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

Jacana or it's full name Comb-crested Jacana, Wikipedia says that this bird is only in the northern and eastern states but I'm so sure I've seen it around here but I must be wrong and mistaking for something else. I have to figure it out and get back to you about it. Above is again another of John Gould's Birds of Australia.

Well these are five albums under the letter "J"so might has well get on with it.

James Reyne by James Reyne
His solo self titled debut album is the closest thing to John Farnham's Whispering Jack in my list here, released around the same time and in my opinion has better songs. James was always a better songwriter too, he was also with Australian Crawl who split up just before this record. It was another one of my earliest albums I got and if I remember right it was on vinyl. I still love it but I've got it on CD now. I don't know why they changed the the front cover photo, it's dated very well for a mid-80's album.

Jean Lee and the Yellow Dog by Ed Kuepper
The second solo Ed Kuepper album on my list and fourth time after The Saints and Laughing Clowns boxsets. This is his last album of new songs which came out five years ago now, mostly he's been releasing live recording in that time. He was very prolific after he went solo with almost an album every year from the mid-80's through the 90's and only slowing down in the 2000's. The songs were somewhat based around the story of the last female murderer Jean Lee to be executed in Australia in the 1950's.

Jingles by Regurgitator
This is Regurgitator's best of compilation album from the early 2000's so it's got all the 90's stuff you could possibly want all in the same place, including songs from the early singles, EPs and the first three albums. Which saying it like that sounds like not much but it's a packed, totally full at twenty-one tracks and all the best songs well, it's all the ones I remember. They are still going today but with a different drummer so it's really not the same band. If you've seen them live back in 90's this would be the making of their greatest setlist and man they were crazy live too.

Jungle Blues by C.W. Stoneking
He was born in Darwin, Northern Territory but this his second album was recorded in Melbourne. He's singing about Africa and America which is a really Aussie thing to do. Most people in this county think it's better somewhere in the world other than where they are right now, or are planning to travel oversea or just both and bitch about Australia in the meantime. True to form C.W. Stoneking jumped ship soon after this album and has been playing these songs everywhere else but here and we will have to wait to see what he does next. By the way, Jim White from the Dirty Three plays the drums on this album too.

Junk by The Gin Club
The double album is a rare thing but with eight members in The Gin Club and all are songwriters so it makes perfect senses here. Like most great double albums this one is totally epic, the way it should be but I guess I understand it's too much for most people to take in all in one go. I will say if this band was from America they would be huge. It's like most Aussie bands shouldn't think too big and in this case big in songwriting, do you know what I mean? Like say The Drones should be too. Hey, The Drones should do a double album next... I wish.


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

Photos: Dimitron Benefit with The Drones @ The Corner Hotel

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 song Suicide 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.

Video Tape: The Drones guest program Rage

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:


Hope you like it, Cheers.