"Shark Fin Blues" | ||||
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Single by The Drones | ||||
from the album Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By | ||||
Released | 27 March 2005 | |||
Recorded | 2005 | |||
Genre | Punk blues, garage rock | |||
Length | 9:14 | |||
Label | ATP In-Fidelity | |||
Songwriter(s) | Gareth Liddiard, Rui Pereira | |||
The Drones singles chronology | ||||
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"Shark Fin Blues" is a double A-side single taken from Australian rockers the Drones' second studio album, Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By (April 2005). The single was released on 25 September 2006. It also appeared as a limited edition, 7" picture disc, together with the band's fourth album, Gala Mill (September 2006).
The band's most popular song, "Shark Fin Blues" - "an anthem of sorts for the disenfranchised and melancholic" written after the passing of lead singer Gareth Liddiard's mother - was voted the greatest Australian song of all time by the band's contemporaries in 2009 and is now widely considered to be a classic. [1] [2] [3]
The song starts off "hazy" and "distorted" over "restrained drumming" and gradually builds up, "expanding and filling with screeching guitars and a contagious chorus of "na na na’s"". The instrumentation on this track has been described as "jarring" while Liddiard's vocals have been described as "brutal". [3] Liddiard describes the intro as a "fudged Townes Van Zandt riff" whilst the outro was improvised by Rui Pereira. [4]
The song, whose lyrics were written over "Same Old Man" by Karen Dalton, was composed after the passing of Liddiard's mother [2] [3] and has been described as "an anthem of sorts for the disenfranchised and melancholic". [3] The allegorical lyrics contain biblical and maritime imagery and has been compared to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , [5] [6] its protagonist describing the sinking of his ship as the titular "sharks" surround him "fin by fin". [4]
The song was originally received favorably, with Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork calling it "one of the best rockers of the year, a seemingly endless path of riffs and dynamics and a good introduction to Liddiard's nihilistic subject matter". [5] Mike Diver of Drowned in Sound was more mixed in his assessment, calling it "a decent composition executed decently, but far from the original blast of frazzled blues it wishes to be", comparing it unfavorably to the band's live performances. [7]
"It felt like an anthem to the kind of people that need one more than anyone else, [...] The kind that can’t pull themselves out from that murky, lonely sludge that lives in their head, my head."
In a poll of contemporary Australian songwriters in 2009, organised by national youth broadcaster Triple J, "Shark Fin Blues" was voted as the greatest Australian song of all time. [9] [3] [10] On being asked about the ranking the following year by Andrew McMillen, Liddiard expressed ambivalence, speculating that many of those voting may have been "5-6 years younger" than the band members themselves. In the same interview, he also states that he is "sick to fuckin' death of" playing the song live, despite conceding that "[t]here’s nothing you can do about that, really. I’m always saying, "Let’s fuck 'Shark Fin' off, we don’t have to do it!”, but it’s the band who probably want to hear it more than anyone else. I don’t know why." [11]
In 2014, Denham Sadler of The Guardian wrote that "part of the song’s power is that Liddiard refuses to provide the listener a throwaway silver lining [...] instead it is a raw and brutally honest account of depression [...] a song that unflinchingly bares its writer’s despair, detailed in an intimate, introspective way." [3] The following year, The Sydney Morning Herald observed that the song is "considered by many to be an Australian classic." [1] In November 2020, Junkee ranked the song 5th on their list of "The 200 Greatest Australian Songs of All Time" - a list that partially takes into account submissions from other Australian musicians. [12]
"Shark Fin Blues" | ||||
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Single by Missy Higgins | ||||
from the album Oz | ||||
Released | 7 July 2014 | |||
Genre | pop | |||
Length | 5:16 | |||
Label | Eleven | |||
Songwriter(s) | Gareth Liddiard, Rui Pereira | |||
Missy Higgins singles chronology | ||||
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On 7 July 2014, Australian artist Missy Higgins released "Shark Fin Blues" as the first single from her fourth studio album, Oz (September 2014). It debuted at number No. 71 on the ARIA Singles Chart on the week commencing 18 August. [13]
The video clip was released via YouTube on 11 August. [14]
In an album review, Helena Ho from Renowned for Sound said the song "begins with simple piano chords so that the bare beauty of Higgins' vocals are highlighted. She sings with such passion and emotion, you can hear her voice tremble with it. It's liberating when the strings and piano eventually swell together for the final hook." [15]
Ali Birnie from Beat Magazine said the song is the album highlight. [16]
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.
Melissa Morrison Higgins, known professionally as Missy Higgins, is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician, actress and activist. Her Australian number-one albums are The Sound of White (2004), On a Clear Night (2007) and The Ol' Razzle Dazzle (2012), and her singles include "Scar", "Steer" and "Where I Stood". Higgins was nominated for five ARIA Music Awards in 2004 and won 'Best Pop Release' for "Scar". In 2005, she was nominated for seven more awards and won five. Higgins won her seventh ARIA in 2007. Her third album, The Ol' Razzle Dazzle, was released in Australia in June 2012. As of August 2014, Higgins' first three studio albums had sold over one million units.
The Kill Devil Hills are an Australian acoustic, country-tinged rock band formed in 2003 in Fremantle by founding mainstays Brendan Humphries and Steve Joines. They have released four studio albums, Heathen Songs, The Drought, Man, You Should Explode and In on Under near Water.
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.
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.
The Drones performed for two nights at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney, Australia in October 2007. Both nights were recorded with the intention of releasing a limited live album. Live at the Annandale Hotel 18th, 19th October 2007 is the first in a series of live albums produced by the Annandale Hotel music venue. This vinyl-exclusive release was limited to 250 hand-numbered, autographed copies.
Donald Hugh Walker is an Australian musician and songwriter who wrote many of the hits for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. Walker is considered to be one of Australia's best songwriters. In 2012 he was inducted into the Australian Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
Havilah is the fourth studio album by Australian alternative rockers, the Drones, which was released by ATP Recordings/MGM Distribution in September 2008. It was co-produced by the group with Burke Reid and issued in February 2009 for the United Kingdom and United States markets. The title refers to a biblical town of the same name – "a Shangri-La-esque place with an abundance of gold" – and is the valley 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Myrtleford, where they recorded.
The discography of Australian singer-songwriter and musician Missy Higgins consists of five studio albums, two extended plays, thirty one singles and one download-only live album. In 2001, Higgins won the national Unearthed radio competition for unsigned artists with her song "All for Believing" and shortly after signed a recording contract with Eleven. The following year she signed an international contract with Warner Bros. She released a self-titled EP in November 2003. Her debut album, The Sound of White, was released 6 September 2004. It reached No. 1 on the Australian albums chart and was certified nine times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). It contained the singles "Scar", "Ten Days", "The Special Two" and "The Sound of White".
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.
Oz is the fourth studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Missy Higgins, and was released by Eleven on 19 September 2014. It is Higgins' first cover album, which is accompanied by a book of the same name that collects a series of essays by Higgins; using each song title as a jumping off point. The album's title refers to each of the artists covered being from Australia, as well as being a reference to the land of Oz as established in The Wizard of Oz.
"Was There Anything I Could Do?" is a song by the Australian alternative rock band The Go-Betweens that was issued as the second single from their sixth album 16 Lovers Lane. The song was released 3 October 1988 by Beggars Banquet Records in the UK and Mushroom Records in Australia but failed to chart in either region. It was released as a promotional single in the US by Capitol Records and charted on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks charts in the United States, peaking at No. 16.
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.
Tropical Fuck Storm are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, Victoria, formed by Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin from The Drones. Lauren Hammel, from the band High Tension, plays drums, and Erica Dunn, from the bands Mod Con, Harmony, and Palm Springs, plays guitars, keyboards, and other instruments. Their sound is characterised by elements of art punk, noise rock and experimental rock.
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.