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.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Vale Denis Johnson

This blog title "you were deep inside that thought" came from a Denis Johnson book I was enjoying called "ALREADY DEAD".

He passed away last week.

ALREADY DEAD was like a California thriller but totally modern. Absolutely everybody was stoned or in rehab. A brightly lit California - like James M Cain - but much biger and weirder.

Here is a story about him  from the NEW YORKER.

I tried another book called TREE OF SMOKE which pretty much defeated me, (My fault, I'm sure) but then I found another called THE LAUGHING MONSTERS. It was very good.

His writing teacher had been Raymond Carver.

His obituary in the New York Times.


hospital notes

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Laying on my side in a hospital bed in the hils. I’d been here since Friday 19th when I came in with what turned out to be a perforated appendix. Operation was to be a simple keyhole entry and procedure but it eventually had to be done in the old school right lower abdomen sliced open cut style due to difficult position on the organ in my case or it’s deteriorated state.
I had planned to do an instore set on the 26th at Basement Discs but it wasn’t going to happen. I am going to play a show a week after that with the Coral Snakes at Memo Music Hall. (June 3rd)

ON anti-biotics and Oxycontin for first day or so through an IV drip in my arm. Also had a “drain” tube coming out from my right side. Visits to the toilet involved shuffling about in a blue gown with exposed back, wheeling  “tree” on wheels upon which hung the meds and liquids tubes and machines for measuring body temperature and blood pressure. Otherwise this tree sat next to the bed and I had to sleep on my back . All through the night I’d get woken to get vital signs measured and noted.

I was on a “nil by mouth” diet and was eventually given some cubes of ice to suck for a couple of days. Took a day or two to pass urine, narrowly avoiding a catheter being inserted. Took three days to pass wind.

It was important to pass the water, air and earth tests.

Mostly sleeping on my back due to drips and drain and the wound on my right side. A television was flown high above my feet on a bar overlooking the bed. You had to rent it. The curtains and the bed cover were beige. Your mind begins to kind of seize up, gripping itself tighter. In my case this meant musical motifs getting stuck on high internal looping rotation for hours. Trying to sleep then suddenly waking myself up with a  loud snore.

I was taken from emergency to the operating theatre after doctors had deliberated for four or five hours. My bed was pushed by a young woman who looked a bit like a character from Neighbours called Piper. I was wheeled into the theatre at 8:15 and woke up at about 10:30 with a doctor explaining to me that the operation had been longer and more complex than had been expected.

I had a nurse called J---, a Ghanian born woman with great warmth and authority. Another called ---sha who took over during the dayshift. Egyptian looking and was equally great at getting things done, explaining situations and making decisions. Another was an Indian woman who was also great at her job. Another nurse came around in full bhurka. Hey the Doctors were Chinese and Lebanese and Vietnamese and Phillipine. Outside , the Australians were being yelled at about foreigners ruining the country. In reality they’re making it all a lot better!
Andrew Bolt, Ray Hadley, Pauline Hanson, Peter Dutton go off and fuck yourselves- we’re doing really well despite you.

Some nurses just have “it”. A tone and some signalling of empathy and care. Others are all caught up in the procedures and the protocols and paperwork. I appreciate, there’s a lot of that. 

I was also amazed at the way doctors and nurses have to talk through things and test ideas out.  I'm used to a world where people just yell so much. Especially in the digital world. One night at 3am I heard a doctor asking  patient all kinds of intimate , rote questions about their general health. They can only go by what the other person tells them.

After a few days I got unhooked from the drain and the drips. I had no solid food from Friday to Tuesday. I was given salty broth, green jelly, apple juice and an icy pole. Previous to that it had been ice cubes only.
Perhaps I’ll shield your eyes from the next few scenes as I struggled to touch EARTH. (Euphemism). Could not STRAIN. Words fail. Time stretched out. Dank, dark, clay, mud. Walking corridor with a wonky tree. “You fucking piece of shit!” Literally this time.
Potions, manoeuvres, over a half a day. Measured from somewhere before dawn and after midnight. Dank night of the ….. Pebbles, clay. Stank. Putridity.

Clear air after that. Hard to pass solids when you haven’t ingested any. Hey, I’ve processed it all now. Forgotten it, brushed under the carpet of my wig.

The room I was in had two beds. On the first few nights I shared it with a man who’d had a hernia operation. Then came a 31 year old woman who had come in with appendix problems but the surgeon came in and told her he’d taken out either the tube to her right ovary or the her ovary itself.

She had waited for the operation for a few hours on the Saturday until she was wheeled out that evening. Until then she’d been on a “nil by mouth” diet. She continued on that diet through the next ay as another procedure had been mooted. Her boyfriend/husband came in. Overweight, dressed in black street wear and sound like he had a strong dose of the flu. He brought in a Chinese take away meal and proceeded to eat it all up quite loudly. A young pregnant female came in with “ a big bag of chippies” and the boyfriend helped to devour those as well. The female patient  just lay there I guess. The boyfriend then carried on with successive voluble phone conversations with an associate who had some  product that another person had arranged to buy but was now talking of a different (lower than agreed) price or just a down payment and the rest to be settled at a later date. Our man in the hospital room seemed to be the supplier to the retailer and knew the buyer too and carried on an artfully vague drug deal at high volume for an hour or two, talking with the two bickering players, assuring them in easy gab that he wasn’t making any profit anywhere, sweet talking the world. And sniffing and coughing otherwise, when briefly off the phone. After one particularly “Ba-Da_Bing” style confab with a male associate his girlfriend in the hospital bed tremulously asked who a woman was that he’d mentioned by name in his pool room flow of oiled words. He had clicked the phone off and asked her why she was looking at him as if he’d done something wrong. He swatted this annoying fly of intimate life away by assuring her it was all business related.

She suffered in the bed. At some point, late in the Saturday night there was a disturbance in the corridors. My sense of distance and idea of where I was in the building was all out of whack. It sounded like a meth head going off at the world. An old voice, though. Nothing really violent, just loud words. None of the nurses or doctors were concerned, no security was involved. Someone walked out of the ward, happily yelling. I had presumed it was our dealer friend but he had been asleep, slumped in a chair by the bed in the corner. His driver eventually came and was off to settle the score down.

I would hear the girl/woman reach for her bag of crisps first thing in the morning, also cracking  can of soft drink. Before breakfast came. She spoke to the nurses and doctors, anxious to get her tubes tied.
We exchanged no conversation or pleasantries t all. The day she left I had the room to myself in the afternoon. For half a day I sat in a chair by the window and let the sun shine in on me.

I don’t mean to paint a picture or roughness and dystopia. When I spent those first few hours in Emergency I had engaged that particular entry level nurse in conversation, asking if there were wilder nights or times than there was just then. I was thinking of bleeding brainless wild ice zombies and drunks. She replied casually that weekends were bad due to so many sports injuries. That had seemed so cute. A junkie couple had been wandering the corridor, feeling very much at home.

An older woman took the other half of the room. The first evening, her blood pressure was so low it triggered an event where all the doctors and nurses had to gather around and deliberate on what was happening and what was to be done.
Another night, she had two transfusions. It seemed she was anaemic and they were looking for internal bleeding. She had a catheter inserted and moaned through most nights.

Yes, I was feeling the mortality.

Trapped in my bed, I got equally ensnared by the television. Two reality shows were on from Sunday to Wednesday.
“The 7 Year Switch” on Channel 7 about four revolting couples who are having relationship troubles and are sent away to hang about with different partners and talk about each others problems.
The other show was “House Rules” which was about four different but equally revolting couples who fix up each others houses. There are judges involved, who are crass and disgusting as well. It was amusing for the sheer, choreographed bitchiness involved . Masterful manipulations of weak, thin and dry caricatures.
TV ads I hope to never see again included Ford, Toyota and Trivago. All featuring “brand female faces”, like a throwback to the early days of cinema with the “Biograph girl”. There’s also a Panadol ad with an annoying Barista barrow boy who yells. “do I look like I’ve got time for a headache?”. Far too aggressive, and I was on the stuff.

Nurse talk at different times….

“Oh when he was pushing that swab in – I couldn’t look!”
I said – “hey – I don’t wanna hear any weakness from you! I’m depending on you to be squeam free…”

Another “OOOH, you’ve got great veins- I don’t know which one to choose…..”

We have an amazing health system in Australia. We must do everything to stop the LNP selling us the American version. 

http://www.memomusichall.com.au/memo-gig/dave-graney-n-coral-snakes/

Sunday, May 28, 2017

I hate Virgin Airlines

I took my beautiful acoustic Maton guitar to Darwin for a gig and it was handled very badly. Virgin Airlines. I took it out of the case and it ha d a big crack in the body. I bought this guitar for about $2000 in 1996. I love it. You take a guitar with you up to the counter when you fly and ask to take it to "oversize baggage", to lay it on a conveyor belt as opposed to just sending it down the normal chute with your other baggage. Usually they make you sign a  FRAGILE form. For some resaon I didn't sign one this time. It's just a big pantomime of "care" anyway.




This is how it came out the other end. It still played but the body was comproized. I was in town for two shows and looked up Virgins baggage damage claim online and brought it to the attention of one of their people back in Melbourne. Head shaking began that I should have done something in Darwin, but I hadn't looked until I was at the show.
I went through all the manouvres. Back in melbourne I even got a stat dec signed ( as required by their online form). I sent it all off. These are the kinds of replies you get from the organization.

Dear David,

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback of your experience with Virgin Australia.
I am sorry to hear of the inconvenience caused as a result of the damage to your guitar.
Virgin Australia takes great care of baggage. Unfortunately, due to the nature of air travel, items can occasionally be damaged during the flight.
Many items can be damaged at any point in flight, as some bags can move about the hold while weighing up to 32 kilograms. Therefore, it is impossible to guarantee the safety of each baggage item and we do outline which items we do and do not cover, high-lighting the benefits of travel insurance to cover baggage that the airline does not compensate for, such as sporting equipment and fragile items.
Should a guest travel with any fragile items as a part of their checked in baggage, the items travels at the guest’s own risk as we are unable to take responsibility or be liable for fragile items as stated in our Conditions of Carriage clause 19.5 which are accepted at the time of booking.
In order to remain fair and equitable to all guests, I am unable to assist you with the claim and Virgin Australia is unable to accept liability for any damage caused.
We recommend all of our guests purchase travel insurance before their journey, to cover such occurrences.
Please rest assured, I have forwarded your feedback to our Ground Operations Management team for their internal review.

Once again, I apologise for the disappointment and inconvenience caused due to this experience. We appreciate your continued support of Virgin Australia and look forward to welcoming you on board in the near future.

Kind regards,


Dear Mr. Graney,
Thank you for your response. I am sorry to hear of your continued disappointment.  I have reviewed your request with my senior management and in line with our Baggage Policy I am unable to comply with your request.Once again thank you for contacting Virgin Australia and we look forward to welcoming you on board in the near future.

Kind regards,..... etc


Dear Mr. Graney,

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the ongoing disappointment.
Mr. Graney, I do certainly understand your discontent as we have not met your expectation at this instance. Hence, I would like to extend my sincere apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.
Please be advised that your claim has been assessed in line with our Baggage Policy and I can advise that we are unable to cover your claim for your damaged guitar.
For such events we do recommend to our guests to purchase travel insurance that may assist you with such damage.
Once again thank you for contacting Virgin Australia.
Kind regards,


Just as an aside, isn't it amazing the aura of corporations and their figureheads in our culture? Take Virgin, for instance and it's grinning, giggling head who launched his Australian airlne playing himself as  a cross between James Bond and Hugh Hefner. How do guys like that get ahead? They don't seem that smart, really. Just lucky arseholes.



And it was also such a rock'n'roll airline. 

The way these comuniquees are worded with all that fake, caring codswallop. It happened in the past to another guitar and that time I had spoken to a young Virgin cadre who just said "sorrreeee...." with his head on the side and a concerned look and then walked off.

Just whingeing here I know. What can you do? It's a very whingeable world!

What I know is that when you check a guitar in , if you sign the FRAGILE form, it means they have no responsibility. It seems if you don't, its the same. It's always your fault.

The airports in each city were sold off in the 90's or 00"s by the second worst LNP government ever, the Howard-Costello push. The airlines take the people and the baggage is outsourced to someone else but it's aways your fault. Your responsibility. Everybody else is busy- looking after you and caring for you. Even your disappointments.

What a bunch of fuckin' turds. there, I don't feel better.

Maton are fixing it. It's in a queue after Archie Roach's, which was run over by a forklift.

The gigs were very enjoyable. Very Darwin. One at the railway Club and one on the foreshore for May Day for a Union event. I told them at the beginning we had no blues or Bon Jovi with us. Nobody squealed.

I hate Virgin Airlines.

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