I Ain't Hi Vis - December single for Dave Graney and Clare Moore. 2016 all up in our grills

It started in February with I'm A Good Hater and has continued for all of 2016.
A single song written, recorded and released each month. All instruments played by myself, and Clare Moore (except for Drifting Donna Reed which was an experiment in reusing an older band track (in the 70s reggae style), in this case that of You had To Be Drunk from 2007). Most of the tracks were credited to Dave Graney and Clare Moore.

There is a page on the official website with information and sound video links and lyrics to each track. Otherwise, you can follow these links.

I'm a Good Hater
This Is the Deadest Place I've Ever Died In
I Been Trendy
Drifitng Donna Reed
Are You Out Of Your Mind? (Get Back In) 
You Need a Kleek, Klook
Rupert's Pet's Grave
Matey, From On High
Let's Kick this Mob Out
I Ain't Hi Vis

and to come in January..   I Need To be Hot

What was I on about in these songs? I'm past being any kind of narrative writer. I always dropped gags in regard to what dopey thing my songs blew up from. I'm better than most songwriters. Its a known fact! People have terribly low expectations in regard to songwriting in general though. Being a musician is quite annoying sometimes because you're always running into people who think they know all about it. Hey - they know squat, really. Only a fighter knows what its like to get punched right in the mush. So I'll throw a few feckin' bones out here. Don't get mad- I know I ain't for everybody. I was thinking on what someone told at a party - to get started, then Willie Nelson, Al Green, Charlie Parker, the internet, John Mayall, Rupert and his attack dogs, Wyndham Lewis, Scott Morrison - Peter Dutton, Bligh, Work clothes and authenticity and is it better to be hot or cold?

There were articles published in the Adelaide Review. The latest of which is focussed on Henry Reynolds book, Unnecessary Wars.

Also Banana Lounge Broadcasting every Tuesday on Triple R.  Got to speak to amazing people like Shirley Collins, Genevieve Fry, Barry Adamson, Kamasi Washington, and historians Henry Reynolds and Staurt McIntyre.

There was a tour of Europe , mainly built around an invitation to play at what may be the last ATP festival, curated by comedic artist, Stewart Lee.
These shows in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Wales, London, France, Amsterdam and Brussels were great to play. A special experience playing with Malcolm Ross on guitar again. The two guitar band with Malcolm and myself was excellent fun. (When we played in the late 80s and early 90s I could write songs on the guitar but never performed with one.)  Very fresh, people would say, "it's like Television!" Malcolm and I would look at each other with raised eyebrows and nod our heads and go along with it. Got to take compliments like that on the chin!

Clare Moore and Malcolm Ross in Paris

We played further shows as Dave Graney 'n the Coral Snakes , all of which were very enjoyable and powerful events More are planned for next year.




We also played shows in Australia as Dave Graney and the mistLY. Thats me, Clare, Stu Thomas and Stuart Perera. Highlights were two gigs at the jazz club bennetts Lane and the Grandview in Fairfield. The band is so perfect for my songs. Playing at a low volume like you have to do at Bennetts is a real treat. Everything at the level of the bass drum. The voices all present in the room. I loved it. Very different to the Coral Snakes, though each band plays songs all written by me. With the Coral Snakes I don't play guitar, I just bring some moves and work the mic.

photo by Barry C Douglas

We recorded the third album for Harry Howard and the NDE before we left for Europe and it came out when  we got back. More shows were done and harry and Edwina toured Europe with some players from over there. (We were unable to do the dates due to other committments)




I wrote a second memoir which is being considered by a publisher for release next year and continued to work at a novel I've been trying to crack for years now.

At the moment we are focussed on rehearsing for the Bowie in Berlin show we are both involved in (as well as Stu Thomas on bass) for the first week of January.

Then there are shows booked for the mistLY, the Coral Snakes and a run of shows as a duo in regional NSW. Dave Graney and Clare Moore alongh with international comrades, Georgio "the Dove" Valentino and Patrizia F.

We intend to be back in Europe mid year.

Thanks to everybody for your support in 2016! Now we all enter the Trump years of what I have heard termed as THE AGE OF ANGER!

We've got to live through it so let's be tough together. Let's Get Tight!

Upcoming shows

4th annual Boxing Day Joint- Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Hotel Metro in Adelaide. Playing with special guests the Cowboys Of Love.
Monday Dec 26th



Dave Graney – one of several vocalists (with Kylie Auldist, Kim Salmon, Ron Peno, Max Sharam) in the show BOWIE IN BERLIN – music director Mick Harvey. Clare Moore drums, Stu Thomas bass, Robin Casinader keys, Miles Brown on classic synths.

Jan 6th – Triffid Brisbane, 

Jan 7th Enmore theatre Sydney,  

Jan 8th Hamer Hall Melbourne  

Jan 14th Regal Theatre Perth

Dave Graney And the mistLY
Friday Feb 10th 2017
Appearing with VICTORIANA GAYE who are launching their new album
Caravan Club - Melbourne

Harry Howard and the NDE
Flying Saucer Club Feb 17th

Dave Graney And the mistLY
Feb 22nd Aotea Square concert Auckland Feb 24th , Golden Dawn, Auckland

Dave Graney'n' the Coral Snakes
Melbourne NGV March 3rd

Lizottes in Newcastle March 31st.
Sydney April 1st - the Basement 

Dave Graney and Clare Moore NSW dates w/ special guests from Brussels/Miami Georgio "the Dove" Valentino and Patrizia.

Sunday 2nd April (2.30pm - 5.30pm TBC)- Dangar Island Bowling Club NSW
Tuesday 4th April (7pm - 9pm) Georgio only @ The Bearded Tit -
Thursday 6th April - Oxley Wine Bar Cowra
Friday 7th April - Tooses Wine Bar , 490-494 Argyle St, Moss Vale
Saturday 8th April - Gearin Hotel, Katoomba
Sunday 9th April - Smiths Canberra

Let's Kick This Mob Out - November digital single.

Yes, first post since Trump got elected. Nobody saw that coming. Though the hot takes on why what happened happened have been dizzying. Post believing anybody situation.
Can only be bad for humanity, that's a given. IMHO.

The right wingers are so happy. Here we have the drivelling idiots led by Red Headed Hanson saying " I told ya so!". Malcolm Roberts, wild eyed Senator voted in by 77 people, acting as if he is representing the nation. Calling out the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meterology, NASA... hey every scientist in the world, that climate change is a sham.  God help us. I have empirical evidence, he is an idiot. But what do I know? I mean , what do I do with what I know?




Brandis, what an arse. Attorney General for business, former arts minister.

Scott Morrison, minister for Cronulla. His language is reaching for ? Dunno. Not anything poetic or grand. Formerly the immigration minister, he delighted in "taking the sugar from the table", so asylum seekers could not espy a glimmer of hope. .
Now he's the Treasurer. He uses phrases such as "the government has wiped it's face". I don't know what he's trying to say. I think it's an allusion to a small child getting it's face dirty and wiping it. Some small idea of domestic irritation and mad, sugar driven activity again.
Then he  started going on about Labour "squeezing the lemon". He was saying "you can only squeeze the lemon so much...." I found this most disturbing as it has always been a sexual metaphor. Muddy Waters or Willie Dixon used it and then Led Zeppelin stole it for "The Lemon Song". I don't want politicians talking in sexual metaphors!
Next he'll be weilding and waving his "throbbing purple headed Gila Monster " at some poor woman on the ABC. (Not with Ray Hadley, who hosts Morrison regularly). Keep it in your pants, mate!

Then Dutton. The immigration minister. From Northern Queensland. A former cop. I'm writing in three letter sentences. An evil brute.

The Trump election has hypercharged all these right wingers and encoraged them to really let fly.
They are really telling us what they reckon. Dutton thinks the Liberal govt of 1977 let in too many Lebanese. Thats how far back he's gone so far.




DUTTON DRESSED AS MAN!

I wrote this song during the election in June. But it kept being relevant. Times are tough, bastardry everywhere.

The IPA running policy. Who are they? Neo Con bastards. Bastards Incorporated!

This was how Rupert  directed his readers in Sydney in the 2013  election.

In case you missed it , we had a  release asking what will happen to Rupert's pets? The generously salaried lapdogs who do his bidding? Who do they sup with now? How will history see them? Who will clean their graves when they die?





No more shows for 2016. Getting busy in January, as part of this David Bowie show.

 

More information here. 

Upcoming shows

ANNUAL BOXING DAY show at the METRO in Adelaide Dec 26th - Dave Graney and Clare Moore with special guests.

Dave Graney – one of several vocalists (with Kylie Auldist, Kim Salmon, Ron Peno, Max Sharam) in the show BOWIE IN BERLIN – music director Mick Harvey. Clare Moore drums, Stu Thomas bass, Robin Casinader keys
Jan 6th – Triffid Brisbane, Jan 7th Enmore theatre Sydney, Jan 8th Hamer Hall Melbourne Jan 14th Regal Theatre Perth

Dave Graney And the mistLY
Friday Feb 10th 2017
Appearing with VICTORIANA GAYE who are launching their new album
Caravan Club - Melbourne

Harry Howard and the NDE
Flying Saucer Club Feb 17th

Dave Graney And the mistLY
Feb 22nd Aotea Square concert Auckland Feb 24th , Golden Dawn, Auckland

Dave Graney'n' the Coral Snakes
Melbourne NGV March 3rd

Lizottes in Newcastle April 31st.
Sydney April 1st - the Basement


The monthlty digital releases will keep happening . Decembers will be "I Ain't HI Vis".

audio and video links to the October single, Matey From On High - show at Bennetts Lane Oct 23rd

Matey From On High is at itunes and Bandcamp now.




The title came from a line in THE APES OF GOD By Wyndham Lewis. It just jumped out at me. His writing was like that. He was also a painter, a great favourite of Captain Beefhearts.

Two Genius's.

 It's a song about how I feel I might distractedly, half engage with people. Sorry about that.

The language of the song is playful. It's not at all a narrative thing. It's all in the present, the drifting chorus which kicks in pretty quickly and stays in the groove. The chords continually rising and the drums swinging hard on the ride cymbal.

I played acoustic , electric , bass guitars and keys. Clare Moore played the drums.
Stu Thomas played  the trumpet and sang some amazing backing vocals, along with Emily Jarrett and Will Hindmarsh who appear courtesy of Go Go Sapien.



We are playing  a rare show in Melbourne for 2016 at Bennetts Lane Sunday Oct 23rd.

October single out on Friday. "Matey, From On High"

It's a jazzy groover. The chords and the beat drive it. Clare put down the beat before heading interstate and I cooked it with bass, guitar and keys. Stu Thomas added trumpet and backing vocals and Will Hindmarsh and Emily Jarrett - courtesy of Go Go Sapien - added some harmonies too.


It has words.
Here they are for you to consider.


-->

digital dope o' mine

telco moloko

go pro

pro quo

anti bono

friendly fire!

Oh pal!

oh betacam!

Oh wifi!

a big skype of ooh scream

feel the singularity!

tickled pixel

aaaah

matey, from on high

go viral!

song

go viral!

infection!

I'm liking the passion

we have to have a conversation 

I dose

I want

I don't

I me

limey

aura

you're a

aurora

standin' at the door

can't get past

can't cross the floor

il y aura

aurora

can't stop

can't start

is it your....?

aura?

or a ....?

bored to the core

hangin' on at the door

I saw...

stuck in my craw

not craw!

started out bawlin'

ended up bawlin'

the frenchy couldn't stay on

there were millions of us

half of me got through

I broke the lore

the lore

matey, from on high

if you need me

listen

I'll be at the foot of your head

matey, from on high

yeah!

 

photo of dave graney by Barry Douglas

Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes in Adelaide - here's how I saw it , dudes

Hey the show we did in Adelaide on the weekend was a blinder. It was to be at Semaphore Music festival - right on the beach - but due to the horrific storms and flooding it had to be moved indoors to the Flour Shed in Port Adelaide.

In many ways it was  a community festival. We came in from the clouds and busted the joint wide open.

This probably sounds less than humble but hey - we were fuckin' great! No one else stood near us back in the day and it's even better now. The show is compressed. Tight as the proverbial.

We get a really different crowd in Adelaide. The best.

Quite blue collar. Lots of vintage, intelligent women.

A man came up to me with fire in his eyes and a really old Lynyrd Skynyrd t shirt on. Hey - I hugged him!
He compared me to Ronnie Van Zandt.

How cool is that?

Someone else posted this on Social Media...

 

"What strange states of consciousness does this man conjure? To which tradition, literary or theatrical, does he belong? I am experiencing not cognitive dissonance, but a kind of mental atonality. He was fantastic, but my categories are not working. How do I understand what I have just seen? " Keith J.

Thanks to Trish Smells Flowers for catching this clip. 




Next show for us is with the mistLY at Bennetts Lane Sunday October 23rd -  at 8pm.

Rupert's Pet's Grave- new digital release - nsw shows next week

The title? Hey it's a double possessive!

Rupert's Pet's Grave.

I'm worried about Rupert's Pet. How will history view it?
Who will shine it's grave?

A whimsical song. You know, "Once upon a time".

In a world................
Where there's this powerful character called Rupert and he has influence and wields it through his vicious PETS who he sends out to yell at people, bully them, create envy, division, unhappiness and misery. General instability in the community.

In the song I say "everybody has to work". But I'm wondering how some of these PETS might sleep at night. And I'm also wondering do they ever think on what will happen when the King carks it?

You read what happened to Stalin's crew when he popped his cork?

There was a purge, mate! Reap what youse sow!

And those successive Elizabethan/ Tudor monarchs and their challengers when each threatened to get up and be a thing? They'd be on the death bed and the crowd would be thinning out as their sycophantic courtiers backed out of the room to race to suck up to the next in line. The dying king or queen left alone in their cot?

Rupert's Pet's Grave
Who's gonna shine it?
After they sweep away the trash and clean the paint?
Rod Stewart in the 22nd century, tells a story of his days as a grave shiner. He was kept hoppin', cleanin' the screen of whatsisname-  Rupert's Pet's Grave
Will there be guards?
Will they be proper, white?
How the man was hated! Stirred the pot so tight.
Who's gonna clean Rupert's Pet's Grave?
He wasn't a "people person", oh how he hated people!
Hate won't keep you alive
It''ll drench your mind - and the lousy words you traded in!
Everybody dies! It's not just a story!
Everybody's got to work - I understand!
Who's gonna clean Rupert's Pet's Grave?
And before that? At the grisly end?
who's gonna wipe?
What poor minimum wage... is gonna clean his privates?
Make him respectable?
Cos when the powers gone to someone else and the crowd drifts off with the force .
And he lays in his cot in a wilderness of unrequited hate...
Everybody dies! It's not just a story!
Everybody's got to work - I understand!
Who's gonna clean Rupert's Pet's Grave?

credits

released September 1, 2016
Dave Graney - guitars, bass , lead vocals.
Clare Moore, drums, percussion, keys , backing vocals.

UPCOMING SHOWS 

dave graney and clare moore at bowral bowls club friday sept 16th.

dave graney and the mistLY at petersham bowls SYDNEY for their 100 year anniversary ball saturday sept 17th

dave graney and the mistLY  at smiths alternative, canberra sunday sept 18th 

dave graney and the coral snakes on the beach at semaphore music festival sunday october 2nd

You Need A Kleek, Klook

When I was a kid it was the 70s and the era of classic rock and also classic am pop. A very lucky time to be around, so much music in the OPEN AIR. The Rolling Stones and a lot of the British bands always paid props to the people who inspired them. If you liked the Stones you could not know about Muddy Waters or Howlin Wolf. Same with the American bands, really. Hot Tuna had Papa John Creach on violin and Johnny Winter produced and played on those last two amazing Muddy Waters albums on the Blue Sky label. Vintage, African American players and singers were respected and their music was widely available in all kinds of reissues.
I had no real access to live music, an occasional touring band but it was all on the radio or on the tv or in record shops. We listened to music on cassette in cars as we drove aimlessly about , getting stoned on weed and drinking big 750ml bottles of beer. The music really expanded our world, which was very tightly wound.
In some ways, I always had the idea that the party was already over as far as pop went. I was always reading and looking at things that had happened far away and I could not imagine being anywhere cool  myself. The Woodstock movie did the rounds, as did Led Zeppelins "the Song Remains the Same". Jim, was dead, so was Jimi, so was Brian and so was Janice. Even Blind Al Wilson from Canned Heat had copped it.
So I'd be staring at record covers and taking all this information in, hoovering up the faces and names and fonts and dates and times. Lining it all up in my mind.
One of the albums I had very early on, when I was 15 or so, was an old John Mayall disc which mentioned the place it was recorded at. Klooks Kleek.
Sounded impossibly cool to me then it stuck with me.

In late 1983 the Moodists moved from Melbourne to London and most of us lobbed at a squat in the genteel London suburb of West Hampstead. Robert Forster and Lindy Morrison from the Go Betweens had thrown us the keys and we dived into a London life which seemed pretty easy to us. Rowland S Howard and Genevieve McGuckin lived on the top floor. Running water didn't really exist but you didn't really need to wash, and beer - which was our main sustenance -  was very cheap. There was a club up the road we had heard about through news of our friends, the  Birthday Party playing there. The Moonlight Club in West End Lane, West Hampstead.

It turned out that this had been the place where Joy Division had also played their first London shows, also U2 and many others. We were signed to Red Flame, a label run by Dave Kitson, who ran some of these shows and who often talked of a guy called Alan MGee who had a fanzine and a club going and who later started Creation Records (who we also worked with in 1985)


Time goes by and on a  trip to London to play in 2014 we went for a squizz around the West Hampstead area, taking advantage of a new overground railway from South London.

We found the Railway Tavern, which was where the Moonlight Club had taken place, to be boarded up and due for demolition. This was happening all over London.

There was a huge picture of early 60s pop idol Billy Fury near the  pub. I posted a picture online and a fellow responded that he had written a book about the club, which had once been called Klooks Kleek! This was amazing news to me. Turns out it had been a jazz club named after an album by drummer Kenney (Klook) Clarke called "Klooks Clique". It had begun in 1957 and carried through to the late 60s, hosting shows by Cream, Led Zeppelin, Ten Years After, Family and pretty much anybody who was on the scene in that era. This had a lot to do with the fact that Decca Records was just up the nearby lane.

So in 2016 I was, as is my way, thinking on this sort of a portal into time and the kinds of incubators for music that I have been through in my life. Record shops, clubs, pubs and CLIQUES. They're like schools that you go to and you get to be refined as well as pulled and pushed into shape as you move through those joints. Joints that are mostly imagined or fantasies anyway.  They get you to focus your game.

So I wrote this song that is our July release, You Need A Kleek, Klook.
Reaching for a majestic, mythic tone. Twelve string acoustic guitar, bass, piano and synths against a rhythm machine and a heavily reverbed tambourine. Pop music in that Procul / May 68 style and tone, here in 2016.



In the picture on the bottom right is myself and Clare Moore standing outside the Railway hotel. Photo taken by our London friend and artist, Dave Western.


You need a Kleek, Klook
You need a Kleek
people say
How can you happen?
How do you happen, anymore?
You need a Kleek, Klook
You need some weight
wait!
some critical maths
you need a host body
from whence you can dive
You need a Kleek, Klook
You need a push

you need a time and a place and a story
you need to click
you need to slot in and look right at home

you can't just pop
you can't just divide
you need to have happening people around
people need to be dealing with you

You need a Kleek, Klook
You need a Kleek

people need to be dealing with you
like you're a problem
their problem
You need a Kleek, Klook
You need a Kleek

you need to be
boo!
you need to be!
boo!

Upcoming shows

Dave Graney and the mistLY play the Grandview Hotel in Fairfield,Vic
Saturday August 20th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Brisbane Festival (Spiegel tent) September 3rd

Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Bowral Bowling Club September 16th
Dave Graney and the mistLY – Petersham Bowls – September 17th

Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Smith’s Alternative- Canberra September 18th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Semaphore Festival (Adelaide) October 2nd

Dave Graney'n' the Coral Snakes - who else could take you there?

I always write "Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes", never just "the Coral Snakes". Because.
Well because they're all mostly my songs and I sing them and it feels funny to refer to the situation without myself in it.
We have our modern band which is Dave Graney and the mistLY. Thats, me and Clare, Stu Thomas (since 2004) and Stuart Perera (since 1998).

We'll be doing more shows both historical and modern in the future.

See, the language is getting taut isn't it?

I read an interview with David Thomas from Pere Ubu and he referred to the intial period of Ubus activity as their "historical period". Same goes for other bands I really like such as WIRE. They had that amazing first run of albums, Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154. Then they stopped and did  work with different combinations of the band, duo and solo works. Then they got back together and made amazing records and still tour. In their case, it took a long time for them to let their audience find them. They had been hugely influential in the US and toured there in the late 80s with label mates Depeche Mode. Wire were only interested in playing their new music at their own shows. Luckily there was an American band who played their first album PINK FLAG note for note and in perfect album sequence. So Wire got them to be the opening act. They were called The Ideal Copy. Cute, huh?

Robin Casinader, keyboard player for the Coral Snakes, lives in Canberra. We waited for him to come down to Melbourne where we had to go into PBS FM in Collingwood to do a  live to air performance on the Wednesday before our show. Barry Douglas aka Barry Takes Photos was in the studio to film it.




After this session , WE WENT OFF TO REHEARSAL!

The show was at the Corner Hotel. We wanted to do a show in a rock 'n roll venue, in contrast to the MEMO MUSIC HALL we had played at last year. That had been more of a sit-down-theatre kind of setting. A great room also, we just wanted something different.

It was a great night. We had our friends the Sand pebbles and the Ancients play opening sets. Both were wonderful. Great people. Great music.

We did everything for the show ourselves.  All the logistical arrangements and hiring merch people and sound mixer etc as well as talking with the other bands.

I'm saying this because people, even friends, assume we have "people" who do things. All we have is a booking agent. Thats the limit of our engagement with the Austrralian music scene. Its all personal. Our lives are 90% admin.

Thanks go out to Community radio for connecting us with people.

We soundchecked in the afternoon at about 4pm until 5:30 and then hung around until doors. We ate and talked with the Sand Pebbles and friends.

At 11pm we came on and I must say it was an absolutely epic show. After all the hanging and admin and rooting about, to finally just play the shit out of that stuff was quite joyful.

This kind of show is a decade of moves and poses and shapes and song selections all compressed into 75 minutes.





We played so many shows during the 90s and played it in isolation. Fucking grunge years- how funny were they? We were the best, and so we were at the Corner.

If there was a music press there would have been a  review of the show. Who could review Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes though? I tell you, to get a handle on what was going on they would have had to have had a team of scribes, especially a DANCE critic, just to talk about the MEANING OF MY MOVES within each song and within those songs within the greater drama of the show and our career.

As I like to say "who else could take you there! Droppin' some fuckin' science on you there, pal!"

I shit the critics.

It's been great playing with Rod Hayward and Robin Casinader again. Man they play LOUD!

Robin is a genuine freak, and I mean that in the most positive of ways. I'm a proud freak too.
He just starts to meditate anywhere. He cares not for idle chat or what may make other people uncomfortable. He talks when he wants to. We drove him to his hotel after rehearsal and talked of Lionel Barts last great folly and of Anthony Newley. Who else could take us there?

When we first got back together and went over what songs we would play we got to "rock'n'roll is where I hide". I had to mention to Rod and Robin that this song lights up the room wherever we play it. People call out for it even though they don't know the name of the song. Its a monster. They expressed quizzical surprise.

This is the show closer from July 9th 2016.

Dave Graney and the mistLY play the Grandview Hotel in Fairfield,Vic
Saturday August 20th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Brisbane Festival (Spiegel tent) September 3rd

Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Bowral Bowling Club September 16th

Dave Graney and the mistLY – Petersham Bowls – September 17th

Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Smith’s Alternative- Canberra September 18th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Semaphore Festival (Adelaide) October 2nd

Election Limbo-Monday night after Saturday vote

Well the seat we live in - Latrobe- is still up in the air. Postal votes coming in to be counted tomorrow. Apparently about 12,000. I hope Labour wins. The Liberal is an ex copper. The only advice I ever got from my Dad was "don't mess with the Gendarmes!"
My mother? She said "once a cop- never a man!" 


We went down to the Primary School to vote at about 3pm. A long queue greeted us. There were people from The Greens, the Labour party, Animal Justice Party and one with a  UNION how to vote card. They were all female.
As the queue progressed there was a Liberal party worker who handed out his Senate and House Of Reps how to vote leaflets to people just behind us with the words "we've got to sort this CFA mess out!". He added that he was a CFA member. The couple behind us agreed. I couldn't let it pass and told him that this was a Federal election on s and that the CFA dispute with the Fire Fighters Union was a State Government issue. There was no way a federal government could do anything. He backed off a bit but the couple behind me started yelling that the CFA was important. I said I loved the CFA , and also sausages (there was a bbq nearby) but that was a State issue. I guess they went and voted Liberal. I ran into the woman at my booth and then Clare ran into them at the Supermarket as we made our way to a party.



The party was a friends 40th in the Hills, not far from home. After a while, everybody had their phones out, looking at the count coming in as an upset seemed to be possibly- maybe - happening.

We stayed until 11pm and then went home to catch the Election broadcasts. It turned out to be an exciting, unpredictable event. Not at all what I was expecting. I wanted Labour to win but couldn't believe it ccould really happen. It's not the kind of place to go mad like that. I mean, in a good way.
Queensland went mad, as it usually does. Them and their bitterness and their baseball bats. Always out to clobber some political party, but usually for reasons of .... who knows? They just like to hit people with baseball bats I think.

Anyway, they voted in two Senators from the One Moron Party.  Thanks for that, Maroons!

I have been working on our July release. Just finished it. I used the term Chamber Pop to Clare Moore. She heard it as Chamber Pot. So, no, I won't be using it to describe this song when it comes out. Kind of a baroque, pop folk feel to it. 12 string acoustic, piano, organ, backing vocals, reverberant tambourine and swelling cymbals tinging and crashing. It's going to be called "You Need a Kleek, Klook".
Someone needs a home, context, a background, a story, a crew, some cocoon to emerge from within. They need a Kleek, Klook.
Someone will know what I'm talkin' about.

Best things about the election?
No David Leyonhelm. Wyatt Roy. See yas!

Worst, still got Christopher Pyne, Peter Dutton, Cory Bernardi, Scott Morrison, Greg Hunt. And others....

Malcolm Turnbull kept going on about his PLAN but no one knew what it was. He was either not himself- (its strange how intimate everubody is with him, calling him Malcolm, as if he's someone they really know.) or he has hypnotized people to imagine he  is different to what he is. He had all the same ghouls surrounding him as the man he toppled, Tony Abbott, and all his cruel policies. But people think MALCOLM is really a nice, soft, caring old school Liberal. He just had to win the election then he could be himself. By himself I mean that other person in some peoples minds.

But the people surrounding him are looking at the wreckage of the election and saying he wasn't hard or cruel enough. All those people who voted for the One Moron Party  did so because the Liberals weren't hard enough. Isn't that telling? The Conservative party is so far to the right they look to One Moron to get their bearings?

How about the fact that James Ashby is her political advisor? The guy who sued the former Speaker of the house Peter Slipper for Sexual Harrassment  and so Slipper was removed from the Labour Party - in a  minority government. And someone stole his diary - and the Liberal MP  involved , Mal Brough, had to resign as the Federal Police investigated and Christopher Pyne was mentioned as well as Wyatt Roy. How grubby are these people, the adults?

Maybe Labour will still get a minority government together?

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes July 9th at the Corner Hotel - Melbourne

Harry Howard and the NDE -  July 16th the Grandview Hotel in Fairfield,Vic

 Harry Howard and the NDE July 23rd Croxton Park Hotel

 

Dave Graney and the mistLY play the Grandview Hotel in Fairfield,Vic
Saturday August 20th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes - Brisbane Festival (Spiegel tent) September 3rd

Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Bowral Bowling Club September 16th

Dave Graney and the mistLY – Petersham Bowls – September 17th

Dave Graney And the mistLY – Smith’s Alternative- Canberra September 18th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Semaphore Festival (Adelaide) October 2nd

On the campaign trail for our show at the Corner July 9th

Last year , when we played our first shows as Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes since 1997, we went on the campaign trail to get word out to the disparate audience we'd entertained in that period. Doors actually opened in places that find it impossible to approach our current activities in many ways.

We had stories in mainstream and street press and even got onto the ABC 7:30 report. I went into Triple M in Melbourne and talked with Mick Molloy and Eddie McGuire. Clare Moore and I had a chat with Glenn Ridge at Magic 693 and Dennis Walter at 3AW. For those not in Melbourne, these are straight out commercial enterprises. The top rating AM and FM (sports related) frequencies.

Yesterday, ahead of this July 9th show at the Corner, we went into 3AW and spoke with a  fellow called Darren James.This was an afternoon show. They have those high frequency ads for Taylors tree and stump removals, Frank Walker for those damned tiles and my favourite, the DRAIN MAN.

I must tell you how refreshing it is to work/ chat with these people. Them and the production staff they have who source the music and information. They are so on the ball. It is so easy as a performer, to be in that room. They are relaxed and cool and mostly really funny. Darren at 3AW played us in with our very latest digital release "Are You Out Of Your Mind (Get Back In)" and we chatted about the Melbourne scene and the show we are doing.


Easy fucking peasy. He played Feelin Kinda Sporty from 1997 and engaged with both myself and Clare. A woman called in to talk about a venue in her area. He cracked a gag about being "the original love god of late night FM.." I laughed and said it was an honour to be working with an actual  God, to which he said " and look at me now- selling broken down furniture on Sunday mornings..." (He mainly works on the weekends on a  kind of radio version of the Trading Post and with the piss weak Melbourne version of an opinionated Shock Jock, John Michael Howson. (More like being flogged with a damp lettuce leaf).

In most cases, commercial radio on both AM and FM have proved to be the most approachable and open. On air, they have this talent who just sit in  a groove and know what they are doing. Pros. They do not freak out about their audience and what they can or can't say or what their audience can or can't hear. They are cool.

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes July 9th at the Corner Hotel - Melbourne

Harry Howard and the NDE July 23rd Croxton Park Hotel

Dave Graney and the mistLY play the Grandview Hotel in Fairfield,Vic
 Saturday August 20th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes - Brisbane Festival (Spiegel tent) September 3rd

Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Bowral Bowling Club September 16th

Dave Graney and the mistLY – Petersham Bowls – September 17th

Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Smith’s Alternative- Canberra September 18th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Semaphore Festival (Adelaide) October 2nd

Are You Out Of Your Mind? (Get Back In)

Are You Out Of Your Mind? (Get Back In)

It's our June single.

I started the year with an idea to release a song every month. Being the lazy, sunny  starting month of January, it took until I'm a Good Hater to come out.
March was when "This Is The Deadest Place I've Ever Died In" happened.
Then April came with "I Been Trendy" and May brought us "Drifting Donna Reed". We were in Europe playing and both of those were in the pipeline.

I've been enjoying the discipline of coming up with a  track each month. It's got me thinking and writing with a different kind of focus. Mostly its been all played by myself and Clare Moore. I get ideas quick and jump on them, getting obsessive over sounds and arrangements. I'm not the neatest and Clare usually comes in to tighten, edit , arrange and offer somne textural suggestions.

I've always thought of albums and over arching themes and sounds. This way I'm freed up from that and just hone in on one track and whatever it needs.

I'm A Good Hater was a guitar track I'd recorded for the Fearful Wiggings sessions and never used. We wanted to put some synthy bass with teh driving guitar. That was the musical impetus.

This Is The Deadest Place came from a  mad compression effect that happened when I put on a drum track. It nade the cymbals "whoosh" and "pump". I thought it'd be great to accentuate this and got Clare to drape a string of pearls on her crash cymbal. To softly lay it on the metal and then lift it off. I recorded it and boosted it to get a maddening, clattering and swishing sound over and above the compressed drums. The fuzz bass sat nicely.

I Been Trendy came from an older  drum track that I found. I'd been playing the bass line at soundcheckss for the NDE for a year or so, always meaning to do something with it. I got the groove happening and put down some licks with my vintage Maton ALVER guitar.

This instrument has sat in a corner for decades as more of an ornament than anything but I got the machine heads fixed last year (they were all stuck and bent out of shape) by the guys at Maton and I've found it records beautifully. Not an instrument to be ever taken out of the house, though. The lyric? I was thinking of the bright lights and the wandering gaze of the mob and how it was like, you know, being at a party, in  a tanning salon...

Drifting Donna Reed came froma  rhythm track from 2007. The original song was I Like To Be Haunted. 70s reggae producers always used the same backing track for multiple releases with different vocals over them, we always wanted to try that. I cut and edited the rhythm and added some more guitar licks, a different vocal and some b/vs from Clare Moore. The lyric was riffing on ephemeral pop culture.

Which bring us to Are You Out Of Your Mind? (Get Back In)



Hey it came out on the day that the UK voted to BREXIT- weird huh?

I was asking a friend what people at the ABC did when music was sent to them. He said they were obsessed by the 3 minute length of songs - anything over was not even considered. This song is 2:59.

I started with the drum track and built some chords to it. I was thinking vaguely of a  post punk kind of up tightness with vamping , dampened chords driving the groove. Stuttering and stopping and starting. This happened over a period of a  few hours I guess. I put some bass down and Clare did the organ. I had a luyric which I thiought harked to ssome old Sonny Boy Williamson  blues type thing . "You talk too much" was my line. A bit like his "don't you start me talkin" or Bo Diddleys "shut your mouth!". I love that kind of rude stuff. My music I'd cooked up here was sweeter though and drew the words into different meanings.
The music drove other lines into focus and I ended up with a  song about social media and how people directly plug their brains into "the cloud". "Are you out of your mind?" was the question. People were spilling their minds out into their computers and phones. The age of surveillence and big data. We are vulnerable and needy. GET BACK IN!



Will Hindmarsh and Emily Jarrett from Go Go Sapien came in to the studio and put down some stellar WEST COAST harmonies in one take.  BAM! Sounded too good.

There's a page on our website with all the singles so far on it . 

I'm working on the July release now. It's sounding hot!

Rambling - Man.

It's cold outside. I've been inside the house with my cat for days. Bought a new axe and went to clear up some wood down the bottom paddock. (Very Ted and Ralph that) . It's a fibreglass axe in case you were wondering. Please don't advise me that I've done something terrible - its not a purchase I want to make perfectly.

Cutting the wet logs saw me heave the axe into a piece and then struggle to pull it out again for a good five minutes. Please don't send me youtube links on how to use an axe... I had a splitter but the handle broke. I did find that you can't really find axe handles in the proper shape too easily. Why have I lived long enough to have to know names for different shapes of axe handles? Cruel life.

Clare Moore has been in Adelaide doing a show called Southern Belles which she cooked up . Getting a  band togetehr to play songs from Southern Feamle country singer os the late sixties. People like Jeannie C Riley



and the amazing Bobbie Gentry.



People singing sociallly conscious or message type songs. A time of great change for women. 

She got the band together and then asked singers Jane Clifton, Nichaud Fitzgibbon and Carla Lippis to sing the songs. The two nights at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival were sold out before they left Melbourne.

Been reading about Brexit and dealing with our own election. Recording some tracks and hoping to get to Europe again this year.

Also rehearsing with the Coral Snakes for these upcoming shows. And the NDE album number three is coming together (sounding great) . Also doing mistLY shows and some solo and duo sets.

Our June single.

Are You Out Of Your Mind? (Get Back In)




Upcoming shows

June 29th Dave Graney and Lisa Gerrard "songwriter speaks" session at Melbourne Recital Hall - 6pm

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes July 9th at the Corner Hotel - Melbourne

Harry Howard and the NDE July 23rd Croxton Park Hotel

Dave Graney and the mistLY play the Grandview Hotel in Fairfield,Vic
Saturday August 20th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes - Brisbane Festival (Spiegel tent) September 3rd


Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Bowral Bowling Club September 16th

Dave Graney and the mistLY – Petersham Bowls – September 17th


Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Smith’s Alternative- Canberra September 18th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Semaphore Festival (Adelaide) October 2nd

I am at page 600 of a 1200 page John Cowper Powys book called A Glastonbury Romance. His books are a world I can drop down into. Amazing writer. I wouldn't know how to describe it. Fiction yes, but always the same themes and thoughts being worried at all through his books. It's a realm. Interior yet exterior as well. Clare refers to him as "that pervert".

I referred to having aquired a type writer and I have been enjoying writing a  few letters to old friends. Giving them a bit of a  shock I guess. Hopefully not loading them with a  burden in having to reply.
One of the letter exchanges has been with a fellow I was happy to make the aquaintance of a few years ago when he was busking on the street in Melbourne. A wild looking street person with a  wailing electric guitar on Princes Bridge in the city. He was aiming to busk his way to and around Tasmania. I ran into him a few more times, he was on social media and seemed to live in his van with his dog. Devoted to his dog. Well, he's now in gaol on a murder charge. Maximum security.
No guitar, no books, no magazines or cds. The actual fuck happens.
So we've exchanged a couple of letters. Thats a plan.
I knew another bloke from when we were kids. He killed his parents. A long time ago. Then after a gig in 2013 he came up and hugged me. He used to dink me to football training. What do you do? I asked him what happened. he said "madness Dave...". It's not like the movies or in a  song. Scenes don't close or fade. You're still standing there and you've got to deal with things.

When I hear singers sing songs about gaol and how bad they are I can't really cop it. That cuts out 90% of modern woodcore alt country rectionary punk never happened type end of the music spectrum  so it suits me fine.

I went to a night of indigenous country music. When they sang of gaol and people hanging THEMSELVES  and booze and hard times it was real. No learning folk tunes from the internet or old records. Got an education that night.


Seem to have dodged the storm here. Though it's started hailing outside. Sylvie the cat is in her safe place, inside the bass drum behind me.

Let's Kick This Mob Out #2 - I wrote a song called that and here it is

I know I was bagging Greg (c)Hunt before , as the LNP figure that shits me the most but that top of the plops place can change daily- or hourly. Some like the eminently detestable Officer Dutton lose your focus because they seem to be hidden away during this election campaign. He is a divisive figure - among a party of divided and divisive figures. He is division! Not Da Vision! Division!

Please excuse me if I use exclamation marks too much. I have been using a type writer and have found that prior to the 70s, exclamation marks were not provided for people. How did they ever communicate?

(Upon looking it up on the internet I found a youtube clip showing me how to manufacture one using a  "period" and an "apostrophe. It's very CLERK-PUNK. Yes, 1600 people have viewed this clip).

But there is another divising figure among the dividers. One whose name has been mentioned in despatches along with the risible Officer Dutton as a possible deputy Prime Divider or even a Prime Divider itself.... This figure is the grim and steely grey treasurer Scott Morrison. Sometimes ironically called ScoMo. Why? An utterly humourless character and a quite convincing manifestation of a fantasy political league player from the fevered, gouty mind of a  NSW shock Jock. Indeed I once sat and listened, while on a  long drive through NSW, to Scott Morrison talking with the angry and shocking radio mouth Ray Hadley. They were having some sort of public spat after the LNP got rid of the ridiculous Tony Abbott. A linguist should study the transcript one day. It was like listening in to two corrupt NSW cops talking in their car through a hidden mic. If the word, "mate" had been disallowed - like an exclamation point for instance- the conversation would have lasted one minute. It's hard to look at, mate, how bad things got, mate. Scott was asked mate, to swear on a bible which was supposed to have been planted in the studio where he sat. I mean. Mate!

Scott Morrison represents the seat which is centres around the area of Sydney known as THE SHIRE. CRONULLA. John Howards heartland. This is the holy place for LNP politicians where "real australians" live. Everyone is belongs to a cast of useless characters known as "rent-a-crowd".

Coming from this place of unassailable authenticity he revelled in the job of "stopping the boats" which was the problem the LNP invented to get into government so they could "solve" it.

In 2014 Morrison gave an interview where he talked about removing any chance of any asylum seeker EVER being settled in Australia. He said that he was "taking the sugar off the table". I hope he goes down in history for that shitty statement.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-19/resettlement-decision-takes-sugar-off-the-table/5901502

"We've had great success in stopping people coming to Australia by boat and for most of that time over the past year, that has seen a significant reduction of people moving into Indonesia," he said.
"In recent months, we've seen a change to that and that's because people think they can transit and sit in Indonesia and use that as a place to gain access to Australia.

"This is designed to stop people flowing into Indonesia and to support Indonesia and for them not to become a destination country.
"It's taking the sugar off the table."

So I wanted to write a song stewing around all this and I did it last week. It's called "Let's kick this Mob Out".




The sugar was on the table
Scott promiused he would die - strong and bitter
Tony was tied to the mask
winking for his siren
Malcolm was in the long boat
talkin' to his cut throats
sayin' he knew the way
he had navigation up the wazoo
lets kick this mob out

the sugar was on the table

"hey wait! no boat must land! Not on our watch!" They said
"we must decide who goes there and the manner in which they rot!"

lets kick this mob out
the sugar was on the table
lets kick this mob out
the sugar was on the table

***** Tony and his siren - well you know who they are

*****Malcolm in his long boat - a reference to Malcolm BLIGH Turnbull's distant relative who, after the mutiny on the Bounty, took the remaining members of his crew on a long voyage to Indonesia in a  long boat...

Tickets link to this show

           Upcoming shows

June 29th Dave Graney and Lisa Gerrard "songwriter speaks" session at Melbourne Recital Hall - 6pm

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes July 9th at the Corner Hotel - Melbourne

Harry Howard and the NDE July 23rd Croxton Park Hotel

Dave Graney and the mistLY play the Grandview Hotel in Fairfield,Vic

Saturday August 20th
Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes - Brisbane Festival (Spiegel tent) September 3rd

Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Bowral Bowling Club September 16th

Dave Graney and the mistLY – Petersham Bowls – September 17th

Dave Graney And Clare Moore – Smith’s Alternative- Canberra September 18th

Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Semaphore Festival (Adelaide) October 2nd

election email from local LNP member - I'm scared!

I guess everybody must be getting this sort of stuff.

It's strange to get a direct email, talking to you in the same language that is in general use in the political discourse. By that I mean that as a citizen I must be pretty stupid, absolutely scared of foreigners/ terrorists/ bikers - to the extent that I can't think of anything else. Ever at all. Because IT WOULD FRIGHTEN ME.EVEN MORE.

Dear .............,

As a former police officer of 17 years, not only as a local uniformed officer, but also as a Detective in the Organised Crime Squad and Senior Sergeant in the Counter Terrorism Co-Ordination Unit, I know that community safety is vital.

In my electorate of La Trobe I understand that crime prevention is a great concern and that is why I have been actively engaging with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull MP and Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan MP, to boost safety and prevent crime at local, state, and national levels.

I have always been a loud advocate for stronger counter terrorism legislation and have supported implementing stronger laws to keep Australia safe. I have worked closely with Peter Dutton MP, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, and have strongly supported laws to deport dual citizens involved in serious crimes.

In 2010 I developed the National Violent Gangs Squad Policy to aid the National Anti-Gang Squad in identifying emerging gangs. This has since become the national body for taking on Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (Bikies) – the main group behind the Ice epidemic which is affecting so many families nation-wide. In recent times I have called for the National Anti-Gang Squad to assist me in tackling the APEX Gang too, which poses a particular threat to our local community.

The Coalition Government has been working hard to tackle organised crime and the increase of outlaw gangs which are costing Australians $36B a year. Our Government has invested heavily in our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to boost their efforts in detecting and disrupting the business of organised criminals. Since coming to government the coalition has invested;
$18M in the Australian Gangs Intelligence Coordination Centre to boost the Australian Crime Commission’s ability to share intelligence information between law enforcement agencies – assisting in getting Ice and guns off our streets.
$77M to establish the National Anti-Gang Squad which operates across all states of Australia to specifically target outlaw gangs.
$88M to increase screening and examination of mail, air and sea cargo – assisting our agencies to detect illegal weapons and drugs at our borders.
And developed a national unexplained wealth scheme to target illegitimate wealth and to give our law enforcement agencies greater power to seize criminal assets.
Unlike our opposition who cut funds and staff from our law enforcement and border protection agencies, the Turnbull Government is determined to do everything in its power to ensure that our law enforcement agencies are well resourced to maintain the safety and security of the Australian people.

I pride myself on being an accessible representative and I look forward to the re-election of the Turnbull Government so that we can continue to fight crime and keep Australians safe from terrorism, organised crime and outlaw gangs in the future.

Yours sincerely,


Jason Wood MP
Federal Member for La Trobe

Election dragging on 'ey? Lets kick this mob out!

The seat I live in is Latrobe. During the John Howard years it was the seat of an American born ex policeman called Bob Charles- after having been Labour for a decade. It then went to his LNP successor, Jason Woods, another ex copper. The Rudd election (and Howard rejection) brought a Labour member for one term and then it went back to Jason Woods. He must hate this clip of his most noted speech in parliament. Orgasms...
That last gasp (fart) of John Howards saw his election launch at our local RSL.  He dropped a wad of cash on the place and it soon had a ridiculous ex service tank outside of it, pointing its gun at the main street.


How silly. Always with the  war!
Yes, how glad we were to see the arse end of Howard and Costello! How little did we know what terrible shitly characters awaited us? Abbott. Kevin Andrews, Greg (c)Hunt Joe Hockey, Matthias the terminator, Christopher Pyne. Actually, the Conservatives so resented being kicked out of office that they just refused to believe it was the case. Tony Abbott had the party on an election footing since some time in 2008. He invented problems such as a flood of refugees and terrible taxes on mining and pollution and solved them. Great big hurrahs!
How glad we were to see the arse end of Tony Abbott, the mad monk! How little did we know as to what shitly characters just stayed in place and stood behind the oily lawyer Malcolm Bligh Turnbull!

Anyway, I keep running into our ALP candidate, Simon Curtis He is a schoolteacher and I met him at an opening of the Selby pool we played at, then at the Upper Ferntree Gully train station early one morning as he stood there, saying hello to people. Probably before he had to go to work himself. He's started to be active on Social media and he's always pictured at these freezing train stations and walking around the hills.

I would never vote LNP and I must say, Jason lost me at "orgasm"

The seat needs a 4% swing to change. The Greens? Always an option. In the Senate, for me.

Only four more weeks to go.

I just don't know which one of those lying LNP freaks I dislike the most? How I would love Pyne to lose his seat! Cory Bernardi as well, as a proud South Australian born dude, those two insult the place so manifestly. And the gruesome Peter Dutton (another ex cop). But there's something about (c)Hunt which really grates on me. He is so unconvincing in his fronting of such shocking policies in his role as Environment Minister. Then today there's this story of his precious tweets to American tv host Ellen Degeneres who dared to point out, like so many actual scientists already have, how quickly the Great Barrier Reef is DYING! He cares about her opinion. Because tourists! Yes, I do hate him the most. Like Abbott, he is relentless - but in a horribly decent way. I am heartened by the thought that he and Fat Joe Hockey will go down in actual HISTORY ( they might care about that) as the worst amongst the worst. (c)Hunt, who did everything he could, as Environment minister, to fuck up the environment and  Fat Joe who killed the Car industry as a matter  of ideological pride, so soon after taking office in his role as treasurer and punisher (volunteer role).

Here they Dutton, Pyne and (c)Hunt are dancing and laughing as they repealed the Carbon tax... Chums for business!

Drifting Donna Reed - May digital release

Hey this single came out a couple of weeks ago. I'm in a sort of lag. A jag. Dragging my chains. Travelling for weeks and then stopping suddenly. I did a Wam and Daz spot at a show and also a really enjoyable two sets with the mistLY at Melbourne's almost defunct but somehow still happening jazz club, Bennetts Lane. You should go there while it's still happening. Playing there was delightful. We had to keep the amps down so low. Meg, who runs the place came and "soundchecked" us, just a mic on the bass drum and four for the vocals, and did it with her iPad while entertaining her young child who was running around the room. Never a cross word from anybody. It was very impressive, and sounded great on the night too.

 This is what we played

all our friends were stars
got myself a beautiful nightmare
death by a thousand sucks
my schtick weighs a ton
Saturday night bath
life’s a dream
anchors aweigh
I’m not afraid to be heavy
flower of the earth
everybody does what they want to

we don’t belong to anybody
everything was legendary with Robert
I’m not the guy I tried to be
we need a champion
I wanna get lost again
mt gambier night
I don’t wanna go bush
A woman skinnies a man up
how can you get out of London?
the birds and goats
I’m a good hater
this is the deadest place I’ve ever died in

Drifting Donna Reed ...

Surely you've had the experience of mentioning some person or event that happened very publicly , only for the person you are talking to to say "I don't know- before my time..."

A quite reasonable response and perhaps a way of containing information in a more empiric fashion. But people can be very selective I find. They never say Da Vinci or Jesus is before their time, or Shakespeare. Though they would have been.....Socrates? Billy the Kid? Napoleon? Joan of Arc. There's a ref to a great 90s movie right there with that last bunch of names. They help the two teens with their high school exam, might have been before your time?


The song is about that sort of feeling. Pop culture references losing their charge. Images and personas and events drifiting through us and around us, disappearing like snow...

yeah - Donna Reed
drifting - Donna Reed
aah don't worry
I'm before your time - don't worry! don't worry!
you don't wanna know you don't have to
I know
I'm not here
you're not either
you weren't there
neither was I
we're never gonna be on the same page
different time zones
we'll never mesh
not unless a bomb goes off or somethin'
maybe a fire
we're never gonna be on the same page
I'm before your time - its cool
I'm before your time - its cool
I'm before your time - its cool
I'm before your time - its cool
you weren't there!
wow! you missed quite a show!
never mind
you don't wanna know I got here late and I'm also old
what have we missed?
drifting Donna Reed
drifting Donna Reed
what could that even mean?
drifitng Donna Reed
drifting Donna Reed
I'm puttin' BIRD in here
the heavy hitters
puttin' 'em to work
he was in the ground before I leapt into this world
BIRD
my father moaned my mother wept
BIRD blew
I'm before your time
its cool
dont worry
you don't wanna know
you don't have to
I know
I'm before your time
its cool
drifitng Donna Reed
way way way way way back
way before my time
drifitng Donna Reed.
oh!

We've been putting out digital songs every month. At itunes and Bandcamp. Just seeing what the digital world is like, not thinking about making physical artefacts.

Working on the June release  right now. It's a killer pop tune. Though you must know my tastes are so mainstream they are RIGHT  OFF.

Oh and our website has a new address

davegraney.com