The Drones: Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By 2005 + Gala Mill 2006

 

The Drones were an Australian rock band, formed in Perth by mainstay lead vocalist and guitarist

Gareth Liddiard in 1997. Fiona Kitschin, his domestic partner, joined on bass guitar and vocals in 2002. Other long-term members include Rui Pereira on bass guitar and then lead guitar; Mike Noga on drums, vocals, harmonica and percussion; and Dan Luscombe on lead guitar, vocals and keyboards. Their second album, Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By (April 2005), won the inaugural Australian Music Prize.
                

In October 2010 their third studio album, "Gala Mill" (September 2006) was listed at No. 21 in

the book, 100 Best Australian Albums. Two of their albums have reached the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart, I See Seaweed (March 2013) and Feelin Kinda Free (March 2016). The group went on hiatus in December 2016 with Kitschin and Liddiard forming a new group, Tropical Fuck Storm, in the following year.
              

Recording of the Drones' second album, Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By, occurred during 2003 with Loki Lockwood of Spooky Records producing. Once the sessions

were complete the group wanted to change labels, which stalled its release while they saved up enough money to buy out their contract.[7][8] In 2004 Strybosch left the band and was replaced by Mike Noga (Legends of Motorsport) on drums. Bruce Milne's In-Fidelity Recordings eventually issued the album in April 2005, to enthusiastic reviews from the underground music press.
                

"Shark Fin Blues", was released as its lead single, which Denham Sadler of The Guardian described,

"delves into the darkest corners of the human psyche, where depression, loss and anger lie. It's a bitter song that typifies Liddiard's unique approach to music and songwriting and has become an anthem of sorts for the disenfranchised and melancholic." The album was nominated for Triple J's inaugural 2005 J Award prize in 2005, which was won by Wolfmother.
                     

THE DRONES - WAITING LONG BY THE RIVER AND THE BODIES OF YOUR ENEMIES WILL FLOAT BY 2005

                          

Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By is the second album released by

the Drones. Recorded "100% live" (like its predecessor), the album draws influence from the likes of Neil Young and Rowland S. Howard, though it has been described by lead singer/guitarist Gareth Liddiard himself as a punk rock album. The lyrics, penned by Liddiard, deal with issues such as death, depression and alcoholism in its depiction of Australian working class life.
                        

The album received critical acclaim upon release, regarded later on as the band's "break-out" and one of their most popular releases. The track "Shark Fin Blues", in particular, went on to become a concert

staple and was voted by contemporary Australian songwriters as the greatest Australian song of all time in October 2009. The album itself was performed live in its entirety many times, even as a part of the acclaimed Don't Look Back concert series. In 2008, The Age ranked it the best Australian album of the 21st century. Three years later, the band's contemporaries & "industry experts" would vote it the 24th best Australian album of all time.In 2021, Rolling Stone Australia included Wait Long on their list of "The 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time".
                         

The title summons up a sense of the sinister. Of mythological tales of murderous intent, of past injustices and a fateful dread for the things that are beyond one's control. And there are many tales of eye-opening, heartbreaking and deeply troubling events that songwriter Gareth Liddiard reveals seeped into the menace and simmering rage that lies not too far beneath the surface of the songs on this album.

Many of them stem from a time long before his band was even formed. And although it’s already been eighteen years since Wait Long’s release still feels as fresh and sharp as it did in 2005. Now maybe that’s just the nostalgia talking, or the fact that there seems to be less and less “guitar bands” nowadays. But one thing I’m sure of is that as my hair turns grey and falls out, I’ll be one of those assholes saying: They don’t make albums like this anymore.
                                  

The Drones – Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By
Label: In-Fidelity Recordings – INFCD106
Format:    CD, Album
Country: Australia
Released: Apr 18, 2005
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock

TRAXS

                               

01. Shark Fin Blues   5:43
Written-By – Liddiard, Pereira
02. Baby   3:35
Written-By – Strybosch, Kitschin, Liddiard, Pereira
03. The Best You Can Believe In   7:36
Written-By – Liddiard
04. Locust   6:40
Written-By – Strybosch, Kitschin, Liddiard, Pereira
05. You Really Don't Care   4:41
Written-By – Liddiard
06. Sitting On The Edge Of The Bed Cryin'   7:38
Written-By – Strybosch, Kitschin, Liddiard, Pereira
07. The Freedom In The Loot   6:17
Written-By – Liddiard
08. Another Rousing Chorus You Idiots!!!   5:57
Written-By – Liddiard
09. This Time   5:35
Written-By – Liddiard, Mc Cann

THE DRONES

Bass, Vocals [Singing], Piano – Fiona Kitschin
Drums, Vocals [Singing] – Christian Strybosch
Guitar, Vocals [Singing], Violin – Rui Pereira
Guitar, Vocals, Synth, Organ [Hammond] – Gareth Liddiard
Organ [Hammond Wurlitzer] – Steve Hesketh

SHARK FIN BLUES LYRICS            

                                                               
                                              

Standing on the deck watching my shadow stretch
The sun pours my shadow upon the deck
The waters licking round my ankles now
There ain't no sunshine way way down

I see the sharks out in the water like slicks of ink
Well, there's one there bigger than a submarine
As he circles I look in his eye
I see Jonah in his belly by the campfire light

See the albatross up in the windy lofts
He gets to beating his wings while he sleeps it off
I hear the jettisoned cries from his dreams unkind
Gets to whippin' my ears like a riding crop

The captain once as able as a fink dandy
He's now laid up in the galley like a dried out mink
He's laying dying of thirst and he says or I think
Well, we're gonna be alone from here on in

Well you are all my brothers, and you have been kind
But what were you expecting to find?
Now your eyes turn inwards, countenance turns blank
And I'm floating away on a barrel of pain
It looks like nothing but the sea and sky remain

I sing na na nana nananana na
Na na nana nananana na

A harpoon's shaft is short and wide
A grappling hook's is cracked and dry
I said, why don't you get down in the sea
Turn the water red like you want to be?
Cause if I cry another tear I'll be turned to dust
No the sharks won't get me they don't feel loss
Just keep one eye on the horizon man, you best not blink
They're coming fin by fin until the whole boat sinks

Fin by fin
Fin by fin
Fin by fin by fin by fin

LOCUS LYRICS

 
               

Georgie, I can't stop drinking
Seems like every time I try I can't stop thinking
Georgie, when I was a boy
I would stand there in the shade
Of a wedding cake hotel doorway
Watching sister with her liquor in a jar
Talk to older boys in cars

Ether was the town where I was born
They pulled iron from the ground
And knife wounds from the port
They built a prison and it tempered in the sun
It rose up off a plateau like the last tooth in a gum
You went there by train and you would never be the same
They made the blacks live outside of town
The weekend come they'd tear the whole place down
The Chinese came without weekends at all
And the whites complained the pay was better
Shooting them in the war
Home may be where the calm blinds
But I could see that they weren't lying

My first girls old man was in a later war
He drank like a motherfucker, now I know what for
She took my van, put Louie in the jack
Left a suicide note and I've got him to thank for that
And he can thank our statesmen hosts
Although his chances are remote

Georgie, I can't stop drinking
Seems like every time I try I can't stop thinking
Georgie, when I was a boy
I would stand there in the shade
Of a wedding cake hotel doorway
Watching sister with her liquor in a jar
Talk to older boys in cars.

ANOTHER ROUSING CHORUS YOU IDIOTS!!! LYRICS

 
                    

I have had night sweats and I am cold
I now have a mattress that’s covered in mould
I have gained nothing, short of all that remains
You were not easy to break

I have seen mountains stop short of the sky
I have seen continents reach the ocean and shy
I have only heard stories of the subterrain
You were not easy to break

I have searched London and I have searched Rome
I have spent thousands, most of it loaned
Now probes straddle asteroids with spider like chaste
You were not easy to break
Come pour it in, pour it in!
You won't ever be full, you won't ever be free
There is no use for order, you’re able or not
Meant to die on your feet
Admit you are only 2 inches away from
Zero control again

I have had beauties and charred fire breathers
I have drank whiskey and methylated spirits
I have seen harder men shrivel and flake
You were not easy to break

I have seen scientists straining to fathom
In one hand a ghost, in the other an atom
We were shat from the wormholes to revere your face
You were not easy to break

I have been subject to shovel and lime
Have studied core samples of the anus bovine
All manner of myopic misgivings deflate
You were not easy to break

Come pour it in, pour it in!
You won't ever be full, you won't ever be free
There is no use for order, you’re able or not
Meant to die on your feet
Admit you are only 2 inches away from
Your skull being turned into scree.

MP3 @ 320 Size: 126 MB
Flac  Size: 334 MB

THE DRONES - GALA MILL 2006

                               

Gala Mill is the third studio album by Australian band the Drones, which was released in September 2006. Recorded in an abandoned mill in Tasmania, it was their last album to feature founding member

Rui Pereira and the first to feature Mike Noga on drums. The music, which makes "an epic leap beyond garage rock", adds influences from folk rock and contemporary folk music to their usual punk blues style. Gareth Liddiard's lyrics for the album are centered more on Australia's colonial and recent history, evident in tracks such as "Jezebel", "Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce" and "Sixteen Straws".
                           

Much like its predecessor, the album received critical acclaim from sources both within and outside Australia, with much of it centered on the album's raw musical style and Liddiard's dark lyricism. It was

also their first album to enter the top 100 of the ARIA Charts & their second to be nominated for the Australian Music Prize. In 2010, "Gala Mill" was listed as one of the 100 Best Australian Albums of all time, while a year later it would be voted by the band's contemporaries & "industry experts" as the 19th best Australian album of all time. The album would also go on to be included on Rolling Stone Australia's list of "The 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time".

The Drones – Gala Mill
Label: ATP Recordings – ATPRCD22, Shock (2) – ATPRCD22
Format:    CD, Album
Country: Australia
Released: Sep 4, 2006
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative, Indie Rock

TRAXS

                            

01. Jezebel    7:52
02. Dog Eared    4:53
03. I'm Here Now    7:46
04. Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce    5:15
05. I Don't Ever Want To Change    3:59
06. Work For Me    5:39
07. I Looked Down The Line And I Wondered    5:29
08. Are You Leaving For The Country?    4:26
09. Sixteen Straws  (Lyrics By [First Verse] – Traditional)  9:35

THE DRONES

Bass – Aaron Cupples (tracks: 8)
Bass, Xylophone, Vocals, Percussion – Fiona Kitschin
Guitar – Dan Luscombe
Guitar, Vocals – Rui Perreira
Percussion, Harmonica, Vocals – Michael Noga
Violin – Michelle Lewit
Vocals, Strings, Guitar, Organ – Gareth Liddiard
Written-By – Richard Tucker (tracks: 8)

I DON'T EVER WANT TO CHANGE LYRICS

 
               
 

I lived in the country where the dead wood aches
In a house made of stone and a thousand mistakes
Where the glory of morning got crushed by the burden of day
I went down to the seaside and it was light and easy
But it was salt in my wounds man I won't ever be free
Though alone on a beach getting drunk ain't a bad way to be.

But I don't ever want to change
It would all be so much easier if you didn't have to change.

I ran a store for six months
Took a match one night
Left concern impaled on a receipt spike
And all hope petering on a leaky roof
And an electric heater up in the back of the room
Well the assessor came came early to walk the ashes
Showing high spirits wouldn't help my chances
I got the money in a week and for a while there everything was fine.

              

See your doctor take the cure and then you got it made
But the vertigo is telling me to stay away
In two weeks flat I seen the Zoloft put my baby in the grave
I don't ever want to change
I don't ever want to change
I know my limits well
Seems they're never that far away.

MP3 @ 320 Size: 128 MB
Flac  Size: 318 MB