you were deep inside that thought: WORKSHY - my life as a bludge

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

WORKSHY - my life as a bludge - notes

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WORKSHY is out now on Affirm Press. I tried to write about all the little jobs I did while trying to be a musician/ artist. All those temporary situations. How I lived while trying to leave as small a footprint, handprint and general imprint as possible. I’ve written songs about that kind of scene. “You wanna be there but you don’t wanna travel”, “I’m the stranger in town”, “everything was legendary with Robert”.

It’s subtitled “my life as a bludge”

My previous memoir “1001 Australian Nights” was more dreamy and abstract. About half awake dream that it was in my first band, the Moodists and how we imagined each other and also getting my tone and voice. It had two parts; coming into the world and then speaking as a part of the world. Two voices - innocence and experience.

Workshy has more personal detail about growing up in Mount Gambier, my individual and social identities and influences and my love of playing football as a kid and generally goofing about and doing my best to avoid work as best as I could. Also, the actual options that were open to me. Then I had to deal with the world and after a while I found I had dug into a weird kind of a groove.

Also, truth #1- “there’s no retiring in this business….” . (thanks Billy Miller)

In so many ways, musicians have been the canaries in the coal mine of much of modern life. We got to the brutal face of the modern scene where everybody is a “freelancer” first. Now everybody has to “manage the brand”. But we’ve always been depicted as hapless chancers and fantasists who avoided “the real world”. Hey, now people talk loosely and carelessly of “the gig economy”. Talk to a musician if you want to know what the future holds! We’ve been there for a while.

The cover art is by Tony Mahony, who has done almost all our cd and album covers and videos since1992.

I worked with Janet Austin on the editing and she did an amazingly thorough and creative job. She really gave it some air where needed and got it singing. Then the team at Affirm did their final stylistic edits and proofs. Thanks to everybody!

"Meandering humanity and honest music never follow guidelines. Neither does Dave Graney. Society didn't get fussy and uptight after he was born, it got fussy and uptight after it made being born Dave Graney illegal. The antidote: read this and remember what's real; better still, read it at work. This is a book that should come in a brown paper bag."

DBC PIERRE

“Dave Graney is a genuine hipster bohemian street intellectual. A committed rock'n'roll theoretician and a contrarian outsider of he first order.

This second memoir is as entertaining, funny and well written as his previous book '1000 Australian Nights". He has a terse and semi-abstract approach to writing about the absurd reality of being a non-mainstream musical artist in Australia and Europe, and also of the succession of dispiriting and occasionally quite tolerable day jobs he has had.

The book is liberally spattered with hilarious observations of the art and culture of the recent past and many amusing personal anecdotes. There are also some arcane metaphysical ruminations on the technical minutiae of writing recording and performing his excellent songs.

Dave is the unchallengeable King of Australian rock memoirists. Buy this book now!”
Reg Mombassa

It’s out on Affirm Press and there are launches and events planned in a lot of places.

Sunday Oct ^29th – Readings St Kilda. A talk with Gerard Elson.
TIME: 5pm
Readings St Kilda
112 Acland St, St Kilda

Wednesday Oct 25^th, a launch in Melbourne at Magnet Gallery in Bourke st Melbourne. Happy and proud to say my inspiring friend Tony Martin will be doing the launching!

TIME: 6.30pm-8.30pm
VENUE: Magnet Gallery, 640 Bourke St, Melbourne

--> Wednesday Nov 8th Mt Gambier Launch
TIME: 6:30 – 7:30pm
VENUE: Mt Gambier Library, 6 Watson Terrace, Mount Gambier 5290
Friday Nov 10^th Adelaide Book Launch

Time: 6:30pm
VENUE: Imprint Books, 107 Hindley St, Adelaide

Tuesday Nov 14th – Melbourne event

VENUE: The Avenue ,Richmond
TIME: 6.45pm for 7pm start – 8.15pm end

Sunday Nov 26^th Sydney Book Launch

TIME:
VENUE: The People’s Republic of Australasia, Camperdown, NSW

Sunday Dec 10th Perth Book Launch
in conversation with Bob Gordon
TIME: 6pm – 8pm
VENUE: Rosemount Hotel, Bar 459, 459 Fitzgerald St, North Perth WA

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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)

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

Dave Graney and Clare Moore - In A Mistly

Classic Jewel Case Compact Disc. A rock album. Guitars, drums, bass and vocals. Some vibes and keys –oh and some saxophone. Four songs recorded with the mistLY- i.e. the band with Stu Thomas on bass and Stuart Perera on guitar and eight songs on which Dave Graney and Clare Moore play all instruments. And three songs on which Dave Wray (occasionally Frank Bennett) plays sax. “This is the album we meant to do before Everything Was Funny. Restrictions on movement around Melbourne delayed it, but we kept the songs back that we wanted to play with the mistLY. ”

Dave Graney and Clare Moore - EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY

This is the fifth official album release (out of roughly 30- plus a dozen others) credited to Dave Graney and Clare Moore. Their last studio release was ONE MILLION YEARS DC in 2019. “funny like Warren Beatty funny…” “I liked it-it was funny!” “if there was somethin’ funny goin’ on that’s what I tuned into and took away that was my take away…” A wild and willful yet very focused set of songs. All instruments played by Dave Graney and Clare Moore. Produced by Dave Graney and Clare Moore. “I don’t need a pandemical lockdown to happen to write some songs. Same way I never read any”war poets”. If they need a war to write something it’s not really worth it!” Dave Graney

ONE MILLION YEARS DC

ONE MILLION YEARS DC . This is their second album for 2019, coming hot on the smoking wheels of ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? That was a “band” album - a “mistLY” album and this is an album of songs. The focus was on the eleven songs. ONE MILLION YEARS DC Pop sounds from the end of the world. How is it ending for you? ONE MILLION YEARS DC. A vivid, rich and sparkling collection of songs. Reflective, searching and personal. ___________________________________________________________ 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 album of ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS? please click this button.

Discography

Dave Graney and Clare Moore - In A Mistly - 2022-23 album. Dave Graney and Clare Moore - Everything Was Funny - 2022 album.

Dave Graney and the mistLY - 2021 digital album - LYVE AT BYRDS

Dave Graney and ClareMoore 2020 digital album with Georgio "the dove" Valentino and Malcolm Ross.

Dave Graney and ClareMoore 2020 digital album with Robin Casinader - IN CONCERT.

Dave Graney and ClareMoore 2019 album #2 ONE MILLION YEARS DC

Dave Graney and the mistLY 2019 album #1

ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS?

DAVE GRANEY AND CLARE MOORE 2017 album LETS GET TIGHT. AT Bandcamp and Itunes.

Harry Howard and the NDE - Sleepless Girls (Spooky 2016)

dave graney - Once I Loved The Torn Ocean's Roar - 80s/90s Demos Vol. 2 - digital only release

dave graney - night of the wolverine demos/early 90s songwriter demos - digital only release

dave graney and the mistLY - play mistLY for me
(2015 digital only release - live collection vol 1)

FEARFUL WIGGINGS (Cockaigne 2014)

Live in Hell (2013 digital only release of follow up narrative show from 2009)

Point Blank (digital only release of 207 narrative show - 2013)

Harry Howard and the NDE (Pretty - Spooky 2013)

The Dames ( Cockaigne 2013)

YOU'VE BEEN IN MY MIND (Cockaigne 2012)

Rock'n'roll is where I hide (Liberation) 2011

Supermodified (Cockaigne) 2010

Knock yourself out (Cockaigne) 2009)

We wuz curious (Illustrious Artists 2008)

Rock Formations (SALMON - Bang! 2007)

Keepin' it Unreal (Cockaigne 2006)

Hashish and Liquor (double disc w/Clare Moore.Reverberation 2005)

The Brother who lived (the Royal Dave Graney Show, Cockaigne 2003)

The soundtrack to the movie Bad Eggs (David Graney and Clare Moore,Liberation,2003)

Two Fisted Art (the Moodists, WMinc, 2003)

Heroic Blues (the Dave Graney Show, Cockaigne 2002)

The Third Woman (Clare Moore solo CD, Chapter Music 2001)

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (the Dave Graney Show, Cockaigne / Cooking Vinyl 2000)

The Dave Graney Show (the Dave Graney Show, Festival 1998)

The Devil Drives (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, Universal 1997)

The Soft'n'Sexy Sound (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, Universal 1995)

You wanna be there but you don't wanna travel (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, Universal 1994)

Night of the wolverine (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, Universal 1993)

Lure of the tropics (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, Torn and Frayed 1992)

I Was the Hunter and I Was the Prey (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, Fire 1992)

My life on the plains (Dave Graney 'n' the White Buffaloes, Fire, 1990)

With the Coral Snakes At His Stone Beach (4 Track EP on Fire Records 1988)

Hey Little Gary 4 track EP (TIM Records 1987)

Take The Red Carpet Out Of Town ( 12"EP TIM Records 1986)

Double Life (the Moodists, Red Flame 1985)

Justice and Money Too (EP on Creation 1985)

Thirstys Calling (the Moodists, Red Flame 1984)

Engine Shudder (the Moodists, Au Go Go / Red Flame 1982)

Gone Dead / Chads Car 7" single AuGoGo 1981

Where The Trees Walk Downhill 7" single AuGoGo 1980

you were deep inside that thought

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

About Me

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

WORKSHY - my life as a bludge - notes

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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

ZIPPA DEEDOO WHAT IS/WAS THAT/THIS?

LETS GET TIGHT

FEARFUL WIGGINGS

you've been in my mind

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

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

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

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

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

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