A to Z: 100 Best Australian Albums so "G" is for...

Gouldian Finch, maybe I should have posted this under "F" for Finch. It's named after Elizabeth Gould which is of-course John Gould wife but it seems the Gouldian Finch was never included in the Birds Of Australia books, or if it was I can't find it. Maybe it was a tribute to her after she died, her and John were working partners as well as married but only his name was on the books, this was back in 1830-40's. She passed away before finishing the Birds of Australia. I really can't find out the full story but I'd like to know more, maybe if someone knows and wanted to tell me below in the comments feel free to do so.

I was just reading the other day how they just found a new population in Dampier Peninsula in the western Kimberley so this is great because they're endangered. The top photo is credited to AAP/Macquarie University from the above story and if you want to check it out follow the link above to read more about it.

Anyway on with the next Aussie albums under the letter "G"...

Gala Mill by The Drones
Well, surprise it's The Drones again on my blog. It's the first album with Mike Noga on the drums and recorded in Noga's home state of Tasmania. It's also the last one with Rui Pereira on guitars but Dan Luscombe plays slide guitar. Fiona Kitschin sings Work For Me. Gareth Liddiard sings everything else but songwriting is credited to the band which never happened before or after. Did you know the cover image is by Spencer P. Jones?


Girl by Magic Dirt
I really have to include the last ever Magic Dirt album. It's so sad that this is the final album for such a classic Aussie rock n' roll band but it's even more sad because of the untimely death of Dean Turner at the young age of 37 years old of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, a rare form of tissue cancer. Girl is their sixth full length album and what a way to finish. I should say the band never said they're broken-up but they said they're on hiatus with no immediate plans to tour or record. Their singer Adalita of-course now has put out a solo album and their guitarist Raul Sanchez has a new band called River of Snakes.


GOD by GOD
Who other than a few cheeky teenagers would name themselves after God. Joel Silbersher, Tim Hemensley, Sean Greenway and Matthew Whittle were all only 15 or 16 when forming the band and were together for only four years from 1986 to 1989. This reissue from a couple of years ago is essential for anyone who's into Aussie punk rock. The self-titled double reissue has got everything recorded in that short time plus the recording of the last ever gig. Greenway and Hemensley both died in the early 2000's so there's never going to be a reunion.


Greasy Lens by Joel Silbersher
Well, this is the solo album by one of the members of the above band. He's gone on to form 90's band Hoss, also formed Tendrils with Charlie Owen and now a member of Tex Perkins' Dark Horses, But his 2002 debut solo is an underrated gem and has to be included here. Playing most the instruments himself with bits and pieces played by Murrary Paterson, Barry Stockley, Dean Muller, Sarah Carroll, Jessica Billey, Mick Turner which was released on his label and of-course Charlie Owen too.


Gurrumul by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
Right, what can I possibly write about this unbelievably epic album that has not already been say before. Well, not much really, it deserves all the praise and acclaim it's got and I don't know what else to say other than if you haven't heard it yet, what have you been doing?


Gutterville Splendour Six by Gutterville Splendour Six
This was Gareth Liddiard before The Drones but also their original guitarist Rui Pereira plays bass here plus Warren Hall earliest Drones drummer too. Also two of the early The Drones members got together and later formed The Kill Devil Hills. Brendon Humphries played guitar on three songs and Steve Joines on four different songs. Plus James McCann also played guitar on yet another five more tracks. Gaz was really the only main guitar player, I remember the kind-off Q&A thing someone asked if he would do a reunion show he said the guitar player is a drunk and wouldn't work with him again, he was talking about himself. The lead singer-songwriter was Maurice Flavel and from 1995 to 2000 they giged around Perth and this is a reissued now only on vinyl.


Stay tuned for the letter "H" soon...

More Gaz: He does root The Drones, the DVD and the Gigs

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.

To finish this post I'll post the one and only video you can find on the official Drones youtube channel which can been found on the new DVD "A Thousand Mistakes". It's The Drones performing Kev Carmody's River Of Tears at the Cannot Buy My Soul concert at The State Theatre in January 2008. It's an unbelievable version, even the songwriter was blown away by this cover version.

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.

More Gaz: The Drones' Penumbra, My favorite YouTube clip

Well, I went looking for The Drones' new DVD called A Thousand Mistakes yesterday because it says on their website it's out September sixteenth but it's not out until next month according to the shops. I did find out it's also going to come out on vinyl in November which is really cool - well, I think it is. It's on Bang Records who did the wicked Gutterville Splendour Six reissue a few months back and another great record from them is called Until.... by Kim Salmon & the guys from Mudhoney which is also only available on vinyl too. I think I'll start buying everything on records now. Bang Records looks like my new favorite label, it's got all these hard to find Aussie bands but the label is in Spain, why? But thank god because Aussie's are too stupid to issue their own stuff and leave it up to someone, somewhere else.

So this below video clip is NOT on that new DVD but it's just my favorite video on youtube which is fan made. It's for the song called Penumbra which is the second last song from the last studio album Havilah and has to be one of my most favorite The Drones tracks ever too. You could call it one of The Drones most depressing songs as well but I totally love it. It sounds like it's only Liddiard on his acoustic guitar and maybe Dan Luscombe making some weird noise but it's got no rhythm section so preempting his solo album which came a couple of years later.

It was written while or after Gareth Liddiard was reading Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (above photo) autobiography but he's written a few books - he's written a total of five books, three of them are autobiography's and two of them are science fiction novels. So I have no idea which one Gaz was reading, or if it was all of them. The books are Return to Earth (1973), Men From Earth (1989) and Magnificent Desolation (2009) also co-authored with John Barnes the science fiction novels Encounter with Tiber (1996) and The Return (2000). Anyway, whatever, this video was made using footage from Apollo 11 landing and moon walking. It's very cleverly made and I don't know how many times I've watched it so I'm now going to post it here on my blog. Here's the lyrics and the video right at the bottom of the page, I hope you like it as much as I do.

Penumbra

Edwin backs into the void
He's not in training now
And the pilot standing 19 feet
From Edwin on the surface
Bleached bone white
Was once a pilot who flew
Sorties in a war

But that don't matter any more
Edwin's three feet from the floor
As the pilot without warning
Takes a piss inside his pants
Hoping his pressure suit don't boil
And Edwin does the same
Charles Darwin's royals
The Eagle too, man's greatest feat
Miraculously intact
All acute angles, knees and elbows
Squats in golden underpants

Much later in the day
Edwin locks the cargo bay
And turns to see the cyclops
Neil Armstrong through the hatch
He's drifting further out of Wednesday
Eye clamped between the ice caps
Then Edwin does the same
They're like two orphans at the window of an aeroplane
It's 200 below zero
The sun's shrieking like an owl
Their footprints crush the bones of fairies
As their grasps are disemboweled

Have I said I really can't wait for that new DVD A Thousand Mistakes yet? But it look like another month to wait!

Photos: Gareth Liddiard & Dan Kelly in Aussie Rolling Stone Magazine

Well, I'm surprised by finding these two, Gareth Liddiard & Dan Kelly in the Aussie version of Rolling Stone magazine. I wish it was a couple pages longer, it's only a one and half page interview, it's cool, just short and two photos but the photos are great. I found the out-takes at the photographers own website plus a little writing about how and where they did the photos. I hope he doesn't mind me re-posting them here because they're great snaps, to go with my ever growing Gaz file here. Dan Boud is the name of the photographer and make sure you check out his website, it's wicked. One little thing I'd like to mention, Gaz which I don't know if you can tell by these photos but if you look at the magazine you see he's is wearing a "Operation Desert Storm, Made in the U.S.A., Tested in Iraq" T-shirt, he-ha.




On the cover is Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu who is quote "Australia's most important voice" which could be very true. I'm surprised too by him making it on the cover because most of the covers are things like Short Stack and other stuff, I wouldn't even consider them even music. I even don't think of Rolling Stone magazine as a music magazine really it's like a little better than gossip and tabloid magazines. The other features are recycled from the yank magazine which is always disappointing so I'm not going buy it again. This one would be the first since Nick Cave made it on the cover a few years ago.


Extra, Extra: Gareth Liddiard's first band Gutterville Splendour Six is reissuing their complete recording on double vinyl from the wicked Spanish label Bang Records. This band is like a some kind-off Perth supergroup or that is what they would be called now if they formed but this is before they did any other bands or any music at all. As well as Gaz it has Rui Pereira, The Drones original lead guitar, plus a few members of what would become The Kill Devil Hills and local legend Maurice Flavel who's just opened his own record store called Noise Pollution in Northbridge which I have to check out and would have to be the place to buy my copy of this.


P.S. I'm yet to finish off my really big post I said I was doing in the last post so maybe next time again, just this quick one in the meantime.