.:POX:. midnight oil

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

1.The Dead Heart
2.Read About It
3.Best of Both Worlds
4.When the Generals Talk
5.Power and the Passion
6.Beds Are Burning
7.Cold Cold Change
8.Blue Sky Mine
9.Sell My Soul
10.Kosciusko

― william (william), Thursday, 26 February 2004 03:52 (twenty-two years ago)

william, have you heard "No Time For Games' (from 'Bird Noises') and "I Don't Wanna Be The One"?

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Thursday, 26 February 2004 04:01 (twenty-two years ago)

hmm can't really argue with the above, although i'd have "US forces" in there somewhere

― the surface noise (electricsound), Thursday, 26 February 2004 04:03 (twenty-two years ago)

...hence the pitfall of only picking ten. been on a bit of a midnight oil kick as of late driving back and forth to work. as with any top 10 i do,sure it would be different in a week from now.

― william (william), Thursday, 26 February 2004 04:08 (twenty-two years ago)

1. Read About It
2. Who Can Stand in the Way
3. Best of Both Worlds
4. Put Down that Weapon
5. Bullroarer
6. Sell My Soul
7. Only the Strong
8. Kusciusko
9.Antarctica
10. My Country (or maybe Drums of Heaven)

I always felt Midnight Oil got a bad rap, cast into the dustbin of so-called "'80s artists." I was always amused by a mixed review Christgau once gave them, where he called into question their progressiveness - not the politics, but the progged-out music! I also love the weird production on "10, 9, 8 ..." and "Red Sails in the Sunset."

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 26 February 2004 04:17 (twenty-two years ago)

william, have you heard "No Time For Games' (from 'Bird Noises') and "I Don't Wanna Be The One"?

to answer colin,yes to both. thought "place without a postcard" was a minor dip in quality though.

― william (william), Thursday, 26 February 2004 04:34 (twenty-two years ago)

1) Power And The Passion
2) Burnie
3) Put Down That Weapon
4) Minutes To Midnight
5) No Time For Games
6) Only The Strong
7) Barest Degree
8) King Of The Mountain
9) Golden Age
10) Bushfire

― Poppy (poppy), Thursday, 26 February 2004 05:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Dear mods: please ban the fake paul's IP, or at least the username. Thanks.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 26 February 2004 05:27 (twenty-two years ago)

whoa, whoa...how can we dance with all this bick'ring?

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Thursday, 26 February 2004 05:52 (twenty-two years ago)

[ADMIN NOTE: The posts referred to here have been deleted.] the paul cox posting here is an imposter, dragging a delusional feud to here from another discussion board. the fake paul cox is the textbook definition of TROLL. he may also be proof that God does not exist because how could God create something as moronic and spiteful as the fake Paul Cox? Robert Pollard must fancy himself to be very look to have such an asshole for a fan. fake Paul Cox, don't you have something you need to be stapling in your Time/Warner cubicle? Johnny Fever doesn't deserve this mistreatment. the moderators should ban the fake Paul Cox immediately. If they think C-Man is terrible, that haven't seen anything yet.

― Great Equalizer, Thursday, 26 February 2004 06:44 (twenty-two years ago)

william, you misspelled Kozioscow.
Idiot.

...actually we both spelled it wrong. "Kosciusko" there,my wrong is righted.

― william (william), Thursday, 26 February 2004 06:46 (twenty-two years ago)

1. "Read About It"
2. "The Power & the Passion"
3. "Best of Both Worlds"
4. "When the Generals Talk"
5. "Stand in Line"
6. "the Dead Heart"
7. "Blue Sky Mine"
8. "King of the Mountain"
9. "Beds are Burning"
10. "Short Memory"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 26 February 2004 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)

"Wedding Cake Island"

― dave q, Thursday, 26 February 2004 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, I'd like to switch positions between "Read About It" and "Best of Both Worlds," the latter definetely being their finest hour.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 26 February 2004 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Chronologically:

Back on the Borderline
Read About It
Power and the Passion
Jimmy Sharman's Boxers
Kosciusko
The Dead Heart
Dreamworld
Bullroarer
Sometimes
My Country

4/10ths _Diesel & Dust_, though _Red Sails in the Sunset_ was the first album of theirs I heard.

― Chris Hill (Chris Hill), Thursday, 26 February 2004 16:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Helps Me Helps You
When The Generals Talk
Hercules
US Forces
Bells And Horns In The Back Of Beyond
Only The Strong
Shipyards Of New Zealand
Short Memory
Armistice Day
Wedding Cake Island

The ABC's putting out a live double-DVD in a couple of months with shows from 1982 and 1985 that should destroy any preferences that misguided people have for post-Species Deceases material...

― kit brash (kit brash), Thursday, 26 February 2004 22:12 (twenty-two years ago)

So little love for "Sometimes"! The Scream in Blue version is especially good--check the way it builds toward the key change.

― skreddy57 (skreddy57), Friday, 27 February 2004 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

No love fot their early material then?

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Friday, 27 February 2004 00:15 (twenty-two years ago)

i like what i've heard of it (some of those guitar sounds are phenomenal) but titles elude me

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 27 February 2004 02:16 (twenty-two years ago)

unredeemable

― mullygrubber (gaz), Friday, 27 February 2004 02:44 (twenty-two years ago)

i like the early guitar stuff a great deal, and "place w/out a postcard" is not a drop in quality imo (though i like some live versions i've seen/heard more) but having said that, "10,9,8,.." is pretty faultless for me, both in song quality and in that unique production clarity.
I _do_ think "red sails .." _was_ a considerable drop however, or maybe suddenly their music just seemed a lot more simple, so the really big commercial breaks coming just after that coupled with a much less interesting stadium-rock production sound, i guess they go hand-in-hand.

well at least the commercial sounding songs provided cover for the sharp politics to still get through, M.O. by then household names in Australasia, extraordinary given the notorious Australian political apathy or 'attitude' on those very same issues.

so POX is too hard or simplistic -- how to reconcile "10, 9, 8,.." with "POX" -- i can't do that -- they're a band most easily defined by their many very different sounding albums for me, as though the albums are a series of different market strategies that ultimately paid off for the lyrics at the expense of the complexity or angularity of the music

― george gosset (gegoss), Friday, 27 February 2004 03:35 (twenty-two years ago)

MOD NOTE: The "Paul Cox" messages have been deleted.

― MODERATOR (Dan Perry), Friday, 27 February 2004 04:28 (twenty-two years ago)

hey, mod, go fuck yourself

― paul cocks, Friday, 27 February 2004 06:33 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

short memory
dreamworld
read about it
beds are burning
knife's edge
the power and the passion
us forces
forgotten years
blue sky mine
only the strong

― Charlie Howard, Saturday, 14 April 2007 18:32 (eighteen years ago)

10, 9, 8, ... is such a cool album. i loved that thing when i was a kid. every song is great. red sails never did much for me. and i could never really stomach "beds are burning". never heard that whole album. i was always curious about the early stuff and i would see it in record stores every once in a while, but i never took a chance on it. i probably should have.

― scott seward, Saturday, 14 April 2007 18:45 (eighteen years ago)

'conquistador of mexico, the zulu and the navaho
the belgians in the congo short memory
plantation in virginia, the raj in british india
the deadline in south africa short memory
the story of el salvador, the silence of hiroshima
destruction of cambodia, short memory'

fantastic

― Charlie Howard, Saturday, 14 April 2007 18:50 (eighteen years ago)

I also love the weird production on "10, 9, 8 ..." and "Red Sails in the Sunset."

red sails has one of the strangest basic recorded sounds (i.e., just the way stuff was miked/eq'd, not necessarily any post-recording manipulation or effects) i've ever heard.

― Lawrence the Looter, Saturday, 14 April 2007 20:17 (eighteen years ago)

damn 'beds are burning' is catchy

australian rock bands are often all about anthemic, singalong choruses. read: the oils, inxs, australian crawl, chisel

― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 19 April 2007 02:48 (eighteen years ago)

nine years pass...

Oh snap, reunited!

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 17 February 2017 17:09 (nine years ago)

Box sets and remasters, too.

― EZ Snappin, Friday, 17 February 2017 20:41 (nine years ago)

Huh, I guess I'd forgotten this was the thread where fake me caused a big stink. Fuck that guy, though.

I'm looking forward to hearing some of this previously unreleased Oils material (depending on what timeframe it's from).

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Saturday, 18 February 2017 00:50 (nine years ago)

Weird that Red Sails is considered the start of the decline by a couple people upthread. For me, that album is the band's apex.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Saturday, 18 February 2017 00:52 (nine years ago)

Some info on the unreleased stuff here (but no tracklisting yet): http://24hundred.net/products/preorder-over-flow-tank-limited-edition

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 18 February 2017 01:15 (nine years ago)

I'll let you know when my oil drum makes the long trek from Australia.

― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 18 February 2017 01:17 (nine years ago)

Surprised it's such a tiny edition; surely they could sell at least a couple thousand of those in the states alone?

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 18 February 2017 01:19 (nine years ago)

They could barely get a greatest hits released in the States. They're playing 1000 seat theaters on their reunion tour. The audience isn't here anymore.

― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 18 February 2017 01:25 (nine years ago)

Yeah, they're thought of almost as one-hit-wonders here (which, technically, they were) (and it didn't help that they put out a spectacularly dull record after Diesel), but I just figured the most fervent of their US fanbase numbered more than 200.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 18 February 2017 01:54 (nine years ago)

Maybe the number of people willing to put a metal barrel (let alone a pair of them) on a shelf in their living room is smaller than you think.

― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱), Saturday, 18 February 2017 02:15 (nine years ago)

It has been a good while too. I saw them on the Diesel and Dust tour and they were really great live.

― earlnash, Saturday, 18 February 2017 03:43 (nine years ago)

I would argue that, for a few years, they were one of the best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWFjvgxE8Ig

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 18 February 2017 06:52 (nine years ago)

I saw them on the Diesel & Dust tour too - my first ever concert - and then at a secret show in 2005, and they were incredible the latter time.

― (±\ PLO;;;;;;; Style (sic), Saturday, 18 February 2017 07:15 (nine years ago)

I want to say II saw them headline a bill with Ziggy Marley and Hothouse Flowers.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 18 February 2017 07:20 (nine years ago)

Saw them in '88 too, and they killed. Rob Hirst is such an underrated drummer.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 18 February 2017 16:48 (nine years ago)

I suspect everything about them is underrated unless you are Australian.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 18 February 2017 18:00 (nine years ago)

1985 at The Pier was all time for me, 1987ish at ? was v good. Hirst and those guitar sounds, love it.

― wishy washy hippy variety hour (Hunt3r), Saturday, 18 February 2017 19:46 (nine years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.