The Drones - any good (also Tropical Fuck Storm content here)

Crazy Horse meets the Birthday Party with a little Tindersticks thrown in.

Simultaneously bringing chaos and beauty into the crowded dive, The Drones eerie brand of noise was the perfect end to a wonderful day of music. Whether one is hell-raising or soul-searching, The Drones� wallop will see you through. Perhaps like a present day Velvet Underground, songs like "Featuring The Cockeyed Lowlife Of The Highlands" and "New Kind Of Kick" more than adequately represented this generation's desire for more, while other tunes hypnotized and identified with the mournful listener. Looking back at SXSW, The Drones were my favorite bit of it all. The Beerland showcase was the stuff of Legend (in my mind, anyway) ...noise, sleazy rock n' roll and transcendence through sound. If you don't go out and find Here Come The Lies, The Drones fabulous new record, (Spooky Records), you're missing out on some of the best music around. God bless them Aussies...

from: http://www.crazewire.com/features/20030322188.php

Amen,
-chad
P.S. Everyone in their right mind should be going to see Racebannon this Friday at lava lounge patio (austin, TX, usa) for their SXSW showcase. oh my goodness. www.myspace.com/racebannonrocks

It doesn't seem to have a "Shark Fin Blues" on it after a few listens, but I'm still spending time with it.

i don't know, 'never gonna change' sort of fulfills that role (and caused a full-on audience ruck at their london show last week)

Apparently, they were'nt very good, according to their manager, Paul Morely.

i wanna check these doodz out.

I've been tempted with that album but if that is heads above the rest then I may leave it and try the new one?

Yeah the 1977 Drones from Manchester? I always wanted to hear them when I was fixated with '77 punk.I even wrote them on my pencil case at school without hearing them. Since read that they were a third division Eater - yeah, that bad.

Great band, my favorite new discovery of last year. If you can track it down, the rarities comp "The Miller's Daughter" is spectacular.

new record, Havilah, coming out in october.
first impression: very good

Awesome!

Last album was great.

lol @ "spends all day looking at porn or playing fucking halo 2"

halo 3's been out for ages n00b.

Excellently rackety live.

I'll speak to this. Hadn't heard them before, but caught their live show at ATP over the weekend, and it was a pleasant surprise. And quite rackety, indeed.

Don't know what I am the Supercargo is about but it's a fucking jamm.

A++++ username wilter, looooool

somehow i think i completely missed hearing anything from 'gala mill', which is weird cos i was a big rep for 'wait long by the river...'; i'll have to check this one out.

'Jezebel' slew me this morning after I put it on on a whim. Gonna have to track this new album down.

first half of the new one might be their best stuff, second half is pretty disappointing. i stan hard for these guys despite the fact that they're never made a front to back good album.

they are pretty insane live

saddest thing evar--i was one of 5 ppl who saw them when they came to boston a couple years ago. they still brought it. i felt bad and bought a lot of merch.

I actually think their last record WAS the only one that was good front-to-back.

eh it totally lost me after careful as you go. oh my is brutal lyrically by any standard nevermind the normally excellent drones guy.

I may be totally biased here, but i really think it's pretty consistent throughout. Certainly more downbeat in general compared to their other albums (emphasised after the couple of heavier/faster moments at the start). but still, all killer no filler.

especially Cold & Sober. wonderful.

friend of mine has become obsessed with 'shark fin blues' and listening to it i can see why

They won best live act at last weeks first Australian Rolling Stone awards :-)

nah

impossible poll would be best drones album opener

jezebel > shark fin > nail it down > cockeyed lowlife > someone on your bond

They won best live act at last weeks first Australian Rolling Stone awards :-)

i saw them play an absolutely crushing opening set for about 5 people a couple years ago. felt terrible and bought a bunch of merch.

man how the memory fades, it was EXACTLY five people back in July

lol file this under too much time on ilx

Yeah the 1977 Drones from Manchester? I always wanted to hear them when I was fixated with '77 punk.I even wrote them on my pencil case at school without hearing them. Since read that they were a third division Eater - yeah, that bad.

They weren't bad at all - definitely up there with such luminaries as the Lurkers anyway. They didn't have punk authenticity cos they were a pub rock band before but I couldn't give a toss about that.

Pretty excited for lead singer Gareth Liddiard's solo album 'Strange Tourist'. First track to be previewed is very sparse, melancholy folk. Check it out:

http://www.messandnoise.com/releases/2000745

The Gareth Liddiard record is amazing, if stupidly long.

Must be one of the most underrated/under-appreciated bands of the now eh? Feel like they are a secret club of people who know that they are amazing live and put out worthwhile records. Weird that a band with this high quality output and great live presence would go so unnoticed. I'm speaking only in the US. Are they quite big in the UK errr?

otm

New EP is nice. I really like the new take on “Aspirin”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sixKZP8ed_I

new single "the golden ratio", off a new compilation album submersive behaviour out next year. compiles 3 tracks from this year's moonburn ep + this new song + an 18 minute cover of hendrix's "1983 (a merman i should turn to be)"

a what minute cover of what, oh my god

Noooo goddamn it

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnAuvcnSxZB/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Fuck, that's bad

:(

what's in the link, for non-members?

fiona has stage 3 breast cancer, all non-aus touring dates cancelled

I really like the TFS cover of 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)

i had no idea about these guys. 'shark fin blues' is nuts.

yah the best in the biz

New live album out today, which I haven't listened to.

I've never seen them live but they're high on my list. Apparently they are playing Pappy & Harriet's in a few weeks but that's a bit of a drive for me so I'm not sure I'll make that. Their only LA date is in a record store. Could be fun I'm sure but doesn't feel like the ideal first way to see them.

sounds awesome to me but ymmv

would say they are worth seeing in any context

me a cbesinger travelled to chicago to see them and they were fucking amazing

almost a totally different thing like the drums are fairly treated on their records but live she is just a monster, like huge bonham/todd trainer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4fWtXQrJ00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AricQxsDvkg

new album fairyland codex in june! these tracks sound like the voidz lol

the drones are also reuniting for a pair of benefit shows in melbourne, but it's just a one-off thing which is fine with me as i prefer tfs anyway

I really like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXe2e9EoAtE

yeah, that's great. This is one of very few upcoming 2025 releases I'm excited about

Really loved that, highly original and compelling. Glad to have more Dunn vocal songs too.
Is Fi on hiatus from the group? I had heard she recovered from the cancer and thought she had performed with them since, but not in the videos, so ... ?

she's been in some of the recent videos, just not that one

I like that it sounds a little like the new Vanguarda paulista

Drones playing tonight in Melbourne! Have enjoyed a bit of retro nostalgia footage being shared via TFS insta - they had a few ups and downs IMO but when they were firing they were just so incredible

Yeah I saw them in a small pub in Hobart when they were touring Havilah, my god that was something.

New album is excellent

might be their best

shit I need to get on this

feels kinda like a sequel to i sea seaweed in the best way

say less

title track is just phenomenal

I didn’t really connect with their last album and was beginning to wonder if the project had run its course, but that concern has been eradicated

feels kinda like a sequel to i sea seaweed in the best way

Definitely their most Drones-esque while still retaining the TFS identity that sets them apart.

One word for Fiona and that nice string of tracks at the end: Bloodsport, Joe Meek, Bye Bye Snake Eyes. Goon Show and Teeth Marché too.

Saw them last week in St Louis and it was great

Seeing them Saturday in LA and can’t wait!! Bringing my 15yo son and hoping to blow is little mind

Seeing them Saturday in LA and can’t wait!! Bringing my 15yo son and hoping to blow is little mind

They were excellent and son’s mind was indeed blown. Mosh pit broke out right in front of us—first time in 15 or so years that I was at a show where that happened.

Really great and lively set list with lots of songs from the first and newest albums, and a couple from Braindrops plus a couple covers. Nothing from the third album.

New record is great, but I am loving the live record so much, such a great snapshot of chaos they generate in person vs the chaos on tape

Nice KEXP performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCantJzv05k

drones reunion tour! really i'd just like to see tfs again though

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/doublej/music-reads/music-news/the-drones-australian-tour-2026/106558538

Oh boy. Something in me snapped and I have bought tix for the final show at Archie’s Creek - will figure out details later!

I like when things say "Boon Wurrung Land" -- it's where I live -- and I still get a wee geography lesson looking up where Archie's Creek is, as these trad regions can be vast and salamander-shaped. :)

Looking a little complex for places to stay!

Feelin Kinda Free is pretty good innit. The first half especially. I picked up a cheap CD last year but only revisited this week.

I fear the Tamam Shud/Somerton man stuff extending to the cover may have been some sort of sub-rational turn-off a decade ago.

ha - it piqued my interest because my daughter was obsessed at the time! Incredible to think that album is ten years old now.

...and also that in a few short years we would know that the deceased was (probably) a relatively unremarkable civilian from Melb lol. (I was bit obsessed myself at one point.)

Yeah I choose not to accept the solution, it’s still unsolved for me

my god, I just found out they announced more shows and now the tour finishes … where I live.

You and your namby-pamby 'scientific rigour' :P

An awful lot of Sold Outs on that swelling list too.

nah no rigour involved, I just loved the mystery and hate to collapse it into something dull!
I've bought my Hobart tickets and will figure out what to do with the Archie's Creek ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R637nsVTwZ0

they've released an updated mix of deep states, it sounds like a clear improvement to my ears

If you’re wondering why Deep States has been remixed it’s because it was made during the pandemic in a studio 150 kilometres from a city. The album had been recorded and was about half way through mixing when the computer it was being finished on shat itself and died. This part of the album process happened during a lockdown (so the computer could not be repaired) and the lockdown happened about a week before the album deadline. The deadline was for manufacturing. And the deadline couldn’t be moved because it had been moved many times previous due to the pandemic. So the mixes on the original version of Deep States are not really finished. They’re just what they were when the computer blew up. This new version is stripped all the way back to what it is which is a bunch of songs recorded on and bounced between various tape machines, through ghetto blasters, some parts recorded on a bus, some in a schoolroom, some outdoors, through crunchy old samplers, with drum machines run through crapped out amps… just to see what happened. And this is what happened.