SUPERMODIFIED - what went down- get it now

dave graney and the lurid yellow mist - super modified

We recorded and released Heroic Blues in 2001 and the Brother who Lived in 2003. Prior to and between each I was either incubating a vicious and tenacious lung infection that finally broke out of me on a Paris metro in 2001 - much blood and a stay in hospital - or getting over it and working out how to stop it happening again and living while the inflammation slowly died down. Both these records were real documents of the time . Recently we were going to release “the brother who lived “ digitally and I listened to it and then opened up the files. I started to tinker and couldn’t stop and this album is the result.
“SUPERMODIFIED”.
Its like a souped up hot rodded version of the original songs, with some extra tracks that got lost along the way. We put the songs up on the blocks and re-tuned them, re-sang them, re-strung them , put more drums and percussion and vocals and keys and remixed all of them. Inserted ,bussed , sent, returned, compressed , tweaked, eq’d and coloured all the reverbs and delays and remastered it at the end. Its a new thing. Adam Rhodes was the recording engineer for the original album sessions and the raw material was pristine.

the brother who lived
Recorded this for the album of the same name in 2003 with Greg Walker from Machine Translations. I played the bass and the guitar (The weird , off beat clean guitar licks) .Stu Perera comes in with the overdriven power notes on guitar and the clean r&b bends and sings as well. Clare Moore played all the keys and the drums. Though Greg recorded each hi hat , rim shot and snare tap individually and put them back together. Its her trademark latin kinda feel. The real drums sounds were mixed with those from our old drum machine. (I took this rhythm track and used it to build “throwin’ one into the world” on “Knock yourself out” in 2009 ). I sang this one again in 2010 as my voice was in better shape. On the original session, I couldn’t make it through a verse without a violent, out of control coughing fit. Greg was set to call an ambulance at first but he got used to it. The song is about two musicians, one lives and one dies. Though as it seems to happen, the one who dies , lives and the one who lives, dies. Kind of.

all our friends were stars
Again with Greg Walker. Used a rhythm from our old organ/drum machine and put it through a sansamp. I play the bass and the guitar. Clare played all the euro vibing keys. I sang this again too. We thought both of these tunes were “pop” . For what its worth.
Our kind of pop. R&B/Euro/disco in the sensibilities. We loved going to see Greg play at the time and the sounds of his records with Machine Translations. We felt he was some kind of a fellow traveler. An outsider who was sure he made his own kind of sense.
The lyric is about a time in our lives when everybody seemed to manifest huge personas they were either flying or running with. Vivid chracters and masks and modes of being. Young street life.

like a millionaire
We recorded a bunch of tracks in one day at Woodstock studios in East St Kilda. This was half of “the brother who lived” album. All in the room together, including me, singing. A lot of bleed in the vocal mic. Adele Pickvance plays such a great bass line here. Bill Miller comes in with all these mad country-ish licks on his old green Strat. Both are masters of feel and time. The song is about an artist being so on his game that his life is singing. He can see it all happen just as he dreams it up. He’s playing loose and wide, because he knows whats going to happen and so he can afford it.
I added some more guitar, 12 string, wah and fuzz, buried way back in the mix the way I like it. Stirring the funk from the lower depths. This sounds much more pop to me. Brought out the funk and didn't fade the song like it had been done before. The backing vocals were meant to be 60’s moderne. Phillip Glass-like. Mock epic and grand. Speaking of Epic.

a boy named epic
A song about Epic Soundtracks. A friend from the 80s London scenes. He started out in the Swell Maps with his equally exotically auto-named brother, Nikki Sudden and was also in These Immortal Souls with Rowland and Harry Howard and Genevive McGuckin. Bill Miller plays out of himself again. Stu Perera adds the rhythm. I added some 12 string electric guitar and keys and backing vocals to this. I love the chords. Suspended major sevenths. I brought them out more with the keys in the chorus. Loose jazz/r&b in its touch,voicings and tone. We swung out of stuff like this to “Hashish and Liquor” in 2005 and, especially, “we wuz curious” in 2008. I don’t think Epic would have liked any of the musical setting -too much jazz in the voicings- but then he was into reading his own story.

the royal troll
This has Stu and Bill blazing from the get go. I added some electric 12 string and backing vocals to this track. This could have been a song by the Moodists in some ways, but in other ways, maybe not.This has got the oomph and the swing but also clarity and punch in the dynamics. I play the blazing harmonica solo. The way Adele and Clare swing on the chorus is amazing.
The songs is about a very fiercely hedonistic old friend. A fiend. A demon! I saw him one day , in his civvies - shat, showered and shaved- transformed and on his way to his day gig. I knew the Royal troll.

clingin’ to the coast
Orginally on “Heroic Blues”. Added some real drums to this as well as singing it again and adding some more guitar. In 2001 I wanted to write a song like the Stranglers “strange little girl”. An ingenue in a boho, retro, vintage , mod, finessed inner city world. Totally impressed, of course, a la Candide. Bill Miller plays amazing licks on his beautifully recorded 1920’s Gibson acoustic guitar. Clare played the keys and the drums and drum machine.

I am your humble servant
A political election type song. I thought the old style of corpulent, diseased, corrupt ,branch stacking type politician was preferrable as you saw where all the money went. Into him. As opposed to the grey ghosts who front for who knows what today. This is me running for office. I am your humble servant! The last song from that one day session at Woodstock. Bill Miller blazing on that old acoustic again. Stu Perera was asleep in the van by the time we cut this. Exhausted. I was on my acoustic and singing at the same time. Lots of bleed into each mic. I added drums (played ‘em too) , electric guitars , percussion and keys to this track. I also fuzzed the bass in parts to get some extra votes in the marginals.I love this track, its smoking now.

are we goin’ too fast for love?
From “Heroic Blues”. Always thought more could have been done with it. Kind of a Euro r&b pop track. An adult swingers song. Kind of COUNTRYPOLITAN in the lyrical style. Adele on acoustic bass. Clare on piano . Originally it had a lonely bongo rhythm track. I sang it again , through a mic in a guitar amplifier , and we added some proper drums.

anchors aweigh
This is from “Heroic Blues”. I wrote the song when David McComb and another friend died around the same period. I sang this again and added guitars and worked on the drums sounds and added some backing vocals. The vibes are huge and I pushed them out further. Whenever we worked with rock producers in the 90s they always kept them at a very orderly and barely audible level. Often you only heard a small part of the sound. The out of tune, decaying part. We liked them as they were heard on Martin Denny or Arthur Lyman discs, enveloping the whole sound. Everything existing within the reverberant , towering waves. In the green room.

I’m seein’ demons
A song from the Howard Years of divisiveness , queue jumpers, spooks, backwardness, separation and demonizing. Those guys were in your face , pimping the old myths every day. The verse about “hamhocks and hog jowels” comes from an interview I read with country singer Chad Morgan where he talked about performing while sufferering with the DT’s and looking out to see the audience in a Leagues club complete with pigs heads and trotters, looking back at him.
Recorded all together at Woodstock with me in the middle of the room playing acoustic and singing. A lot of bleed into the mic. (So I didn't sing it again) Added 12 string electric guitar , harmonica , vibes and spooked up the backing vocals and brought the drums up - more into the foreground of the mix. This is boomin'! Demonized.

midnight to dawn
I thought this song was great but in 2003 I’d been too wacked in the lungs to give it the right vocal kicks. I sang this again in 2010 and also added some backing vocals and guitar. A country kinda song given the post Moodists jolt of power treatment. Stu Perera and Bill Miller played it up supersized and Adele Pickvance channels John McVie. Clare Moore pounds the hell outta those toms. Its a classic rock epic.

twilight of a villain
Recorded at the Ponderosa for “the Brother Who lived”. I played bass and guitars . Clare played keys. Added some drums and did the vocal again in 2010. Played with the reverbs and the delays on the vocals , just for the hell of it. Bringing the focus to the groove and the music rather than the text. Villains,crims, musicians are all the same to me. Night life types. Working the angles and watching their backs. Wise guys, living by their wits. I love this track too. Its come up so well with the jazz chordings and the hip hop drum attack and dub styled delays on the vocal.

I ain’t natural
Another unreleased track from the Heroic Blues sessions. Adele Pickvance on acoustic bass again. Stu Perera and Bill Miller on electric guitars. I played acoustic guitars and added the keys. Also added some percussion. I sang it again in 2010. I like to have lyrics with opposing , contradictory lines like “I ain’t natural - its just the way I am”.

she looked at me from out of her eyes
Recorded at the Ponderos for “the brother who lived”. I played bass, acoustic, electric guitars and keys. From “the brother who lived”. I wanted it to be more evil and sinister. The title came from a late period Raymond Chandler story. I loaded it with some more fuzz , octave and wah to get the sleaze cooking down below. Plenty of delays and gated, reversed reverbs on the vocal. I gave it the creeps.

my old gloves
From a session in 2004. I was gonna make a bluesy album. Recorded this and “oakleigh bowie blues” and “I don’t wanna go bush” and “easy blues” which appeared on “knock yourself out” in 2009. I liked the groove on this track so we added some drums in 2010. Its about a pair of gloves that were sitting on a box. A plastic box. Just after this, a street bum broke into my car and stole one of them. Thats why I never sing about myself! This would be the most STONER track I've ever put down. I was stuck on those gloves. Which were sitting on a plastic box. But I still got to record my thought.

While you dream,I live
This came out on a promo single - very, very limited edition- in 2003. Recorded two years earlier, at the “Heroic Blues” sessions in 2001. I sang it again and worked on the mix in 2010. I was going for an ‘evil and sinister sound” . I play most of the guitars, Stu Perera hits the wah notes, Also the prog lines. Adele Pickvance on acoustic bass. I’m hitting all the wrong notes on the keys. Putting it out of kilter. As if in a dream. Grabbing handfulls of the shit.

I don’t know anything
From “Heroic Blues”. I sang this again in 2010 and added some drums and 12 string electric guitar. Also whomped the backing vocals. Shjizzed ‘em with some coloured and phased studio dust. Inspired by an interview I read with Richard Hell, as an older man, talking of the power and concentration he had as a young man.

commercial street east (starry)
A track from “the brother who lived “ session. This was an extension of the song “all our friends were stars”. It has a part of that song but with the keys pushed way forward and no chorus change. Looped to the descending euro verse changes. We added some drums and bass in 2010. Commercial street is the main street in Mt Gambier, SA where I grew up. Its more of a direct take on the song as far as the kids who used to lap that street back in those Arcadian days. When we were in a tight spot and bored to death but hungry for life.