FRESHLY PRESSED
ULTERIOR MOTIVES
Dirty Three
POST-ROCK • NOVEMBER 6, 2026 • BELLA UNION / TOUCH AND GO
Dirty Three have been at it since 1992 in Melbourne, with Warren Ellis on violin (he also plays with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), Jim White on drums, (he has backed PJ Harvey, Cat Power and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) and Mick Turner on guitar (whose solo work Ed Nimmervoll, an Australian rock music journalist, called “the water breaking against the rocks, swirling around restlessly trying to find calm, before being thrown back into turbulence by another onslaught.”)
Three guys with no singer, and they still manage to say more than most bands with one. Loudly.
Ulterior Motives is eight demos and live radio recordings from the band’s early years. It first showed up in 2012 as a limited CD sold only at their shows, and good luck finding one for a reasonable price. Now Bella Union and Touch and Go are giving it a proper release, with the vinyl spanning two LPs, one red, and one green.
The lead track is a live take of ‘Better Go Home Now’, from the 1994 self-titled record, cut at Sydney’s JJJ radio studios not long after. Demos of ‘Indian Love Song’, ‘The Last Night’ and ‘Sue’s Last Ride’ round it out.
We heard them first at Maxwell’s in Hoboken in the fall of ‘96, shortly after we’d moved back to New York for graduate school, and emerged shell shocked and sweat drenched in the best possible way. As a live band, they are pure catharsis, and that comes through on this set, which is finally available on vinyl.
Out today.
LISTEN & BUY
If at all possible, buy it at your local record store.