myspace is stupid, facebook is worse, but twitter is truly retarded....what next?
— The Drones (@thedrones) April 16, 2009
Well, that is Gareth Liddiard's middle finger maybe blogger should be added too. I'm going to stop this blog now, I feel like I've been talking to myself for a very long time. Anyway thanks for reading but bye-bye.
The Harrier, or it's the Swamp Harrier above and I'm back using John Gould's Birds of Australia again. Swamp Harrier is a bird that's in least concern in conservation status which is a great thing really but people do like to talk about about all the Endangered or even the Extinct species and I did last time with Gouldian Finch. I remember visiting the museum of W.A. and I loved going to the Bird gallery all the time. They have all the birds in Western Australian taxidermied but it seem only the tourists from somewhere else would look at these birds and local people looked at the extinct display in the corner and I would hear things like, "I want to see something I don't see everyday when I come to the museum" or "This is a boring room, let's see what's next" and after a while of hearing this I've stopped going because it was depressing listening to people talk like that, or just start wishing the human race was extincted.
Anyway back to the music and the letter "H" which seems like it's got the most amount of albums so far in my little count down, reaching double figures with ten so that's why its taken so long in between posts.
Havilah by The Drones
Well, here are The Drones again with their last album from 2008, a long time ago now and this time at their own home studio. Joining them as a full new member was Dan Luscombe with Mike Noga on his second album and of-course Fiona Kitschin and Gareth Liddiard have been here from the start.
Henry's Dream by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
With two more Aussie members joining the band Martyn P. Casey and Conway Savage make it the most ever but really can we call Cave an Aussie anymore? He's lived almost all of his adult life in England, and do you know how many albums he has done in Australia? I mean the full album? Well, only two albums Kicking Against the Pricks and Nocturama, which are not great records and that's pretty fucking lame for someone who calls himself an Aussie. Anyway this one was recorded in the U.S.A. but only mixed here. I've picked this because if I was to choose only one Bad Seeds album to listen to this would be it.
High Voltage by AC/DC
This debut album was like the blueprint without really even thinking about it, they were just another rock n roll band starting out, nothing more. I remember having the Aussie version on cassette tape with a different tracklisting, as one of my first albums I bought myself but you can't get that anymore, I wish you could. Most of Bon Scott's lyrics made more sense the older I got but they were never as good as this album. Of course they became one of the biggest heavy rock bands in the world with one of the highest selling albums of all-time but thier early stuff is always better, everytime.
Hit Me With The Surreal Feel by Kim Salmon & the Surrealists
The debut album of The Surrealists and Kim Salmon. After The Scientists broke-up he formed a trio line-up with Brian Hooper on bass and Tony Pola on drums. Recorded with microphones randomly placed around the studio and recorded on just a four-track in his home town of Perth before packing up and heading east. Other than tours he's never come back finally setting up home in Melbourne a few years later. I like the fact I've sandwiched Kim Salmon's albums in between AC/DC and also The Drones in between Nick Cave but both I would argue are more Aussie than the bigger names and that's what my list is all about.
Hoodoo You Do by The Devil & Abbe May
Right this is Abbe May's second album but the only one to be released under this name. It's her totally Blues album so off-course it's got the main star the Devil, himself which is more a heavy metal thing now. Most people compare her to an Female English songwriter but I would say she is more like the bloke who she broke's heart in the late 90's. Yes, I'm talking about Nick Cave again not PJ Harvey and I would argue she's the new Nick Cave. It's seems to me both are pretty much doing the same thing in the last couple of years but it's wicked coming from a young lady but just silly coming from an old man plus she would murder him in a guitar duel. Then again it's really very silly comparing artists and I'm just on a I hate Nick Cave rant tonight.
Horse Stories by Dirty Three
The second Dirty Three album or is it the third if you count the demo tape that was turned into the album Sad & Dangerous but anyway it's the second on my list. On the DVD doco from 2007 Warren Ellis was saying it he didn't want to or/and could have not released it at the time, I can not think of that time in the mid 90's music landscape without this album. I wish they would stop being just a side project to all of Nick Cave's stuff too and it's so great to have them back with a new album. Ellis should file his divorce papers next and come back to his first love, Dirty Three and make it a full time band again. I'll never forgive Cave for fucking up one of the greatest bands of all-time but I also remember Ellis talking about working with Charlie Marshall in the mid-90's, how amazing it was and what an honor to work with such a great songwriter like him but who knows who he is now? my point is, it was inevitable if someone like Nick Cave came along.
Hourly, Daily by You Am I
This would have to be my favorite You Am I album and it's for the simple reason that it's their first album recorded in Australia. Tim Rogers, Andy Kent and Russell Hopkinson stopped going oversea to do their albums and this is the third album, the two album before were both done in the U.S.A. with Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo. Roger's songs also look closer to home e.g. daily life from waking up in the morning to saying goodnight. You really couldn't find a more Aussie looking album cover because when you look out a window or walk down the street that is what you would see. This albums got nothing to do with Nick Cave, thank fuck but from now on I promise to NOT say his name anymore on this blog, he just pisses me off now. I'll have to write about all these albums again without him so sorry about that.
Stay tuned for the letter "I" soon...
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)
The photo above is really very silly but does look like Gaz is rooting the rest of the band, I've written a post called The Roots of Gareth Liddiard and The Drones so maybe I should have used this photo but it's very new. I found it on the latest mess+noise interview with him but god knows who took the photo.
OK, it's been a long wait for this DVD. It would have been at least early last year when I first heard about it and the filming for Melbourne's East Brunswick Club on February 20, 2010. Gaz has said it takes a long time in DVD land so I guess he's right but he's also done the reissue of Gutterville Splendour Six on vinyl and recorded/produced Ben Salter's debut solo album this year, plus of course his own solo album was released last year too. Mike Noga also put out his own solo album early this year too. Mike Noga and Dan Luscombe both joined Augie March's Glenn Richards for his debut solo album. Fiona Kitschin has been managing her boyfriend's solo career too, do you know who that is? If not just have guess, a clue his name is in the title of this post. So everyone has been busy, I guess but not the busy I would like. No really I have loved all the above projects but maybe I just missed The Drones.
This has been a long week too because I kept checking for the DVD since last Friday, 7th October which was the second release date which had changed from 16th September. I didn't get it until this Friday, 14th October. I always get this with anything on the Shock Records distribution, you could really place bets on how late they are. It's all great being independent and all but I wish it meant stuff arrived on the due date or why have one, fuck knows should be the release date but I do live on the arse end of this country, Perth.
So, now I have it I've watched it twice already even though I've worked a six day week at work, filling in for my boss who's gone on school holidays down south with his kids. The Fairfied Warehouse sessions are the quieter and in all color to the East Brunswick club session louder and in Black and White and is the first disc - both are from 2010. Then the second disc is 2005 to 2008 which is a lot of stuff recorded but never seen before or maybe just on youtube but you can now have it all in the one place which is so cool, I don't have to download it all the time now. I have read people saying four and a half hours is too long for any band but The Drones some songs are about ten minutes long and in the end it really is not too long. If anything, I wouldn't have minded another disc but maybe that is just me. I totally love this band, they're the greatest band in the world and this DVD has made them even more so.
In some interviews Liddiard has talked about a big box of live recording of mainly audio so I would love to hear them now too but this is mainly all the video recordings here. Of course a few years back they released their first DVD called Live In Madrid which is Spain plus extras, like videoclips of Shark Fin Blues and Jezebel so this one maybe should have had The Minotaur videoclip but that is really no great loss. That old DVD was really Rui Pereira time period on film and this new one is Dan Luscombe but The Tote footage on the second disc has Rui Pereira back on guitar. France and Germany is covered here, plus the last two shows are from Sydney shows but no England at all, which is a bit funny because their record label is English but who really cares about them anyway. What else can I tell you about it? Well, I spotted two Vincent van Gogh reproductions behind Mike Noga's shoulder. On his right is a very small Starry Night and Pink Peach Tree in Blossom on his left. Behind Fiona Kitschin is The Cricketers by Russell Drysdale. The tracklisting is here if you want to see what songs were played and on the DVD.
In the interviews over the last couple of weeks for this DVD and tour Liddiard has talked about how he's not really listening to any rock n roll anymore and how he's really gotten into all this African music which has got nothing to do with rock 'n' roll and the whole of English and American music at all. Plus it is somehow is going to influence new The Drones songs, he's going to write over this summer. He also says The Drones can do anything now on more than one occasion in these interviews. In one interview he said "he's broke-up The Drones and is now forming a new band which is going to be called The Drones" or something along those lines. The only thing I wished one of these journos would ask Liddiard was to put together a list of the best and/or his favorite albums from Africa.
The few below photos are from the first of three gigs at Melbourne's The Corner Hotel on Wednesday night. The first three photos are from tonedeaf and were taken by Andrew Briscoe and then the bottom five are from fasterlouder by katie_fairservice. So as a celebration that I finally got my hands on The Drones' A Thousand Mistakes DVD I'd like to throw them into this latest post. I can't complain now because I don't think I'll stop watching it now, I'm fuckin' lovein' it. I think I would rate it ten out of ten or hundred out of hundred or just million out of million, go and get it yourself.
OK, I went to see both gigs in W.A. at Mojo's in Freo and The Bakery in Northbridge last week because it's been so long since seeing them live and it was a treat. Adalita was a great opening act, she was joined by Raúl Sánchez so it was kind-of half a Magic Dirt reunion but playing songs from her solo album, plus the b-sides from the Hot Air EP, just different ones on both nights.
The setlist was the same on both nights to start with but maybe mixed up later but I love pretty much all The Drones songs so they could play any of their songs and I would love it. They played Stop Dreaming both nights which according to an interview with Gaz I read last week they never play or not for a longtime, or never since Mike Noga and Dan Luscombe have join the band - who asked where did that song come from?
Some highlights were: Starting the night off with The Best You Can Believe In and Locust and then later Sitting On The Edge Of The Bed Cryin’ but no Sharkfin Blues from Wait Long By The River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By album but then again I've seen that one heaps of times before. Luck In Odd Numbers, The Drifting Housewife and of course The Minotaur from Havilah album. Jezebel, I’m Here Now and of course I Don’t Ever Want To Change from Gala Mill. River Of Tears too so pretty much the whole night was full of highlights. Then at Mojo's they did a wicked version of The Miller’s Daughter and at The Bakery they did Sixteen Straws. But then Adalita came back on stage to sing with Gaz: Oh Sister, a Bob Dylan cover from his Desire album which was unbelievable, they really should record it together. As far as I know this is the only time The Drones have ever done a Bob Dylan cover, I know they name dropped Dylan a lot before but never a cover but then again I might be wrong. I still wish they would record that one, it was classic. It seems they did it in Melbourne the week before and in Adelaide the next night too. It was two awesome nights so if you have never seen The Drones yet before they finish their run of shows or just go buy the DVD.
Plus here is another very new videoclip just on youtube for the song Did She Scare All Of Your Friends Away from his great solo album Strange Tourist filmed by something called Sideshow Alley which was only uploaded a few days ago.
Right I better stop or I'll never finish this post, I've been writing all month, adding and adding to it. Maybe I should have broken it up but it's too late now. Stay tuned for the letter "E" very soon from my favorite 100 Aussie albums, I promise.
So just to break-up my 100 greatest Aussie albums posts, here is three new videos I've been watching a lot. The first from The Drones' new DVD A Thousand Mistakes with Fiona Kitschin's Work For Me
Well, Adalita is supporting The Drones on their 2011 tour. Here is a great new video, Perfection from her debut self titled solo album. Which I think is pretty much my album of the year, so far.
Ben Salter has also released his debut solo album out now too. It is co-produced by Gareth Liddiard so this is kind-off like join the dots. Anyway, his album is called The Cat and this song is called The Coward.
So there you go, my three favorite videos at this moment in time so I hope you enjoy them, it's really just for me so I can find these things easy by looking here, ha.
+ The Drones tour dates for October 2011:
Friday 7 October — ANU Bar, Canberra
Saturday 8 October — Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Friday 14 October — Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Friday 21 October — The Bakery, Perth
Saturday 22 October — The Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide
Friday 28 October – Hi-Fi Bar, Brisbane
Saturday 29 October – Metro, Sydney
All the tickets you can get at their new website.
Well, what more is there to say other than it's going to be called: A Thousand Mistakes. Plus a tour coming later in the year which hopefully, fingers-crossed, will end up in some kind-off recording studio to do a new album too.
Fairfield Warehouse Session 1. Penumbra 2. Sixteen Straws 3. The Drifting Housewife 4. Careful As You Go 5. Your Acting's Like The End Of The World 6. Locust 7. Cold And Sober 8. Work For Me 9. Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce 10. The Best You Can Believe In 11. Stop Dreaming 12. I'm Here Now
Live at The East Brunswick Club February, 2010 1. Jezebel 2. Nail It Down 3. The Minotaur 4. The Freedom In The Loot 5. Sharkfin Blues 6. Hell And Haydevils 7. Six Ways To Sunday 8. She Had An Abortion That She Made Me Pay For 9. The Millers Daughter 10. Sitting On The Edge Of The Bed Cryin’ 11. I Don't Ever Want To Change
Bonus Disc:
2005 Live At The Tote, Collingwood, Australia 1. Motherless Children 2. I Looked Down The Line And I Wondered 3. From Black To Communist
2007 Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France 1. I Don't Ever Want To Change 2. Motherless Children
2007 Haldern Festival, Rees-Haldern, Germany 1. The Cockeyed Lowlife Of The Highlands 2. Sharkfin Blues 3. I Don't Ever Want To Change 4. I'm Here Now 5. She Had An Abortion That She Made Me Pay For 6. The Miller’s Daughter 7. From Black To Communist
2008 State Theatre, Sydney, Australia 1. River Of Tears
2008 The Metro Theatre, Sydney Australia 1. Oh My 2. I Am The Supercargo 3. Luck In Odd Numbers
Both the wicked photos are by Daniel Campbell with kind permission for his website called: Baker Street Photography. These two can be found in the galleries under The Drones DVD. Check it all out if you haven't yet.
Hello and welcome to another post one and it's more about The Drones again. I just found some great photos of the last gig The Drones are and will play this year. I did NOT take these photographs these were taken by Matthew Harding and can be found on the Mess + Noise website. I just really love them, brilliant photos. Also if you didn't already know, I totally adore The Drones and will go as far as calling them the greatest band going currently and maybe of all-time too.
Gareth Liddiard releasing his debut solo album would have to be the highlight of the year, for me. The album of the year no doubt at all, it's still mind blowing even after a couple of months listening. I've also heard the news that Mike Noga, The Drones drummer but singer-songwriter in his own right has done his follow-up to his 2006’s Folk Songs album, March next year he will released his new solo album. The "new" Drones DVD will be releasing some time over this summer (no date as yet). I have also read Gaz is helping Ben Salter from The Gin Club doing his solo album which will be another thing to look forward to next year. I'm hoping for a "new" The Drones album maybe late next year or is that pushing it a bit but I have to guess it's got to come sooner or later at some stage, doesn't it?
It's been a quiet year really for them as a band with only nine gigs this year in total. So just to go over it here from the start of the year was Last drinks at the Tote finishing with Joel Silbersher doing the the last song of his old band's GOD classic track My Pal on 18th January. Then a run of three shows at East Brunswick Club Hotel with Gaz blowing up his amp in the very first song. All of these shows were filmed and recorded for the "new" DVD too. The gigs were on the 20th, 21st and 22nd of February then it was up to Sydney at The Annandale Hotel on 4th and 5th March. Off to England for ATP festival curated by Pavement on 14th to 16th of May. Then back to Melbourne at Forum Theatre on the 22nd October. Then to finish of with this show (that the photos are from) at The Corner Hotel on the 1st of December 2010. I wish I lived in Melbourne and could have seen these concerts but if you went could you tell me about them? I have no idea if this little run through of their gigs is interesting to anyone but me but I do like to keep track of these things and it's my blog plus if you enjoy all this too well that is bonus.
As for any new recordings from The Drones the closest we got this year is on the Maurice Frawley tribute album. I've bought the whole three CD's album but you can listen to the song they did which was the title track Long Gone Whistle; linked here). In the liner notes it only credits Gareth Liddiard and Dan Luscombe as The Drones members but has Augie March's Adam Donovan on Pedel Steel Guitar plus backing vocals and noises. Before that the one I'm missing from last year is the FBI radio's The Live Feed compilation album which I think I'll have to get now, a bit late but it's the only thing I'm missing (I think) so writing it down here reminds me to get it. There are some more great Aussie bands and artists on it too plus a few others from overseas. They're a few other discs from last year which Gaz and The Drones are on, my recommendation would be triple J’s Like A Version Vol. 5 with The Drones' cover of the TV show M*A*S*H theme songSuicide Is Painless. Also Gaz was on Magic Dirt's White Boy EP singing and playing guitar on Love Is The Armour. Plus Adalita and Liddiard did a cover and duet of early The Saints' classic song Messin’ With The Kid on Rockwiz TV show as well. Maybe I should put together a complete discography some time because I like doing stupid shit like that.
Anyway here are the photos below. Did I not tell you they're awesome photographs?
This was a benefit gig for local artist Dimitra Bucolo who suffers from lupus and has been hospitalised due to serious complications. Hopefully this gig will help and hope they get well soon.
All sixty photos for the night can be found here: Photos: Dimitron Benefit Feat. The Drones, Love Of Diagrams, ZOND : Mess+Noise but I've puttogether my favorites in this post because it's well, my blog and as someone said in the comment on their page "the M&N photo gallery format needs a total overhaul. it's completley un-viewer-friendly" which I totally agree with. There are some beautiful and wonderful photos but, you know what he said pretty much says it all.
All photos by Matthew Harding. Unfortunately I can not find his website to link back to other that the Mess + Noise site because I do like to show other peoples work here so if it is problematic for some reason please let me know. Did I already say how much I love these photos. I totally adore them and I would like to thank you personally for such great photos but the internet is at times unlike that. I hope it's all fine reposting the photos here on my blog.
On a final note: I deleted my last post because was unhappy with it, sorry if you liked it I'm going to re-do it sometime soon. Thank you for looking and even reading. I think I'll go back to the 50 Nick Cave songs next and just finish it and be done with it.
I crap on about Gaz, don't I? Well, here I go again. I've been to two most wicked gigs over this weekend and wish there was more because if I didn't think he was the greatest singer-songwriter before, I do even more now.
Before him I thought Warren Ellis and Nick Cave were pretty great but together since about 2005, and I'll say nothing more about them in this post. Rowland S. Howard did show he's truly great but just took a lot longer in between albums. I'll say David McComb and his band The Triffids before that. I like to throw in Kim Salmon and Ed Kuepper too but no one listens to them enough, or should I say more people should listen to them. Paul Kelly also can be included too in this mammoth line-up. Sarah Blasko and Glenn Richards also and are the only other singer-songwriters currently building a career who come close to Gareth Liddiard. With his new solo album he's upped the ante to the exhaustively extreme. Maybe there could be some even newer songwriters on the way in but are yet to unquestionably prove it.
What about overseas singer-songwriters? Well do I need to say anything because they get so much press written about them and are championed by every man, women, child, dog, cat, goldfish, budgie. To me Australian music should talked about as much as stuff from two country's who started with the letter U, can guess which two?
This gig was at an old mental hospital which is reputed to be haunted and now is an art gallery. It was in the middle courtyard which sounds like a great place for a gig in summertime in Perth but after a queer cold, windy, wet spring week here it was a stupid and uncomfortable idea. I was numb by the end and sitting on plastic chairs didn't help too but moths, mosquitoes and mice were having a good time. Sonic Session's is a bit of an odd gig and might need explaining. It's hosted by American radio DJ called Lucky Oceans who plays Pedal Steel Guitar which worked well with the older Drones songs but didn't with his new ones. Plus in between songs he asked questions but Gaz is a brilliant talker too so made for a good nights viewing. I'm going to write down some things I want to remember and share it with you.
First song up was 'Shark Fin Blues', which after playing Lucky said "How did you come up with that?" "I wanted to write a song like an old sea shanty but it didn't come out like that." he went on to say "It's started with a Karen Dalton song called 'Same Old Man' but changed into that." Lucky asked a lot of times about the songwriting process but Gaz didn't give too much away saying things like "he's a cut and paste kind-off guy" and "just start it by any means necessary" or "doing something you never done before just for something different". Next song was the title track from the new album 'Strange Tourist' which was unbelievable played live. Oceans said "Wow, there is so much in there." and asked more songwriting questions, then Lucky asked a where he was born and grown-up question: "I was born in Port Hedland"
(Sorry but I've just discovered Google maps and I'm going a bit mad in this post with them). Port Headland looks closer to Darwin than Perth. He traveled a lot as a kid with his family in between London and Western Australia before stopping in Perth and starting school in the suburb of Warwick. Which is north of the Swan River and inland from the coast too. It would have say in the late 70's and early 80's been a bit of a trek into the city but not market gardens like say Wanneroo was back then. Perth as a city is very, very, very spread out because of all the space around. All the suburbs have just grown like some blob monster and it's only just now that all the gaps are being filled in but here's another map to shown you again.
Liddiard's first and earliest music memory's, that he spoke of that night were Blondie's 'Heart of Glass', he said, "I knew I liked but didn't know why" and Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2', "I didn't stop singing the chorus which worried my folks". He was asked when did he started playing music - as a teenager Saxophone was his first instrument but after hearing Charlie Parker and John Coltrane because he couldn't do that this lead to go on to guitar but it was almost the same because of Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page but his sister gave him a cassette of Black Flag and he thought "I can do that". They talked about moving to Melbourne and Liddiard said "it was just something I had to do to keep playing music, just like going overseas too. Just more places to play", which makes prefect sense really.
One of the funniest bits in the first half was talking about the Aussie music scene because "sooner or later you meet and everyone is cool except one person who is a knob but I'm not say who", he was pushed a little more he gave clues "He's from here too and he's got big hair" someone shorted out Luke Steele to which he answered, "you said it not me".
Before the interval they played a wicked version of 'Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce', which I haven't heard since the Gala Mill tour live. After the break he played 'Blondin Makes An Omelette' which is one of my favorites from the new album. More talk about starting to work as a roadie, lighting guy, ringer just anything where music was being played and one word to describe himself in his early 20's is "cocky", he's 34 now and making a decent wage like someone with just a normal job but I done something I really love and have done crazy shit to keep doing it. The bands, or artist he name dropped throughout the evening were Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Stooges, Dirty Three, Tom Waits and even Bob Dylan, "He alright ain't he but he's on the cover of Mojo magazine too much and all those critics rave about him way too much." Which then leads into talking about the English and American love affair which can/could go back to the war of Independence according to Liddiard, and how Australians, or for that matter any other countries in the world are never included. It's like those two superpowers are the whole world and the rest is nothing. Breaking into that is kind-of impossible no matter what you do and he knows people in Perth, in Melbourne or just Aussies doing so much better music but if a band comes to town from America you go to see them even if the local who is better than them is playing the same night. Lucky Oceans who is an American living here said, Americans just think they're the best and Aussies don't think that way because you're not raised to think like that so here it doesn't happen. It's disappointing but I guess that's what I was writing about at the start of this post too. They played 'Your Acting’s Like The End Of The World' next which was perfect timing.
The last two songs were from the new album too, they were - 'Did She Scare All Your Friends Away' and 'Highplains Mailman'. Lucky Oceans asked the crowd for questions too, at which point my mind went blank. I would like to interview Liddiard because I could fill a note pad with stuff to ask him but my head just wasn't working and then it was all over and I had to stand up which I couldn't do that too because I was numb with cold.
Well, this is the first show he's done totally solo in W.A., the previous night playing only two songs at the end of the sonic sessions solo. Plus he and Dan Luscombe together supported Augie March late last year but of-course he's done tours over east all by himself. As far as I know he's never done it overseas but hopefully a tour with be announced soon because the whole world should be able to see him perform like this.
Liddiard started at the beginning of the album and did every track on the new album in order plus even had a CD copy to get all in the right order. Then he came on for the encore with 'Shark Fin Blues' and 'Jezebel'. He did little intros about each song so I'm going to write down what I remember too.
'Blondin Makes A Omelette' is about "a 19th century wire walker who once hit the big time crossing Niagara Falls his manager kept thinking new and different ways to do the same thing but did something no rock n' roll manager did, let him piggy-back him across but this song is written from the point of view of his understudy". 'Highplains Mailman' is about "the men who live where I live in the Australian Mountains and think I'm just a softcock." Next song was 'Strange Tourist', one of my favorites from the album. He was saying the character in the song is like a combination of all the flatmates you lived with that you start out liking but you just want to kill them next time they're asleep but they don't sleep because they're on crystal meth and you just end up hating them." He also said to Google suicide forest in Japan so I did and here's one of the weirdest youtube videos I came across so here it is to watch...
'You Sure Ain't Mine Now' was next up some girl shouted out, "you look alone up there, do you want a hug?" which his replied was "No, I get payed to be alone, hey that sounds really cool, don't it?" at some point somebody else shouted out, "when are you going to have kids?" which the answer was, "I'm a lover not a breeder". There was abundance of laughing in between songs for someone who's a deadly serious song-writer. 'The Collaborator' which is another of my favorite tracks from the album is set in World War II but is about "old but also modern day collaborators too." Also he asked the crowd, "if anyone is still frightened of Nazis anymore? Like you could walk about with a swastika tattoo on your head now, can't you? It was like almost a hundred years ago." 'Did She Scare All Your Friends Away' is a love song. He said, you got to have love songs if you're a songwriter but he didn't really explain what it's really about but said "I do know I'm the only songwriter to put Winnebagos in a song. I've been on one too at an expo, somewhere. It cost like three million dollars and is like a yacht with wheels." He kept looking at the back of the CD for the names of his own songs and said he only remembers how the tunes go and not the names and sang the open riff to 'Heartbreaker' by Led Zeppelin.
Someone asked for 'Sixteen Straws' but Liddiard said I'll play this one instead which of-course is the last song on the new album, it's called 'The Radicalistion Of D' "which is NOT about David Hicks. It could be about anyone who gets radical like Timothy McVeigh or David Koresh or even anyone who just joined greenpeace too. It's the same thing, It's all getting radical" at which point someone yelled out "writing a blog" which Gareth said "yes, that the Gen Y way to get radical." So here I am writing what he said one night in a blog, pretty fucked, eh? I do remember making bombs as a teenager and blowing things up. We had a pine forest behind the high school which was perfect for wagging class and you didn't have to go very far. One day someone took all his skin off his hand while lighting one, he just said to everyone he tripped over on the pavement but we knew better. Anyway Gaz goes on to say "my generation bomb things up", proudly but there was a lot Gen Y's in the front row watching him. Because of the subject matter this song is a very, very long song just over sixteen minutes on the album but the person next to me said, "what is it ten minutes?" but what Liddiard did next was slow it right down and it ended up a bit past twenty minutes. He said "rock n' roll is a contact sport so why write a three minute song, I've been listening to a lot of music of North Africa and they do not have radio stations tell them how long to make a song. It's playing Kora or standing on a rock with an AK-47" or something like that. Anyway one of versus in this is about someone who stole a tank in Perth in the early 90's which was a bizarre thing I had totally forgot about, so I looked that up on youtube too and here it is to watch...
In the first verse people in the crowd were laughing about D building a bomb but by the next verse the bloke in front of me sits down on the floor and hung his head. It took one more verse for his girlfriend to turn around and head for the bar for a drink. I don't know how many people have heard this before tonights show but they seem like they all were in a state of shock but the end of it, it was unbelievable to witness, a killer song literally. Anyway Gareth finished off with 'Jezebel' which was awesome.
I wish I bought a t-shirt or tea towel but going to these shows I'm missing some money to pay the rent with. One last thing just before the show started and Mojo's turned into a sardine can I was sitting on couch up the back and Fiona Kitschin you know The Drones bass player and Gareth Liddiard's parter tripped over my feet and she squealed which I said sorry but I don't think she heard me over Syd Barrett's Madcap Laughs. This is totally embarrassing really almost making a member of your favorite band almost fall over so if somehow I could chop my feet off before she did I would but she was the only one of all those people who did but you know it's still pretty bad, eh?
This and the top image is by photographer Olga Bennett and is where Gareth lives in outback Victoria. That's Max the dog, his blue-healer who's also on the inside the CD copy of the new album. Another reason to buy the real thing and not just download it. This bottom photo here is in my girlfriend's latest Frankie magazine.
They were remarkable and astonishing shows so you should go and see him if he comes to your city. I have gone a bit overboard with all these little details and wrote too much so I better finish now, the end and full stop.
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:
The photo above is really very silly but does look like Gaz is rooting the rest of the band, I've written a post called The Roots of Gareth Liddiard and The Drones so maybe I should have used this photo but it's very new. I found it on the latest mess+noise interview with him but god knows who took the photo.
This and the top image is by photographer Olga Bennett and is where Gareth lives in outback Victoria. That's Max the dog, his blue-healer who's also on the inside the CD copy of the new album. Another reason to buy the real thing and not just download it. This bottom photo here is in my girlfriend's latest Frankie magazine. 
