Midnight Oil: Classic or G'dud!

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.

Anyway, the documentary looks v interesting.

Can't wait to see that. Always felt 10, 9, 8 and Red Sails were their peak records. I listened to those records obsessively in high school.

Having announced she'll never tour Australia again, Patti Smith is now regularly playing Beds Are Burning live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoWfnFJ52rc

Midnight Oil fans around the world will finally get to hear a brand new song from the band on August 7 with the release of ‘Gadigal Land’. The following night a special ‘in studio’ video of the song will make its world premiere during the National Indigenous Music Awards (https://nima.musicnt.com.au/) telecast on NITV from 7pm AEST and simulcast across the country on Double J, National Indigenous Radio Service, TEABBA, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.

The song takes its name from Sydney’s traditional owners, many of whom continue to live in the city. The Gadigal (also sometimes spelt “Cadigal”) lands include what is now the CBD plus areas from South Head through to the inner west. ‘Gadigal Land’ is a provocative recount of what happened in this place, and elsewhere in Australia, since 1788.

This single is the first new music from ‘the Oils’ in nearly 20 years. It features special contributions by vocalists Kaleena Briggs, Bunna Lawrie, Dan Sultan plus a lyrical section written and delivered by Gadigal poet, Joel Davison. Like all the band’s new recordings it was produced by long-time collaborator Warne Livesey who also helmed legendary Midnight Oil albums, DIESEL & DUST, BLUE SKY MINING and CAPRICORNIA.

The incendiary rock track is drawn from THE MAKARRATA PROJECT - a themed mini-album of collaborations with Indigenous artists. Midnight Oil will donate its share of any proceeds it received from this release to organisations which seek to elevate The Uluru Statement From The Heart in particular and Indigenous reconciliation more broadly (https://ulurustatement.org/).

Solid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F50PFu_xNJQ

I wish it were a little faster, though.

I wish they cut the first introductory chorus. It's too long as well as too slow.

Old men make a record that sounds convincingly like their first staid record, 30 years ago

I'll say this, when I saw them a couple of years ago they were as good as ever, so I blame the old man decision making behind the boring production/arrangements more than the capable old men themselves.

Their decisions stayed pretty consistently old-mannish boring in all those subsequent 30 years, right down to cogging for Insulationgate and being Rodriguez' backing band.

Disappointing political turns aside, I just saw the "1984" documentary and seems like a pretty good snapshot of the band that year. At the very least I learned that Peter Gifford occasionally played a Chapman stick in the band, underscoring their prog bona fides.

I also learned that they had to nail Rob Hirst's drum set to the stage.

Not surprised about Hirst; he was a monster, and at times he came across as a kind of proggy Grant Hart.

I was listening to their 1978 debut recently, and that last track ('Nothing Lost Nothing Gained') is totally prog.

Not surprised about Hirst; he was a monster, and at times he came across as a kind of proggy Grant Hart.

Good comparison. I got to see MO back in the late 80s and Hirst was easily the key person to their sound. Even on the slower songs, his veins wanted to explode out of his skin.

key person to their sound

And the main songwriter!

We’re grieving the loss of our brother Bones Hillman, who has passed away at his home in Milwaukee today after a cancer battle. He was the bassist with the beautiful voice, the band member with the wicked sense of humour, and our brilliant musical comrade.

Bones joined Midnight Oil way back in 1987 after stints in various Kiwi bands, most notably, The Swingers. He played and sang on every Midnight Oil recording since Blue Sky Mining and we did thousands of gigs together.

We will deeply miss our dear friend and companion and we send our sincerest sympathies to Denise, who has been a tower of strength for him.

Haere rā Bonesy from Jim, Martin, Peter & Rob.

Wow. He was a great bass player. I had no idea he lived in Milwaukee! All these surprising sidemen live or lived in Milwaukee. Bones, Clyde Stubblefield, Hal Blaine, Daryl Stuermer ...

oh thats v sad

RIP Bonesy

I had no idea he lived in Milwaukee!

That may have been quite recent - he was living and playing in Nashville for most of the 21st century, AIUI

That's what I thought, too. I guess it's not too far a flight.

I have strongly disliked "Beds are burning" and the song that goes "and that will naht be BROOHHH-Ken" from the instant I heard them. but from the the instant I heard "The Best of Both Worlds," in 1985 I thought it was an edge of mayhem, about to blow off of the deck into the eye of the hurricane-style recording common in 1982 to Alternative Tentacles or SST and not at all to major labels. And yet I never fucked with them until now.

I am listening to 10, 9, 8… and I am in particular impressed with "Scream In Blue," and I do think this is good balance between cool production and capturing a good performance… and… maybe I've missed out? What else do I need to listen to? And I don't have a really good handle as to where they were coming from…they were too old to be inspired by punk…I don't heard what the antecedents would be… the Who? Who else? And would the likes of Nick Cave look down on them?

10,9,8... and Red Sails in the Sunset, its successor, are my favorites, so those two. Best of Both Worlds is on RSitS, fwiw, as is Kosciusko, When the Generals Talk, Minutes to Midnight, etc - really, chock full of goodness.

If you don't like the tracks off Diesel and Dust, think you might not vibe with the run from DaD > Blue Sky Mining > Earth & Sun & Moon, but I like them. After that, they lessen the polish on Breathe > Redneck Wonderland > Capricornia. A sampling of tracks off those would tell you if you'd dig them.

The first three (Midnight Oil > Head Injuries > Place Without a Postcard) are rougher, with some gems, but more like a band finding the feet that it gets on 10,9,8... Somewhat like early 'mats vs later, or the first few Tragically Hip vs. their later albums.

I like The Makarrata Project (their latest, with guest vocalists), esp. the Alice Skye track.

"The rich get richer, the poor get the picture, the bombs never hit ya when you're down so low" is a lyric that's come to mind a lot during the last four years.

I can see some looking down on them for being corny, or being sell-outs, or meaningless stuff like that. But musically the band was pretty top-notch. There was a backhanded compliment that Christgau used that I've always liked:

Figures that a major-label, major-management band expressly obsessed with nuclear holocaust and man's inhumanity to man should smell slightly progressive, which I do not use in the lefty sense.

So I'd say after "10-1" I'd listen to "Red Sails in the Sunset" (if you haven't), but don't ignore "Diesel and Dust," which is a great album, imo. Xgau is even more snide and cynical in his review of that one, but this time he gives it a B+. "Beds are Burning" is the first track, so if you do hate it it's easy to skip, though it does throw off the impeccable sequencing.

When in doubt you can't go wrong with the Oils on Water concert:

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

The band was super talented and ridiculously tight, with Rob Hirst a near peerless percussionist whose drums had to be nailed down to the stage.

Like, there are only the faintest of similarities, but this performance reminds of me Fugazi, of all things.

I can see that comparison, actually!

I love this band

I did happen to watch this vid last night, and I immediately thought if that was shot even two or three years later, the crowd wouldn't be passively taking it in, a head nod or two, as they are here… it would be BEDLAM… watching Garrett here and elsewhere puts me in the mind of Jello…

What else do I need to listen to? And I don't have a really good handle as to where they were coming from…they were too old to be inspired by punk…

Saints first single came out over a year before the Oils recorded their first album tbf, but they probably got loud and fast mainly through a) being young and b) trying to grab the attention of drinkers.

10 to 1 is their second-best and second-most interesting album; as everyone else says, Red Sails is the best and most. After that, the Species Deceases EP is the same type of super-tight songwriting and incredibly clean production, but solely on fast rock songs.

(Weirdly for this switch to a more straight-ahead record, it was produced with François Kevorkian - Nick Launay did the previous two albums.)

Rob Hirst a near peerless percussionist

NB to vm: they're one of those bands where everyone writes at least a bit, sometimes with other members, but Hirst is one of the two main songwriters (vying with the lead guitarist; Garrett is in a distant third, sometimes contributing to the others' songs).

OK, then: so if Garrett ia distant third in the band as a songwriter, is he the leftist of the band, and the rest of the guys are kinda "we're okay that shit, but he's the one that goes to the mat"; like one of the times I interviewed Tom Morello, I asked him "you and Zach have these beliefs, and they are the raison detre of the band; do the mopes in yr rhythm section care about leftist principles?" He answered noncommitaly that they did, but he clearly didn't like the question and wanted to move onto something else…

I don't heard what the antecedents would be… the Who?

I'm with the consensus on 10, 9, 8 ... and Red Sails, both terrific and unpredictable records. I like Diesel and Dust and Blue Sky Mining fine, but those earlier two are the ones I listen to when I want to hear them. (Which is not that often, but I'm always happy when I do.) I have never gone back to the pre-10,9,8 albums.

Plenty of leftist lyrics in Hirst's not-Garrett-cowritten songs, and he even sings lead on When The Generals Talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNL3xhxGpK8

I felt that after 10-1 and Red Sails, they kind of fell off a cliff

SPE. CIES. DE. CEA. SES.

(Diesel & Dust totally goes, but Blue Sky Mining was "what if Diesel & Dust but boring?" so tainted it retroactively.)

I know, I keep forgetting about Species Deceases. Also Bird Noises.

I never gave this band a good listen until now. I don't even think I listened to any Australian bands the last time I checked them out, and that feels relevant given how topical their best music can be. For example, one of my favorite Paul Kelly songs, "From Little Things Big Things Grow," doubles as a history lesson on the Gurindji strike - an extraordinary story that became my gateway into the history of Aboriginal Australians. It won't change whether or not you like Midnight Oil, but I'm sure some of their songs won't feel as sharp if the context is completely lost.

Anyway, I just went through 10,9,8,7... and Diesel and Dust. 10,9,8,7... isn't bad but it didn't really do anything for me musically speaking. However I liked Diesel and Dust quite a bit, including "Beds Are Burning" (which I never hear played anywhere, even though it's supposed to be the "hit"). It's stunning how much of the album deals with Aboriginal land rights, and it does so without feeling limited or monotonous - just the opposite.

Both albums sound very different though, and there's something about the latter that feels like it's more accessible to anyone with a taste for mainstream American rock while the former sounds a bit more daring - I'd normally favor that, but on a basic level the songwriting on Diesel and Dust feels more engaging.

Looks like I gave my opinion on this thread back in '03 and it still holds. If anything, I enjoy Diesel and Dust more now (not a track I don't like). The next two albums are weaker versions of it with some moments that work. I've had 18 years to listen to their pre-Diesel albums and still haven't done it - time to remedy that!

Yeah, I think "Diesel and Dust" is start-to-finish great, and definitely more accessible. Aside from the singing it's even sometimes hard to believe it's the same band, and in that regard it reminds me of (in concept) "Laid" by James, a concerted but successful decision to strip things down and back and focus even more strictly on songs. The previous Midnight Oil albums are so full of ideas, not least because the prog-like approach and context didn't force them to discard any of them. Usually for the best, since those albums are rad, but I think there was no good next step further in that direction. Downshifting was inevitable, and D&D was a great example of a band doing so at its peak, not when it ran out of ideas or steam or suffered some setback or failure.

FWIW, I like "Earth and Sun and Moon" better than "Blue Sky Mining." The latter is so sterile and over-considered, the former is a bit looser and more organically band-in-a-room. Both albums have some great songs on it, but "Earth" delivers them better, imo.