Dirty Three

Dirty Three

Dirty Three are an Australian instrumental rock group from Melbourne, formed in 1992. The line-up consists of Warren Ellis on violin and bass guitar, Mick Turner on electric and bass guitars, and Jim White on drums. The band remains active and is known for its instrumental approach within post-rock and experimental rock.

Career

The trio spend much of their time based in different cities: Turner in Melbourne, White in New York and Ellis in Paris. They release their first albums in 1995, with Sad & Dangerous and their self-titled record, which establish the group’s mixture of improvisation, experimentation and rough-edged playing. Subsequent albums include Horse Stories (1997), Ocean Songs (1998), Whatever You Love, You Are (2000) and She Has No Strings Apollo (2003), each treated as important points in the band’s catalogue.

Cinder appears in 2005 and develops ideas from earlier releases while also adding new instruments and, for the first time in the band’s work, lyrics. Its arrangements are shorter and more concise than on earlier albums, and it is recorded individually in the studio rather than live, which marks a change in their recording method.

Other work and collaborations

Dirty Three tour with artists including Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Low, Pavement, Throwing Muses, Cat Power, PJ Harvey, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, John Cale, Morphine, Devendra Banhart, Josh T. Pearson and Shannon Wright. They also collaborate with Low in session in 1999.

Two documentaries focus on the band: one appears in a 2006 film about the Meredith Music Festival near Melbourne, and The Dirty Three is screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2007. The group also features in the 2009 documentary All Tomorrow’s Parties.

Individual members

Warren Ellis also performs with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and releases solo material. Mick Turner releases solo albums, records with Jim White as Tren Brothers, and works as a session and touring musician with Cat Power and Will Oldham. He is also an internationally exhibited painter, and his artwork appears on all of the band’s major album covers except Sad & Dangerous. Turner also runs the band’s label, Anchor & Hope.