Category Archive: Modern Music
Workshy by Dave Graney
(Adelaide launch, 10 November 2017) At Imprints on Hindley Street, The Varnished Culture attended the launch of Workshy: My Life as a Bludge, the modestly titled autobiography by the undisputed Funky King of the Lounge Lizards, Dave Graney. Mr Graney read excerpts with verve and wit and then thrilled the crowd with a couple of acoustic numbers, including “Night of the Wolverine.” Graney’s songs insinuate themselves into the brain till they become giant, lurid earworms. Think “Rock ‘n’ Roll is Where I Hide.” His prose is similar. His account starts with his childhood in Mount Gambier at the bottom of South Australia….
Continue Reading →Dumb Things
Photo of Paul Kelly by Andrew Braithwaite
Songs in Our Heart # 88 Dumb Things (by Paul Kelly) (written by Paul Kelly; released January 1989) [Pure pop by a lyricist with classical learning and sensibility. They just don’t write these anymore, more’s the pity. Kelly has written over 500 songs, and there are lots of great pieces in that portfolio, but none better than this.] “And I get all your good advice It doesn’t stop me from going through these things twice I see the knives out, I turn my back I hear the train coming, I stay right on that track In the middle, in the…
Continue Reading →Dance of the Screamers
Songs in Our Heart # 87 Dance of the Screamers (by Ian Dury and the Blockheads) (written by Ian Dury and Chaz Jankel; released May 1979) [Ian Dury (1942 – 2000) was unique, a unlikely Essex mix of Music Hall, New Wave and Court Jester. Some of the songs were plonking but many were really interesting in terms of structure and lyrical feeling, and the sound was sure – from Sweet Gene Vincent, Billericay Dickie, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, Inbetweenies, This is What We Find, I Want to be Straight, Spasticus Autisticus to Lonely…
Continue Reading →From the Inside
Songs in Our Heart # 86 From the Inside (Marcia Hines) (written by Artie Wayne; released October 1975) [Marcia shone in heaps of songs, including this lush, soulful classic from the fabulous 70s. There’s a tricky lyric structure here that many pop singers couldn’t overcome easily – Marcia does it without raising a sweat. Go on, girl!] “Urging me on, and making me strong You kept on saying Go on girl you can do it, It’s only life There’s nothing to it, no…”
Continue Reading →La La Land / The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
(La La Land directed by Damien Chazelle) (2016) (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg directed by Jacques Demy) (1964) We’ve not been to Los Angeles much in recent years but the town stays in the memory. It’s full of brand identification – Sunset Blvd., the Chinese Theatre, the film studios, the Roosevelt Hotel, the Beverly Wiltshire, The Viper Room…the beaches! The hills! The outlets! The orange smog! Emma Stone (the fresh-faced, bug-eyed lass from Birdman) is Mia, a waitress with dreams of stardom. Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a jazz bore par excellence, struggling away in obscurity. She has dud auditions; he has to play 80s horror-tunes…
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