The Smoking Years - lyric from a song on EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY

 I started smoking at about 12 or 13 and carried on for about two decades.

An excerpt from my book, WORKSHY...

"We all smoked and drank in our family from an early age. I was on the fags regularly from about thirteen. I smoked my mother’s and father’s. Peter Stuyvesant soft packs. In high school I would get some lunch or lunch money, along with about four smokes. One morning I left my lunch and extra smokes at home and my mother took them up to the school office so they could give them to me at lunchtime. ‘He likes a couple of smokes on his way to school and on his way home,’ she informed them. They gave me the lunch money but not the smokes. I marched to the Principal’s office full of teen righteousness to argue my case. Wearing my old faded jeans with ‘Dave’ sewn across the arse. That square got a fright. But I didn’t get my fags back".

 

The smoking years

I loved the soft packs

European style – toasted

I was in surplus

I had a life to burn

 

later came the bulk packets

the bad burning, no name, loosely packed

I was in surplus

I had a life to burn

 

started on Trent, ended up Embassy

Zippo lighter, engraved, scrimshaw

still got it!

 

chain smokin’ , blowin’ smoke rings

beyond words

like an actor – any actor! - it was a great act!

a prop – way up high

hidden in a cloud

I was in surplus

I had a life to burn

Everything Was Funny- Dave Graney and Clare Moore album out in October

 

itunes pre order link

https://music.apple.com/au/album/everything-was-funny/1583892134

 

 

 

Where did you glom your glimmer? - Lyric from a song on EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY

Lyrics from Where did you glom your glimmer? a song on our 2021 album EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY.

It's a queasy, horror blues. Murky and dank. 

 

glimmer

/ˈɡlɪmə/

verb

verb: glimmer; 3rd person present: glimmers; past tense: glimmered; past participle: glimmered; gerund or present participle: glimmering

shine faintly with a wavering light.

"the moonlight glimmered on the lawn"

glom

/ɡlɒm/

verb

informal•North American

verb: glom; 3rd person present: gloms; past tense: glommed; past participle: glommed; gerund or present participle: glomming

1. 1.

   steal.

   "I thought he was about to glom my wallet"
2. 2.

   become stuck or attached to.

   "the ice gloms on to bridge pilings"

    

    

Gee, two verbs.

 I asked Google,

"Can I use 2 verbs in a sentence?"

In English, sentences have two basic parts: a subject and a verb. ... Some clauses can contain two verbs. These constructions are called compound verbs, meaning that two verbs appear in a single sentence, even when there is only one subject.

 THE GLIMMER TWINS.

Where did you glom your glimmer? where?

Where did you glom your glimmer? where?

pink rocks fizzing under your skin pop (doin’ it right there)

Where did you glom your glimmer? where?

Where did you glom your glimmer? where?

don’t wish on a bummer

you’re a slim slammer not a flim flamer
tell me
Where did you glom your glimmer? where?

an only child, all grown up

good morning big school girl

can you walk me home?

tell me
Where did you glom your glimmer? where?

nothing wrong with stealing
some things money can’t buy

some things you just got to steal

nothings so grim

its actually like

it glommed onto me! it glommed onto me!

Where did you glom your glimmer? where?

Where did you glom your glimmer? where?

Everything Was Funny- Dave Graney and Clare Moore album out in October

 

itunes pre order link

https://music.apple.com/au/album/everything-was-funny/1583892134

Great early review from Bob Osborne at DIFFERENT NOISES

The Ballroom Blitzed - words from a song on EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY

 These are the lyrics to a song from EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY - which comes out October 1st. Which is next week. Album cover picture Kristyn Jones. The other picture- doesn't he own that Social Media platform? Gee.

 

 I thought about us making show on the bandstand, looking out at the people over - lets say - three or four decades period of time. Feeling like we can see everybody while we just play the archetypical roles of musicians. So they just see us deep within a costume or a known character. Meanwhile, we could step out of that and let our eyes wander the room and - perhaps - name some of the dances that are being attempted.

 

I’ve been in the ballrooms all my life

I’ve seen some things

I need to tell you

the crazy lights

shadows on the wall

when people get bombed and get up to dance

I’ve seen ‘em all

 

slow dancin’ – moga done

the leaning tower – the static statue

the grim reaper – the junkie at the crossing

the luuude dude

arms in the air – eyes closed

epic?

flamencish? nah – matador much?

the pole – the invisible pole

the polarity

the drama inherent

the one legged Brolga

the eye patch - the violin bow

the power chord – the wang face

whatever you do , don’t catch an eye

you’ll regret it

whatever you do , don’t catch an eye

you’ll regret it

 

 

 

Everything Was Funny - Dave Graney and Clare Moore New album on Compact Disc - out October 1st

 

 

Preorder the Compact Disc or digital album here.

 

Everything Was Funny

Title track of the 2021 album from Dave Graney and Clare Moore. Like the other songs, the only song of it's kind on the album. A circular musical motif. Mostly guitar and vocal.

Wilco Got No Wilco
Wilco Got No Wilco- kinda says it all, really. A very smooth stop and start groove on this from Clare Moore. Yacht Rock? Only if you consider that a totally positive thing.
"Wilco got no Wilcos
I love the blues
Sgt Bilko, Hogans Heroes, F Troop
Wilco got no Bilko
Wilco got no Wilco – no other"

The Anita Effect
Another Rolling Stones related mythological groove. (Follows ULTRAKEEF on ZIPPA DEEDOO in 2019). The shadow of a female presence on a bunch of heroes. Her touch.

"Marianne knows! Only Marianne and I could know
we rode in with the boys
told them where to stand
how to say things
what to wear"

I Knew The Wild Angels
All mixed up song about a bike gang in town when I was a kid and a Roger Corman movie of the same name and the same subject which would have been in peoples minds also at the time. I was wrtiting a lot of songs and kept playing them but forgot this one and it took a week for us both to put a semblance of it back together. It wasn't exactly what it started as but would up somewhere different. A chugging 6/8 time with rolling toms and vibes and electric guitar. (I always avoided 6/8 time songs)

"I knew the Wild Angels
when they came into town
long fringes over their faces
ruffled shirts, spurs
helmets with fox tails"

I Was No Captain
Another song musing on military rank and the musicians identity. Leaders, captains in a scene of loners and rebels, Dottie.

"In my life, I have known captains
not the strongest or the fastest or the best
just captains
I was never captain stuff
follow me! don’t know where you’re goin’- twice!"

Diaghelev and Nijinsky
We wrote and named this instrumental after watching a 1981 movie starring Alan Bates as Diaghelev. Fascinating people in an amazing period.
I used a new kind of tuning and Clare used a digital mellotron app and played the keyboard bass.

Everyday It’s The Blues, Period.
The longest track on the album. We played it a few time and like the way it shaped itself.
"every day it’s a test of what you believe
what you are - who you’ve been
every day its a dive to reach
what you were- who you’ve been
every day it’s the blues, period."

Where Did You Glom Your Glimmer?
I Wanted a spooky, queasy blues feel and we used a Tascam Portastudio to record parts of this (and other songs on the album).
Toglom is a slang word from the criminal world , probably Yiddish in origin. To take, steal or more correctly to kind of ingest or take in or on something.
"Glimmer" is a kind of glamour - most ofteen used in reference to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

"pink rocks fizzing under your skin pop (doin’ it right there)
Where did you glom your glimmer? where?"

Ronnie Loves To Hear People Talk
A song about a powerful female performer.
"Ronnie loves to hear people talk about her
she says “tell me what you said about me that time!”
“Tell me again what you said about me that time!”

The Ballroom Blitzed
All the dances we've seen people attempt in the ballrooms as we look out from the bandstand.
"slow dancin’ – moga done
the leaning tower – the static statue
the grim reaper – the junkie at the crossing
the luuude dude
arms in the air – eyes closed
epic?"

Beckett and Tubbs
Instrumental named after a favourite writer (Whose most famous book defeated me thrice in 2020-21) and a favourite tv cop.

The Smoking Years
I was on the smokes from a young age for a couple of decades.
"started on Trent, ended up Embassy
Zippo lighter, engraved, scrimshaw
still got it!"

A Little Water On My Bird
Something Frank Sinatra once said. After falling into a pool. Suggested a feeling of vulnerability.
"I had a light touch
I skipped away, free
I refreshed, again
I refreshed, again"

 

Dave Graney, vocals, electric, acoustic guitars, bass, autoharp
Clare Moore, drums, vibes, bass xylophone, percussion, keys, backing vocals.

Recorded and mixed at the Ponderosa in Melbourne May to August 2021 by Dave Graney and Clare Moore.
Mastered by Greg Wadley.
Photo by Kristyn Jones.

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

Though of course  there was a pandemic and there was a long lockdown in Melbourne and of course it seeped into the music.

Dave Graney and Clare Moore had planned two albums for 2021, a rock album with their band the mistLY and then something like this one – something more unbuttoned and freaky. Then a second long lockdown happened and it was impossible to rehearse let alone record with the band so the two changed tack and got freaky in their own studio with keyboards and drums and new guitar tunings and time signatures and here we are with EVERYTHNG WAS FUNNY. They were also able to do some live dates around Australia in between travel restrictions and on one trip to South Australia, a visit was made to Dave’s second cousin in Dismal Swamp, Kristyn Jones, who had had an idea for a portrait shot. There’s the cover of the album.

 

Lyrical tracks, trails  and themes involve a further Rolling Stones mythological piece (The Anita Effect), teenage biker gangs (I Knew the Wild Angels), American cultural firefights (Wilco Got No Wilco), tobacco scenes, alcoholic scenes, iconic female rambling singer scenes and two instrumentals – one very Russian and another kind of Dublin/Miami.
Be in no doubt though, that something funny was going on! There was something funny about that guy. She’s a funny girl!  Somethin’ not quite right!
Everything Was Funny!

 

“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…”

 

Once more unto QLD this time and then ...more!

 

photo Mark Louttit.

We drove toward Adelaide with our Covid border passes. SA and Victoria were the only two states open to each other. The drive takes most of a day and many hours later we approached the border checking area. You are also forbidden to take fruit into SA so we had to dump some tomatoes and an avocado. (This was after a  debate as to whether either was actually a fruit). We were taking no chances. We had completed our forms online before leaving and stopped for a while to get them all checked. Evenutally we drove into Adelaide at about 9pm and sat in  a queue for an hour at on old race course to get Covid19 tested. 

We sat around for most of the next day, waiting for our results, which we eventually got in the early afternoon. Negative to both. 

We drove into the Adelaide Hills for our first show on Friday July 2nd - Three Brothers Arms, Macclesfield SA.

This was a very cute , old timey pub  which had music outside in a beer garden in the warmer months. It was also a very cold winter night and the fire was blazing in the bar where we were to play. There was a record player which was blaring out John Lennons Imagine album as we set up. It keept repeating until I had to look through the piles of records to find something and I put on some Yardbirds and then some Hollies. There were piles of albums and also many musical instruments about the room. Classic Mesa Boogie amps, 12 string acoustics and old basses, all laying around waiting to be played. There was a stand up piano where we were relaxing before the show and the sheet music on it was The Waters Of March by Jobim. Classy!

The Covid crowd restrictions meant we were to play two shows in the one night which we didnt' mind. They had sold the capacity of the room and then that capacity had been halved.

 

We played two hour long sets to a small listening audience on a  cold, winters night. It was pretty delightful. Nice people in the room and nice people running the venue. 

The next day we played at Trinity Sessions in Adelaide itself. Inside a church on Goodwood road. Again the capacity had been halved so were did two long shows. This was a beautiful sounding room, every sound was allowed to swell out. 

I was playing my Maton EB808 acousstic and D'Angelico New Yorker electric into my Crate amplifier which I bought in 1998. 

 For the acoustic, I also had a Submarine pickup under the two top high strings which I was then putting through an octave pedal and then into a small Vox amp for some extra prettiness on the arpeggios and picking. The pickup is supposed to stay in one spot with suction but I have to tape it in place as I play standing up and moving about occasionally.

 

Clare was playing her Boosey and Hawkes vibes and a Yamaha Reface keyboaard and an iPad with a virtual mellotron as well as percussion and vocals.

The show was a pretty full and deluxe sound for two of us. 

The next day we left Adelaide at 8am to drive to the next show at Bellwether Wines - Coonawarra in SA, near the town of Penola. I had played here before but we had a bit more gear this time. It was in an old shearing shed and again we were to do two longs shows. There was no PA so we put our two microphones through the Crate amp amd MADE SHOW. 

Playing in this area is pretty personal for me. Many people I had known in olden times in the crowd, including blood relations. People who know me and my family. There was an exceptionally loud, drunken guy with a loud voice who seemed to be used to yelling at people. After the show he was yelling at me about something. Asking me how old I was and the like. I gave him nothing. His friend with him was a good foot taller and the loud man was very obsequious to him. Looking for his approval. They talked about music things like seeing the Allman Brothers - but in 1992. I was even less impressed with the fact the show had been on an American aircraft carrier and then heard a long list of fighting planes and helicopters. Just stuff people tell you about after a show. I soon learned that they came from Naracoorte and I said that was where my mothers family came from, the Fogartys. The tall guy knew my uncle and aunties and more. The loud guy was a lot quieter because he knew of a late cousin of mine from the area who had a fierce reputation and this obviously still had a charge from beyond the grave. (It was the second time a connection with my cousin had stopped an aggressive character from trying to test themselves against me. A few years ago in Port Adelaide, this tough guy took offence at me for some reason and was really looking aggressive until I mentioned a certain name from Naracoorte - where this tough guy had told me he hailed from. He turned white and backed away into a  dark corner.) Anyway, it was nice talking about my mother and her family with someone from the area. I got directions on how to get to the family farm where I had had a lovely stay as a little boy.

We stopped in Penola before leaving to buy some threads at JILLS VINTAGE which is the greatest vintage shop in thecountry. Jill is my stylist! 

We also stopped  at my cousin Kristyns in the marvellously titled locale of DISMAL SWAMP where we posed for some photos and generally had a great time with Kristyn and her wonderful family. 

photo Kristyn Jones

We drove back to Melbourne, armed with our border re-entry papers and had a couple of days rest before we got a 5am flight to Brisbane on Thursday July 8th, hired a car and drove to Ipswich where we checked into our hotel and had a few hours rest. This time I had my Maton Mastersound electric as it is tougher as far as being tossed around by baggage handlers. Clare had her keyboard and percusion and I had my small Vox amp and pedals.

I mainly have  bit of compression and tone shaping on with options for delay, tremolo, phaser and overdrive if needed. Also the octave on the acoustic again. The show was at Goleby's Basement in West Street Ipswich. It was a great room, all BYO alcohol so it was basically open to all ages. We did two long sets. Christian runs the room as a real community space and he helped mix the occasionally complex nature of our instrumentation. It was a fantastic night. there are no venues like any of these in Melbourne or Victoria.

For this trip I was wearing a Ben Sherman jacket,  a pale blue umper, some black slacks and light blue Dunlop Volley style sneakers.

 The next day we drove back through Brisbane and up through the northern suburbs to the Sunshine Coast  and the Imperial Hotel Eumundi. This was a beautiful, big room and we played to a seated audience from a high stage. Like the Trinity Sessions in Adelaide it was a real concert type show. Fantastic vegetarian food as well. A great time with great people. 

We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast about five minutes from the venue  and had breakfast on a  deck looking out over the rainforested hills of the Sunshine Coast. A Butcher Bird came down and tried to psych us into giving it all of our food stash.

We stayed strong and then drove back through Brisbane and out to Toowoomba. I had played here in 2008 with Henry Wagons and wrote about it in 1001 Australian Nights. The venue was the Bar Wunder, right in the middle of town on a Saturday night. I expected a low turnout and prepared a set of slow, gloomy tunes. When we walked out to play we discovered it was a totally up for it, rowdy Saturday night crowd and we did our best to match the noise of the room, armed with our minimalist, pretty sounds. It went pretty well! 

photo Mark Louttit

As we flew back to Melbourne we learned that we would not have to isolate at home for 14 days as the Red Zone we had strayed into (Eumundi) was now an Orange Zome. 

The flights had been both jam packed with people, including so many little kids. Why do people want to travel with toddlers on planes is beyond me. There was one person with three young kids who just barged through everybody and everything on board the plane, stuffing so many oversized cases into the overhead lockers and keeping up a stream of loud talk with the three kids behind her, with no acknowledgement of all the other passengers. It made me think that there could be an actual character in WWF wrestling called SUPERMOM. She would kill everybody. 

Generally I sat with mask on and a further scarf around my head and tried to sleep.

We still had to apply for re-entry permits and were met at the flight gates in Melbourne by a troupe of health officials taking everybodys details. We got tested the next day as every testing location in Melbourne seemed to shut at 5 pm. We stayed home until we got the results (negative - the next day) and watched some tv, winding down.

I had been looking forward to two weeks locked up inside. We had had to cancel a Melbourne show, a rehearsal and recording date but these will all happen. Not the Melbourne date. It seems hard for us to find the right room in Melbourne. We live here but its not our town. We play more outside of the city. While we were away we were even looking at possible new locations. I do like it here. Our neighbours are cool and we have a few friends. I just don't buy into that cornball Melbourne jive. We have some shows coming up.

LIVE STREAM - Thursday July 15th - 8pm Via Stage It Dot Com. Show #85

LIVE STREAM - Sunday morning  July 18th 8am in Melbourne - Saturday 11pm in the UK, 6pm in NYC , 5pm in CVhicago and 3pm in LA.

LIVE STREAM -Thursday July 22nd - 8pm Via STAGE IT DOT COM. Show #87 

Saturday July 24th , Archies Creek Hotel, Victoria

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?embed&eid=761742

Friday 30th July 30th
Citadel Murwullimbah, QLD
https://events.humanitix.com/dave-graney-and-clare-moore

Saturday July 31st The Hotel Eltham in Eltham (Lismore) NSW.

Sunday August 1st The Dust Temple in Currumbin, QLD

Friday August 13th Smiths - Canberra
https://bit.ly/3vfIlYA

Saturday August 14th - Palais BallroomKatoomba, NSW

Saturday August 21st - POME -   267 Swan Street Richmond, VIC 3121.

Firast of a FOUR WEEK residency by Dave Graney and Clare Moore  in this boutique venue. 

Saturday August 28th - POME - Richmond residency

Saturday September 4th POME  - Richmond residency

Saturday September 11th POME  - Richmond residency

 

Live dates in July. South Australia, QLD, Melbourne and NSW.

We have a new song out right now. Its a re-recording of Saturday Night Bath which originally appeared on Hashish and Liquor in 2005.

The song and accompanying clip were all captured in the tv studio at RMIT. Thanks to everybody who worked on it.

Its a pre-pandemic recording. No overdubs, just a tight combo all paying together in a studio.

saturday night bath
steam and heat electric light
the world is really happening down in the city
but I am here at my place
with my big toe in the tap and a wet cloth over my eyes
I am out of time, baby
I am fresh and rested now
tomorrow people will be madly reading the newspaper outside their cafes
looking for a life where they could lay down
one saturday night in a bath of hot water
and let the world world go by
I am irrelevant
I am just not there
I am here
I am not in the moment of the world
I am havin a moment of our own here in this house
in this part of the world
the trees black and swaying with the wind in the darkness outside
there's a dirt road leading to this house
I've stood in the field and looked across at the lights in the night
and wondered what it would be like to come across this scene
a saturday night bath stickin my leg out the side

 I played the guitar, bass and sang on the original 2005 recording. Clare Moore played the piano and Warren Ellis plucked some violin stuff in there as well. (He sent it from his studio in Paris).

 

We never subsequently played the song live much but whenever we did so people really reacted to it. Must be one of those songs that has a funny, folkie charge in it. Though its really reaching for some jazz tones in it. This is the 2021 version at Bandcamp.

 Clare Moore and I have been in the studio recording some songs for the two projected releases we have in mind. These songs are more for a Graney and Moore  collection. Just loose, weird songs, not meant for a band to play.

We have started the following ...

The Smoking Years

I Was No Captain

Ronnie Loves To Hear People Talk

Where Did You Glom Your Glimmer?

Everyday Its The Blues, Period.

The Ballroom Blitzed.

The Anita Effect

Beckett And Joyce

Diaghelev And Nijinsky

Ice Bergman

I Knew The Wild Angels

We go into a studio in Melbourne in a couple of weeks with the mistLY  to record songs for a more rock'n'roll collection.

What Used To be There?

We Need Cash

The Old Swagger

 Wilco Got No Wilcos

Where Are You In The Underworld?

Now You Must Die

Tang

Silver Bullets

Velvets MC

There are quite a few other songs happening as well. And Clare Moore has her own album to do....

In the meantime we have some dates to do. Most of these are by Clare Moore and myself, except for July 17th at the Brunswick Ballroom which will be a rare Dave Graney and the mistLY event. Why is that? Mostly the pandemic. Numbers of people allowed in rooms is limited in most states so a duo makes sense. Also, things are so open to last minute changes and border closures. When its just us two, we aren't having to mange too many changed flights or hotel bookings. 

Thursday June 24th - 8pm Live streaming Online set via STAGE IT. Show #83

Sunday morning/Saturday night Live streaming Online set via Stage It. Sunday 8am in Melbourne-Saturday afternoon 3pm in LA, 5pm in Chicago, 6pm in New York City, 11pm in the UK.

 

Friday July 2nd - Three Brothers Arms, Macclesfield SA
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=752809&

 

Saturday July 3rd Trinity Sessions - Adelaide SA
318 Goodwood Road, Clarence Park, SA 5034

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=755401&

 

Sunday July 4th Bellwether Wines - Coonawarra SA
www.eventbrite.com.au/e/dave-graney-clare-moore-at-bellwether-tickets-156035274707

 

Thursday July 8th

Goleby's Basemen West Street Ipswich, QLD
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/skc-168-dave-graney-clare-moore-tickets-156859275315

Friday July 9th Imperial Hotel Eumundi, QLD
https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/1bf28183-d54c-4ff7-a80f-28463fc6229

Saturday July 10th Toowoomba Bar Wunder , QLD

moshtix.com.au/v2/event/dave-graney-and-clare-moore/128635

Saturday July 24th , Archies Creek Hotel, Victoria

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?embed&eid=761742

Friday 30th July 30th
Citadel Murwullimbah, QLD
https://events.humanitix.com/dave-graney-and-clare-moore

Friday August 13th Smiths - Canberra
https://bit.ly/3vfIlYA

Saturday August 14th - Palais BallroomKatoomba, NSW

Saturday August 21st - POME -   267 Swan Street Richmond, VIC 3121.

Firast of a FOUR WEEK residency by Dave Graney and Clare Moore  in this boutique venue. 

Saturday August 28th - POME - Richmond residency

Saturday September 4th POME  - Richmond residency

Saturday September 11th POME  - Richmond residency

“I caught a set from Dave Graney and Clare Moore at Finding Fillmore’s in Kiama.
As always I just dig their vibe.
Doing it their way, with their
smooky sounds (smooth and kooky, a term I have coined just for them) weird and hilarious songs and stories and Dave’s golden voice.
Cool venue too!”

Jodi Phillis

We watched the last season of RAY DONOVAN. I highly recommend this show! This season was epic in its grim, deathly gripping of ya. Like tv Death Metal. Apparently it was cancelled after this but due to audience outrage (like Deadwood) a movie is to be made which will tie up all the loose ends.

I also bought a hardback book which has five books by Vladimir Nabokov in it. Wow! Lolita was such a horror story! And such a clear eyed view of the USA in 1947. Granted, by an evil minded and perverse freak but  it is such good writing. I haven't seen the Kubrick directed movie in many years but I read that it was very much influenced by what was allowed to be filmed in Hollywood. The code. In the book, the girl, Dolores (Lolita) is twelve years old. 

Be seeing you.

davegraney.com