Right, I haven't done this in a while but here's some cool photos I found on Fasterlouder's website of his very last solo show, Gareth Liddiard at this festival over east. These photos are by someone calling themselves Dovers. Then I also found four new videos on YouTube by someone called Prettycrap. The songs, two from his solo album Strange Tourist with that title track and Blondin Makes An Omelette and two classic The Drones songs with Jezebel and Shark Fin Blues. Well, maybe it's not his very last solo show ever but it's the last one before The Drones tour next month, can I call it their comeback tour? Yes I think so, it's been so long. What is after that? I'm hoping for a new The Drones album being recorded after this tour and being released early next year, 2012 but I'm only guessing here. I really wouldn't mind if he did a second solo album too. So this festival is called Changing Lanes Festival in Sydney on the 17th September, it was just last week which looks kind-off cool but Gareth Liddiard is the best thing about it of-course.
Those flashing lights are a bit annoying but I would sit through anything to hear his songs again, again and again.
Here's a bonus track which is really interesting, on the same day it seems Gaz played or just had a really long jam with Damo Suzuki from the Japanese band called Can and the Sydney/Perth band The Holy Soul. The Holy Soul seem to have played with him before when I looked them up, I found at Repressed Record a $7 mp3 for a something called Dead Man Has No 2nd Chance which is a live recording from a few years ago and has Dan Luscombe playing keyboards on it on it too. The songs are A-side: A Stone Of Fortune and the B-side: Strangers In Blue, can you call mp3 downloads A and B sides? I don't think so but I just did, sorry about that anyway god knows what this song is called. It goes for over forty minutes I think it's pretty dam cool but I should warn you it's pretty weird too. By the way your really can't see a thing someone forgot to turn the lights on, maybe just to be even more freaky.
OK, I promise to get back my favorite 100 Aussie albums in my next post but I had to post these photos and videos because they are just too good not to.
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.
OK, my Gareth Liddiard obsession continues will another collection of photos from the last show he's played at the Lower Town Hall, the Sydney Festival on 13/01/11 just a few days ago. From two sources, the first three photos are from FasterLouder by someone who calls himself TheEnglishGentleman and the rest are from Mess+Noise the rest of the photos are by Daniel Boud. Below is a thirty second youtube preview of what the video looked like, fingers crossed someone pressed the record button and one day soon we get to see the whole show in all it's glory. Gareth Liddiard played in between Kram from Spiderbait playing mainly drums plus some guitar too and a hungover Sarah Blasko who was accompanied by a pianist. Sounds like a good gig but from what I can figure out each performer was only given 20 minute sets with four video screens which was turned into some kind of a large-scale video installation thingy, if someone who was there could explain what happened please do because I wasn't there. Anyway we are still waiting on the "new" Drones DVD so I guess we are not going to get a Gaz one any time soon but maybe someone could upload it to youtube because it would be better than this one below, thirty seconds but it's better than nothing at the moment I guess.
Well I'm back with another Gareth Liddiard and The Drones post. More photos I found of him from last months gig I saw him at on the 12/11/10, it was only just over a month ago now. All these photos are by Graham Clark which I've got from the FasterLouder website (this time). I'm getting sick of these sites you have to click through pages and pages just see all the photos so I've just put an edited half a dozen best photos all in one place. They're great photos too. I remember seeing these at the time but forgot about them and I do like to keep track of these things so I'm re-posting them here, I hope no one minds about this one too. It was a great night and these are great photos of that night.
One more bonus photo here which I've tagged on the end is of the crowd on the night at the show and I'm in it, the blurry guy in the the bottom left hand side which maybe doesn't need to be here but the six above it are wicked. I guess including this one gives a complete view of it all. I can't find any photos from the next night at Mojo's Bar but found a live video of my favorite song from the album and title track on youtube from the same tour, over east a few nights later.
So right at the very, very end of this post is the wicked video of Gareth Liddiard @ Oxford Art Factory, Sydney on the 20/11/10 (with almost perfect sound and pretty clear picture). This song has become my favorite from his new album which is the title track called "Strange Tourist". I've added the lyrics right below to go with the track below so you can read/sing along at the same as watching him, enjoy!
The "Strange Tourist" lyrics:
It was all falling down and a long way from cheap So tell me why did we live where we lived? Above the old fish shop where they served up slop And all the alley cats talked in their sleep
I spent a year there with B After I quit the Mitsubishi, Dragged my mattress up some stairs by the sea Then watched the old van rust in the gusts of the coast Ending its knightly expeditions for beer
B went psychotic in the navy and he wouldn't mend Something about a sunk junk and speed Well he couldn't shake the illness or endure the cure And there was no point switching treatments in the Timor Sea
I have never known someone who needed to talk so much Or even fool himself disguising a guess I just steered his bullshit through the next diversion Never bothering with reality checks
Bowerbird, you'd turn a birdbath black What the hell could be the matter with you? Where did you come from and why'd you go collecting Anything that turns the colour blue?
B took his refuge in the open where it stings You think you'd seen him but he's gone in a blink Once those Stilnox hit their target don't trust nothing, No one And don't go believing anything that you think
He'd say, "I'm half way through But I don't know what I'm doing I ain't feeling much of nothing at all But it's my first time too, if that's a valid excuse I'm going to wait here for the engines to stall
I've seen the tracks of some giant, the smoke of some fire Fuse like hot sands in a bottleneck Does all of beauty lie in being dead and gone Or is all history made of chickens and their unhatched eggs
I've seen the specter of a frigate on a dry rock face A stone axe held together with an old bootlace Anything betraying the drift of dead headway You can shake it but it won't let go
All that so men can live like girls to keep their might pert Digging music made by millionaires for car adverts Save the whales, invade Iraq and have a hamburger I can't distinguish between the nightmare and the joke
I was in Tokyo once without any cash Koda Kumi sang a coda pink as sarin gas I took a trip to Nagasaki in a rented Mitsubishi Then went camping in the Jukai under Mount Fuji"
Bowerbird, you'd turn a birdbath black What the hell could be the matter with you? Where did you come from and why'd you go collecting Anything that turns the colour blue?
But when his pension got suspended, Well that spelled the end And I joined his life of leisure in flight It's too hard to row a boat using a periscope Sometimes you gotta do wrong to do right
He got in trouble years back, I haven't see him since In a men's room in a night club in Madrid He sold some dexedrine or something to a plain clothes D Then raised a stink so bad they ended up deporting him
Then last I heard he was as free as a bird or into Scientology Or into Heaven's Gate or Sharon Tate Or in the Legionnaires Or gone to Georgia with the Mujahideen
And someone else was walking eggshells in his birdcage Someone else shared his unending lease on hamstrung rage He was someone else's problem, and that made me glad They can indulge him 'till he's ironclad
Bowerbird, you'd turn a birdbath black What the hell could be the matter with you? Where did you come from and why'd you go collecting Anything that turns the colour blue?
I wound up working in a hospital Renting TV's to the bored and the blind Seems the DSS got sick of my BS And had my unemployment privatised
They made a date with me, some agency And I went down there like a fool in love They made a few phone calls, found a real cure-all Like I wasn't miserable enough
I was working night shift when he got there The first time I'd seen a coma on the ward The sister said he won't be needing TV now Probably won't be needing nothing at all
He was in Tokyo for once until he stabilised They flew him back here and the story unfolded They found him frozen in a hollow in Aokigahara forest Where those harrakiri weirdos go
He died a little later, and was wheeled away I'd blame his morbid fascination for it all And his doubtless, groundless faith In his outdoors manship He didn't kill himself, he didn't have the balls
Hope dies last in a hospital But has a habit of doing it next to you While you shit kick around with your eyes to the ground Like a bowerbird appropriating anything The colour blue.
The Gareth Liddiard @ Oxford Art Factory live video on youtube
P.S. I promise I'll get to the final five Nick Cave songs so it's all over and done with in the next post.
Well, here's an quick post of a couple funny photos of Gareth Liddiard and Dan Kelly messin' about at The Age newspaper EG Awards 2010 with Paul Kelly's new book (above). If you didn't know Paul Kelly is now a member of their Hall of Fame. Gareth Liddiard later played two songs. The first a Paul Kelly cover "The Executioner" (below) with Dan Kelly. Then he played his own song "Stange Tourist" solo but he didn't win any awards but who gives a shit about that.
These four photos are by Robert Carbone which can be found at Photos: EG Awards 2010 : Mess+Noise. Sorry, I couldn't help reposting them here so hopefully no one minds too much.
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.
