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.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

I Been Trendy - late April digital release.



This is our April digital release. It came out of the toob (?) April 20th. Its credited to Dave Graney and Clare Moore.

We've long marvelled at the creativity of 70s reggae, how they often used backing tracks over and over with different vocals over the top. We wanted to have a shot at that sort of thing. This track is the first result of that type of experimentation. The song is built around a drum track from "You Had To Be Drunk" from the 2007 album WE WUZ CURIOUS.

I played the bass line, which I had been fooling around with for a couple of years and took some time to find the right swinging pocket to hook in with the drums.

I then put the guitar down. This acoustic guitar is a very vintage Maton which Des Hefner gave us on our wedding day in 1985. Its been sitting in a corner ever since, more of an ornament than a playing guitar. I started to strum it a couple of years ago and then took it to Maton to get the machine heads fixed and a general tune up. It was intended , in its day, to be more of an entry level instrument than a serious guitar. I loved the sound of it though. It has a tight, boxy sound and seems to really resonate itself on some notes. It features a lot in the clip.


The song took a vocal and that was thrown down with this great mic I bought online in 2015 . Its  a 70s type of mic which was used by tv newsreaders in its day. I love the sound it gets for my voice. Lots of burr and gravel. It cuts through.

Clare played the organ and I put down some electric piano and some tings and triangle.

The song has a Leon Russell/ JJ Cale kind of a  feel. It's about  a shady player getting some light shone on him and his reaction to that kind of experience. I'm a shady guy. I have also, once, been trendy...




" I been trendy
it was nice
a little respite, from runnin' and chasin'
and headlocks and divin"
lights, cameras, smiles

like a party in a tanning salon
I'm no good in the sun
Irish skin
I burned, then blistered
to a violent crisp

I can't hold the pose
to grip and grin for so long
I been trendy
it was nice

it's not my thing
I'm more suited to the shadows
got more to work with there
I been trendy
it was nice
sweet
cute
like a party in a tanning salon
"

Our next release is due in May. It's called Drifting Donna Reed.

and then we poceeded to go deep into France

More than three weeks into the tour and we are all still coughing, wheezing and sneezing. We must make show though.
We drove to Manchester, dropped the car off and took a  train to Londons St Pancras where we then took another train to Paris. Me, Clare Moore, Stu Thomas and his partner Gina and Malcolm Ross.

In Paris I talked a pharmacist into giving me some anti biotics, which I gave to Stu and Clare - as I had had a course.

We stayed for a couple of nights in a wonderful Air BnB joint and delighted in a fantastic old school restaurant with our old friend Pascal Cuissot, a film maker. We also went to an exhaustive exhibition of the Velvet Underground at PHILHARMONIE.
There were hoardings of this at Gare Du Nord that were better than most exhibitions!


We then proceeded to  Rennes where we played at Le Bistro De La Cite , Lorient where we played at Le Galion and Binic where we played at Le Chaland Qui Passe. All very unique cities, all in Brittany. Wonderfully warm and generous people. In Lorient Clare, Malcolm and I ate at a Berber restaurant where the owner talked with us in a mad cadence of French which we kept up with - ind of. he gave Clare and Malcolm a shot glass of Eau de Vivre- FIGUE.


We then drove Malcolm to Nantes where he caught a plane to Scotland and we proceeded to the Loire Valley to play at a house/ chateau party in Azay Le Rideau. Man this joint was RUSTIQUE. Our host were Mel, raised in Geelong but now enjoying life between London and Azay and working for the UN and Chris, a semi retired top shelf music production man. The guests were very international and involved in wine, food, film and antique sourcing activities. There were au pairs. A real glimpse into parallel worlds. Again, very warm and generous people.


Next was a drive to Aignan where we played at a  rocking house party. People came from all around and stayed up until 4 am. Smoking, drinking and yacking. This place was even RUSTIQUER!



Then we drove to the very bottom of France, close to the Spanish border where we played a show at a large factory/design centre for QUICKSILVER surf gear. A huge place. We played for their workers, in a garden area where people lolled about, drinking beer and wine....



We stayed at a company house which was not unlike the setting of the house in Lost HIGHWAY / KISS ME DEADLY. A house directly facing the ocean with windows on three sides full of sun and sea. Other people were staying at the house, from Australia, France and the USA, having an IDEA STORM for designs fro the FALL 2017 season. More parallel worlds...



We then drove for ten hours to the other side of Paris where we sought comfort in an IBIS hotel in another rustic village called JAUX. Now we head to Amsterdam.







Monday, April 18, 2016

Second show at ATP- triumphant STUFF, baby

We played our second show at ATP on the Sunday at 6:45 pm.
This time it was in the middle sized room and we played a rock'n'roll set with Malcolm Ross on guitar alongside Clare, Stu Thomas and me.

The set went like this....

We need a champion
night of the wolverine
everything was legendary with Robert
death by a thousand sucks
Frankie's negative
Chad's car
I got myself a beautiful nightmare
everybody does what they want to
my schtick weighs a ton
I'm a good hater
this is the deadest place I've ever died in
rock'n'roll is where I hide



 A review of the festival.

There were people who knew different songs from different periods.
A woman came up who'd seen the Moodists play at Harlow College with the Go Betweens in 1984. A couple of people had been at the Hacienda in the same year and other people at Oxford and another couple at a club in West London.

When I'd spoken with Marc Riley I'd talked about the Moodists and he remembered the name - it was the only reference point people have for us - I'd casually said we'd had a breakthrough album with Wolverine in 1993. I forgot to say we got to a new audience who didn't know or need to know anything about the Moodists. It was weird. In that 90s period all our peers, like the former members  Go Betweens and David McComb, couldn't get out of the 80s. They were stuck there. Eventually they reconstituted and retooled themselves. We were scot free.

Hilarious podcast where two ATP festival pundits encounter and describe our THING.




Sunday, April 17, 2016

This Is The Deadest Place I've Ever Died In - April digital release




Out as a digital release March 25th. Accompanied by a wonderfully weird clip comprised of photos taken by Barry Douglas at an "old time Australia"  tourist attraction. (Ever driven past those signs between Adelaide and Melbourne? "OZ AS WAS!"





The second digital release for 2016.
Follows up "I'm a Good Hater" which was released in February.
The plan is to release a song every month.

"I played in a freezer- in the meatpackin' district
I played in a mortuary- Kinselas- Sydney! true! but...."



This Is The Deadest Place I've Ever Died In.

Bass, electro rhythm track, organ and marimba. With a few strums of an acoustic guitar. All instruments played by Dave Graney and Clare Moore.
The track finds them exploring the rough and ragged electro funk that was around in that old time post punk era. Hey, they were there!

A tribute to all the lousy, horrible rooms that have enveloped and tried to extinguish the hope of every plucky player that had the temerity to enter and expect some good cheer all around.

"I ain't no party pooper..This place is pooped!"

This Is The Deadest Place I've Ever Died In.

Inspired in part by a Willie Nelson track for the early 2000s called "I never came in here (and I ain't leavin')" and in other parts by an effect on the rhythm track that had Dave Graney asking Clare Moore to drape and slide a string of pearls over her ride and crash cymbals , "don't hit ‘em, just let them down onto the surface and then lift them off...."
This Is The Deadest Place I've Ever Died In.

Yes the players always take the rap. Don't you know it's the rooms? There's always a post mortem, around the cortpse of the night.
"and I died, many times, sometimes I think I might have-lived to die!"

This Is The Deadest Place I've Ever Died In.


"you got all these security guards-you got all the right drinks! your number ones are number twos! stinkin’the joint up! 

This Is The Deadest Place I've Ever Died In. "




The song has become an instant live classic. Lights up all the rooms we chuck it into. Like a good blues groove should. Available at itunes and Bandcamp now.

Next release is coming NEXT WEEK. It's more of a  country-politan groover called I BEEN TRENDY.


Dave Graney and the mistLY UK/Euro dates 2016

 



21 AVRIL le bistrot de la cité , RENNES
22 AVRil le galion LORIENT
23 AVRIL le jam session VANNES
24 AVRIL LE CHALAND QUI PASSE binic
25th April - Azay, France
27th April, Aignan, France
28th April Hossegor, France
April 30th - Amsterdam Blues Cafe Maloe Melo
May 1st - Graceland BBQAmsterdam
May 2nd
Cafe CHAFF - Brussels 
Thursday May 5th and Friday 6th the Betsey Trotwood, 56 Farringdon rd, Farringdon,London

SALFORD and the first set at ATP

The Salford show was a small room adjoined to a cute pub in a grim looking backstreet. Old school Salford surroundings. The Eagle Inn. The band room was a terrace house with the ceiling knocked out. People could look down from a  mezzanine area onto the stage. A lot like the old 12 bar club in Denmark street, Soho.
Poppycock were an 8 piece band, all female save for the drummer, led by Una Baines who was an original member of the Fall from 1976-78. That means she must have played on "repetition", one of the few pop songs to name-check contemporary power names President Carter and Chairman Mao.
They had lots of harmonies, guitar, keys and flute and a variety of feels. Loved the track "Cleaning Woman".

We played our regular tour set we had been cooking up, though tonight we had a go at "chads car" and "you're just too hip, baby". (Because Una asked for it).



Health was slowly improving though Clare and Stu are still coughing like miners.

Thanks to Bob Osborne for helping to organizing the gig. 

We made our way to Wales the next day. A drive that took a couple of hours.

We arrived and got set up in our chalet and caught the Necks who opened proceedings.  I always want them to just slip into a nice groove like ELPs version of fanfare For A Common Man. Didn't happen. Again.

We were intending to play two shows, one that night and one on Sunday and thought we might as well do the same set in the two different rooms. The Festival booklet had it written that I was set to do a solo set though. Not having brought an acoustic guitar I did a  set with an electric through a Vox amp on very clean settings with Stu Thomas on bass and vocals and Clare Moore on percussion and vocals.
We did songs like....

I wanna get lost again
anchors aweigh
you put a spell on me
saturday night bath
I will have always been here before  ( as an homage to Roky Erickson)
my schthick weighs a ton
chads car
rock'n'roll is where I hide
all our friends were stars
everything was legendary with Robert
a woman skinnies a man up

It went down really well and sounded great.
Clare and Stu were heaving up for air and coughing madly after each song.
A hardcore roadie told me I was part Jonathan Richman and part Scott Walker. High praise!

Later that night we saw Roky Erikson play an amazingly good show . A young band fully committed to backing him on a set on Thirteenth Floor Elevators tracks. The guitarist was excellent. The sound was a bit too much on the big bass drum side of things but I got used to ignoring it and loved the show. Roky sat front of stage with a  big hollow body and sang every tune- lots of words in those songs. The last three songs were "I've got levitation", "Reverberation" ( which really took off) and "you're gonna miss me". They came back on to encore with a solo track , "two headed dog". Amazing how many characters from that psychedelic period Roky has outlived!

The next day we caught Stewart Lee do a whole comedy show in the room we'd played in teh night before. A great live performer.
We also saw the Raincoats who must be one of the most difficult acts to describe. Three woman, violin, guitar, monosynth, bass and electric guitar. Three singers, not really harmonizing, just all singing. Not at all slick, pretty loose and wild. Riveting.




The highlight of the day was seeing Giant Sand. Howe Gelb and two guys from Tucson on guitars and a bass player, drummer and female pedal steel player from Copenhagen. Loved the songs and the dynamics. Howe is like a country singer. One minute he's talking and then you realize he's singing. You don't see the shift in gears. He played mostly electric guitar but also gave space to the two other guys to sing a tune while he changed a string and came back with a different hat to sing a great, upbeat (?) version of "he stopped loving her today". Some bloke dressed like an old hobo called Jason Lyttle came on for two songs which everybody went mad over but he was a lot straighter in his chords and delivery. I just wanted Howe's moody, dark eye-browed, grey weirdness. Excellent!

The Fall played after this. People will forever be asking , "what was that all about?" Powerful band, drilled and tense with such clarity. Then Mark.





Thursday, April 14, 2016

Writing from Manchester. Three dates into the tour. Bug. "I got this Dave!"

We spent our last weekend in Melbourne as if already sitting in the departure lounge, so keyed up were we for this tour. We packed and weighed and printed tickets and all manner of stuff we might need. We run our own show.
A delightful Echidna wandered up to our back door to entertain us. It hung around all day.
On the Monday we caught the train and the bus to the airport and we flew out on Qatar airlines.
The flight took about 14 hours to get to a place called Dohar and it was a quick sprint to make the next leg.
I watched a new film about the Krays called LEGEND with actor Tom Hardy playing both twins. It was better than the Spandau version. I also watched Will Smith in Ali and found it to be great, Michael Mann never seems to fail me. Also watched a horrendously violent flick about Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger starring Johnny Depp. He is very watchable as has made himself look most unlike himself.
The best film I saw was "The Big Short" with Steve Carrell and Christian Bale, an attempt to dramatize/explain the 2008 sub prime housing loan collapse an ensuing global financial shitstorm. I highly recommend this film. I read some reviews of it. I find it amazing that people try to approach it as simply a film - another piece of business to rate as to whether it could have been done better. The story is horrible! The banks fucked everybody and then laughed and paid themselves bonuses when the bail out happened! And- they're gonna do it again.

We landed in Edinburgh and went through BORDER FORCE! I asked about the name and the young man said it was more than a bit inspired by the Australian version. How depressing!
We got our papers and headed to Leith where we would be staying.

Before we'd left we'd been trying to get flu shots but they would arrive in Australia until after we'd left. Everybody we were running into was coughing and sneezing and wheezing and drizzling and the cold - though it was not yet really cold in Edinburgh- was really smacking us around.
It was just a  matter of time. Stu and Clare went down and, after a few days, so did I. We suffered and sweated cold and hot. On the Wednesday and Thursday we rehearsed and on the Friday we played at the Voodoo Lounge, a place we've played several times.
A band called the Trama Dolls played first. A six piece band with Russell Burns (from the Fire Engines) working out on keys. A female drummer, bass player and guitarist, another guitarist and a glammed up singer called David. At their best it had a kind of Roxy charge to it.
Then we got up and backed Malcolm Ross on some songs, two of which also involved Georgio "the Dove " Valentino on guitar. Then Georgio and his bass player Patrizia were joined by Clare Moore to do two of his songs.

Then we got up as Dave Graney and the mistLY and really rocked the house. Had a ball.



The next two days were spent indoors as the fever came and went and the mucii rose and got blown out. Weak as a kitten.

On the Monday we drove to Glasgow to play. Very, very cold.

I got up to play as part of Malcolms band and, luckily, chose to sit on my amp. I'd taken some sort of caffeine filled local cold and flu capsule and it was making my brain boil. As the beat was counted in I found it impossible to concentrate , or to even hold the guitar. If I'd been standing up I think I would have fallen over in a faint. I sat there and tried to pull myself together, putting my hands to my face or on my knees. I thought I should perhaps slide onto teh floor and lay down or put my head between my knees. I didn't know what was going to happen, whether I'd spew or pass out. Then Georgio appeared in front of me and took the guitar (the band was still playing) from me saying something hilariously American like "I got this Dave!" He put it to the side and handed me a big glass of ice water and led me to a chair just to the side. After Malcolm's set I thanked Georgio and he said "hey! we look after our own!" What a fucking guy! I owe him.

Georgio, Clare and Patrizia did their two songs and then I got up to do our set.
The venue was not as good as the Edinburgh room and we had sound problems but hey --- NOBODY DIED!

Susan Buckley drove me back to Edinburgh and I fell asleep snoring as soon as I sat in the car.

Another few days of rest saw the bug behave quite tenaciously but gradually lose its hold bit by bit.

On Wednesday, yesterday , we drove to Manchester. The climate seemed positively balmy after Scotland. We set up at the BBC6 studios at Media City in Salford and met up with Marc Riley, his engineer and producer.

This rebuilt part of Salford really shames Melbournes Docklands. Hey it looks amazing and is full of life , activity and young people. Very futuristic. The equipment was amazing. Clare was in a drum booth with her vocal mic, Stu, Malcolm and I were in the same room , as was Marc Riley, and we each had a headphone mixer already labelled with each instrument or vocal line to manage as to how we wanted it.

We were to do three songs live on Marc's show and pre-record another for Gideon Coe, whose show followed later. At 5:30 we did the pre-recorded track and this took four takes. All down live to two track, no mixing later on. Bang.

The show went on air at 7pm and we filed in and out twice. Marc chatted with me about the Falls tour to Australia in 1982 which saw the Moodists opening for them. The whole show was very relaxed and cool. Before the second song we did he was playing a Radio Birdman song called "Hanging on" and wanted to chat about Birdman and the Saints.

Had an absolute ball doing the show and tonight we play in Salford at  a small pub called The Eagle Inn with Poppycock (who feature original Fall member Una Baines) and Franco Bandini.

Bob Osborne wrote about the show


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