Taking sides - Savage Garden vs. Midnight Oil

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The lost tribe of Ventures-spawn - lonely surfers with complex relationships to a)the French, b)the 80s..."Poetry is impossible after the video for 'Affirmation'"-Bruce Adorno

― tarden, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For anyone who has never experienced the post-Jenny Holzer genius of Affirmation, it goes a little something like this:

I believe the sun should never set upon an argument I believe we place our happiness in other people's hands I believe that junk food tastes so good because it's bad for you I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem I believe I'm loved when I'm completely by myself alone

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye

I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality I believe that trust is more important than monogamy I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul I believe that family is worth more than money or gold

I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires

I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed I believe that God does not endorse TV evangelists I believe in love surviving death into eternity

― Mark Morris, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I feel we need more input from Mr Bruce Adorno: I like the cut of his dialectic.

― mark s, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Affirmation" is fun in a "let's see how far we can go" way. I also like the equally self-important hyperspeed verses of "I Want You" and "To The Moon And Back".

The only Midnight Oil song I have ever heard is, yes, "Beds Are Burning", which always suggested to me a kind of Australian Big Country. So Savage Garden it is.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Isn't this a bit like "Taking Sides: Your Left Foot or Your Right Foot?"?

No matter, it's clearly Savage Garden because Truly Madly Deeply is the most irritatingly fantastic ballad ever created. I mean, it's so gratingly awful that it becomes endearing. "I love you more with every breath, truly madly deeply doooooooooo woooo hoooooo". Awesome.

― Ally, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For the sake of aussie pride, I must protest...Midnight Oil are the quintessential Australian band; live they are a swarthiing and sweaty headfuck through songs of passionate protest; on record, Blue Sky Mine remains one of the best antipodean albums in the alst 50 yrs. As they said in front of Rockefeller Sqaure, Midnight Oil makes you dance, Exxon Oil makes us sick.

― Geoff, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dear me, Midnight Oil are about so much more than "Beds are Burning". Robin, I urge you to try to catch a listen to some of their other material before picking Savage Garden. While I won't hold up Midnight Oil as one of my favourite bands of all time, I think a lot of their earlier material was passionate, intelligent, and very tightly wound. Check out "When the Generals Talk", "Best of Both Worlds", "Power and the Passion", and almost all of the rest of 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, especially the track "Read About It" (oddly left off of the otherwise nice overview 20,000 Watt RSL.)

― Sean Carruthers, Tuesday, 29 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I really hope this question isn't meant to be representative of Australia. Not because it's not, but... I was hoping I'd have a chance to construct a fictional, infinitely cooler idea of Australia for ILM that no-one would question. And it's ruined by one Taking Sides question. Sigh.

― Tim, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Midnight Oil for "Wedding Cake Island."
Ally, do you spend much time in Glasgow perchance?

― tarden, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I fly to Glasgow every weekend, just for the fun of it. I bought my $250 Madonna tickets from Glasgow.

― Ally, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Just wondering where you got this 'right foot/left foot' thing, it might have some sectarian overtones up there!

― tarden, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

whaat?

― Nick, Wednesday, 30 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The first time I heard a Savage Garden song, I was all "My god, Roxette have a new album out?".

(Savage Garden - not the most apt band name ever - they shoulda been goth)

A thousand times, Midnight Oil.

― Kim, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Savage Garden, by leaps and bounds. Roxette soundalikes? Perfect! Goth-ish name? Perfect! (I think they got it from an Anne Rice novel, actually). Stylish videos? Check! In fact, the videos have the feel of the Spice videos at the same time. Futuristic, post apocalyptic, and nonetheless glorious pop. Yesyesyes.

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

fourteen years pass...

Are we ready to revisit these band

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 02:45 (ten years ago)

In a world with The 1975, absolutely

― boxedjoy, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 14:10 (ten years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/0vpss.jpg

― how's life, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 14:27 (ten years ago)

The Oils are one of those bands where each album immediately evokes specific times and places for me. _10,9,8..._ and_Red Sails in the Sunset_ are both beloved college albums. Loved their use of acoustic guitars. What with U.S. politics, "The rich get richer, the poor get the picture, the bombs never hit you when you're down so low..." pops up in my head a lot. And seeing them live in the '80s in Seattle, Peter Garrett's flailing frontman style was unique and wonderful. Fond memories of backpacking Europe and spotting the _Diesel and Dust_ version w/ "Gunbarrel Highway" in a store off the Champs Elysees. _Earth and Sun and Moon_ and the Church's _Sometime Anywhere_ are intertwined for being in high rotation around the same time. Revisited them in depth last year and gained new appreciation for _Breathe_ and on, too.

― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 15:23 (ten years ago)

The time is never right 2 visit Savage Garden. Some things really need 2 be 4gotten.

― WHERE'S JIM!? (Turrican), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 20:03 (ten years ago)

*re-visit.

― WHERE'S JIM!? (Turrican), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 20:03 (ten years ago)

just IMHO, 'to the moon and back' has aged very well but 'truly madly deeply'—there was zero sense of rediscovery there. felt like the map to every note and noise was stapled to my brain long ago

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Wednesday, 27 April 2016 23:41 (ten years ago)

I listen to 5 Midnight Oil albums all the time.

Saw Savage Garden live once, and they were pretty cool! Great set, maybe designed by U2's guy?

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 23:56 (ten years ago)

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