eastside interview by Players Please

Peter Milton Walsh aka The Apartments once more launches his music and himself into the void with a new album on French label, Talitres. Thats Whats The Music Is For. https://theapartments.bandcamp.com/album/thats-what-the-music-is-for Fellow Australians in Europe in the 80s. The talk is all about the new album but there are questions and answers about other times and people too.

Catherine McQuade has a new album out called The Corruption Of Memory. A fellow traveller of Dave Graney and Clare Moore from the early 80s Melbourne music scene. She was in the Ears (the band portrayed in the movie Dogs In Space) and then Deckchairs Overboard and then? A fashion shop in Sydney and then re entering Melbourne and the music world several years ago. This is her third solo album. Very sophisticated music in the writing, recording and execution. Its not indie music but she works independently. Informed by jazz and R&B and film scores. Wonderful sounds.

An interview for BLB by Dave Graney with Wes Smith from Rhizome and the Flavonoids. Out of the Gold Coast/Brisbane (Qld) and into Melbourne. Punk exotica and now ? Kind of No Wave New Wave electro funk rock? Very creative and productive and isolated. Latest album is out digitally and on cassette.

An interview by Dave Graney with Way Dynamic aka Dylan Young. Or perhaps Dylan Young aka Way Dynamic. The new Way Dynamic album is Massive Shoe.

Sean McMahon plays guitar and sings in Melbourne band, The Owls. He has released many solo albums and also led a band called Downhills Home. He is a total music culture person. He has played music since his teens and is a nice person. The music he makes with his friends just keeps getting better. I always love music with flash and drama and The Owls don't trade or fuss with either of those. No worries. We talked about his band and his friends and what he had for dinner and ambition and life.

Simon Strong lives in Melbourne but comes straight out of Sheffield in the UK. He made or makes music in The Ekranoplans and The Pink Stainless Tail before that. He presents a show on Radio 3CR in Melbourne. He tells a story of writing a novel in 2002 and then forgetting about it then retrieving it and finishing it after a dream encounter with Howard Devoto from Magazine. He released the book - The Bastardizer Polishes a Turd - in 2023 and had since released an audio version of it as well as an album of collaborations with artist "remixing" some of the audio of him talking and there is also an album of him performing/reading the book in Sheffield this year. Simon has a mad spark and a natural flow. Rabbit holes are his natural terrain. The talk goes all over popular and unpopular culture. You can access any of his stuff via https://simonstrong.bandcamp.com/audio

Mitch McTaggart has a tv show streaming called The Backside Of Television. It's all about Australian Television. He usually presents a year end round up of The Last Year Of Television but this is more of a broader look at Australian television production over the decades. Occasionally it was bold and imaginative, he reckons. A couple of episodes are specifically about Australian tv Police shows. Crime shows. Cop shows. Border Security shows. And he delves into how embedded the actual police forces were in the writing, editing and production. Specifically about some shows which weren't shepherded through to the eyes and ears of the public by the gentle hands of the Police. He's brave!

Brisbanes finest? Yes! The Stress of Leisure have been pumping out totally upbeat, grooving albums since 2006. Most songs written by Ian Powne on electric guitar. Pascalle Burton on organ/keys also sings and adds her presence. An active poet and performance poet as well. The inscrutably funky Jane Elliott on bass and Jessica Moore swinging a big beat on drums. Dave Graney and Clare Moore talk with Ian and Pascalle about music, music scenes, touring, Brisbanes two day winter, post punk influences and major chords.

Harry Howard and David McClymont have collaborated on an album called UNDER THE WORLD. David was once in Postcard Records band, Orange Juice as well as in the latterday Moodists for their last two EPS. That was in 1986-87. Then there were years travelling the world and doing nothing in the music arena. Then in 2012 he suddenly started to produce music, learning new tech and releasing a dazzling array of solo works and collaborations. He released two CDs with the Scottish musician Momus and a steady stream of independent recordings as a solo performer and in collaboration with other artists. He recently released Centuries, a double vinyl retrospective on the Last Night From Glasgow label. Harry Howard played in the second - 80s version - of Crime And The City Solution and then These Immortal Souls with his late brother, Rowland. Then there was the legendary Pink Stainless Tail. He the released three albums with Harry Howard and the NDE (featuring Clare Moore on drums and Dave Graney on vocals) before performing as DUET with then partner Edwina Preston, the electro collaboration that was ATOM and his first solo album Slight Pavilions. They talk about the recording and how it came about and also about Australian culture and film and tv and football, as seen by an outsiders perspective.

Dave Graney interview with Billy Pommer Jnr and Graham "Hoody" Hood from the Johnnys in regard to their new album (recorded in 1990) Live in Lyon. The conversation ranges from the bands beginnings in early 80s Sydney and Melbourne to their experiences in the Australian live music and recorded music scene. Touring up to and over 300 dates a year in 1986. Hardcore driving and playing. Songwriting and forming bands, venues, cities, regional towns, record companies.

Kim Salmon talks with Dave Graney about his new album/project/collective/live show which goes under the name Smoked Salmon. From the first question Kim goes back in time and the long conversation winds between shared experiences in teh underworld of Australian music, London and Europe in the 80s and 90s, working with large and small labels. It wanders!

Twinkledigitz aka Will Hindmarsh, once led his band of merry pranksters Go Go Sapien. Madly costumed and highly conceptual yet sophisticated and cartoonish all the while. Will and his partner Emily have guested on many Dave Graney and Clare Moore tracks over the last decade. Will also occasionally played with Clare Moore on her solo ventures as well as the Dames. Emily, Will, Clare and Jane Dust also perform as The Routines. Emily and Will also occasionally perform with Damian Cowells Disco Machine. Will and Dave Graney have also been "working" on their "hip hop/electro prophets" act as Wam and Daz for more than a decade. Time flies... Twinkeldigitz is Wills first solo outing. All electronic, totally lyrical and conceptual FIRE! Half of this talk was aired on Dave Graneys BLB program on RRR in Melbourne and teh rest was continued off air. They spoke of many things. Tasmania, Melbourne, Twinkledigitz' school days , Go Go Sapien, electronics, technology, AI, humour (is it bad for a musician?) and snacks. Further text and video links are available at https://open.substack.com/pub/davegraney/p/twinkledigitz?r=3mhrci&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Mel Wansbrough works in fashion at No. 6 , Jack Ladder is a tall, youthful rock singer from Sydney and they were invited to talk about fashion by Dave Graney in December on his radio show Banana Lounge Broadcasting. There is more text and more images to put this into context at my substack. https://open.substack.com/pub/davegraney/p/funky-but-chic-december-2024-fashion?r=3mhrci&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

The Fauves 13th album Tropical Strength is a killer. All killer. TROPICAL STRENGTH. REcorded in Bali. Dave Graney and Clare Moore saw them playing songs from it on a triple bill with Brisbanes finest , Custard and The Stress Of Leisure at a hall in a paddock outside Sale in regional Victoria in late 2024. The album never stops giving, in songs, sounds, arrangements, production and lyrics. Dave Graney and Clare Moore journeyed to the Fauves compound on the Mornington Peninsula which is by the bay but very much on the far flung outer reaches of Melbourne. A good 90 minutes drive from the city. They all talked of their shared experiences of working within differing wings of Universal Records in Australia in the 90s, lyrics, war stories, production, recording in Bali as well as 90s Melbourne, how bands stay together and how they form and split as well as life, death, the futility of existence and Bin Night. There is more text and context with accompanying video links and images at our substack, Players Please https://open.substack.com/pub/davegraney/p/tropical-strength-the-fauves?r=3mhrci&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Archival interview with Eric Bloom from the Blue Oyster Cult by Dave Graney, originally intended for a newspaper article. From 2013 when the Blue Oyster Cult were to headline a "festival" (held at several inner city venues in different cities in Australia) organized by the Hoodoo Gurus. More detailed story and video links at my substack https://open.substack.com/pub/davegraney/p/eric-bloom-from-the-blue-oyster-cult

In 2015 the Pop Group - one of the greatest and most influential of late 70s UK post punk bands - reformed to tour a new album. I spoke with singer Mark Stewart ahead of their Australian tour. I had seen them a few months previously in Edinburgh, playing to a crowd containing the cream of that city's post punk identities. (By that I mean people from Josef K and the Fire Engines). They had never been to Australia and their tour would prove that people didn't know how to deal with them. Their sound was singular, The rhythm section and the thin, spindly, ultra processed guitar sounds. And Mark towering over everybody with his mad wailing, delayed and reverbed and phased and echoed and eq'd by a master mixer in Adrian Sherwood. Deep, dub , roots reggae styling. Australians didn't know how to place it. There were no flannel shirts or distortion pedals. They were brilliant! His passing in April 2023 really shook me. The guy was so tall and physically imposing. His voice was so strong and wild. One of the few music groups whose sound will never date. I mean the Pop Group, Rip Rig and Panic. Neneh Cherry, Mark Stewart and the Maffia and all who sailed in and with them. Perhaps them, the Stooges, Suicide and ..... a few others. Further writing and appropriate links at my Substack https://open.substack.com/pub/davegraney/p/mark-stewart-the-pop-group-archival

In 2016 UK folk music ICON Shirley Collins came back to the world of recorded music with a new album , Lodestar, and live performances. Her last album and live performance activity had been in 1978. She had issued her first album in 1958. She is truly an icon, groundbreaking figure in folk music. She worked with folklorist Alan Lomax, travelling around the USA and recording folk songs in the early 60s. She recorded with her sister Dolly and with genius guitarists Davey Graham and Bert Jansch as well as the Albion Band. If you have heard any of PJ Harveys folk tinged albums of the last decade you would have heard echoes of Shirley Collins. I did the interview for RRR. I had been doing the show for about nine years and had inherited the time slot from Rick E Vengeance (RIP) who had presented a folk show on the station for about 30 years. I thought it would be both nice to both involve him and also to be proper and respectful to Shirley and the folk music world for someone really immersed and versed in it to be involved. Rick passed away in 2018. Further text and appropriate links at my substack https://davegraney.substack.com/p/shirley-collins-folk-icon

An archival interview from early 2023 by Dave Graney with comedian and film maker Tony Martin. Tony was about to do hiss first Melbourne Comedy Festival show for many years. Talk touches on comedy and Tonys amazing podcast Sizzletown, comedy festivals and clubs. Further text and appropriate links at my substack https://davegraney.substack.com/p/tony-martin

2023 Dave Graney interview with author Alan Paul in regard to his book on the Allman Brothers band and specifically their album Brothers and Sisters. Southern rock icons from Macon, Georgia. Playing at the enormous Watkin Glenn festival with the Grateful Dead. The deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. Greggs bust. The Dixie Mafia. Phil Walden and Capricorn Records. President Jimmy Carter. Cher. Further writing and appropriate links at my substack https://davegraney.substack.com/p/earthing-the-midnight-riders