Dirty Three. S & D.

That's exactly what I don't want from them. In a way postrock is the prog of the zero years for me. In the beginning I loved both these styles but now they seem too bombastic, too megalomaniac for my ears. And the crescendos and drones are extremely predictable and boring. I prefer their calmer stuff like on the beautiful At the Bar. Though I find that the noisy song after which is called Red is the second best on Horse Stories. Is She Has No Strings Apollo in this vein?

that amazon review seems like they're trying to sell copies of "she has no strings" (which is really, really beautiful and kind of subdued)...

"Authentic Celestial Music" off of Ocean Songs is my favorite.

I'd really like to hear Nick Cave do a record of his ballads with this band, preferably recorded live.

The time I saw the Dirty Three live was with Calexico at a Laundrymat bar and the sound system was blown out really bad, but they did what they could do to get across.

this is a really good idea, but it would be even better without nick cave.

They're playing here at the end of the month for $300 (which is about £20). It's a lot of money, but I'm quite tempted to go to see what they're like, so I can decide if I should bother with their ATP next year.

Is this an awesome band?

Always sort of avoided them, thinking they were just another Godspeed whatevers but they most certainly are not. There's stuff on their myspace that even reminds me of the Dead C, but some of that might be the accent... So I should still get Horse Stories?

Yes.

And Whatever You Love, You Are.

and Ocean Songs

and the 1st two. But after that you're probably good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFAbLtgB1_s

Okay thanks, I'm on it.

There's a POX going on on another music board following the ATP and London sets, and I must admit I'm struggling:

Authentic Celestial Music
Some Summers They Drop Like Flies
Sue's Last Ride
Everything Is Fucked
Red
I Should Have Gone Out Last Night
Sea Above, Sky Below
Hope
Alice Wading
I Remember A Time When Once You Used To Love Me

But that leaves no space for Deep Waters or Last Horse On The Sand or Some Things I Just Don't Want To Know or She Has No Strings or Indian Love Song or She Passed Through. Kind of impossible for me.

Are they still active? No new product since 2005. Obv Ellis is busy with Grinderman these days so I was just wondering if we will ever hear from them again. I miss them.

they are playing the meredith music festival in the victorian countryside this very weekend. no idea if there's new product on the way, though.

thanks. it's great that they are still together.

busy with Grinderman these days

has also supplanted Mick Harvey as 2IC of the Bad Seeds, and has done half a dozen film scores, at least three theatre scores, an audiobook soundtrack and other duo recordings with Cave

http://www.soundfarmer.net/music/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/D3.jpg

that's all.

to expand; this is the best late night listening album of all time ever

It's a beautiful record for sure, and Horse Stories is a minor classic. I saw them open for Beck in '96 when I was in high school and had no idea what to make of them... I got reintroduced to them like five years later and loved them. Haven't played one of their records in years, though... Probably time to revisit and see how I respond to them now.

New album 'Toward The Low Sun' is out in the next couple of months and sounds great; raw, improvised, often noisy, beautiful...

is it the same kinda deal

oh man, so excited! thanks for the news.

Yes can't wait to hear this.

In the meantime I was staggered to learn recently that you can get Whatever You Love You Are as a playable button badge.

A few years ago, a neighbor who had lived on the street since the 1990s told me that someone from Dirty Three had once lived in what was then my apartment (or maybe it was one of the other five units in the building). They recorded Ocean Songs at Electrical Audio in 1997, so I guess it's plausible.

oh this is glorious. I got my Drag City LP 10 days before worldwide release date!

I see now that the 14th was official release date in AUS/NZ, so that explains it. still kinda cool to have an LP before it hits streaming!

It's a thrilling record, for sure. It's more on the improv/unstructured end of their sound, rather like the last one. It's great, but I can't help but miss the more structured, composed side of them.

Saw them for the first time in Melbourne last weekend! So, so good. The set was almost three hours but it zipped by.

I think it's sweet :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XWdx9sA_sw

Their records are pretty good, but my god I forgot how insane they are live.

otm

xp didn't feel like reposting the Lido Shuffle story for a third time? :P

ONE MORE FOR THE ROADDDDDDDD

https://imgur.com/8zAulD9

I am envious of everyone who got tickets to see them last night

Their very first US show was at GAMH in 1995 with santa cruz's BAKAMONO opening for $7.

I saw Eiso of Bakamono last night and he said he flew all the way from Tokyo to catch the show <3.

Now that's dedication. Glad I was able to hook you up for tickets!

as always thank you Ned!

Really looking forward to their show next Monday. They were one of my dad’s absolute favorites—he owned their entire discography, collected all the live recordings, and traveled to see them with my mom in tow numerous times—so I expect it to be a cathartic one.

saw them last night, and

feels kinda harsh to say -- he seems like an amiable guy -- but i found the whole warren ellis experience exhausting. idk, maybe my fault for being sober

jim white is absolutely riveting though

I heard a lot of people complain about his schtick at Big Ears.

That was my experience at Big Ears. I wasn’t so much in the mood for the Warren show. Enjoyed when they actually played music though.

last night he claimed that they, as a band, had fucking torn big ears a fucking new one

ellis's stage presence is sort of exhausting even when he's just sitting down playing keys with nick cave

idk -- i saw cave + seeds + ellis a while back and can't imagine anyone was even paying attention to the latter

he doesn't have the presence

last night he claimed that they, as a band, had fucking torn big ears a fucking new one

I had mixed feelings about it, I have some friends who loved it, and one who said it was the worst Dirty Three show he's ever seen (of many) and he was embarrassed for them. So ... it was divisive!

Talking or…?

Yeah somewhat excessive yammering imo. And a bit of "Oh here comes the KA-RAZY Australian!" I can imagine it can vary from night to night, depending on his mood.

I heard he had people show him photos on their phones?

Sounds tedious

Yah

i thought D3 was a hoot at Big Ears — Ellis' antics felt fun after a long day of music. Definitely over the top, but memorable.

Saw them in Chicago last night, where they played for about 2.5 hours. I wasn't sure what to make of the first half hour or so, which seemed to consist mostly of improvisational noise, with Ellis occasionally turning to shout "yeah!" at the audience. But the bulk of the set was long versions of four tracks from the '90s; I was particularly happy to hear "Some Summers They Drop Like Flys" since Wherever You Love You Are is my favorite album of theirs.

There was a lot of stage patter from Ellis, but it was funny and heartfelt, so I didn't mind it. Had some nice words about Steve Albini, for instance. He was also amusingly worked up about a review he read of their Big Ears performance, and about Big Ears in general. "It's not the first nor the last time we got booked at the wrong festival!" "Maybe it's because we're under 65. Everyone else there was over 100." "If you're in your 70s and you have an electronic group, you can go play at Big Ears. They'll have a lot of slots opening up."

lol

Maybe it's because we're under 65

Dude is 61, lol, come on.

Yeah they were in the older contingent of the acts I saw at Big Ears. But Warren gonna Warren.

it's weird to me that he's so vocal considering they are an instrumental act iirc?

i would not expect large amounts of talking from people who did not include words in their music

He’s always been like that

I only saw them in the late 90s, but that was the show: the balance between long beautiful instrumentals and the comedy of introducing these songs with extremely long titles. (In a similar way, I think of someone like Richard Thompson doing a full concert of grim, hurting songs but being jovial between them.)

yeah i would think it would help the "show" aspect of this band to have some comic relief between long songs

not that they need help with the show considering the maniac they have on violin

saw them 2-3 times in the 90s and yeah, always like this

so what's the hubbub then?

I think it was even more than usual at Big Ears, basically

sounds like a Shellac show

I wasn't sure what to make of the first half hour or so, which seemed to consist mostly of improvisational noise

Ah, according to Setlist.fm, this was from their new (2024) album, which I recall listening to and not really clicking with.

The Big Ears show was shorter — 75 minutes — so having like a full third of that devoted to Warren rambling, inviting people to show him pictures of their pets on their phones, even handing the mic off to audience members to ramble was not so much charming as, will you guys please play some music? They only made it through like 2 1/2 actual songs.

Yeah, that makes sense.

huh…when they were at Pioneer works on Friday night (gawd what a magnificent room, what a pleasant place to spend a few hours listening to very good live music) it was pretty standard "ellis does schtick, band then does 15-209 mins of wordless beauty," which is precisely as it was at the Westbeth theatre center in '96: although I don't remember him playing keybs in '96…

pioneer works really is a fabulous room (not least because i can walk to it)

inviting people to show him pictures of their pets on their phones, even handing the mic off to audience members to ramble was not so much charming as, will you guys please play some music?

lol he did that in brooklyn too. i mean i totally believe that warren's dog dying hit him harder than his dad dying, and that's fine! crooning about 'bringing back' dead people over a 30-minute version of 'indian love song' was, however, tedious

yeah that sounds ruff