Midnight Oil: Classic or G'dud!

My favourite track is "no time for games" from the Bird Noises EP.

I think the political stuff and the rock gelled well for them.

The drummer (Rob Hirst?) is phenomenal too, one particular huge solo on Power in the Passion.

I'd have liked Blue Sky Mining to have been recorded with less gloss, but a lot of the songs on there are good and therefore a keeper. The only studio album of theirs I don't care if I ever hear again is Redneck Wonderland... it had no ambition, no direction, no anything. Capricornia was a commendable swan song, though.

"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.

They may be a good candidate for that "the vocalist is a significant hurdle" thread for me. But yeah, one can't *not* respect the politics. My (casual) affection for them possibly peaked as late as 2000, with the 'sorry' shirts at the Olympics. :)

One of the best drummers I've ever seen (who also sang, wrote songs and focused the political direction of the band).

Never a bad time for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dV6vbb1YqI

Hirst hit sooooooo haaaaaard they used to nail his set to the stage.

As i said upthread very nearly four years ago, the song this band perpetrates in the video directly above this post, and via the best known studio recording, knocked me on my 14 year old ass upon hearing it 41 years ago… it's notable for its coiled tension, which then releases into a maelstrom not at all common in 1984-85 to major label bands marketed to normie U2 fans, but more in line with Dead Kennedys or the SST roster. And then, I heard "Beds are burning" and "the dead heart," which I really disliked, and thus concluded I was not going to get their records.

I am listening to Essential Oils (uggh, lousy title) and I do not hear any other recordings that sound like they want to rip off your head and shit down your neck. This band is vaunted for their live ferocity, and bands vaunted for their live ferocity are very very often recorded in the studio with a mind to capture that live quality. And except for "the Best of Both Worlds," all I am hearing is carefully recorded, meticulous studio rock that, its sincere beliefs and priorities regarding human rights in their own country and abroad notwithstanding, would sound good on multiple radio formats. And that's swell! But I do find it odd that there's not one single other absolute bastard of a careening punk rock single, like its about to blow off the deck of the ship into the thunderstorm. What am I missing?

Hmm. The albums can be pretty fussy, and also pretty proggy, and never quite capture them as they were live. Like, compare this:

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

To this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1BpJZ3zY4U

The early, ferocious stuff simply isn’t recorded in a way that “captures that live quality.”

Try either listening to 10-1, Species Deceases, and Red Sails as intentional recordings of groups of songs, or to live recordings earlier than that. (If Redneck Wonderland doesn’t do anything at all for you on that comp, you can totally sit out the post-1985 oeuvre.)