Midnight Oil: Classic or G'dud!

"Stars Of Warburton" sounded really nice today. BSM has aged a little better these days (and D&D probably hasn't)

Dud. I threw on Diesel And Dust the other day and it was basically mediocre "college rock" with some guy obnoxiously yelling vague platitudes or suggesting we give the land back to the aborigines. "Sometimes" worked the best as far as the vague platitudes go. I need to listen to my copies of Blue Sky Mining and Earth Sun And Moon to see if they've aged just as horribly. And every time I see them on VH1 Classic they scare me even more.
I'm glad Garrett's decided to stop talking the talk but keeping walking the walk. Though I don't want to see him do that funny walk ever again.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, March 17, 2003 5:12 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

this is perhaps Miccio's most perceptive post ever.

I'd disagree. D&D really sort of embraces its own timeframe without becoming a victim of it. On the other hand, I hear BSM and all I hear (aside from a few good songs) is 19901990199019901990!

with garrett possibly going onto some sort of leftist politics career (although i haven't seen him involved in anything yet)

innocent times

thing the naysayers have to account for is that they sorta rocked, once upon a time.

Red Sails is far and away my favorite Oils record (and that guitar solo in "Best of Both Worlds" melts my cerebellum).

classic. the dead heart should be the national anthem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTGx59dm3XY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmHco4ie9EE

butts are burning

Watching the Capitol set from the Best of Both Worlds dvd on youtube. So damn good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyqWoq2STjw&list=PL92319EECC1754042

Man, I forget sometimes how insane this band was. That's some nearly-Clash-level shit there.

They don't get their due, at least Stateside. A truly great rock band.

Man, I just got to "Armistice Day" and my god does it rule.

It's a shame that they didn't really break big in the US until their music was on the downswing with D&D, but I can't imagine radio accommodating anything from 10,9,8 or Red Sails. Those records still sound like they're from the future.

Yup. And those early records have aged much better than the crossover trio of Diesel and Dust, Blue Sky Mining and Earth and Sun and Moon. Oddly enough, Breathe sounds better now than it did in 1996.

I love everything up to and including Earth and Sun and Moon. Got no problem with the crossover trio because the songwriting is sooooo sharp, and since 10-1 and Red Sails are so absolutely bonkers, I can't imagine the band had any choice but to reign things in.

Need to relisten to Breathe et al again.

I got off the bus after BSM, one of the most disappointing records I've ever heard. But I was intrigued by the E&S&M singles (as well as their SNL appearance that year). I should probably get caught up.

And the drum sound on Red Sails is one of the most grippingly unique I've ever heard. That whole record's production is so completely spooky.

Diesel remains a good record, but I definitely got off the bus for a while at Blue Sky Mining. Breathe is their best record of the 90s, and then Capricornia was a respectable bow out. BSM, ESM and Redneck Wonderland are all embarrassing.

I like the singles from the three crossover records, but I'm never going to pull them out ahead of the 1980-85 LPs and EPs. Redneck Wonderland is sad, sad stuff. Didn't even have decent singles.

Huh I really like BSM and ESM. What's wrong with them?

I mean, this is great, imo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loX2cvuxMFU&feature=kp

Or this, pretty much classic late-period MO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdvhiHryIRA

yup, good singles. Bit of a limp album, though.

What are the bad songs on those albums?

The cardinal sin is the production, but there are duff songs a plenty - off the top of my head, "Bedlam Bridge", "Mountains of Burma" and the "Shakers" song on the second side of Blue Sky Mine, "Renaissance Man", the title track and "Now or Never Land" on Earth and Sun and Moon. I'm sure I'd be able to pick out several more mediocre to bad songs if I skimmed through them.

When you compare this to the pre-US breakthrough years, it's amazing how many unmemorable to bad songs those records contain. From 80-85 there are probably about ten in total, but these two albums have 6-8 I'd rather never hear again.

Yeah, this. I actually didn't like anything off BSM; when I heard the single I thought, "I hope this is the worst song on the record." They'd lost all sense of danger and risk

Yeah, maybe they lost the sense of danger and risk, but I still like the songs. I mean, I think they're nothing on the early stuff, but they're still good records. But then, I listen to Combat Rock as much or more than I listen to most Clash records.

I dunno, I don't even mind the production on those later records, though BSM and ESM are sort of at opposite ends of those extremes, from clinical to this weird ramshackle approach, both so odd given the chaos and invention of the early years . What's super weird is that Nick Launay, who did 10-1 and Red Sails, also did ESM, but it sounds so different from that.

I always thought this was a cool song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LlMGBZCtXI&feature=kp

"antarctica" is one of the keepers, for sure. Total jam.

Blue Sky Mining was a total “oof, you trying to be U2?” getting-off-the-bus move for me. BUT at the secret reunion show at some leagues club in 2005, where I went in happy to not even hear anything post-Species Deceases, totally thought while getting buffetted in the mosh “hey even these Blue Sky Mining songs are fucking killing it”

That's because the songs are good!

I haven't listened to Breathe since it came out, but fwiw it was produced by Lanois-associate Malcolm Burn. That to me was a red flag announcing what the band was after. But I have no recollection of what that album sounds like.

it's because the band were on FIRE

“hey even these Blue Sky Mining songs are fucking killing it”

Yeah, I could totally see those songs working much better live. The production on that record was so weak.

Man, "Diesel and Dust" may be a perfectly sequenced record.

Indeed!

So happy these guys reunited, so psyched to see them again next week. Listening to the early records again, man, they're just so ... weird. Just the way they're constructed/produced/played/arranged/mixed. Sound like nothing else, really.

Killed it last night. Incredible show. Played "10-1" in its entirety - just because - plus many of the usual suspects.

A friend of mine flew from St. Paul just for that show, said it awesome. I like that they did 10-1 just for the hell of it, not like that was the whole peg for the tour or anything. (Def one of their best albums too, good call.)

Yeah, it was one of the best shows I've seen in months. And remarkably, I think they could have swapped out 2/3rds of the songs and been just as great.

I glanced at some of the setlists, and yow, they're playing entirely different sets from night to night! Seems like at least one new song -- new to this tour, that is -- is played each night.

Got my oil cans. Packaging is ace.

I think I read that by the end of the tour they're hoping to have played everything, more or less. Which given how airtight the group is is really impressive!

Would be funny if they slipped in "Wharf Rat" on one of these dates.

"Midnight Oil 1984" documentary in cinemas now, out on DVD soon

It’s time to revisit the year that would ultimately make (and almost break) one of Australia’s most important rock bands. As they embark on a relentless national tour for their electrifying album “Red Sails in the Sunset”, Midnight Oil lead singer Peter Garrett has decided to run for a seat in the Australian Senate. The band is abruptly plunged into an blistering concoction of rock and politics that will play out across concert stages and newspaper headlines. With previously unseen clips from some of the rockers’ most memorable shows, behind-the-scenes footage and candid interviews with the band, Midnight Oil 1984 is the highly-anticipated window into a politically galvanised era and the sweat-soaked music that embodied it.

More than three decades in the making, this stunning documentary is a must-see for lifelong devotees and new fans alike. With a band on the cusp of international fame and a lead singer torn between his adoring audience and moral responsibilities, Midnight Oil 1984 offers unprecedented access to an explosive period in Australian cultural history.

oooh

the same thing that happened to yahoo serious, vegemite, and koala blues.

Not entirely sure what fate these all had in common.

also yet to be revealed which Split Enz songs Nick Launay produced, or why it's extremely perceptive to sneer at native title.

Quite a lot of sneering at other countries generally in March 2003. Though some Ilxors rarely need an excuse.

I will vote Green and, with zero enthusiasm, preference Labor. However vacuous their current policies are, I don't think I can physically stand another 3 years of the coalition.

^ Basically what I did in the HoR in the end. (No real sensible alternatives amongst the microparties standing in my electorate.)

Just posted it! Thanks Midnight Oil thread on the interwebs for reminding me to vote. :)

Perhaps unexpectedly, this thread has given me a chance to get at least passingly acquainted with the current state of Australian politics. It's both appalling and not surprising that the current state looks very much like that of U.S. politics.