MIDNIGHT OIL’S Jim Moginie still has plenty of fire in his belly—he’s only releasing his new album Thunk on vinyl, cassette and CD as a one-finger salute to the tech giants.
“They are killing the music industry by denying musicians income with abysmal streaming royalties,” Moginie says.
“Investing in AI harvesting and creation of AI content designed to eliminate musicians altogether, their only motivation being profit, and in Spotify’s case assisting in the creation of actual war machines.”
Politics and third-party music delivery services aside, Thunk is a cracker of an album and comes flying out the traps with all guns blazing.
Recorded live in the studio, the opener Sunny Boy has all the raucous energy of Exile on Main Street.
“It’s like let’s spin the bottle and create some magic out of thin air from just the electricity of all being in the same room and playing together,” Moginie says.
“It’s pretty easy to lose that energy when you’re in a studio these days because everyone’s trying to fix everything and make everything nice.
“But rock music needs to go up and down and be a bit looser.”
Backed by the Family Dog band—Kent Steedman, Paul Larsen Loughhead (Celibate Rifles) and Tim Kevin (The Apartments)—the music is diverse, interesting and never indulges in rock clichés.
Sometimes live-in-the-studio albums can be rambling and self-indulgent, but on Thunk the arrangements are tight and the melodies are well-crafted.
Sunny Boy sounds a bit like the Stones, This is Modern War has a Soundgarden-style intro, and 5G doffs its cap to Lou Reed.
The closest track to Midnight Oil is perhaps Foreseeable Ruin.
• Jim Moginie and the Family Dog are playing at the Amplifier in Perth.
“I write in all sorts of different ways,” Moginie says. “I’ve made ambient guitar records, I’ve made sort of piano-based, sort of more songwriting records.
“This one, we’ve done more or less from a jamming process where we improvise and then come back later and sort of impose songs over the top of the good bits.”
There’s no getting away from the fact that Moginie and his Family Dog band are getting on a bit, but the energy levels and enthusiasm on this record put musos half their age to shame.
Moginie shares vocal duties on the album with Steedman and Kevin.
“Tim Kevin does really great harmony vocals,” Moginie says.
“He’s probably the best singer of a lot of us, but we, you know, our dominant personality is always pushing him out of the way so we can get into the microphone.”
There is a vitality and enthusiasm to the album, and it’s sure to be a great live show when they hit WA and play venues in Perth, Margaret River and Bunbury.
“As I’m getting a little bit older, I don’t want to hear perfection, I want to hear imperfection,” Moginie says.
“All the new technologies come along and they’re shiny and new and exciting and glamorous, but really at the end of the day, you know, it takes away from that rawness of who you are.”
Jim Moginie and The Family Dog, with special guests Sonic Blood, are playing Amplifier Bar in Perth on May 22. Tix at oztix.com.au
by STEPHEN POLLOCK