This is just a limited 24 hour preview of a track recently recorded. Engineered by the Incomparable James Oysters Kilpatrick. This track is for the "Femur" album due for release this year.
Music and Lyrics by Ned Branchi and Robin Casinader.

Leave Your Face Behind.mp3

Written during the horrendous fires that swept through Victoria in February 2009.

Black February Acoustic Version.mp3

Music: Ned Branchi/Mark Hunstone
Lyrics: Ned Branchi
Guitars: Stu Grieg & Mark Hunstone
Drums: Scott McGrath
Bass: Terry Lonsdale

The main musical idea behind this song was a grungy, funky guitar riff by Mark Hunstone. My musical contribution was the vocal melodies and one of the guitar lines that I have now turned into a trumpet line as you can see on recent versions (see live video on Youtube). The story behind the lyric is about my very young teen years and strange encounters with a conflict between meat-eating culture and vegetarianism. Until the age of 12 I was forced to eat meat even though I didn't like a lot of it and would spend ages (infuriating for my parents) picking every morsel of fat and gristle from the meat before I could eat it. Then at the age of 12 everything changed with my mother already divorced and becoming a full fledged hippie I was then forced to be vegetarian. I spent years from that time on craving burgers and milkshakes and took every opportunity to get them if I was away from my hippie peers. The other references in this lyric are about my surfie, skater days at that time and the title “Pound Of Flesh” is of course immediately recognizable from Shakespeare's “Merchant of Venice”. Here I use the phrase to refer to a kind of feeling I had when I was one of owing some kind of 'Karmic' debt for not only eating but even craving meat! 

POUND O' FLESH

Pound O' flesh, a bird in the pie
Pick dem bones in a dog's eye
Eat that concrete surf the cone
Waddya gonna get when you get home
A pound O' bird no wings to fly
Pick dat skin til the bone's are dry
Waddya gonna get when you get home
Mamma cook me some O yo throbbing gristle
All I see is nothing, yeah nothing, nothing like me
All I see is nothing, yeah nothing, I'd rather eat concrete
Oh yeah its serious, its serious for a smegatarian!

Pound of Flesh

Nut (pronounced Noot, nuet or nuit) is the ancient Egyptian goddess of the cosmos and especially the night sky. She is believed to swallow the sun at dusk and give birth to the moon. Swallowing the moon at dawn and giving birth to the sun. Her body stretches across the entire sky with each of her hands and feet touching the four quarters of the universe. Her body is made of stars and is literally the radiance of the heavens, constellations and especially for us the Milky way. She is similar to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and represents the feminine and maternal nature of the universe. In Alchemy circles and western mythologies the universe is sometimes portrayed as a beautiful dancing woman. I have always been entranced, captivated and in love with the night sky and wrote this out of love for and inspiration from the divine goddess.

NUT

Night sky her dress, bright constellation

Lighting up the darkness, her incandescent body

The world slowly turns, gravity holds me

In orbit, in love, dancing

Oh yeah, Oh Lord.

To look upon her, bright suns devoured

the face of time itself will disappear

Worlds slowly turn gravity holds me

In orbit, in love, dancing

Oh yeah, Oh Lord

Slave to eternity, beyond the void

in a sky of blue flames, I turn and burn, turning

Worlds slowly turn gravity hold me

In orbit, in love, dancing

Oh yeah, Oh lord.

Ned Branchi 1997

Nuit

Juliette

Pleasureland

Unconscious

Chipping at the mountain

Ned Branchi is a Singer, Songwriter, Recording and Performing Artist from Melbourne, Australia. His career spans from the 80s through to the present with literally many hundreds of Performances, 5 albums of original music published and songs featured in two Full Feature Surfing movies, "Injuiced" (Brook Sylvester) and "Pulse 2" (Justin Ganes). Ned Branchi was a founding member and singer-songwriter of two well known Melbourne bands “The Horla” (1985-87) and "Bigger Than Jesus" (1989-90). Also founding member, singer and songwriter for "Spoon" (Australia), a Rock band forged in the sweaty pubs of Newcastle (NSW), who took the Hunter Region by storm and soon became one of the biggest bands on the East Coast of Australia. Through extensive touring the band developed a massive fan base of loyal punters and won a lot of critical praise for their dynamic live performances, "Spoon" released a self titled album in 1997 with Aria award winning engineer Wayne Connolly at Charing Cross Studio, Sydney. The album “Spoon” is a classic Australian Rock album EP featuring 7 songs that have all received extensive airplay.
In 2001 Spoon recorded the “StKilda Sun” album with engineer James Kilpatrick at Espy Recorders, StKilda, Melbourne. The album EP features 6 song that have also received extensive airplay and critical acclaim. Since launching a Solo Career in 2009 Ned Branchi has recorded another 3 albums in Java, Indonesia, that have yet to be released in Australia. Over his long career performing extensively in Australia and Internationally Ned Branchi has supported and appeared on stage with some of the biggest bands in the world both Australian and International. These include Violent Femmes, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Hoodoo Gurus, Scientists, Hunters And Collectors Midnight Oil, Models, Screaming Jets, Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes, just to name a few.
Apart from his original music Ned Branchi also performs a selection of cover material ranging from the "60s through to the present" that includes around a hundred songs. performing either solo, duo, or with full band. Depending on the needs of the venue and audience songs are selected from an extensive corpus of material to suit their needs.
For all booking enquiries:
Please go to the website www.nedbranchi.com
Or email nedbranchi@yahoo.com

Ned Branchi

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