“Rock Music does not usually accommodate the likes of Dave
Graney. Few Australian performers have been as resilient, and few have
presented as many ideas in song form. ….Graneys tactic is to bring a highly developed context to his audience –
his “velvet fog”, his “lurid yellow mist” – in opposition to the sentimentality
of “rock’s wasteland of howling dopes”
Mark Gomes… Australian Book Review
My second memoir , WORKSHY is out on Affirm Press. You can source a copy here. It's a book focused on work and all the little jobs I did to try and be a player, an artist. It's about me and about the times. What I did while I was trying to do what I wanted to do. More personal, more about country childhood, the options that were open to me, more on 80s London....MORE
art by Tony Mahony.
"Just finished Dave Graney's concept autobiography WORKSHY and hereby proclaim this book REQUIRED READING for anyone interested in Australian music specifically or the craft/trade/vocation in general".
Georgio "the dove" Valentino
"Just finished Workshy - I enjoyed it the most of your three books - only started reading it yesterday morning! The last 50-100 pages are the most compelling. Great work."
David Nicholls
"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! "
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
"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 interviewed about WORKSHY on Melbournes ABC radio with Clare Bowditch. Includes a duet on the Doors "Light My Fire".
Music writer and lifer Stuart Coupe wrote casually on Facebook recently....
"It's a fine, fine read and I think I enjoyed it more than his previous 1001 Australian Nights (and I enjoyed that a lot) ... This is birth-till now memoir with cameos from lots of people I know - he's nice to virtually all of them, gently blunt (if you can be gently blunt) about a few and doesn't mention a couple I thought he would. It works well as a juxtaposition of the world of the working songwriter and musician intertwined with tales of the day-to-day other work that these people often find themselves doing to sustain the dreams'n'reality of the former. And Graney has done more than his fair share of clock on, clock off day jobs. At one point he lists all the books he read in the years 1986, 1987 and 1988. This I found fascinating as I read about 93 % of the same books in the same years. ... In what is a crowded year for Australian song and dance people writing their memoirs this is right up there amongst the best."
The cover art is by Tony Mahony who has worked with all things Graney and Moore for many years.
Dave Graney and Clare Moore (Moodists-Coral Snakes - mistLY) also have an accidental/ serendipitous CD happening. LET'S GET TIGHT.
In Melbourne you can source it at Basement Discs and Rocksteady Records , Greville Records and Readings and in Sydney there is some stock at Redeye Records. In Adelaide you can find it at STREETLIGHT.
Last physical album from Dave Graney was Fearful Wiggings in 2014. Last album from Clare Moore was The Dames in 2015.
In the meantime they released two digital albums of 90’s demos (Night Of the Wolverine and Songwriter Demos and Once I loved the Torn Ocean’s Roar – 90’s Demos Volume Two), a live digital album (Play mistLY For Me) and also three albums as members of Harry Howard and the NDE.
Upcoming shows
Dave Graney and Clare Moore spent the time working on music for a ghost/horror film by Donna McRae called LOST GULLY ROAD which is to have its premiere at Lido Cinemas in Hawthorn Nov 25th .
Sunday Nov 26th Sydney WORKSHY Book Launch at SECRET LOCATION.
VENUE: The People’s Republic of Australasia, Camperdown, NSW
Please email nickshimmin@zoho.com to get details of where the event is.
Dave Graney and Clare Moore
Thurs 30-Nov Brass Monkey - 115A Cronulla St, Cronulla NSW
02) 9544 3844
Dave Graney and the mistLY
77 Brighton Street Petersham NSW 2049 T (02) 9569 4639
Sun 3-Dec - afternoon show at Co-op Club 1860 Pittwater Road
Church Point, N.S.W. Australia 2105
Dave Graney solo acoustic session
Dave Graney and the mistLY
Sunday 10 December - Bar 459 Rosemount hotel
Dave Graney - WORKSHY Book launch - in conversation with Bob Gordon. Boffins Books will be involved in this event and will have copies of WORKSHY for sale.
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"That’s from the song Night Of The
Wolverine, a character is talking to someone who thinks that’s what
an artist should be, poor, dirty, and ugly. No, I think artists should be
sometimes lucky, as well [laughs] You know, rewarded for the hell of it
occasionally. I don’t like artists, rock and roll people going on about how
miserable they are most of the time, and talking about how stoned they are, and
how hungover they are. I find all that stuff pretty boring, and always have.
I mean, I used to be a big drinker. I was a great drinker. I was one of the best! [laughs] But it got a
bit boring and I moved to a place where I had to do lots of driving so I just
got out of the habit. But there’s some people who write about music are always
cheering on rock and roll types. I call them rock and roll dopes really; rock
and roll chumps. I’m not really interested. I love the company of musicians,
but I don’t like those types that are very unfocused, the kind who need to be
standing on the table, shouting, and dancing all the time. I’m not that type. I
feel like they’re a bit boring to hang around.
Sometimes I say when I’m writing I’m
performing, when I’m performing I’m writing. Some of my songs I just kind of
make up really quickly when I’m on stage gasbagging. So generally music is a
constant search for authenticity. In an Australian context, any Australian
performer in rock music is wearing a mask: American accent, American music. And
wearing a mask is f*cking great ’cause it allows you to say things you can’t
normally. But [the downside of that is] people are always saying ‘You’re a fake!’ They’re looking for that. That’s how
low the discourse is in rock music generally!"
davegraneycom
"Last nights Dave Graney gig at Leith Cricket Club was seriously one of the best gigs I've been to in a while. Imagine Robert Forster channelling Frank ZappLast nights Dave Graney gig at Leith Cricket Club was seriously one of the best gigs I've been to in a while. Imagine Robert Forster channelling Frank Zappa whilst dressed as a cowboy John Waters. So much charisma. They were joined onstage by Malcolm Ross, Scottish guitar legend from Josef K/Orange Juice, who got to play a few of his own tunes. What a treat to happen right on my doorstep! @blasts_of_static c/o instagram
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