"The stars, baby, the stars": Tex Perkins with Dave Graney at The Beasts' "Black Milk" show in Melbourne. Amber Schmidt photo
Dave Graney Top 12 for 2025
1. Dave Graney and the Soft n Sexy Sound 30th Anniversary Sound tour.
This was so enjoyable for me. So great to play the music and crack the codes to the album. Extremely challenging to perform it and to present it to people. Very tense to start it each time we did it on the 21 date tour. It had peaks and it flowed. It started from silence and ended on a long fadeout.
You know that recent trial for Bruce Lehrman when it was found that on the balance of probabilities he committed sexual assault charge and then tried to sue for defamation, as if he was a victim, and the judge threw it out of court and said “you came back for your hat…”? Well, this was like me coming back for my hat and putting it on and walking off again.
2.Reading books.
I really enjoyed reading the epic "Ancient Evenings" by Norman Mailer, the amazing "USA" by John Dos Passos, A biography of Lenin (which was a bit negative but very human in scale), "Play It As It Lays" by Joan Didion, "Arcadian Adelaide by Thistle Andersen. "Headonism" by Peter Head and Mark Cornwall which is a great, oblique window into Australian rock music of the 60s/70s/80s and more. Otherwise I once again bought too many old books but can’t resist them.
3. Twinkledigitz. Debut solo album by Will Hindmarsh aka Twinkledigitz.
Super smart and funny electro pop from the wizard that is Will. Fantastic songs and production.
Twinkledigitz did a launch gig with one of my other faves of the year, KEYO ROSEs FLYING CIRCUS. Keyo Rose is a flash young pop star who I would hate to pigeonhole. He plays a Les Paul and has corkscrew hair and really puts out. Very young. Has a great rhythm section . Put out a debut album and did a lot of shows. Several members left so he’s going to have to rebuild. So young and so great he will be able to do that. A fantastic explosion of talent.
4. The Fauves
They put out an amazing album called "TROPICAL STRENGTH". Great rock songs with brilliant lyrics. Two lead vocalists and writers. Excellent rhythm section. Saw them do a great gig in a hall in country Victoria with Custard who are still great. Also on the bill were The Stress Of Leisure who put out a fantastic album too. Probably my gig of the year.
https://youtu.be/_DxWexPNftA?si=_mDgZmJZVV5YB0vg
5. RIP David Johansen.
Always a favourite and an inspiration. Love all of his solo albums and I’m so glad I got to see a version of the New York Dolls on that strange tour they did here a few years ago. I got back of the stage and said hello and thank you for everything to him. What a great character and voice!
6. RIP D’Angelo.
Everything he did was stellar and sold platinum. Such a shock when he passed. Brown Sugar and Voodoo were such brilliant albums.
7. RIP James Baker.
Such a cool guy for such an Original Gangster. He wore it all so well. I watched the funeral proceedings via the online feed. Boris Sudjovic spoke so well of how James made everything he touched so immediately cool.
8. SMOKED SALMON.
Kim Salmon is another long time inspiration. This great, loose collective he got together did a lot of great shows and made a great album. Bravo Kim!
9. New albums from The Cruel Sea, Pulp, The Divine Comedy, The Apartments, Jack Ladder.
10. Singing a song with The Beasts at the Forum in Melbourne.
They were doing a show around the "Black Milk" album. Their last album "ULTIMO" was excellent and their tour with James Baker seemed to remake or bring out different qualities in them. It was fun guesting with them. At the end we all had a squawk on a closing number and Cash Savage and I stood at Kim Salmon's mic. His amp was excruciatingly loud from behind and his foldback was so loud in front that his set list taped to it flew up with every bass drum beat coming out of it. Cash and I were being punched in the head from two directions.
11. Melbourne band On Diamond performing live.
If “post punk” as a term meant anything vital and progressive it would be On Diamond. Lisa Salvos' jazz powered vocal and Genevieve Fry on harp , Scott McConnachie and his brilliant, atonal, avant garde yet perfectly placed guitar and synth, Jules Pascoe rocking it like Lee Harvey Oswald on bass and their 80-year-old
avant garde percussionist, Duré Dara . Amazing! Their new album is "Melon On The Vine".
12. Charlie Macleans Country Gold live in Sydney.
A master of honky tonk vocalising and presentation with a killer band.
