ALBUM REVIEW # 1
BY SIMON SWEETMAN // OFF THE TRACKS, JULY 2
Melbourne’s Dan Brodie has been releasing his own versions of cow-punk (You Make Me Wanna Kill), blustery rockabilly twang (Take A Bullet), lonesome, windswept balladry (Tear Us Down) and shit-kicking swagger (Booze to Blame) for a while now. Here he combine all of the separate vestiges of his career to date and focusses them on turning a set of rock and pop classics on their ear with a covers-album project that should please both the fans and newcomers.
Dark and brooding are the two moods most conjured here, with Dan handling most of the instruments himself and many of the songs stripped back to a couple of guitars and a bassline – a bit of piano here and there and some licks from the lap steel on a chugging version of Iggy Pop’s The Passenger.
The devastating mood – and the announcement of a vital interpreter – is announced with the opening cover of Dylan’s Standing In The Doorway – multi-tracked backing vocals bubbling and brewing.
Same deal with Merle Haggard’s Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down which has the slow-churning intensity of Mercy Seat-era Nick Cave.
The Cave comparison continues across the piano/guitar intro to Brodie’s version of Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al, but the double-tracked lead vocal sounds like Dan Kelly covering Elliott Smith – Simon’s lyric that bounces along on an Afro-pop beat in the original sounds threatening in this slowed, dramatic take: “I will be your bodyguard” – and “Where’s my wife and family/What if I die here” is almost spat out in a distorted panic. It’s a stunning reinvention.
In a disc full of highlights I also want to mention Prince’s Take Me With U, as with Call Me Al, the very meaning of the lyric seems to distort and twist in the way that Brodie slows and bends the tune; warping the original intentions but still honouring the (power of the) song.
Lost Not Found is a Sunday hangover for any day of the week, a loner’s gem, a startling set of back-alley takes on established classics; new life breathing in through the bones of these songs, the flesh exposed, the spirit soaked in new bar-room spirits no doubt, but something wonderful has happened here. For it never feels like a cold gimmick, it always feels like another correct way for these songs to live and breathe and feel.
ALBUM REVIEW # 2
By Chris Familton // Post To Wire, November 20, 2017
Covers albums can swing two ways, attempts at slavish replicas of the original songs or those instances where the artist recasts the songs in a new light, with their own personality and style at the forefront. Dan Brodie has successfully taken the latter route with a collection of songs that reveal some of his influences and spotlight his accomplished and affecting way with re-interpretation.
The source material here includes numerous titans of the music world – Bob Dylan, Prince, Iggy Pop, Paul Simon, Merle Haggard, Motorhead – plus a trio of Brodie’s own compositions that easily hold their place amid such defining artists.
Invariably Brodie invests the covers with a brooding, gothic country pall, taking them into the shadows and finding their dark corners. Simon’s ‘You Can Call Me Al’ is impressive in its new form. Devoid of its bounce and pop it could be a message from a kidnapper to his intended victim. That murder ballad mood permeates the album in the way that Nick Cave might also approach the songs. Prince’s ‘Take Me With U’ retains a distant electronic pulse that is coloured by Brodie’s high and lonesome vocal, taking the song into a world of melancholic desperation.
Metallica covered Motorhead’s “Damage Case’ but it never sounded like this, a heartfelt and fragile meditation on a wounded soul. Dylan’s ‘Standing In The Doorway’ lifts the pace of the slow-swaying original and hits gothic-country trails with added urgency and cold-hearted menace, suggesting revenge is just around the corner.
REVIEWS ARCHIVE
Dan Brodie
BIG HEARTED LOVIN' MAN – A RETROSPECTIVE (1999-2014)
(Fat Swine Records)
★★★★
In light of his 2013 face-off with mortality, you might think Brodie wrote these songs to pass time during cancer-busting treatments. The Melbourne maverick's reworked musings on life and his renegade ways now evoke that bigger picture. Back-catalogue gems feature (solo, Broken Arrows, Grieving Widows) plus covers of Sonic Youth's 100% and Spencer P. Jones' Missing. This lot was recorded live in one session with Brodie solo but for occasional guitar from brother Chris. Jesus Try and Save Me remains raw and exhilarating. The alt-country, indie rock continues between plaintive balladry and Tex-Mex flavours. Versions of Too Much Of You In My Head bookend the pilgrimage from unchallenged youthful swagger to fear and doubt, then onward to victorious redemption.
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-life/dan-brodie--big-hearted-lovin-man-a-retrospective-20150630-gi1c28.html#ixzz3hhmhGgB2
DAN BRODIE: gira española a finales de mayo
A finales de este mismo mes de mayo volverá a España el australiano Dan Brodie. En esta ocasión, el músico de Melbourne lo hará en su formato más íntimo, en solitario y sin banda.
Nacido en una familia de músicos, Brodie debutó en 1998 con un EP titulado "I'm Floatin Mamma", al que siguió el álbum "Big Black Guitar" (1999), publicado éste acompañado de The Broken Arrows. En 2001, EMI reeditó el disco - anunciándolo a bombo y platillo – e hizo su primera gira europea, con aclamados conciertos en Gran Bretaña y Francia. A su regreso a Australia, Brodie grabó un nuevo EP, esta vez bajo la supervisión del productor John Wooler (Willie Nelson) y el técnico Oz Fritz (Tom Waits), titulado "Make Me Wanna Kill" (2001). De esas mismas sesiones nació una de las obras maestras del rock aussie, "Empty Arms, Broken Hearts" (2001), con el que Brodie obtuvo dos nominaciones a los Aria Awards. Tras un respiro, dedicado principalmente a descansar y componer, Brodie regresó a primera línea con "Beautiful Crimes" (2005), una colección de canciones cargadas de armonías, incluyendo una de las canciones del verano de ese año. Tras el éxito, y el agotamiento, Brodie se traslada a Brasil durante medio año y cae en un hoyo del que no sale hasta 2010. Ese año, Brodie regresa a la música y, un año más tarde, forma Dan Brodie & The Grieving Widows con Dave Nicholls (Ian Rilen, Spencer P. Jones) y Chris Brodie (The Broken Arrows), con quienes publica "My Friend the Murderer" (2011), disco publicado en Europa por Beast Records y que presentó con banda al completo en más de 25 ciudades europeas. Ahora, como decíamos, llega acompañado únicamente de su guitarra acústica para presentar su último disco, "Deep Deep Love" (2013), un disco acústico, personalísimo y sin florituras, aunque precioso. Lo componen once canciones que el músico australiano ha ido componiendo a lo largo de los últimos quince años y que hace cosa de poco más de un año se vio con ánimo de plasmar en un disco. Canciones escritas mientras compartía habitáculo con Robbie Rocket (Cosmic Psychos) y Shane Walsh (Rose Tattoo) unas, con influencias del gran Ennio Morricone y que no tenían cabida en álbumes más contundentes otras y la mayoría cuando estaba a muchas horas de casa en cualquiera de los muchos lugares por donde ha viajado. http://ROCKANDROLLARMY.COM
100% Rock
Review by Shane Pillager
"You might wonder why musicians do it nowadays. The internet has taken most of the money out of music, and at best a cult act such as Dan Brodie will make a modest living scratching around to make ends meet..."
The answer is right here between the (virtual, if you like) grooves of Brodie’s retrospective throughout his life in music, from the late ‘90s alt-country twang of The Broken Arrows – with whom he picked up a couple of ARIA nominations – through to his more recent, gritty garage rocking Grieving Widows outfit.
Brodie makes music because he has stories to tell, songs to sing, melodies to share – art to create. He’s a largely unsung poet, troubadour, rocker and a minor legend.
Recorded in one night in January 2015 in Melbourne, with only sporadic electric guitar from guitarist brother Chris Brodie, Big Hearted Lovin’ Man sees Brodie reinterpreting his songs with just an honest voice and acoustic guitar, bringing a fragility and raw truth to the likes of Big Black Guitar, Take A Bullet, Sonic Youth’s 100%, (I Don’t Want) Another Lover, the rootsy spiritual stomp of Lower Me Down,
In light of Brodie’s cancer battle which took him out of play for most of 2013, the gentle touch, emotional vocals and evocative lyrics of I’m Floatin’ Mama, Lullaby and I Seen The Light make them impossible not to view in a brand new light.
If it’s part of the magic of art to take on new meanings dependant upon their interpretations as time goes by, then Dan Brodie’s Big Hearted Lovin’ Man is magic indeed, and shows in no uncertain manner how he garnered the admiration of the likes of Spencer P Jones and Paul Kelly.
Dan Brodie & The Grieving Widows: “Run Yourself Ragged EP"
www.elgiradiscos.com
Review by Txema Mañeru
Para todos aquellos quienes apreciamos la obra y la personalidad del australiano Dan Brodie es una satisfacción comprobar con que fuerza ha superado un potente cáncer que no ha podido acabar con él. Ha sido casi un año de lucha física y psíquica en la que ahora comprobamos que sólo ha habido un vencedor. Ese ha sido Dan y aquí tienes la prueba sonora de ello. ¡Enhorabuena invencible! Además prometió que regresaría a tocar entre nosotros cuando superara la batalla y esperemos que con la ayuda de algún promotor pueda cumplirla. Puedes contactar con él y conseguir sus discos en danbrodie.bandcamp.com y en www.danbrodie.com.au.
El bueno de Dan comenzó en el 98 en Melbourne y ha tocado junto a cracks de su país como Spencer P. Jones (Beasts Of Bourbon), Ian Rilen, de Rose Tattoo o Tim Rogers de los algo más poperos You Am I. Le conocimos aquí girando con la presentación de su recio trabajo con The Grieving Widows, My Friend the Wanderer (Fat Swine Records). Con él ya se habló, con lógica, de Nick Cave, Kill Devil Hills, The Gun Club o James Chance. Lo más reciente que había hecho es Deep Deep Love casi totalmente en solitario y con esas canciones acumuladas con amor a lo largo del tiempo y que, por ser más íntimas, personales u otras razones, había acumulado de cara a un posible trabajo de estas características. El Neil Young de Harvest o su paisano Paul Kelly, en sus momentos más recogidos, eran referencias que surgían al oír esta relajada maravilla. Read more: http://www.elgiradiscos.com/2014/09/dan-brodie-grieving-widows-run-yourself.html
442eme Rue #97
by Leo
"En France on avait découvert Dan Brodie (à l'époque accompagné des Broken Arrows) grâce à Last Call qui avait réalisé son premier album, "Big black guitar", en 2001 (l'album était paru en 99 en Australie). Puis Dan Brodie avait signé pour EMI qui a sorti ses 2 albums suivants, un second toujours avec les Broken Arrows, puis un disque "solo". Malheureusement pour lui, il semble bien que Dan Brodie ait été royalement entubé par la major (étonnant non ?), ce qui explique qu'il lui ait fallu 6 ans pour se dépatouiller du maquis juridique ayant entouré une fi n de contrat apparemment peu glorieuse. C'est donc l'année dernière seulement qu'il a pu faire paraître ce qui n'est que son quatrième album, ce "My friend the murderer" que Beast Records publie aujourd'hui par chez nous. Exeunt les Broken Arrows, Dan Brodie est aujourd'hui accompagné par les Grieving Widows, soit son frère Chris Brodie à la basse (déjà dans les Broken Arrows), et le batteur Dave Nicholls (déjà vu et entendu derrière Spencer P. Jones entre autres). Musicalement on note aussi une nette évolution. Si "Big black guitar" faisait la part belle à une country alternative plutôt jubilatoire, ce nouveau "My friend the murderer" (je n'ai pas eu l'occasion d'écouter les 2 albums intermédiaires) durcit sensiblement le ton. On sent Dan Brodie plutôt amer suite à son aventure EMI. Plus question de country aujourd'hui, mais bien plutôt d'un rock assez tendu, compact, virulent, qui aurait à voir avec un indie rock à l'américaine, version 90's, mais pas que... Il y a aussi quelques grains de folie sonore (les saxs de "Lower me down", "Over and over" et "Rain set in", à la fois libres, conquérants et incantatoires), d'abruptes parties de guitare, denses et autoritaires, un orgue lancinant ("Cold hearted hater"), et une sorte de noirceur désabusée ("That ain't too cool man" ou le lourd et obsédant "My friend the murderer"). C'est sûr, 13 ans après "Big black guitar", Dan Brodie n'est plus le même homme. Il s'est endurci."
MESS + NOISE
"MY FRIEND THE MURDERER" ALBUM REVIEW
by Nick Argyriou
“My body is aching from fucking and fighting/From slippin’ and slidin’/From truthin’ and lyin’,” trails off a fraught Dan Brodie vocal on album closer ‘On The Horizon’. The line comes to us right there at the death of Brodie’s seething ‘My Friend The Murderer’. It’s a sharp observation from the one-time country pop liberator of Australian music, six years down the troubled track. Brodie is shattered towards the conclusion here, and suitably so: the 10 tracks that precede ‘On The Horizon’ release some of the more vicious barbs one can possibly muster. This is “angry pills” central and Brodie’s real close to overdosing on the rage – whether he’s “falling upstairs and pissing himself” and a “miser, monster and cynic” on ‘Lower Me Down’, or “a cold-hearted hater with a spastic mouth” on the direct ‘Cold Hearted Hater’.
Breaking into intermittent parables, and keeping in line with almost the entire record, Brodie favours more of a brutish holler than a tuneful vocal manner. “I gotta heart full of hate and a belly full of beer/A lifetime of mistakes has brought me here,” he informs on ‘That Ain’t Too Cool Man’, before spewing forth his omnipotent tirade – one of many. “I hope that your end is a fucking disgrace/With your pants round your ankles/And blue in the face/With a belt round your neck/And a plug up your arse….” Damn!
Where Big Black Guitar (1999), Empty Arms, Broken Hearts (2002) and Beautiful Crimes (2005), all threatened this livid demeanour, My Friend The Murderer just goes straight for the jugular with some of the more maddening and pissed-at-the-world progressions committed to tape. Kudos to his wingmen: brother Chris Brodie on bass, lap-steel and guitar, plus the unremitting drumming of Dave Nicholls for coming out of this alive. No soft-cock balladry found here, nor an introspective examination of one’s own existence these past six years – on My Friend The Murderer, Brodie is all rather absolute about things.
Much more than simply an archetypal rant record, My Friend The Murderer is poignant like a punch in the face, and uber-belligerent the way unsympathetic rock intended.
paisajeselectricos.com"DEEP DEEP LOVE" ALBUM REVIEW
by Txema Mañeru
Esto es lo que se dice un trabajo totalmente personal! Y precioso, añado yo. Este hombre de Melbourne debutó en 1998 y ha trabajado con Spencer P. Jones (Beasts Of Bourbon), Ian Rilen (Rose Tatoo), Tim Rogers (You Am I) y otras luminarias de aquel vasto país. Ha ganado varios premios ARIA, equivalentes a los Grammy allí. Aquí le conocimos en una estupenda gira presentando el sensacional My Friend The Wanderer (Fat Swine Records), que vino firmado como Dan Brodie & The Grieveing Widows. Read more: http://www.paisajeselectricos.com
OX-Fanzine #104
by Joachim Hiller,
"Beast Records aus Frankreich hat eine grosse Schwäche für australische Rockmusik, vorzugsweise aus Melbourne, und so kommt neben den Alben von BURIED HORSES und BITTER SWEET KICKS gleich noch ein dritter Release des Labels von dort. Mit 'My Friend the Murderer' hat DAN BRODIE (Gitarre, Gesang) nebst seinen trauernden Witmen Dave Nicholls (spielte schon Spencer P. Jones) und Chris Brodie (BROKEN ARROWS) ein dramatisches, düsteres Werk eingespielt, das sich auf die unvermeidlichen Grössen und Uberväter des Melbourne-(Post)-Punk-Szene gleichermassen bezieht, wie auch Ähnlichkeiten zum Schaffen von Jon Spencer erkennbar sind (beeindruckende gelegentliche Saxophonparts!) - GALLON DRUNK nicht zu vergessen. Muzik, so reduziert, simpel und schnörkellos, dass sie völlig zeitlos wirkt. Wer seine Verzweiflung nach erheblichem Alkoholgenuss gerne dramatisch in mondlosen Nächten herausbrüllt, statt sie introvertiert zu verarbeiten, ist hier genau richtig."
Joachim Hiller,
DIG IT! #55
"MY FRIEND THE MURDERER" ALBUM REVIEW
BY Lo' Spider
"Dan Brodie n'est pas à proprement parler un inconnu puisqu'il commet ses premiers méfaits dès 1998, avec son frère Chris au sein des Broken Arrows... Un groupe semi acoustique qui devait autant à la country qu'auGun Club et qui a été approché, le temps d'un album, par EMI. Aujourd'hui, retour sur un label indépendant (deux même, puisque Beast Rds sort le disque par chez nous) avec un nouvel album, My Friend the Murderer. Le frangin est toujours là, à la basse cette fois et l'on retrouve derrière les fûts le batteur de Spencer P. Jones... Ai-je oublié de vous préciser que Dan Brodie est australien ? De Melbourne, pour changer ! Bref, la musique des Grieving Widows est plus électrique que leurs travaux passés, moins introspective. Une sorte de boogie-blues moderne où se croiseraient AC/DC, les White Stripes et leurs congénères 6 Ft Hick, par exemple. Le son est massif, brut de décoffrage, la voix prenante et les arrangements choyés... Un des bons disque du trimestre"