The reissuing of now all their albums - "Sad & Dangerous", "Dirty Three", "Horse Stories", "Ocean Songs", "Whatever You Love, You Are", "She Has No Strings Apollo", "Cinder", and "Live! at Meredith" (which in small quantities has been dropped off at record stores around Melbourne by Mick himself I believe), as well as the release of The Dirty Three Documentary and ATP film, and a few years ago, "Sticky Carpet" - means that, depending where you are in the world, most of their discography and live performances are available to you; as for the bonus discs and editions of albums with extra tracks, the EP's and other discontinued, rarer stuff - "Lowlands", "Ufkuko", "Sharks EP", "Strange Holiday", "Obvious is Obvious/ No Need" - they are graciously shared by those small few who have them. Below are some of these recordings, some posted on websites, from these limited editions.
Dirty Three (1995):
Seen this one in record stores, but not the vinyl edition.
1. Indian Love Song
2. Better Go Home Now
3. Odd Couple
4. Kim's Dirt
5. Everything's Fucked
6. The Last Night
7. Dirty Equation
Sad & Dangerous (1995):
Their first album, recorded "with a mic from Tandy's".
Haven't seen this one in record stores, certainly not the vinyl edition.
Live set in 1998 at ABC TV studios Melbourne, included with a limited edition of Ocean Songs ..
Dirty Three – Last Horse on the Sand (Live on ABC TV)
This is the monologue (I guess that's the word for it)(...it's great, and funny):
"This is a song, ladies and gentlemen, from the bedroom, put into your lounge room, because we love you that much. This is a love song, for anyone in love; grab their hand and squeeze it tight, cos tomorrow they might not be there. This is called..'I've been walkin around a long time, and my shoes are worn out, and my pants have fallen down, and I've got holes in my britches..but you are the last horse on..my..sand'"
Also a live recording at ABC TV studios, released on compilation, Recovery: Ready For Transmission..
Dirty Three – Sirena (Live on ABC TV)
Live set at Café de la Danse, Paris, 2003..
Sister Let Them Try And Follow (Live at Cafe De La Danse)
Live set at Melbourne Big Day Out, 1996..
Dirty Three – I Remember A Time When Once You Used To Love Me (Live at Big Day Out)
Dirty Three – To Aster! (Live at Big Day Out)
Dirty Three – Mick's Love Song (Live at Big Day Out)
Nick Cave & the Dirty Three – Tupelo (Live at Big Day Out)
Nick Cave & the Dirty Three – Shivers (Live at Big Day Out)
A Leonard Cohen song, performed live numerous times..
(will upload later along with other stuff)
Dirty Three – Suzanne
A Rowland S. Howard song, performed live with Nick Cave numerous times..
Nick Cave & the Dirty Three – Shivers
A Kim Salmon song from Sharks EP, and also Obvious Is Obvious / No Need split single with Low..
Dirty Three – Obvious Is Obvious
Live set in 2004 at PBS studios - a Melbourne radio station..
Dirty Three – Intro (Live on PBS)
Dirty Three – 1000 Miles (Live on PBS)
Dirty Three – Hope (Live on PBS)
Dirty Three – She Has No Strings (Live on PBS)
Dirty Three – The Zither Player (Live on PBS)
Dirty Three – Jaguar (Live on PBS)
Live set at RRR studios - another Melbourne radio station..
Horse Stories (1996):
1000 Miles
Sue's Last Ride
Hope
I Remember a Time When Once You Used to Love Me - (an adaptation of a song, Μια φορά θυμάμαι/Mia Fora Thimame by Αρλέτα/Arleta)
At the Bar
Red
Warren's Lament
Horse (vocals by Andria Degens - Pantaleimon)
I Knew It Would Come To This
Whatever You Love, You Are (2000):
1. Some Summers They Drop Like Flies
2. I Really Should've Gone Out Last Night
3. I Offered It Up to the Stars & the Night Sky
4. Some Things I Just Don't Want to Know
5. Stellar
6. Lullabye for Christie
A tribute to the late Alice Coltrane, I believe, who was to play at ATP curated by the Dirty Three, recorded at Meredith in 2004..
Dirty Three – Alice Wading (Live at Meredith)
She Has No Strings:
From the Japan edition of She Has No Strings..
Dirty Three – All Downhill From Here
Dirty Three – She Apollo
Live set in 2002 in Paris..
Dirty Three – 1000 Miles (Live at Instants Chavirés)
A set in Melbourne..
Dirty Three – Red (Live at Prince Bandroom)
Live set in 1994 at Triple J studios - an Australian radio station..
Better Go Home Now (Live from Triple J live)
Cinder:
Ever Since
Amy
She Passed Through
Sad Jexy
Cinders
Doris
Flutter
The Zither Player - (an adaptation of a song by Lajkó Félix, whose music is an influence on Warren, particularly Lajkó Félix és zenekara)
Great Waves
It Happened
Dream Evie
Too Soon, Too Late
This Night
Rain On
Ember
Michèle
Feral
Last Dance
In Fall
from the Japan edition..
Dirty Three – June's a Calling
Fly By Night Club, Fremantle, Western Australia, 2006..
Dirty Three – Maggie May (Live at Fly By Night Club)
So, I've heard just about everything recorded by the Dirty Three that is available, except the cassette..I'd love to hear it, it is one of those recordings that eludes me...I know it's out there..and maybe the performance with Nick Cave to the Carl Dreyer silent film "The Passion of Joan of Arc"...
I usually post some framing with notes about individual albums, the evolution of the list as the MAC/Jazz group add selections, but with the year end and semester end at hand, I will just point you to the first post in this thread and if you are looking for some listening material a bit outside the sax/trumpet/piano/bass/drums bop mode, then follow along and let us know what you think--here or at the Jazz Desk.
With the sad demise of Muxtape, I've had to look elsewhere for my mix hosting needs. This is a small experiment with 8tracks, which has the significant advantage that it's completely legal and is unlikely to get shut down - each "mix" acts as an Internet radio station, and royalties are paid to the appropriate parties. The downside is that the order of the tracks is different on successive listens, which means that you can't control the pacing of your mix or liven it up with ace segues.
The mix is called No accusations, just friendly crustaceans, and it deals with weighty themes such as the permanence of the ocean and the transience of human-octopus love. It's your typical story of Fisherman Meets Octopus, Fisherman Falls In Love, Discovers Life Under The Sea Is So Much Fun!, Relationship Eventually Goes Sour, Nasty Breakup, The Sea Has Been Through All This Before And Will Go Through It Again (But Still Feels Bad For A While).
Emily Bezar’s latest offering is probably the most complex of her releases. Her songs are like suites, with busy melodic passages that sound like they belong in different songs. The lyrics are both confessional and abstract. And her amazing voice will float into operatic swoops at a moment’s notice. It’s the kind of avant rock collection that belongs in between Joni Mitchell’s “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” and Bjork’s “Medulla”; it requires deep listening. But for those who are patient enough, it offers many treasures. “That Dynamite” is concise enough to be a single, complete with a ‘hook’; “Climb” is big band number that your parents might love; and “Lament” is a cabaret ballad from an alternate world version of the 40s. The other pieces, with their dramatic rhythm shifts, jazz crashing into prog rock, and stellar vocals, will remind one, at various points, of King Crimson, Kate Bush, Stereolab and Alice Coltrane. One of the song title sums up this song cycle’s aims well: ‘Glory or Crazy.’ Indeed.
I have only been listening to last.fm for a couple of months, but I am already very impressed and inspired by the experience. It’s enriched my life by allowing me hear enjoyable stuff that I might not have otherwise heard. I’ve also read some posts and journal entries and learned some things about people. Some of these experiences have compelled me to write this journal entry, as a way to try and articulate and express some of my thoughts. Perhaps something here will resonate with someone else to create, even a fleeting or tenuous, conceptual connection.
I should note that I haven’t downloaded any software, so don’t scrobble. I prefer to keep my charts a record of the music I’m discovering here, not of music I already own. So, much of what I listen to isn’t reflected. I have recently (last couple of days) played, on my home stereo, from start to finish: Miles Davis - Agharta Sleep – Sleep’s Holy Mountain Madlib - Beat Konducta, Volumes 1 & 2 Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation AMM – AMMMusic Devendra Banhart – Nino Rojo King Crimson – The Power To Believe Grails – Burning Off Impurities
My tastes run between the electronic and acoustic, dense and sparse, rhythmic and droning, composed and improvised, noise and folk, etc., so it’s hard to categorize with tags. I’m not trying to say that I have eclectic taste and listen to vastly different types of music either. For me, it’s all related, in that I enjoy it, and I can identify with it in some way, either because it describes a movement I find fascinating, expresses an inspiring feeling, creates a sonic environment that I can loose myself in, or provides me with an aural journey that leads me somewhere new, while being a trustworthy guide. I like music that can move me, and make me want to dance or cry or burst open or speed through an alien terrain.
One of the things I’ve realized is that I like a bit of noise with my rock, along with a creativity that may run to the experimental or primal. Grey Daturas – what a great band! Their music made an immediate impact on me. I feel it internally, and in a special way. I can’t wait to hear the new (upcoming?) release. Gravitar – Wow, rocking! Those last couple CD’s, circa ’97, were an achievement to be proud of. I listened to tracks from these recently while sometimes jumping around and sometimes standing still, eyes closed and mouth open, thinking to myself, “god, if I were in a rock band, I’d want it to sound like this.” Mouthus – Yeah, this is what I’m talking about. These guys inspired me one afternoon to stop what I was doing and lay down an experimental track myself, with wild, distorted guitars and layers of moaning/wailing. Wolf Eyes – I’m on the hunt now for their full lengths, particularly their latest. The few tracks and clips I’ve heard have me licking my mouth with intrigue. Skullflower – Interesting stuff. I want to hear more, and I’m liking the sound of the recent recordings. Nice to hear a group with this much history still doing good (unique, felt, challenging) work.
Spreading out in different directions from the noise rock area: Davis Redford Triad – Stunning music. Steven Wray Lobdell has been helping me clean out my ears while taking me to some amazing places with that guitar of his. I am baffled at the fact that more people don’t listen to this stuff, and why it’s so hard to find. Mind-blowing, awesome work! Grails – Beautiful stuff. I like these guys more than other “post-rock” type acts I’ve heard, because the music is interesting and dynamic, with a heartfelt feeling, while avoiding that really grand and epic routine. Gang Gang Dance – Kind of more… dancey, I guess, but engaging, and amusing too, in a positive way. I’m quite enchanted with God’s Money. It takes me back to some near-forgotten, dreamy place I spent some time at years ago. John Wiese – Towards the noise part of the spectrum. I find this very inspiring. I especially like the variety of textures and quality of the changes.
More in the improv, ambient, drone, guitar, or folk directions: My Cat Is an Alien – Ambient both earthy and spacey. I love this stuff. Parry/Soegaard – nice and atmospheric. Grant Hunter – I like the blend of sounds, minimalist with rich mood. Igon Strane – cool prepared guitar, experimental noise stuff. Aidan Baker – also in Nadja, good work. No-Neck Blues Band – Sprawling improv. I like it, want to hear more. Ashtray Navigations – Graceful droning folk. Hala Strana – Contemporary experimentation with traditional, folk forms. Nice. Spires That in the Sunset Rise – What is this, where are we, and is there more? I’m almost speechlessly spellbound.
More in the free jazz direction Alice Coltrane – I dig Pharaoh Sanders, Sun Ra, and others too, but I’ve got to mention this woman with special emphasis. Thank you, wherever you are.
These are some of the musical entities I’ve been able to hear works by, and that have improved the quality of my life. I appreciate them all.
(Some of these people, like Grant Hunter, Parry/Soegaard, and Igon Strane) live in far off (from me) places on the globe, and have fewer than 150 plays. It’s a pleasure to be able to listen to such compelling and unheard of tracks as theirs.)
Also, I feel compelled to express something that may be a bit reactionary and rant-like, but I must say: I have read some absurd opinions about there being a way to objectively measure the quality of music. This is an obviously absurd notion (maybe not so for some) for the fact that music cannot be heard (by humans, raised in a specific culture, with personal tendencies and experiences) except with subjectivity. There is no way to make any judgments on music without having personal opinions or feelings (subjectivity) about it, and anyone who talks of any art form being better than any other has fallen into the unfortunate and embarrassing error of trying to inflate their own personal and subjective tastes, by some sort of egotistical delusion or insecurity complex, and project them onto others, often times by attempting to codify them into a kind of pseudo system. These people suffer from what William Burroughs called the Right Virus, a horrible disease that pains itself to make our planet a worse place, by causing people to think that they are ‘right’ about ideas to the point of believing them to be superior to other (usually more reasonable and tolerant) ideas. The challenge for artists is to remain elusive and free from the clichés and rigidity of such posturing, inflated, pseudo systems. I don’t mean to suggest that all systems are bad. I’m sure there are a great many interesting ones, with the potential to yield notable results. But let us not let them go unquestioned, or fall into the embarrassing and harmful mistake to think that they are “right” or innately superior. Lets try to keep them working for us, for our consciousness and bodies, rather than allow them to enslave us. I’m trying not to be exclusive either; by “us” I mean the whole Earth and all its beings, the contents of the biosphere.
(Is it beneficial or harmful to speak of a dichotomy between artists and technicians? Do these share similarities with improvisation and composition? It seems to me they would likely be mingled somehow. For my tastes, however, the art and improv aspect is necessary and very much appreciated.)
A Kiss of Life for Free Ambient Rock Folk Noise Electronica, and all the Creators of Compelling Musical Expressions! And thank you last.fm.
If you have any comments or suggestions of something related for me to listen to, I’d be glad to hear.
The Doors - Box Set CD1: Without a Safety Net The Doors - Box Set CD2: Live in New York (Recorded live at Madison Square Garden, New York) The Doors - Morrison Hotel [Perception Box, CD5]
MC5 - Purity Accuracy: Saginaw Civic Center, Jan 1. 1970
Miles Davis - Big Fun - Disc 2 Miles Davis - Live at the Fillmore East: It's About that Time - Mar. 7 Miles Davis - Live-Evil (Disc 1) Miles Davis - Live-Evil (Disc 2) Miles Davis - The Cellar Door Sessions: CD1, Dec. 16 Miles Davis - The Cellar Door Sessions: CD2, Dec. 17 Miles Davis - The Cellar Door Sessions: CD3, Dec. 18 Miles Davis - The Cellar Door Sessions: CD4, Dec. 18 Miles Davis - The Cellar Door Sessions: CD5, Dec. 19 Miles Davis - The Cellar Door Sessions: CD6, Dec. 19 Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, CD1 Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, CD2 Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, CD3 Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, CD4 Miles Davis - The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (CD 1) Miles Davis - The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (CD 2) Miles Davis - The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (CD 3) Miles Davis - The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (CD 4) Miles Davis - The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (CD 5)
This record bowls me over every time I listen to it. The line-up is a dream: McCoy Tyner, piano; Alice Coltrane, harp; Wayne Shorter, tenor sax, soprano sax; Gary Bartz, alto sax; Ron Carter, acoustic bass; Elvin Jones, drums. The melodies are so left of center but still so listenable...
Four tracks, about 40 minutes of music. I'll serve up about half, focusing on the track with Alice Coltrane. Why? Let me quote a review I found on a site called "Ground and Sky": ""Message from the Nile"...by itself would make this a more than worthy purchase. On the one hand, its structure, like all of the remaining songs on this album excepting "His Blessings," is in the traditional jazz format: a simple and catchy main melodic line (Tyner was always great at coming up with these) forming the 'ground level' of the composition, from which the band take off and exchange a round of solos. On the other, the gentle mood concocted gives "Message from the Nile" a very non-Western, arcane touch. Heightened by the rippling of Alice Coltrane's harp, this track would have fit in quite well on one of her solo albums (e.g., Journey in Satchidananda). Tyner's solos are usually stunning displays of piano virtuosity, but I find the solo here to be particularly outstanding in its fluidity and free-spiritedness. One second he is stubbornly pecking at the main melody, contorting its rhythm or transposing it to an adjacent key, and the next minute he is flinging the notes up the upper registers of the piano and back down again in a blur of insanely rapid arpeggios...the closing piece "His Blessings" sounds the album out blissfully. It is an obvious tribute to John Coltrane, who died less than three years earlier at the time of the recording. Magma fans might note its kinship with the homage track "Coltrane Sundia" from the album Kohntarkosz. Again augmented by Coltrane's harp and the bowing of Carter's bass, this track effortlessly recreates the majesty of the Coltrane Quartet's signature wave effect: an ocean of sustained, rippling notes and chords swept along by the orchestral rumble of Jones' percussion. A work of tranquil beauty, this last track is one more reason to pick up this great disc."
Good enough for me. Enjoy.
Alice Coltrane
This record bowls me over every time I listen to it. The line-up is a dream: McCoy Tyner, piano; Alice Coltrane, harp; Wayne Shorter, tenor sax, soprano sax; Gary Bartz, alto sax; Ron Carter, acoustic bass; Elvin Jones, drums. The melodies are so left of center but still so listenable...