Solo Albums
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MEET THE MISSES WIFECD009 Release date 9 Nov 2012 |
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Safe As Houses Versions Of You Guitar Boat Rule #1 Hang My Head Nobody's An Angel Trade Do That For You Big Star False Waltz Wipe The Floor |
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CAR TAPE 2 WIFECD008 Released in July 2010 |
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Hidden Charms It'll Never Happen Again Superfly He Wants To Play Hearts I'll Run Your Hurt Away Ambulance Blues Needle Of Death You Can Have Him La Maison Ou J'Ai Grandi Traction In The Rain Moonraker |
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MORNING IN THE BOWL OF NIGHT WIFECD007 Released in May 2007 |
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Upside Such A Find Snowman (She's A) Shining Star Point Ormond Amused & Confused Bottle Up My Tears (prologue) Bottle Up My Tears Motherless Love Will Carry You Lucky Dip Roses |
The title comes from the opening verse of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. When I was sorting through my parents belongings I came across a small, worn, familiar-looking copy of this book.
From the inscription in the opening page of this book it had most likely been a courting gift from my father to my mother. In his last years my father had further annotated the book, with numerous little comments throughout marking his favourite lines, and those that held the most poignancy for him.
"Awake! For Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! The Hunter of the East has caught
The Sult'an's Turret in a Noose of Light."
Under this my father wrote: "I learnt this by heart when I was about 10 years old."
This album is a love letter to my parents.
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VERSION ORIGINALE WIFECD003 Released in October 2003 |
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I Can't Tell New Record Pushover Don't You Say It Eleven Little Stars You Make Everybody Love You Hold On Pay Dearly I Love You A thousand Dollars I Want To Live |
Version Originale opens with a glissade of harp strings, announcing the sumptuously romantic I Can't Tell, a tender love duet with Tim Rogers, gentleman-crooner of You Am I fame. Each song on Version Originale offers a glimpse into a miniature world of feelings and experience... from the first flush of discovery felt by the music fan (New Record), to the eleventh-hour procrastination that is the bane of every artist's life (Eleven), to the tugs on the heartstrings that parenthood brings (Little Stars).
Version Originale bears the hallmark production of Shane O'Mara, who recorded the album in his Yikesville home studio, along with many familiar faces from the Car Tape sessions. The result is an album that has the same sonic footprint as Car Tape, but where we are led this time is a place that can only be found by the writer herself.
Miller's vision for Version Originale is simply articulated: "I want something enduring", she says. "Something that actually evolves, has its own velocity - the wheels keep rolling, the whole way through."
Lisa Miller has accomplished all that and more with Version Originale. This is an enduring work, a major Australian album, and a joyous listening experience which is bound to find its way into the hearts and collections of real music lovers.
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CAR TAPE WIFECD001 Released in May 2002 |
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The Boy That Radiates That Charm Why Not Your Baby? Words For Sadness Better Days Have A Little Mercy Evil Something's On Your Mind Nothing Takes The Place Of You Give Back The Key To My Heart 1Nobody Knows Me Like My Baby Say You Don't Mind No Place To Fall We Love Each Other |
The late-night road trip: half-lit visions in the rear-view mirror, road signs looming like phantoms. Darkness settles into the car's interior; the driver's companions asleep, or dreaming. The distant AM radio signal fades in and out, trailing into static.
You fumble in the glove box for the car tape, hold it up for a moment to the dull lights reflected through the windscreen; typically, it needs rewinding. The cassette deck's motors whir into motion, then clunk to a stop and for the next 45 minutes, this car tape is like nothing you've ever heard. Half-forgotten songs take on a startling new ghost-life, inhabiting a parallel world where the road, time and space, memory, dreams and thoughts are held in suspension, while you're propelled in your little capsule towards... somewhere else. It's as if you've crossed some invisible, inner state line, and you're heading for someplace that only the car tape songs can take you to, or from.
Car Tape, the new album by acclaimed singer-songwriter Lisa Miller, was both inspired by, and made in the spirit of, the quintessential car tape experience. "I was always intrigued by those tapes that you listen to on the road", says Miller. "Those tapes that other musicians pull out in the tour van - grimy cassettes which get stuck and you have to stick a pen into the reel to wind them up. And they're funny songs that someone puts on a tape because they're special to them, and they're often a bit odd. And they sound even more odd when you're driving late at night in the middle of nowhere. Everyone is quiet, if they're not asleep they're listening, hanging on every word... the songs on a car tape come together as a group, often in a very strange way. A good car tape is its own little world."
Once you've spent some time in the "little world" which is Lisa Miller's Car Tape, the term 'covers album' no longer seems like an adequate descriptor. "I didn't want to do a typical covers album, where I just do versions of songs everyone knows", Miller explains. "I tried to pick songs that could carry themselves, and they had to tend to the fairly obscure, with seductive melodies, and words that wouldn"t disappoint me when they were written down to be learnt". Miller has engaged in that somewhat mysterious process that gives forgotten songs a new shape, not just in the performance, but in the very act of selection. Just as obscure songs take on a new familiarity once they're put on a car tape, there is also something that happens to songs when they're documented, in the (equally old-fashioned) sense of 'putting it down on tape' - recording live, direct to tape, in the studio. "The big test for each song", says Miller, "was whether the tape loved it". It's what she calls "the spooky relationship between tape and performance".
This album is every bit as spooky, precious, and as humbly sublime, as that beat-up car tape that someone left in your cassette deck after some roadtrip that seems impossibly long ago. Demagnetise. Rewind. Repeat-play. Enjoy.
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AS FAR AS A LIFE GOES 1999 |
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Safe as Houses Do That for You Rule #1 (Never Trust A Man) Trade Versions of You Wipe the Floor Big Star Say What You Mean Spilt Milk 'Til I Get it Right As Far as A Life Goes |
As Far As A Life Goes was recorded in a 'real' studio with a 'name' producer (Barry Palmer), and cost quite a few bucks to make (nearly as much as a major label artist spends on each track). So much so that by the time it came out the record company had no money left to promote it with, and it came and went before most people had a chance to hear it. At least it did get heard by a number of reviewers, who all said pretty fantastic things about it, and it's proved a slow but steady seller ever since. Listening to it now, it has to be said that it sounds pretty damn good - providing you play it really loud. In fact we stumbled across an article in a hi-fi magazine only recently in which the reviewer used this album to put some $10,000 speakers through their paces (wish we could hear them!). It's got fantastic songs, and Lisa considered it her best collection of work to date. Two songs here, including the title track, were reprised from Lisa's first EP. As Far As A Life Goes earned Lisa her first ARIA Best Female Artist nomination.
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QUIET GIRL WITH A CREDIT CARD 1996 |
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Big American Car You're a Big Girl Now Guitar Boat Nobody's An Angel I'm Gonna Live My Life (I'm Gonna Take My Time) Hang My Head Woman Left Lonely False Waltz Long Wide Load Too Dark To See Big Small Town |
Lisa's first solo album, recorded in the middle of 1995. This album was made following a 2 year residency at The Standard, and the songs and musicians here were largely drawn from the repertoire and band of that time. 7 of Lisa's songs sit seamlessly alongside songs by Bob Dylan, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, and Australians Conway Savage and Dave Graney. The album title was lifted from a line in the Graney song. This album was the first opportunity for people outside of the inner city ghettoes of St Kilda and Fitzroy to hear Lisa, and she was heard far and wide - Quiet Girl With A Credit Card was licensed for release in Europe by Demon Records, where it picked up a number of glowing reviews along the lines of "the sort of record that Nashville should be making". The typography on the front cover was based on John Coltrane's Live At the Village Vanguard LP.
Solo EPs & Singles
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SAFE AS HOUSES / WIPE THE FLOOR Split Single 1999 |
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Safe As Houses Wipe The Floor |
Both tracks from the As Far As A Life Goes album. We never even saw a finished copy of this until years later, when someone gave us one. But the cover image - of one of Lisa's many Miller shirts - is cool.
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ALL WORKED OUT In-Law Records MOTHER03 1995 |
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All Worked Out Good Year For The Roses Everybody Needs Love Nobody's An Angel Steel Guitar hidden track! - Good Year For The Dub |
Like Car Tape, recorded by Shane O'Mara at Yikesville, but when it was an ADAT recorder and a couple of cheap delay units in the spare bedroom, rather than the sophisticated backyard operation it is today. Lisa is adamant that she settled on the name 'Yikesville' during this session, but Shane doesn't believe her. This EP was actually recorded after Quiet Girl With a Credit Card, and made because Lisa was getting itchy feet about getting something out - as it turned out, Quiet Girl didn't get released until half way through the following year. The EP was mixed one night when the ARIA awards were on (the year Silverchair and Tim Rogers did 'New Race'). Lisa and Rebecca spent the evening glued to the telly, while Shane and Ben got progressively drunker over the 8- track Mackie desk. Hence the hidden track, a 'dub' version of Good Year For The Roses. Can't remember the wine now, maybe some Wynns cabsav. Or it could have been a Yarra Valley pinot? More likely a Yarraville cleanskin. Hard to say, the bottles went out years ago. Lisa was never that happy with the final mix, and a few years later asked Shane if they could redo a track. He was so ashamed of the fact that he had lost the master that he offered Lisa a lot of free studio time - which is how Car Tape got started.
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DO THAT FOR YOU In-Law Records MOTHER02 1995 |
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Do That For You Turn The Table Guitar Boat As Far As A Life Goes |
Lisa's first solo release. It was recorded on the Gershwin Room stage at the Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda, and recorded out the back of the pub by Cameron Payne. This session was put together with the help of Steve Hoy, who lined Garrett Costigan up to play pedal steel. Garrett continues to play with Lisa today, and is on all the albums except Quiet Girl - when his uncle Michael Bourke filled in. At the session everyone played really quietly (it was recorded pretty much live), but Garrett was completely inaudible. We remember thinking 'this guy is wasting our time, he's not even trying'. But when we listened to the playback his playing was a revelation. We're still pretty fond of this recording, it's a bit rough, with numerous mistakes preserved for posterity, but it's got a really good feel.
Soundtracks, Compilations etc.
others... TRUCKASAURUS self titled EP (1993)
RACV TV ad "I'll Be There"
LOOK BOTH WAYS
SHE WILL HAVE HER WAY
DIG BLUES PROJECT
DIRTY DEEDS
MULLET
SEA CHANGE
Coodabeen Champions present WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED
Dig Radio presents MUSIC WITH DEPTH
YOU CAN'T HIDE YOUR LOVE FOREVER - A Tribute To Gene Clark
LIVE ON RECOVERY TV
Triple R presents RRREWIND IN THE CHAPEL
ABC TV presents STUDIO 22
Coodabeen Champions present SUNDAY NIGHTINGALES
TRIPLE R SOUNDSCAPE 3
ABC AIRPLAY 5
COUNTRY SONGBIRDS
Pre Solo
THE PRESTON STORY Volume 1
feat. THE WHOLE SHEBANG (circa 1987):
Funnel Of Love
Another Sunday Morning
ALL TRACKS RECORDED ON AN AMPEX 350 SINGLE TRACK TAPE MACHINE AND MIXED THROUGH A VALVE MIXING DESK TO GIVE THAT AUTHENTIC 50s FEEL. GREAT MIX OF ROCKıNıROLL, ROCKABILLY AND HILLBILLY SWING.