James McCann's album Where Was I Then is available now thru Australian label Torn and Frayed. Also available is the album Last Night I Met The Devil on Spanish label Bang! Records. The album has been receiving glowing reviews across Europe. Bang! have also released albums by Spencer P Jones, Brian Henry Hooper, Roland S Howard, The Beasts of Bourbon and more.James McCann's new acoustic album"Sweet Casualty"[Torn and Frayed/shock]will be available from August 2008.Also look out for the Rockin album"Bound for the Blues"to be released on limited vinyl thru French[Bretagne]label Beast Records[Six Ft Hick,Double Agents],and on cd thru Torn and Frayed.
Beginning in the South West Australian backwoods town of Albany, an old port town, coastal, big trees, big granite rocks, where your options were fishing, shearing, surfing or playing music, or occasionally all of the above, James started writing and performing locally in pubs at the age of 15 while still in high school and the writing was on the wall.
From Albany, James made his way north to Perth, again forming bands and performing around the city and in rural locations, recording a few demos. But the frustration of isolation encouraged James's move to Sydney at age 22, where he formed, wrote and performed in bands such as Harpoon, Nunchukka Superfly, and Lowdorados, playing constantly in and around Sydney while also playing the Livid festival '95, the Big Day Out '96 and '97, and a range of festivals taking James from Adelaide to Perth. Harpoon released the album Fork Tongued Pressed and Greasy on Black Hole/Shock.
On returning to Perth in 1998, James reunited with Gareth Liddiard and Rui Pereira on Christmas Eve after having crossed paths once before. They confessed that they had been looking for James and James for them. They formed the first incarnation of the Drones a week later. This line-up also played as the Gutterville Splendour Six, augmented with vocalist Maurice Flavel. The Gutterville released 500 copies of an EP that, after the band folded, ended up on the playlist of the late DJ John Peel. Henry Rollins and Tex Perkins are also cited as fans. Members of the Gutterville Splendour Six included Steve Joines and Brendan Humphries, both of whom moved on to form the Kill Devil Hills, while vocalist Maurice Flavel formed M.F. and his Truckload of Hope.
James headed back to Sydney as the Drones set out for Melbourne, keeping in contact up and down the coast. James gave Gareth Liddiard a song called This Time, which ended up as the closer on the Drones Australian Music Prize-winning album Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By (Infidelity/Shock). James played two shows with Damo Suzuki from Can as part of the Damo Suzuki Network. Moving to Melbourne two years ago has proved an invaluable decision. Where Was I Then was picked up by Andrew McGee's label Torn & Frayed and is now being distributed through Shock Records. The album was produced by Gareth Liddiard, Aaron Cupples (Dan Kelly & the Alpha Males) and James McCann. Torn & Frayed have released the new Kill Devil Hills album The Drought and have released albums by Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits, and The Dirty Three. This guy has taste.
Where Was I Then is raw, intimate, and intense. This album is the culmination of years of hard rockin yakka and hundreds of hours of songwriting. Where Was I Then is distinctive in sound, with a mixture of country, blues and rock and roll, a sound that can travel from solo ballads to the full band rocking out. These songs capture a sense of space and vastness; a product of growing up in the Australian bush. Last Night I Met The Devil features new tracks including the extended psych out She's Intermediate/Hoodoo Joe which has to be heard to be believed.
James McCann's Dirty Skirt Band have just completed their first album together, Bound For The Blues, to be released thru Beast Records this year. Also look out for a James McCann solo acoustic album titled Sweet Casualty, recorded in 24 hours in Nagambie, Victoria, to be released through Torn and Frayed/Shock.
James has just returned from a succesful tour of the Basque country - San Sebastian and Vitoria, Spain - Madrid, Mont Blanc and Barcelona. And a tour of Bretagne - Rennes, Binic, Lorient all the way having the best time with some great people, you know who you are and i thank you, and we will see y'all next year, good lord willin' and the creek don't rise!
Remember the acoustic album 'Sweet Casualty" will be out real soon,and James will be launching it in Melbourne and Sydney.
Yeah James, wish i was there. But now i am in Norway playing in the streets with friends and a little bit drunk, actually. When i make it back home i will send you the pics and our demo. But these women are too beautiful so, who knows...
Hello Darlings, The Wishing Well are performing an all out folkfest at
the Northcote Social Club (Our last Melbourne show for 2008), Saturday
August 2nd. With supports from Jacks Castle and Kinematic. Doors open
8:30pm. You can buy tickets from us (cheaper) for $10 through emailing
us at:
thewishingwellband@gmail.com or online via the Northcote Social
Club's www. northcotesocialclub. com or at the door for $12.
i think i involved you in the worst conversation that has ever happened at the retreat sunday night.. apoligies for that beerlarious. i think what i was trying to say was when is the enxt dirty skirting, which looking at your myspace is soon apoligies and good work see ya soon
Dear James, the gig at the spanish club blew my mind, i was having a vision that i was on a plain, indians were chanting and dancing around a fire, all my dreams and nightmares came together as one, there was no future and no past only this plain, then i looked into the eyes of my maker.......then the music stopped. You should have played more songs, thanks, the land
Hey James, yeah it's been awhile! I've been overseas in Europe for a few months...think we just missed each other in Basque country! Been crisscrossing around Spain, Italy, Sardinia and France. London next then home (boo hiss)! Trying to devise a fool-proof scheme to live here! Ha. See you in Melbs...back in August. Congrats on the wedding etc! Lovely news! xxx
Hi and Hello, Thanks man...I'll see you in the shop and stuff. Cool that your into Lobby, i'm a massive fan of the Aztecs and Chain and of course the lobby!!! Damo.
