dave graney - Moodists-Coral Snakes-mistLY-FEARFUL WIGGINGS

dave graney - Moodists-Coral Snakes-mistLY-FEARFUL WIGGINGS
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About Me

My photo
2023 book THERE HE GOES WITH HIS EYE OUT (lyrics 1980-2023) 2023 reissue Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Night Of The Wolverine. Double vinyl release. 2023 ROCK album with Clare Moore IN A MISTLY . WORKSHY - 2017 memoir out on Affirm Press. Available at shows or via website. Moodists - Coral Snakes - mistLY. I don’t know what I am and don’t want to know any more than I already know. I aspire, in my music , to 40s B Movie (voice and presence) and wish I could play guitar like Dickey Betts, John Cippolina or Grant Green - but not in this lifetime, I know.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

peter lillies wake

this was published in a recent issue of the Melbourne Review



I was speaking to a mutual friend of Peter Lillies when the terrible news came that he'd died up in Sydney. Quite sudden news. My friend was wondering aloud how to have a wake of some sorts and being unsure how to get in touch with people, indeed, who to get in touch with. 
Turns out he needn't have worried. Paul Madigan organized a wake at the St Kilda Bowling Club. I turned up at the designated time of 4:30 pm, maybe a bit later, and it was already pretty packed. They came from right out of the very woodwork of Melbourne. Johnny Topper was talking, and continued to talk for longer than I'd ever heard him talk. That strange, high, warbling tone of his. Very funny tales of working in the night rail yards along Flinders and Spencer Street with peter Lillie, lining up for the work like something out of "On The Waterfront". Also, stories of arts grants and spending them on old cars and guitars and starting a band playing at the Pram Factory and La Mama instead of in pubs. Anarchist bookshops and the like. This is early 70s Melbourne stuff. Jane Clifton was sitting near to the stage and Topper kept turning in her direction for corroboration of details. Paul Madigan was also on stage, drinking a pot and interjecting occasionally. The room was full of grey ghosts from that Carlton/Sunbury period. Some had had commercial success, or at the least, access to the public outside the bohemian village, like Greg McCainsh and Bob Starkie and Barry Dickins. Others were more from the world of poetry, theatre and inner city legendary rockabilly and western swing bands. There were also people from that late 70s Melbourne punk scene like Chris Walsh, Andrew Duffield, Ash Wednesday, Greg Ades, Lucky Last and Conway Savage and Amanda. Jim Shugg from the Feral Dinosaurs/People with Chairs up their noses. I had a chat with a bloke who used to do live sound and now runs a pub in Warburton. He was talking of the family who ran the Tote before it was the Tote. Paul, who ended up leaving the family and jumping over the bar to play guitar with the Johnnies, apparently named it. Said it should have something to do with the betting that used to go on there in John Wrens days. He asked if I was working much. "A lot", I said and added that it was hard work. He agreed that it was plain hard work getting people out of their teched up caves nowadays. This gathering was mostly talk of simpler times. People were never in for a while there. Maybe so far in they were out.
Mitchell Fairclough aka Slim Whittle gave a great talk and sang a song accompanying himself on a ukelele shaped like a Les Paul. The song was great. It had a line going something like " I sent a snail to his maker today- you can't always know what you're treadin' on". He had a face and tone of voice like many uncles of mine years ago in the country. They've all turned up their toes now, too. Tracey Harvey aka Tammy Whittle walked past. Johnny Von Goes sang a Lillie tune, Mark Ferrie spoke about going to see the Pelaco brothers at the Kingston Hotel in 1975 or 76. He said it was the coolest crowd he'd ever seen. Some of ' em would've been looking back at him now.
There was a man playing guitar who looked like that ghostly character from Twin Peaks. A passing friend told me he was the father of a kid he knew and he hadn’t seen him for 30 years. I sat with another friend who is not talking to Paul Madigan, who is ten feet away in front of him, playing the guitar.
Fred Negro sang a very respectful version of a Lillie song, as respectful as you can be holding a broomstick with a plastic horses head on one end and strumming it like a guitar. 
People spoke of the person they knew. All being very close to him. All telling their truth. I met him much later on. I’d heard his name. He’d heard mine. We talked across a mess of reputations and bullshit. Ran into him in different places. Melbourne, in the city street the last time. Byron Bay in the mid nineties. Having sudden, spirited conversations about Ern Malley, Max Harris, Fender guitars and amplifiers, Don Dunstan’s vision of the satellite city MONARTO. He wrote songs about all that stuff.
Garry Adams read a wonderful telegram (how quaint) from Peter in heaven where he was in the band and saying that Hendrix was ok on guitar but “not really the sort of thing (I) was looking for…” Everybody laughed too easily. Must have been a raw truth there. My friend said it was great how short and succinct the musicians were when they spoke.
Then Topper was singing. Almost dancing. Never seen him put out so much in years!
I spoke to some of my friends, a decade younger than this lot. The older ones were living and eating healthier is all I can say.  Must have gotten some good dietary habits when a  brief window of common sense opened up there in bohemia.
Madigan sang "new road to Gundagai" and I shed a tear because that song always does that to me. Wistful tune of a delicate sensibility. Peter's and that whole scene of freaks. That crew saw and imagined everyday iconic lolly wrappings and ice cream brands as psychedelical shapes out of time. They celebrated  dumb dead ends and non sequiturs. The new Road to Gundagai mentions staying a night in the TV Motel. The TV motel was in Gundagai and has been torn down now. It was shaped like a tv set! On legs which you parked underneath. Thing is gone and the sensibility and the reaction is gone too. All so delicate. Seemed so solid and powerful for a while.
Rick Dempster did a dance and twirl on his Cuban heel boots because Topper asked him to. A hat was passed around. There was an auction of some Fred Negro artwork. I left early, I guess, crossed the river and sat and watched the Hired Guns playing at the Standard. It was great to sit in a room and hear some music. Let the songs, old and new link up all those mismatched, half imagined and isolated scenes in your mind. In your life.






playing the flying saucer club in elsternwick friday 9th nov

Loved playing in Perth and Fremantle and the show at the Red rattler was a blast. Great venue!
Band is playing at a high level of match fitness. One more show for this tour and then we'll be reloading in some way.

Friday 9th November at the Flying saucer Club 
4 St Georges rd Elsternwick

We'll be playing with the Dames who are Clare Moore oin drums, Kaye Louise Patterson on piano and Rosie Westbrook on bass. They have been working on an album foir abouta  year and threaten to release it soon. For live shows they are joined by Will Hindmarsh on laptop and keys and myself on guitar.

The last gig we did was an acoustic spot at a  bookshop in Canberra. Played my K Yairi 12 string and Clare played some percussion and sang. Had  great time. Will be doing more of that.







Tuesday, October 16, 2012

playing the red rattler -marrickville friday 19th and smiths alternative bookshop canberra sat 20th

Clare "Mooresy" Moore, slamming the drums, Stu "thommo" Thomas pumping the bass , Stuart "pez" Perera blazing his left handed Rickenbacker and Dave "david" Graney chiming his chinese made electric 12 string. dave graney and the mistLY come from the clouds. An abstract songwriter with a band who can lay down a  crude and filthy boogie, they play few ballads. Its all on the UpBeat. They are not a green band. Not ecologically minded. They like throwaway, ephemeral stuff. Silly, goofy and stupid being more highly prized than worthiness and classicism. They like suspense. Suspension. Flat fives also. Dave Graneys fave movie of 2012 is the Farrelly Bros "the three stooges".

Dave Graney is associated with words and stories but people coming to the mistLY shows get a  spectacular twin guitar and groove jam. Stuart Perera on the Rickenbacker has skills and chops like no other. This ain't indie rock! Clare Moore and Stu Thomas on drums and bass set up a rhythm section like nothing else on the scene. High energy all around.

They've been playing in dinner and show joints but the plates are shaking , the wine glasses are cracking and the clothes are getting ruined with the dancing and the only thing that fits is the weird chordings that help people digest all that posh food. So dave graney and the mistLY are playing in a music place- forget the food. The Red Rattler in Marrickville. With their pals from far western sydney - the Holy Soul. (actually theres a great kebab trailer just outside-good enough for the late night cab drivers!)

How do they fit in the current scene? Its like Steely Dan or Little Feat was out there playing the circuit! For real! Its a West Coast thing!
new album "you've been in my mind" out on Cockaigne (Cock21) and live dates are happening NOW....

Friday Oct 19th - The Red Rattler- Marrickville NSW w/ the holy soul
Saturday Oct 20th - The Paperback Sessions - Smiths Alternative Bookshop - Civic -Canberra solo show with a  reading


         http://www.paperbacksessions.com.au/gigs_Dave%20Graney.html                                        

(yeah, on the way home, dave is stoppin' to do a  solo show/ reading at this great new venue in Canberra)

See a great new clip for "we need a champion" here.Made by young Melbourne film maker Nick Cowans. Its a dance off a la SOUL TRAIN. Dave Graney wins because he wrote the song and rigged the whole thing to drop his way.
http://youtu.be/G7yLv4uMMKE


This tour is supported by the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria

dave graney and the mistLY are out on tour behind their new disc "you've been in my mind" . Its a rock'n'roll set powered

by drums ,bass, 12 and 6 string electric guitars and lashings of vocals. Dave calls it "west coast" in its chordings and beats
as thats the kind of 70s rock he was raised in. We are talking about Love and the Doors and the Byrds kind of "west coast".
Songs like "flash in the pantz", "blues negative", "cop this,sweetly" ,"midnight cats" and "playin' chicken". The album is upbeat and taut but
includes "quiet storm" moments like "lifes a dream" and "I'm not the guy I tried to be". Out now on itunes and in the shops.


see a video of "Mt Gambier Night" here http://youtu.be/VBjAuttiOto

"It’s all worth the evening — busted shoes, city munters, a missing twenty-dollar note — when the band finish the main set with Mt Gambier Night, distilling all of The MistLY’s exercises in poise and restraint into four compressed minutes. It’s exceptionally beautiful: still quite pop, but with a layered density.

After pretending they’re not going to do an encore, Graney & co close the night with Rock & Roll is Where I Hide. It crackles over with dangerous energy, Graney delivering his prose with a sneering cadence, and it hits its theme too well: Tinker-Tailor-Spy, this is not a real person you’re looking at.

It isn’t exactly so much fun as essential: merci, comrades…
" Dermot Clarke - Offstreet Press - Brisbane August 2012

http://offstreetpress.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/interview-dave-graney/



see a video of the "flash in the pantz"  via youtube here... http://youtu.be/fYswivN8rXk
see a video of the recording session here http://youtu.be/_-xKwLzUkgs

Photos from a recent Adelaide show via the Au Review
http://www.theaureview.com/photos/dave-graney-and-the-mistly-the-wheatsheaf-02-09-12/dave-graney-and-the-mistly-76509

Podcast of a recent interview with Dave Graney on Radio National
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/weekendarts/dave-graney/4247132

Genius UK comedian Stewart Lee reviews YBIMM for the Sunday Times
"The older the listener gets the more sense the gnomic beatnik platitudes of Dave Graney, the Lee Hazelwood of suburban Melbourne, make; functional philosophy, crooned over coiled leads and funk-footed rhythms.
Transcending his punk past, and his subsequent immersions in the various genre fictions of country, lounge and songwriter styles, Graney sculpts the slick Seventies rock of his youth, unsentimentally anatomized in the pin-sharp recitation Mt Gambier Nights, into a series of sparkling as-live sides.
Ventriloquising various delusional deadbeats, or hidden in deep cover self-mythologising, Graney quietly releases another late career classic into the wild
".
http://www.stewartlee.co.uk/album_review_archive/g-graney_dave-youve_been_in_my_mind.htm

"Naturally, the songs are superb: ‘Flash In The Pantz’, ‘We Need A Champion’, ‘Cop This, Sweetly”, the weirdly nostalgic ‘Mt Gambier Night’, the aforementioned ‘King Of The Dudes’ and the self-effacing closer ‘I’m Not The Guy I Tried To Be’ are all vintage DG nuggets. As ever, Graney disperses sneering “ooh”s and lascivious “mmm”s between his savage witticisms, all the while playing the jazziest 12-string electric guitar since Roger McGuinn’s ‘Eight Miles High’ Coltrane-isms. The top-notch accompaniment is likewise a familiar delight, with Clare Moore effortlessly switching between rhythm patterns, Stu Thomas – who might just be one of the finest white bass players in this land – maintaining the swing, and Stu Perera taking his left-handed Rickenbacker for a walk in areas Nels Cline has yet to tread.
Never a flash in the pan, Dave Graney again proves he isn’t the kind of an artist who’ll be on your mind after you’ve absorbed his tonne-weighing shtick. Instead, he’ll be in your mind
".
Denis Semchenko - The BRAG

"Self-recorded and mixed, with help from engineer Andrew “Idge” Hehir, the performances are mostly live, not overdubbed, reassuringly-immediate and seemingly in thrall to ’70s production values, as if Tony Visconti was at the desk in their Brunswick studio. The piercing sustain of the guitars is thin and trebly, while the choruses of ‘I’m Not the Guy I Try To Be’, ‘Field Record Me’ and ‘Cop This Sweetly’ - great titles, as usual - flow in a wash of harmonies that could have come from Bowie and Osterburg’s own throats in Hansa Studios in 1976; the latter track even ending with desperate yelps like The Idiot’s ‘Funtime’.
While the first half is upbeat and mid-paced, the second drops to a slower, dreamier cadence. Songs like ‘Playing Chicken’, ‘I’m Not the Guy I Try to Be’ and ‘Midnight Cats’ are made for the early hours. The spoken-word ‘Mt Gambier Nights’ is autobiography melded with dry observation, quoting William Blake to an evocative backdrop of staccato guitar reverb.
This is a seductive and comfortably re-playable collection of dependable material, boding well for an extensive national tour this month
".
by Aaron Curran MESS AND NOISE


Fuse distribution.
  http://www.thedavegraneyshow.com

Please ring Karen Conrad on 0400 527 365 or email kcpublicity@optusnet.com.au for more info/hi-res pics/interviews.


http://www.thedavegraneyshow.com


http://soundcloud.com/dave-graney-lym/we-need-a-champion

http://soundcloud.com/dave-graney-lym/flash-in-the-pantz

Dave Graney and Clare Moore with Georgio "the dove" Valentino and Malcolm Ross

Dave Graney and Clare Moore with Robin Casinader - In Concert

ONE MILLION YEARS DC

Starts with a Kinksy groover sketching a 21st century populist tyrant who coasts in power on waves of public resentment at those on the lowest rungs of the ladder (He Was A Sore Winner). Sweeps across a sci fi terrain with nods to songs in the sand at the end of the world (Pop Ruins) and nods to the ties that bind in the underground communities (Comrade Of Pop and Where Did All The Freaks Go?). Songs about intense, long relationships, defunct technology that didn’t answer back, severe social status definition (I’m Not Just Any Nobody), people wandering through your mind as if it was a garage sale, the anxiety of the long running showman (wide open to the elements again) and ends with a song that’s “a little bit Merle Haggard and a little bit Samuel Beckett”. " Edith Grove! Powis Square! 56 Hope Road! Petrie Terrace!.. The Roxy! The Odeon! Apollo! Palais! Olympia! The Whisky! Detroit Grande!” Pop Ruins!"

ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS?

ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? (The title comes from the chorus of “Song Of Life” ) is a classic rock’n’roll album. Classic if you lived through what has become known as ”the classic rock era” as it rolled out new and even broke onto the beachhead and morphed into punk. That’s the direction Dave Graney and Clare Moore have always been coming from. They have spent their lives schooled by and immersed in rock ‘n’ roll culture. Neither attended higher education and they dived in deep and kept swimming. From the Moodists through the Coral Snakes /White Buffaloes to the mistLY This is an album with their band, Dave Graney and the mistLY. Stuart Perera has played guitar with them since 1998 and Stu Thomas on bass since 2004. MARCH 2019 ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? 2019 album out on Compact Disc - available here via mail order...
If you are from outside of Australia and wish to purchase a Compact Disc copy of ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? please use this button (different postage)

LETS GET TIGHT

FEARFUL WIGGINGS

2014 solo album from Dave Graney. *****"If I've learnt anything in my years of writing about music it's that if you are going to do anything of worth in this tough game, you better have your own thing. Today's generic is easily replaced by tomorrow's. And yet you need to be flexible, to follow wherever the songs demand. In the case of this, only the second credited as a solo album among 30 or so Graney releases, it's a curious yet welcoming lane he walks you down, with acoustic guitars, not much percussion, vibes, smooth sounds. At the end of it you feel like you've awoken from a strange yet pleasant summer's dream. As shot by Luis Bunuel. It ranges from off-kilter reveries (A Woman Skinnies Up a Man, The Old Docklands Wheel) through to the softly seductive (How Can You Get Out of London) and the downright arch (Look Into My Shades, Everything Is Great In The Beginning.) This is music that is neither folk, nor blues, nor country, but it's all Graney, somewhere out to the left field beyond Lee Hazlewood's raised eyebrow. It's astringent on the tongue but sweetens in the telling." Noel Mengel Brisbane Courier Mail

you've been in my mind

June 2012 super high energy pop rock album - blazing electric 12 strings - total 70s rock drive. Greatest yet! available via paypal - $20 pp

rock'n'roll is where I hide/- 2011 "vintage classics/ re recordings" on LIBERATION

SUPERMODIFIED - August 2010 remixed/re-sung/re-strung//remastered/replayed comp via PAYPAL

also available as a digital album

Knock yourself (2009)-first ever dg solo set-filthy electro r&b-available via Paypal- $20

available as a digital album too

We Wuz Curious (2008)-blazing R&B jazz pop album available via paypal-$20


UNAVAILABLE-COMPLETELY SOLD OUT!!!
AVAILABLE AS A DIGITAL album

Keepin' It Unreal-(2006)-minimalist/lyrical vibes, bass, 12 string set - CDs sold out - digital only

Hashish and Liquor (2005 double disc by Dave Graney and Clare Moore) available via Paypal $25


UNAVAILABLE-COMPLETELY SOLD OUT!!!
Single album HASHISH available as a digital release

Heroic Blues- "folk soul" set from 2002-Availableas a digital album via BandCamp


UNAVAILABLE ! Completely sold out!

It is written,baby-book released 1997- available $10 via paypal