Clare Moore and I had been to Beechworth in 1994 when we drove up in our rusty '73 HQ Holden, on a general Ned Kelly trip, stopping off at a few places along the way. Well, we stopped at a crossroads/cemetery which was named Great on the map and which is often mentioned as Neds family turf but there was nothing there when we got out of the noisy old car to stretch our legs and have a squizz. The wind was rough, the sun was bright, magpies cried and a gunshot rang out in the distance. We jumped right back in our car and drove to Beechworth. A National Trust (heritage listed) main street and a cute old museum named after the doomed explorer Robert O'Hara Bourke, who had been constable of the town before applying for the job opportunity of his death when he set off to walk to the northern tip of Australia with another gloomy loner called Wills. It struck me then that Beechworth must have always been cultivating its back story, obsessed with its history.
Back then we had visited the museum and the Chinese cemetery with its ornate arches as well as the court house where Ned had first been arraigned after his capture. People would lower their voices in 1994 when asked about the K---y mob as the descendents of the slain officers were still in the area and not keen on any glorification of the 19th century robbers. We asked to get our photo taken in period costume in the courthouse and when we'd put the clothes on, the photographer had cried that he'd left his film home and ran off to get it. We were left standing there dressed as if we were a part of the exhibit. people straggled in and asked us question, to which we smirked and looked away.
Here were again, 25 years later and playing in a pub in the main street. Its still a delightful looking place with the big street drains and troughs for horses to drink from. No fast food shops, no neon lights, no poker machines. Maybe a few too many natural fibre clothes shops but all in all a really sparkling, regional town with great community spirit.
We set up and played two sets in the front bar, guitar, vocals and keys. The sound was very reverberant with the high ceiling and the large mirrors on every wall. Country people don't get to socialize much either, so there was lots of talking all through the gig. We made show.
That day we had gotten up at 5:30 am to drive into town to be interviewed on radio 3 Triple R FM. We had then driven the four or so hours to Beechworth, stopping in the town of Benalla along the way. When I got to Beechworth I did an interview on the phone with an AM station called 3AW in Melbourne. With Dennis walter, an old school pro. Both of these interviews were for our show on the Sunday. Before the Beechworth gig I did an interview with local community station Indigo FM.
During the show we met amd talked with some locals, one of whom was Gary, the photographer from 25 years before who'd left us in colonial drag in the courthouse when he ran to get his film.
We drove back on the Saturday, taking our time, watched a Roger Corman movie on DVD called Machine Gun Kelly with Charles Bronson (1958) and then got up at 10am to drive to the Northcote Social Club for soundcheck.
We checked at 11:30, using the clubs drumkit and bass amp. the doors opened at 1:30pm and David Cosma did a great opening set. With his his band flying in from Sydney and Perth. He played his guitar left handed, but stiull strung right handed, so the high strings were struck first. A lot of his songs had seventh chords which were differently accented, struck and voiced with this upside down perspective.
We were a four piece. Myself, Clare Moore, Sru Thomas on bass and Stuart Perera on guitar. I had my Crate amp with Ibanez Salvador and K Yairi 12 string. The amp is for acoustic guitars but a Sansamp modelled it toward an electric tone for my archtop.
We played these songs...
I Wanna Get Lost Again
Song Of Life
Your Masters
Baby I Wish I'd Been A Better Pop Star
Baby I Wish I'd Been A Better Pop Star
I Ain't Hi Vis
Everything Was Legendary With Robert
I Need To Be Hot
Saturday Night Bath
You're All Wrong
Gloria Grahame
Ultrakeef
Is That What You Did?
Perhaps a few more. And we encored with Buffy St Marie's CODINE as a tribute to the Charlatans' Mike Wilhelm who had passed away in the last week.
There was no acts on after us in the club so it was great to chat with old friends and people who'd come to see us without bouncers crowding around to clear the room. We packed up and ate in the venue with Stu Pereraand Phillipa Berry and then drove her home to Reservoir and then the other 40 k's to our place where we ate some yoghurt and watched season one of Miami Vice.
I loved the whole weekend. Being with our great band and playing. Playing so well because we were so tight with the material yet it was still so fresh.
The Northcote Social Club is such a great sounding room, it was terrific to present our music there. Inside me I had - an still feel very strongly - a feeling that we are so isolated in this Australian music scene. Especially the rock music scene. If I expressed myself myself fully on how low I feel most peoples expectations of what a band or a song or a sound is , I am afraid passers by would think me quite angry or of a very dark frame of mind. Hey, I'm just a pro! I know stuff!
Here I am being billed "eccentric" and "grilled" by Mikey Cahill. I'm the straight guy!
We get very little radio support and have never been big with people who write about music. We do have a few champions here and there and I thank them. Usually they have travelled a long, epic way to get to our stuff and tune into it. (Truth be told , I loved that talk by Frank Zappa where he said that any music that was so low that could be explained by critics was not worth the bother... Something along those lines. Anyway, that was in the days when there were actual critics who wrote for actual publications. Now the artist pitches himself to the freelance writer who picks him or her up and pitches them - and him or herself - to the clickbait portal which is nearby or still humming.)
Anyway, we paddle our own wheels and make our own way. We make our mistakes and get to play again.
Our next shows are in Darwin, Kyneton, Nambour, Brisbane , Melbourne and Adealaide. i was going to play with the mistLY in Qld but just couldn't make it work so I'm doing them solo.
Saturday June 1st - The Railway Club Darwin (Graney and Moore)
Saturday June 15th-Major Toms, Kyneton(Graney and Moore)
Friday June 21st the Bison Bar, Nambour DAVE GRANEY SOLO
Saturday June 22nd - the Bearded Lady, Brisbane.DAVE GRANEY SOLO
Saturday June 29th - The Caravan Music Club - Bentleigh Special guest Sean McMahon
July 12th - THE GOV - Adelaide.Special guests The Sunday Reeds
"You can dip in almost anywhere into the vast Graney catalogue and find something deeper and more satisfying than the pop fizz of the day. But if you are starting out, this album and attending a Graney gig on an extensive Australian tour in the next few months is an excellent place to begin".
Noel mengel - MusicTrust.com
"Dave Graney and the mistLY new album “Zippa Dee Doo What Is-Was That-This?” - guaranteed deep grooves, dangerous themes and hip-heating hot Rock action.
Get the good oil at Rocksteady Records"
Pat Monaghan
"This is described as a “rock
and roll” album and in that it reflects music from the late 60s/early
70s (pre-punk if you will) that is a reasonable description but i’d say
it goes beyond that basic description as there are modern elements, nods
to jazz, the use of current technique, and of course the unique
Graney/Moore stylings all present. It adds to and enhances a formidable
body of work.Get the good oil at Rocksteady Records"
Pat Monaghan
I commend it to you without reservation".
Bob Osborne - Analogue Trash Radio (UK)
“Graney has always been a raconteur – with equal doses of smooth, smug and wit. They say rock ‘n’ roll is a musical genre on the decline – but with this unusually titled album Graney has raised the rock ‘n’ roll flag and wears his love for the genre on his sleeve, meshed with some blues and psychedelia.
An album title that will cause confusion, but a set of songs that remind us of what a maverick Graney is. Liking his music will make you feel smarter!"
Brian Parker- Your Music Radar
Jon Schofield (musician)
"the Serge Gainsbourg/Lee Hazelwood/Jim Morrison/Scott Walker/Skip Spence/Ern Malley/Lenny Bruce of Australian music.
A genius songwriter with effortless presence and command, and yet also an invisible chameleon, a reflecting surface, an anonymous conduit.
Anyone who saw his and Clare Moore’s ATP sets last year will not want to miss these.
Dave is one of the all time greats. I learned much of what I know from him. Rock and Roll is where he hides”. Stewart Lee
"Just a quick note to say how much I’m loving the new album. Front-loaded with hits, and then a series of great band workouts. Superb.
Can’t decide which version of ‘Song of Life’ I like best. And ‘ULTRAKEEF' is a bloody classic. Am spreading the word on that clip.
And surely you’re catching up to - and have maybe even overtaken - Mark E. Smith in terms of output! Congrats, yet again".
Tony.
"Dave Graney gave me his new album Zippa Dee Doo whatis-was that-this. I saw the Mistly perform 'ultra keef' at one of the those marvellous Croxton Sunday arvo gigs. Fell in love with it and asked him if I could record it. Ending up recording a bit on the album, Dave mixed it. So many great f words on this track, very cathartic. A story about keef, everytime I've seen him play it the lyrics are different, genious".
Idge (Soundpark)
"Had this on high rotation today whilst driving from one place to another and back again. It’s a fantastic and thought provoking unique new album from Dave Graney and the mistly. A whole bunch of truly original well played weird, whack and wonder existentialist outsider art with the usual dash of wit and humour- oh and I can’t stop singing the hit song over and over in my head, “Bam! Baby I wish I’d been a better pop star” - excellent work guys - love it!- congrats".
andy jans brown
Dave Graney and Clare Moore CD Let's Get Tight available at iTunes and Bandcamp now.
"* #EzRepost @coiledsprings with @repostigapp
I can’t forget the bill that hot night at the Palace in St. Kilda many years ago…The show opened with a guy called Dave Graney, the song and dance man, the loveable rogue, ‘the love rustler’ with his Coral Snakes, and the serene Clare Moore keeping everything together in the back. Then the Cruel Sea shambled onstage with Tex Perkins, tearing a hole in the night, a bellowing, rancid Lizard King in a ripped Jaws t-shirt. Finally, the Bad Seeds, with Cave mounting the fold-back, capes flowing in an impossible wind, like some perverse southern gothic evangelist, braying to the raptured who were already certain to be damned, and didn’t care. The Palace heaved that night with sweat and obscenity. And we were right there, in Melbourne, at the molten core of the rock world, drinking in the magma. Not even a thousand beers as we poured out of there, and drifted over the tram tracks to the Esplanade, could calm us down and quell the charge. But it was the unstoppable Graney, in his natty jumpsuit, with his wit, and his ways, dipping into the slow chords of ‘Night of the Wolverine’, that we knew we’d found a poet, whose lines were etched like the statue of Carlo Catarni outside and had announced himself, that night, there and then, as a put-down-your-glassss superstar. xo
HandSolo
#davegraney #nightofthewolverine #recollections #thepalace #stkilda #melbournerocknroll #thecruelsea #nickcaveandthebadseeds #coiledspringsstudio“
I am still keen on getting another album out this year. Pretty much finished it but but just need some time to polish it right. The songs are evil.
I am also keen on doing some Parlour Shows. This is an agency/app where people apply to have me come and play at their place. I've done about three and have another coming up. All have been wildly different leaps into the unknown. It's a way for me to get out of pubs and clubs and play in different environments. I don't really mind the honky tonks- its just the "robogig" mentality of a lot of them. All set up and run according to some music business course rules and too often the artist has to do all the heavy lifting to get people along.
Basically , with PARLOUR, a person applies via the website and offers to host a show and to organize to get 40-50 people along and I turn up and play. The person then gets the people to all chip in for the guaranteed fee.
If its in Victoria I can come and play with my guitar and a mic through my amp, you don't need a PA. Elsewhere, we could work around that. I might just play totally acoustic or you could organize a small PA.
So far I have played at a winery in an old shearing shed, someones back porch (with PA system and lights and opening act in front of a seated audience) and someones back yard.
I'm interested in ideas in all states and if you live in another country? Why not?
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