PURE F'IN' GENIUS...The album in question -
Whatever You Love, You Are, from 2000, is probably
The Dirty Three's overall best effort, though there's one track in particular you should pay attention to: it's track three, "I Offered It Up To The Stars And The Night Sky". It's over 13-and-a-half minutes long, and rates to these ears as one of
the great prog/avant-rock epics of all time. It builds slowly from what sounds like an old
Morricone Spaghetti Western motif before driving deceptively into a sweeping melody for a few minutes. Then the slow build starts once more, dives into the melody yet again, but this time with
feeling (as they say) and then builds and
builds, screeching violins, scattershot percussion and churning guitar. It's
the shit, and it lasts over 13 minutes. If you think I'm being trite in writing about the Dirty Three in these pages, then you have your head - and your ears - up your ass. I'm mighty glad to've rediscovered the band in the last 12 months, and fill in some release gaps in the meantime, and a song as righteously
good as "I Offered It..." reaches such transcendent peaks it makes a man realise why he wastes so much time w/ all this musical shit in the first place. A-fuckin'-men to that.
PURE F'IN' GENIUS...
Comments
I've always tended to oscillate between this one & "Horse Stories" - tends to depend what mood I'm in/HS being much bleaker in feel - but, you've certainly picked the peak re track three on this one...covers all the territory, and then some...
By the way, got a couple of things I'd like to send you - and, yes, I do know that you'll only mention them if you're genuinely impressed...
So, what'd be their destination?
all the best
John Henry Calvinist
PO Box 346 Coburg VIC 3058 Australia is the place to go!
Cheers,
Dave
The DIRTY 3 are the biggest rock fraud in recent memory. That they never bettered their first record, let alone three quarts of the Venom P Stinger catalogue is proof of that.
That there is a gaggle of shmedricks that still rate them and support their successful international-undie network career is further proof of that too.
A) Making a reference to Leapin' Larry L's truly appalling taste in rock music; I think Larry is one of the funniest and most insightful (and tragically wasted) talents in the media this country has (and, yeah, I know the guy), but I wouldn't trust his taste in rock music as far as I could throw him. If I did, I'd be listening to Jethro Tull, the Scorpions and the Georgia Satellites.
B) Using the horrendously dated lingo of old-school-hack 3RRR DJs such as James Young and David Vodicka in referring to me as a "shmedrik". Really, you oughta be ashamed! Back to the drawing board, boy...