Live Dates for June and July NSW Victoria and SA

 

Hello comrades, so the election was great! We got rid of so much ugly fat!

Meanwhile, the Covid19 pandemic rolls on. People want it to be over but it can't be wished away. We have been fully vaxed and wear masks in public in our daily lives and when we do shows. We take an our own mics and also an air purifier on to the stage and into motel rooms. Taking it seriously. I don't want to get it.

We have done some great shows in recent times. Last week at a lovely community theatre in Emerald in the hills of Melbourne  and at a winery in the Barossa. The latter was with the mistLY. Myself and Clare with Stu Thomas and Stuart Perera on bass and guitar for the first time in a year. We played two sets with just a half a rehearsal and had a fantastic time. Driving there through the Barossa after a night in Murray Bridge was beautiful. We drove back through Renmark and Mildura for a change of scenery. Hey, Victoria is dark and lonely in the northern part of the Wimmera. Very little phone coverage too. 

 

 

 

We have also played in Geelong and Ballarat at more traditional type venues. We launched Everything Was Funny in Melbourne at the Northcote Social Club on a Sunday night. That room sounds great and we brought our people and sounds to it for a special night. A rare gig for us in our home town.

I have been putting together a book of lyrics from 1980-2022 for a project. I have gotten it all together, with some notes as to chords and general thoughts as to what I was thinking about. I want it to be a simple looking thing with text only. Like something produced during a wartime rationing period. I hadn't really approached any of the Moodists music from this direction and got a feeling that I'd love to present some of the material somehow. A reunion of the band is not really on the cards due to various physical constraints on a couple of people but Clare and I have a vague idea to do a  "play the Moodists" type show. In doing the text for the book I came across this clip of a song from 1980. It was the b side of Where The Trees Walk Downhill and the actual title was I Should Have Been Here. It was when we were really vibing on the Postcard records scene as well as Vic Godard and the Fall. A year later we went down a very different sonic path.

David McClymont , who played bass in the later period of the Moodists, has a double vinyl LP out now on Late Night From Glasgow records. 

We have finished our rock'n'roll album and are still deciding when and how to release it. With the staggered nature of our live shows we are still doing launches for Everything Was Funny. This next album is equally as high quality but is much more of a drums, bass, guitars and vocals set. Its tough being a  musician and writer at any time but being vintage players who still write and produce stuff regularly is weird. Where and how do you pitch it? In a world where vintage players should be sad - we are not. Or when they should only be rootsy or play genres we are not. There's no one doing what we do here or anywhere else either so we can't be talked about as a local version of something from the real world. Its true. Graney got no Graney. 

There is also another album of less structured, more weird material inside my computer.

Then there  is the WAM AND DAZ Album which WAM is threatening to tie down (or up) and finish too.

And then there is the album I did with UK electro dynamo SCANNER which may come out at some point. It was started/finished in 2019-2021 but I have left it to him to schedule it. Its got a great vibe! Like a mad, cold, electro jazz session.

Clare Moore has been tutoring some young people on drums via the internet. Its been enlightening hearing of how high school age kids interact with music. Either deep dive obsessions on single, huge selling artists from the 70s or just music thats heard through games and gaming.

We have kept doing our live stream shows via Stage It this year but have kept it to Sunday morning sets to make it Saturday night in the UK and Saturday afternoon in the USA. Since summer finished and so daylight saving as well, this has seen us performing at 7am. This has been very enjoyable - and of course- weird! You sing in a register that is not available at other times, for instance. People join us from Wales, Lancashire, London, New York State, Oregon, Seattle, Los Angeles, Norway, Tasmania, Sydney and Abury. We play a different set each fortnight.

Our next online show is Sunday June 19th at 7am. This makes it 10pm Saturday UK time.

5pm Saturday USA EDT     4pm Saturday USA CDT     2pm Saturday USA PDT

There is no chance of watching it back. A small fee to access the site ($US5), A 50 minute set.

Ticket link here. 

Our live show sees Clare Moore using her Boosey and Hawkes AJAX model vibes - a small jazz set from the 50s as well as a Yamaha Reface keyboard, melodica and percussion, an audio interface with some simple (and some quite rich) rhythm tracks as well as a mellotron app which she accesses via an ancient ipad and plays through her keyboard. I play several electric guitars through my Vox amp head and  speaker box (a Fender , covered in marshall tolex and loaded with a  tech21 speaker) with some delay and Phase pedals. I have to have several guitars due to having used  multiple open tunings on EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY. We are getting my speaker box fixed at the moment and Clares vibes are also in the shop. The low keys on the vibes are not ringing out which might mean some new keys being made to a mould. That is, some molten steel being poured into a mould and fired up and then bashed into tune by a blacksmith! Luckily we have a guy around the corner who can do all of this. The bonuses of being hillbillies. 

 

vibes, keys, ipad, vocals, air purifier, mic...

Upcoming shows....

Friday June 24^th The Great - Marrickville
Saturday June 25^th The Music Lounge in Wollongong Town Hall

Friday July 1^st George Lane St Kilda
Sunday July 3^rd Hotel Warrnambool (3pm show)
Saturday July 23rd Portland Arts Centre
Friday August 12th The Trinity Sessions - Adelaide

Saturday August 13th - the Three Brothers, Macclesfield, Adelaide Hills. 

davegraney.com

Grace Tame Is President - live links

Grace Tame Is President is the new collaboration I did with Plutonic Lab.

 

Any proceeds will be going to the Grace Tame Foundation.

Its available via Bandcamp.

It will also be available at Apple Music Friday April 8th. 

(all other digital portals as well).

I thought I'd collect some recent works from everybody involved.

Plutonic Lab

 Jodi Phillis

Penny Ikinger

 

 Anna Smyrk

Lisa Gibbs as part of USER

 

 Edwina Preston singing with Harry Howard and the NDE

Clare Moore and I are playing a live online stream this weekend

Online Show #123

10pm Saturday UK time

5pm Saturday USA EDT

4pm Saturday USA CDT

2pm Saturday USA PDT

7am Sunday Melbourne time

Playing deep cuts from our albums and choice covers from our heroes.

A live streaming set Melbourne Australia. Drums, guitars, vibes, keys, vocals and other instruments when needed from our studio. Every second Sunday morning an 8am show to make it Saturday afternoon and evening in the USA and UK/Europe. Each show is unique and happens in the moment - no chance of watching it back. A small fee to access the site, A 50 minute set.

Ticket link here  . It is $US5.00 to access. 

We are also launching our album EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY at the Northcote Social Club Sunday May 1st. TICKETS HERE.

May 6th we  play in Ballarat at VOLTA. 

 Everything Was Funny came out in October 2021 and we have worked out how to present it as a duo playing vibes, keys guitars, percussion and also accessing some mellotron sounds via iPad and also some rhythm tracks via a Cymatic audio interface and the shows have been really great new experiences. Very rich array of sounds.

In the meantime we have also continued recording and have more than enough for two new albums at the moment. Looks like the next album is going to be a rocker.

We finally got into a  studio with Stu and Stuart to lay down four songs we have started to rehearse around the beginning of 2020. Then you know what happened and we couldn't rehearse let alone record.

The virus is still around and Idge couldn't do the session as his daughter contracted the bug at school so he had to isolate and we did the work with Laura Hanccock at the desk. It was a great experience as we just had the four songs to do which we completed in one day. Everybody really knew the parts and the songs inside out. We even knocked off early.

Funny thing - I picked up my Talman to overdub and the strap failed and it fell perfectly onto the spot where the jack is inserted. 

 

the studio control room at Soundpark.

Clare Moore, Stu Thomas and Stuart Perera doing some vocal overdubs.

With studio engineer Laura.

 

Idge has a lot of vintage gear. Mics, compressors and reverb units. Thats a Roland Space Echo behind Clare.

In the kitchen at Soundpark. Its been a very mild summer in Melbourne. Meanwhile Sydney has had a years rainfall in 4 monthas and Northern NSW and Southern Qld has flooded twice. 

Grace Tame Is President - collaboration with Plutonic Lab coming soon.

 

A one off collaboration in homage to 2021 –and forever- Australian Of The Year Grace Tame by songwriter/performer Dave Graney and studio cat/multi instrumentalist Plutonic Lab aka Leigh Ryan. All instruments played by PlutonicLab .

 A Ryan-Graney Production.

“Grace Tame is president – in the nations’ brain she’s resident!!”  Dave Graney

Clare Moore and I  listened to Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins address the National press Club in Canberra February 9^th 2021 and heard them speak truth to the nations power. A stellar cultural political moment for the nation.  We were driving  the Hume Highway between Melbourne and NSW. When we stopped for the night I opened my laptop and used to Twitter to sent a message to Plutonic Lab saying they should collaborate on a  track called Grace Tame Is President. (The title a playful tip to Eric B and Rakims classic Eric B Is President) Plutonic said “yes” straight away and here we are.

 

 

 

 

I asked some fellow players  and singers to come on board with their voices and the finished track includes vocal takes and textures from Jodi Phillis, Jane Dust, Penny Ikinger, Lisa Gibbs, Julie Graney, Edwina Preston and Anna Smyrk.

 

 

 

Any money generated to be donated to the Grace Tame Foundation which is a not-for-profit philanthropic organisation established by the 2021 Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, to campaign for and help fund initiatives which work to prevent and respond to sexual abuse of children and others.

https://www.thegracetamefoundation.org.au/

We had worked with Plutonic in 2007 on a show we did called The Bewdy Of Speed.

The song should be available soon. This week I hope. Via Bandcamp or itunes and other music portals.

 I just think Grace Tame has been a beacon of humanity in such bleak times in Australia. The LNP coalition have just been such turds and the stranglehold they have over all the media - including the ABC- has been terrible. This young woman cut through it all. To me she represents an unofficial, authentic Australia that is rarely glimpsed or allowed any play in the public realm. (Mainstream Australia being such a timid, awkward and fearfully obedient culture)The fact she has been such an articulate advocate has been so great. She's angry and powerful but she always hits her targets. GRACE TAME IS PRESIDENT!

The lyrics wrote themselves...

Grace Tame is president

 in the nations brain she’s resident

 

all time all tame all wild no shame

she brings the noise and stings the boys

 

Grace Tame is President…

 

no fear

no fear

 

the blue gangs

the carpet strollers

get outta the way!

cos Grace Tame is president

 

Grace Tame is president

 in the nations brain she’s resident

 

governor general – if you have to

governor general- if you want

but

Grace Tame is president

 

all time all tame all wild no shame

she brings the noise and stings the boys

 

Grace Tame is President…

 

http://www.plutoniclab.com/

https://www.davegraney.com/
https://www.facebook.com/jodiphillismusic
https://www.pennyikinger.com/
https://www.annasmyrk.com/

 

Hello 2022

 Hello 2022. Have I got the year right? Time is all scmmozzled up or something. Fast and slow, then dead slow and then all slippery and getting away from you. 

Clare Moore and I had released our album Everything Was Funny and were doing online shows and videos and anything we could to get the word out. Us being actual Outsider Artists you know.  We filmed a performance for an online music show called Muuzostream that was such high quality. It should be shown some time in February or March. 

We had also started work on a new album - for 2022 release -  and once again it was just the two of us as it was too hard  for many logistical reasons to get together to rehearse with Stu and Stuart from the mistLY and to get time in our favourite studio, Soundpark. So Clare and I laid down guitar, bass and drums and keys for about nine tracks. We also had about the same number already  in progress in our own studio. Its sounding great! Hopefully another session with the mistLY to get down four specific rock'n'roll songs that need all that oomph from a band. 

Idge went fully crazy on the bass drum mics...

The pandemic, thats the thing. Just six months ago we were all locked up in Melbourne and the business groups and federal politicians were screaming about "opening up" and insisting on a  timeline for doing that. Then they got all that - mostly courtesy of the State of NSW and their then leader (who had to quit due to some pesky corruption allegations) opening up restrictions all through the state and then opening travel to the other states and things yeah, just slipped away from all the public health officials and the QR codes and the contact tracing and all that stuff was soon forgotten. Last years things.

 

 

We did a show in Victoria that was quite nice - outside and well organized and then headed into the end of one year with an eye on shows in a new year and it all seemed quite reasonable. But the cases kept rising - though we were now being told not to look at that. And the deaths started to rise - but we were advised that was always going to happen. And today the schools are opening again. Its a New Normal the Liberals keep telling us, but they are such liars you wouldn't believe anything coming from them. 

We drove to South Australia in December, stopping in the town of Penola to visit our favourite vintage shop. Jills Vintage.   

We spent a few weeks by the beach in Adelaide, swimming in the day and watching 70s Australian tv soaps like The BOX and SONS AND DAUGHTERS and THE YOUNG DOCTORS at night with Clares brother Patrick who collects all these otherwise mostly unobtainable shows on DVD from the original production companies.

To get into South Australia we had to have proof of vaccination and also  proof of a negative Covid test within the last three days and then we had to line up for another one the day after we crossed the border. We did this in Mount Gambier and after being in a queue of cars for two hours and looking at another several hours in the same spot, we heard that they were dropping this regulation as the pathology labs in three states were being overwhelmed. We drove out from the queue and continued on our way. 

We came back through Mt Gambier on our way back to Melbourne as I wanted to visit the farmhouse where my mother had grown up along with her eight brothers and sisters . A helpful friend from Social Media sent some directions to the farm and also got in touch with the couple who were living on the property now and they allowed us to come and have a look. 

First we went to visit a tiny abandoned school house nearby where my Grandfather used to be a teacher. Stewarts Range School. The school had about 16 kids at most and the majority would have been his own kids. They travelled to and from the school during the war years (WW2) in a horse and buggy. 

It was quite eerie. Just an old tin building at the end of a dirt road outside Naracoorte, the only building nearby being a CFA shed at a nearby crossroads.

 

We drove onto the house and the lovely couple who are going to renovate it let us walk through the old house. I stayed here once or twice when I was a kid and it was quite magical in many ways. It had an old train carriage out in a paddock which was where the chickens lived but I had to get past a nasty Billy Goat to get there. The carriage was long gone. The surrounding countryside is quite classically Australian. A large lake area called Lake Ormerod just beside the house. The lake was dry of course.

 

 

It was quite an experience for me walking around the place. 

We stayed in Naracoorte for the night and went for a swim at the beautiful swimming lake. 

We then drove back to Melbourne and have been housebound for most of this month as - like everybody - we tried to work out what was real and what wasn't in regard to the ongoing pandemic. Its been like that for two years now. Personally I can't make a switch to a "New Normal" that easily.  

We had a run of shows booked and some of the venues have fallen over and some have had to change a little. 

We are going to do shows but I have to say I don't feel right in being a voice out there saying "come along to my shows". I don't want to be another voice saying "its all normal now". So we are doing shows - yes. But...

 We are making sure all the venues are serious about Covid arrangements and that they are outside if possible. People should wear masks and be triple vaccinated.

Friday 11 February 2022 Dust Temple

Currumbin, QLD

 

 

Saturday 12 February 2022 The Citadel
Murwillumbah, NSW

 

Sunday 13 February 2022 The Eltham Hotel Nsw
Eltham, NSW

 

Saturday 19 February 2022 Grand Ballroom, Palais Royale
Katoomba, NSW

 

Sunday 20 February 2022 Smith's Alternative
Canberra, ACT

 

Sunday 27 February 2022 Northcote Social Club
Northcote, VIC

 

Friday 01 April 2022 The Barwon Club Hotel
Geelong, VIC

 

Friday 22 April 2022 Volta Arts & Culture
Ballarat, VIC

 

 In regard to time - here are some other photos .

Wearing my East Gambier lace up jumper my mother Philomena made for me. 

 

 Marist Brothers High- grade four or five. I left the  Catholic school world and went to a state school for Grade 7 and then to High School. Thank God. There were places of punishment more than education. The fellow to my left is the Liberal Treasurer for South Australia in the current state government. Usual penny pinching privatizing punisher. These are all the kids who were top of the class. It wasn't hard as there were no girls at the school.

 

 

While in Mt Gambier I asked my brother Sean about things to do and he suggested a drive to the wetlands known as Picanninnie Ponds. I had never been to this beautiful area before. Freshwater ponds right next to the sea. There are huge underground caves that people go diving in. The sound of frogs in this place was terrific!

 

I Was No Captain - a lyric from a song on EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY

 Hey its a pretty simple kind of song. Guitar tuned to C#m - a tuning I read about John Fahey using - and a beat from Clare Moore's 1998 Ensoniq MR61 keyboard. Recorded parts on  a Tascam 4 track cassette machine and back into Protools and also used a Zoom hand held recorder for some parts. Then I hacked into it pretty brutally to edit it into shape. Sound elements caused by rough cuts used as punctuative intrusions here and there.

The lyric is pretty literal. There are captains/leaders and I've never been one or wanted to be one. Thats me. (Tracy Braidwood was a playing Captain Coach and then just a team member as full back for East Gambier Football Club in the '60s-70's)

 Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four - Captain

 Bob Shearman from Sturt - Captain

 

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!

I was no captain

Reed from the Fantastic Four

Tracy Braidwood – long dropkicks from full back

short back and sides and no teeth

Bob Shearman from Sturt

they were captains 

I was no captain

I just liked to drift wide on the wing

float sideways over the pack for a mark and run

I was no captain

Duke Ellington

Count Basie

you’d follow those guys

listen to them - believe them

Chet Baker, Charlie Parker, Keith Richard

Those guys needed a structure

a house already burning

Brian Jones

he was a captain

he left maps and strategies for Mick

I was no captain

 

Duke Ellington - Captain

 

Brian Jones - Captain

Everything Was Funny- Dave Graney and Clare Moore album out now

itunes  link

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

 

Bandcamp Compact Disc or digital album  link