The Mess Hall were a two-piece drums and guitar combo based in Sydney, Australia, specialising in "raw, edgy bluesy rock." The band consisted of Jed Kurzel and Cec Condon for most of its tenure. The band was often praised for its live shows: "When plugged in and turned up," wrote The Sydney Morning Herald, "the duo produce enough energy to power a house full of floodlights." The band released four studio albums before amicably parting in 2011. They reunited for a series of shows in 2015.
The Drones were an Australian rock band, formed in Perth by mainstay lead vocalist and guitarist Gareth Liddiard in 1997. Fiona Kitschin, his domestic partner, joined on bass guitar and vocals in 2002. Other long-term members include Rui Pereira on bass guitar and then lead guitar; Mike Noga on drums, vocals, harmonica and percussion; and Dan Luscombe on lead guitar, vocals and keyboards. Their second album, Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By, won the inaugural Australian Music Prize. In October 2010 their third studio album, Gala Mill was listed at No. 21 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums. Two of their albums have reached the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart, I See Seaweed and Feelin Kinda Free. The group went on hiatus in December 2016 with Kitschin and Liddiard forming a new group, Tropical Fuck Storm, in the following year.
Gala Mill is the third studio album by Australian band the Drones, which was released in September 2006. Recorded in an abandoned mill in Tasmania, it was their last album to feature founding member Rui Pereira and the first to feature Mike Noga on drums. The music, which makes "an epic leap beyond garage rock", adds influences from folk rock and contemporary folk music to their usual punk blues style. Gareth Liddiard's lyrics for the album are centered more on Australia's colonial and recent history, evident in tracks such as "Jezebel", "Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce" and "Sixteen Straws".
Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By is the second album released by the Drones. Recorded "100% live", the album draws influence from the likes of Neil Young and Rowland S. Howard, though it has been described by lead singer/guitarist Gareth Liddiard himself as a punk rock album. The lyrics, penned by Liddiard deal with issues such as death, depression and alcoholism in its depiction of Australian working class life.
Gareth Liddiard is an Australian musician, best known as a founding member of both The Drones and Tropical Fuck Storm. Musically active since 1997, he has also released a solo album titled Strange Tourist in 2010. In 2021, Liddiard recorded and performed live with Jim White of the Dirty Three and Chris Abrahams of The Necks as Springtime.
Lo Carmen is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician, producer, author and actress. Carmen has independently released seven solo albums in the Americana alt-country indie rock vein. In February 2022 her memoir Lovers Dreamers Fighters was published by HarperCollins, "a memoir of coming-of-age on screen and in song that also pays tribute to the iconic Australian women—writers, rebels, activists and fellow musicians—who lit her way". Author Madeleine Lucas said in their Rushh magazine conversation, "At its heart, I felt like Lovers Dreamers Fighters is really a memoir about work. I appreciated that because creative work, like domestic work, is not seen as labour a lot of the time."
The Miller's Daughter is a compilation album released by Perth band The Drones. The album compiles outtakes from the band's first two full-length releases and their first few non-album singles.
Here Come the Lies is the debut album released by Perth band The Drones.
Peter Head, South Australia, is an Australian rock musician, pianist and singer-songwriter. He is best known for his work with the progressive rock band Headband from February 1971 to 1974. He then formed The Mount Lofty Rangers with Bon Scott, best known for his time as the lead singer of AC/DC, on lead vocals.
Rock'n'Roll Tears is the third album from Australian singer/songwriter Loene Carmen. It was released on 25 August 2007 on Chiquita Records through Shock Records in Australia.
Slight Delay is the second album from Australian singer/songwriter Loene Carmen. It was released in 2004 on Chiquita Records through Russell Hopkinson from You Am I's boutique label, Reverberation Records, in Australia. It was recorded in Carmen's home studio, Loose Connections, in Darlinghurst, NSW and features musicians from Australian bands Mess Hall and the Dirty Three.
Burke Reid is an Australian record producer and musician.
I See Seaweed is the fifth studio album by Australian band The Drones, released in March 2013. The album marked the first appearance of Steve Hesketh on keyboards and the last appearance of drummer Mike Noga. Recorded by the band themselves inside a "demountable classroom from the '60s", the music on the album is more dynamic, darker and "expansive" in comparison to previous albums, while Liddiard's poetic lyrics were regarded as being more "universal" and humorous in exploring topics such as climate change, free will, conservative politics, socioeconomic issues, existentialism and the human condition in general. The song "How to See Through Fog" was released as the album's only single in early 2013.
Jed Danyel Kurzel is an Australian singer-songwriter-guitarist and film composer. He is a founding member of The Mess Hall, a blues rock duo. His older brother Justin Kurzel is a film director and screenwriter.
The Apple Don't Fall Far from the Tree is a collaborative album by Australian singer-songwriter Lo Carmen and her father Peter Head. It was released on Chiquita Records in Australia. It was recorded at Linear Studios over three days in Sydney by Chris Vallejo and Wade Keighran.
Everyone You Ever Knew (Is Coming Back to Haunt You) is the fifth solo studio album from Australian singer/songwriter Lo Carmen. It was released on 31 October 2015, by Chiquita Records. It was recorded at Linear Studios in Sydney by Wade Keighran and features musicians from Australian bands The Cruel Sea, The Holy Soul and the Mess Hall.
Feelin Kinda Free is the sixth studio album from Australian band The Drones, and their final one before going on hiatus. Having grown tired with the more rock-oriented sound of the band up until that point, frontman Gareth Liddiard became fascinated with both vintage and modern electronic equipment - ranging from drum machines and samplers to the Teenage Engineering OP-1 synthesizer - in conceiving the album's sound. Its genre-defying musical style has been described as visceral and ominous, featuring a relative absence of guitars and a prominent use of electronic textures. Its sessions also marked the first appearance of drummer Christian Strybosch since 2005's Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By.
A Laughing Death in Meatspace is the debut album of Melbourne-based supergroup Tropical Fuck Storm, formed by members of The Drones, Palm Springs and High Tension. The band, wishing to step away from the more rock-centric sound that The Drones were known for prior to their final pre-hiatus album Feelin Kinda Free, utilized a range of obscure digital guitar effects, synthesizers, drum machines, and DAW software such as ProTools to create the music. Finished less than eight months after their first few live performances, the speed at which the album was recorded also had a heavy influence on its idiosyncratic sound, which combines genres such as punk blues, art punk, psychedelic rock and noise rock with influences from pop and electronic music. Written by Liddiard with contributions from other members, the lyrics have been described as apocalyptic and darkly humorous; tackling subjects such as technological advancement, political polarization, socioeconomic inequality, xenophobia, culture wars and many others. The album title links a Silicon Valley slang for the physical world with the neurodegenerative disorder of kuru found in the Fore people of Papua New Guinea.
Strange Tourist is the debut studio album from The Drones and Tropical Fuck Storm frontman Gareth Liddiard. The album was recorded inside Blackburn Castle in New South Wales over the first half of 2010, and was produced with the help of Burke Reid. Its minimal, "austere" and "meandering" acoustic songs instrumentally consist entirely of Liddiard's guitar-playing, and are topped with his versatile and heavily-accented vocals. Exploring themes such as isolation, jealousy, guilt, colonialism, wartime collaborationism, radicalism and many others, its detailed, narrative-based lyrics have been characterized as "dark and grinding", and are set in various periods of time as well as locations.
Springtime is the eponymous debut album from Australian supergroup Springtime, consisting of Gareth Liddiard, Chris Abrahams and Jim White. Recorded over 15 days at Liddiard's home studio in Nagambie, the largely-improvised album features lyrics from his uncle Ian Duhig, in addition to a Will Oldham cover and a reworking of a track by The Drones. It was released in Australia through TFS Records and in the US through Joyful Noise Recordings to largely positive reviews.
