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The Drones is one of those bands I got into accidentally - and possibly one of the only live acts that impressed me more than the group I went to see. I had become somewhat taken with The Devastations, (another Australian band) through Myspace, waited and looked for their CD for ages before it actually came out domestically. So I went to see them at The Casbah, here in San Diego, playing with The Drones. Prior to the show, I briefly checked them out online and they seemed promising. As it turned out, The Drones were headlining for this particular stretch of the tour and played a longer set than they had. The Devastations were good, but The Drones were clearly a better live act if not due to anything else than the energy that is more possible because there are fewer ballad-type songs. The singer was extremely passionate, and wildly feral. FERAL.

Plus, he played all the main guitar parts (and quite viciously at times), allstwhile singing. Live, he reminded me of something like a foaming-at-the-mouth Nikki Sudden fronting The Stooges but with a more classic rock grandeur (albeit in a country Neil Young sense) and string bending. The Devastations reminded me of Nick Cave’s more recent balladeering piano songs, mixed with Tindersticks, maybe with a bit of the darkness of the old Bad Seeds records. The Drones thinner comparison to Nick Cave’s work could only be identified by a slight resemblance of mood, the story-telling style and character, but not in any direct way. I was impressed. So I bought their new album – only their new album as I was short on cash. (I regret not buying up the whole lot that night; their first few releases are perhaps only available at shows and in the curious land of Australia).

There is a live DVD out now that is one of the top five best live video performances I’ve ever seen. Order it NOW. There’s also a live CD on Spaceland Recordings like the club in LA.

Now, TO THE ALBUM

Gala Mill (Spaceland Recordings, 2006) was their most recent, and on which they had oriented their international tour. These days, often enough, if you get into a band after seeing them live, the recorded, studio product usually doesn’t hold a candle to what you experienced at the show… This is not the case with The Drones. In fact, the album trumps the live show in its beautiful crystalline sound, a more distilled presentation of the songs, THE LYRICS, the stories, and the singer, Gareth Liddiard’s extremely expressive voice. It’s mixed exceptionally, and the album is quite dynamic. It sounds like it was recorded mostly live, with perhaps a few overdubs only, even including the lead in quiet studio chatter “we rolling” type stuff. The production is pretty clear, plain, and unobtrusive, like they were playing not at top volume in your living room. And importantly, you can always hear Gareth’s FERAL voice.

I said that time heals and time forgets
But time arrived at motel ceiling fans
They just hang there above
Your empty head
After the rent is paid
After your heart’s gone dead

The electric guitar, primary instrument, has all the heartfelt ache and expressiveness of Neil Young’s mid-1970s albums, from Tonight’s the Night through Zuma and On the Beach, etc. Gareth’s sloppy lilt singin’ is sloppy as fuck, but the empathy, beauty, simple chords backed by tasteful drums and bass, plus the occasional vocals of Fiona Kitschin, are more important than “a pretty voice” - always. Some say Leonard Cohen doesn’t have a pretty voice. Fuck that. Worth is found elsewhere in lasting things. Their merit is beyond “pretty”. For instance, the over-tracked vocals of Fiona on “Words from the Executioner to Alexander Pearce” are searing in beauty, even more so with the dissonance as the makeshift choir of her, if left behind as the next part is sung over it. This is one of at least two songs based on the actual stories of prisoners.

Almost half-way through the album, the first straight-up rock song enters in “I Don’t Want To Ever Change” with it’s break-beat drum part and the whole thing is under four minutes, the first song like this. But don’t be fooled, this rock song is still more potent then most bands out there at their most straightforward. His singing still goes off and he goes fucking nuts.

“Work For Me” has Fiona the bass player on lead vocals. It’s a nice sexy song that is about the hold women have over men in life that is sexual politics, the prison they can hold us in, the slaves that we can become as men, and their unwavering dignity and stature. I really like the violin overdubs, slight production makes them seem like they’re from another century, recorded on old acetate or something. Then they’re gone and it goes back to the verses. I know, it probably seems sexist or something to call this song sexy, but listen to it. It is… In a nice way though (not in a slutty way, asshole).

“Sixteen Straws” the final epic downer song. Now, downer is not a word I ever use to describe songs or anything. But that is undoubtedly how someone else might refer to a closing song like this at nine minutes long. This is not a bad thing… Much to the contrary, dumbasses. THIS TRACK IS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS EVER RECORDED.

It’s another song based on prisoners, from the point of view of a traveller re-telling the words of a Catholic convict prisoner, who witnessed many things in prison. The prisoners draw straws to see who commits suicide, and which prisoner gets to repent.

Shall we go to the gallows, be done with our woes?
Fair plays all I’m asking, we’ll draw 16 straws

The song solely features Liddiard singing and on acoustic, and the drummer Mike Noga on harmonica only. The instrumentation almost makes you feel like you’re in the cell with them, beaten, bloody, horrible stories witnessed, death down every corridor.

His chief flogger was mad I heard a prison guard say
He’s wash his lash in a bucket, then drink the remains

The disgustingly violent images like this make the entire album synonymous with Nick Cave’s recent screenplay The Proposition. The words he sings/tells describe terrible things which I’m sure were much more common in the days when the story is set (though with the constant political and religious turmoil and violence on our globe, maybe I’m completely misguided in this statement). Strange how a song so filled with blood and violence is so beautiful. Well, strange for most people maybe but not this reviewer. BUY THIS ALBUM FOR THIS SONG ALONE, and you get eight other wonderful, mostly mellow (but very arresting and empathic) rock songs comprised of mostly guitars, bass and drums, and some back up vocals. It’s a normal band set up, but by far one of the best releases of the last 10 years. I am a huge fan now, and I wish I could see them again soon as I’m now familiar with the tunes. Plus I could buy those first albums (which they still play from).

* Sasha Syeed lives in San Diego, California where he shares a room with thousands upon thousands of compact discs.