I watched rage until the very end and started watching at the beginning and enjoyed it was a long time ago by the looks of it. It was of course when The Drones were on. Anyway here's what video clips they picked and played.
The Drones guest program rage on Saturday 21st February, 2009: Saturday morning guest programming, from 10:00 till 11:00: 10:00am THE DRONES - Shark Fin Blues LOW - Breaker TRICKY - Money Greedy MILES DAVIS - Decoy NINA SIMONE - Revolution CAT POWER - Cross Bones Style BOWERBIRDS - Ivy Climbing BOB DYLAN - Not Dark Yet 10:30am BOB DYLAN - Love Sick AUGIE MARCH - The Cold Acre TOM WAITS - Hold On THE GIN CLUB - You Don't See THE DRONES - I Don't Ever Want To Change (Live) Saturday night guest programming starts 23:20: 23:23pm N.W.A. - 100 Miles & Runnin' WU-TANG CLAN - Can It All Be So Simple? 23:30pm BUSTA RHYMES - Woo-Hah!! (Got You All In Check) MISSY ELLIOTT - Pass That Dutch CLARE MOORE - The Town Bike Song ALAN VEGA - Wipeout Beat IGGY & THE STOOGES - Loose PATTI SMITH - Because The Night LAUGHING CLOWNS - Holy Joe 12:00am THESE IMMORTAL SOULS - Marry Me STICKMEN - Without A Clue THE JESUS LIZARD - Puss DARLING DOWNS - Circa '65 KIM SALMON & THE SURREALISTS - I Fell LOU REED I Love Women GOD - My Pal 12:30am JOEL SILBERSHER - Flappin' On A Hook JOEL SILBERSHER - Through The Manoeuvres TEX PERKINS & HIS LADYBOYZ - I'm Not In Love DIRTY THREE - Hope PALACE BROTHERS - Ohio River Boat Song NEIL YOUNG - Harvest Moon NEIL YOUNG - Change Your Mind 1:00am DAN KELLY - Drunk On Election Night PAUL KELLY - If I Could Start Today Again BILLY BOB THORNTON - Angelina THIRTY ODD FOOT OF GRUNTS - Memorial Day BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - Atlantic City THE MUPPETS - Ma-Na Ma-Na TEAM AMERICA - America, F**k Yeah! DRAGONFORCE Through - The Fire And Flames 1:30am THE MELVINS - Honeybucket EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN - Armenia THE DOORS - The End SPARKLEHORSE - St. Mary's MERZBOW - Minus Zero 2:00am PINK FLOYD - Astronomy Domine CAPTAIN BEEFHEART - Ice Cream For Crow SPENCER JONES - Execution Day FEATURED VIDEOS THE DRONES - River Of Tears THE DRONES - Shark Fin Blues THE DRONES - Locust (Live) 2:30am THE DRONES - I'm Here Now (Live) THE DRONES - The Miller's Daughter (Live) THE DRONES - Jezebel THE DRONES - I Don't Ever Want To Change (Live) 3:00am THE DRONES - I Looked Down The Line And I Wondered (Live) THE DRONES - Motherless Children (Live) THE DRONES - From Black To Communist (Live) THE DRONES - The Minotaur THE DRONES - Oh My (triple j tv) 3:30am THE DRONES - Suicide Is Painless(triple j tv)
Here's all the clips I found on youtube (full playlist here) and I've made into a this thing:
OK, I'm back with his next five songs of my favorites which will take it down to number 40. So without further ado, here is...
45. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - The Journey This is the longest track from the last film score by these two. This is the third for a full length movie. They have also made music for documentary's and theater's in the last five years. Cave has been doing more of these than anything else. I'm enjoying these more than say Grinderman project or even the last Bad Seeds' album and I'm not going to say anything about his dirty joke book. This really should be listened to as a whole album and I think these work totally great without the movies too. The Journey as a track has elements included in it which runs all the way though the whole score. Also did you know the "Ethnic" percussion was played by Paul Clarvis here but the year before he was the main man who did the crazy drumming beats for The Dark Knight film on those mad Joker theme songs? Find it on: The Road (Film Score) 2009 or White Lunar (Compilation) 2009
44. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Hallelujah This is the real beginning of the Nick Cave and Warren Ellis collaboration. Both worked together in the 90's with Ellis official joining The Bad Seeds in 1997 on the previous album the Boatman's Call. Ellis only co-wrote two tracks on this album but by the end of the decade both of them could be joined at the hip. Amazingly Ellis' violin takes over this album. Hallelujah as the third song in sets it up the rest of the record. Kate and Anna McGarrigle sing backing vocals on this album but they sing the final verse here. Please note this is not the same song as the famous Leonard Cohen track which Jeff Buckley did in the mid-90's, two completely different songs. Find it on: No More Shall We Part (Album) 2001
43. The Boys Next Door - These Boots Are Made For Walking Back to the very start of Cave's career with his most earliest cover. The song was original written by Lee Hazlewood and recorded by Nancy Sinatra who took it to number one in the United States and United Kingdom Pop charts. This is from a re-release by Aztec Music but originally came out on vinyl back in 1978. Suicide Records only ever released one album which was called Lethal Weapons (not anything to do with the Mel Gibson movies). This was way before The Boys Next Door debut album, also before Rowland S. Howard joined the band too. It's way more New Wave than pure Punk and you can tell how much Howard added to this band later but here that is not a bad thing because I think this is by far the best version of this song and there have been a lot of covers. The album features two more Boys Next Door songs and six other late-70's Melbourne bands and all new liner notes which is a great read. So it's well worth getting the whole album. Find it on: Lethal Weapons (Compilation) 2007
42. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart This is an odd one I have to admit but I love it so much I can't go past it. Cave did this in 1986 which is two years before Marc Almond's more famous version. The song was written by Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook and originally recorded by David and Jonathan and then Gene Pitney did his one in 1967. Off-course Marc Almond and Gene Pitney did a version together which went to number one in the UK in 1989. Anyway I'm supposed to be writing about the Cave cover which I find just so much more sincere and stripped of all the usually pop slime that it's covered in. It's so unlike anything Cave's done before this and with the simple three piece band arrangement with Mick Harvey on piano, Barry Adamson on bass and Thomas Wydler on drums. It's just perfect like this and proves that some times less is more but being the third track from the end of the album it's almost always just totally forgotten by everyone. Find it on: Kicking Against the Pricks (Album) 1986
41. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Death Is Not The End To finish up with the cover songs this is one of the last he ever did with the Bad Seeds as a group (plus a few friends too). A Bob Dylan song from his 80's forgotten songbook which was the last song on the Murder Ballads album. I really didn't think much of the record but this is so great. Also the only song from that album which made it into my list here, Murder Ballads is over rated as a whole album. Anita Lane, Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey, and Shane McGowan with Cave himself and his bandmembers guitarist Blixa Bargeld and drummer Thomas Wydler all each sing a verse but the real surprise to me is Wydler's singing vocal which I would like to hear more of. It was recorded in Melbourne with Brian Hooper on bass and it's just a beautiful way to finish such an disappointing and silly album. This song is so different and unlike anything else on the album, it really seems out of place. Find it on: Murder Ballads (Album) 1996
40. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Brother, My Cup Is Empty Well, this has to be Cave's ultimate drinking song so I have to include it here. This was recorded in California after him leaving Brazil where he was living for a few years. I remember him saying he was sober for a little while before arriving there but as soon he got off the plane he said something like with all the sun and girls everywhere it was just a 24 hour party so it was like "Fuck this" and he started heavily drinking again. So this track would have to be Cave's anthem for getting pissed plus it would make a wicked shot game song too. Find it on: Henry's Dream (Album) 1992
Hello and welcome again to my second blog and to the first of hopefully another new series. This time I'm picking out an old Mix Tape, this one is just a CD-R from only about five years ago. I'm planning to go further back with a box full of very old and dusty Cassette Tapes. It's I guess to see if I can track down some old bands and songs I liked a long time ago.
As you can see and hear I like a lot of different music which I think is cool but you might disagree. There is a skip button on this very cool thing called Grooveshark which I found today. I've been looking for a player or something on the internet which I can find all the songs I'm looking for and Grooveshark seemed to do that today. You my dear reader can play all these tracks below so Grooveshark seems pretty great, so far. I've made my widget player in Shark Bait colours to go with it's name and I'm adding a bonus track, one of my favorite songs of all-time onto this mix called Shark Fin Blues to go with this theme. Well, I don't know if it's really a theme as such maybe if I made a cover for this Mix Tape it could be something like this: EDIT: It seems that the Grooveshark player don't work anymore so here's want I found on youtube.
