Latest news with #MidnightOil
Scoop
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Halfway Release Matches, The 2nd Single From Their New Album The Styx
Halfway have been a band for quarter of a century, and across that time they've made eight studio albums, each of which has received a wealth of critical acclaim. From their origins in 2000, Halfway have developed their style and songs into cinematic soundscapes, lush with pedal steel, densely layered guitars, and driving rhythms. Halfway's new album, The Styx, features the return to the fold of band co-founder Chris Dale after a six-year absence, and contributions from guests including Chris Abrahams (The Necks, Midnight Oil) and Adele Pickvance (The Go-Betweens). ' The Palace ' was the first taste of the new album and now they reveal the second single ' Matches ', written by John Busby and bassist Ben Johnson. The song creaks and shimmers to life courtesy of its gently sparkling guitars and atmospheric keys. Drums enter the fray as the music swells and expands into an evocative sound akin to the best of Mercury Rev, where musical dreams and memories coexist. " The coals of a fire are neither flame nor ash. 'Matches' sits in the space between ignition and extinction, rooted in uncertainty," says Johnson. " The stories of The Styx inhabit that uncertain ground where nothing is fully on or off, alive or gone. What begins as fire ends as cinders and lingers softly afterward." A concept album of sorts, The Styx is situated in a remote Australian coastal town during the Christmas of 1986 and explores themes of family, isolation, love, and betrayal. " Growing up, my family would spend time at Stanage Bay in Central Queensland, which is a small fishing village situated to the southeast of the Styx River. It was a remote and beautiful place," reflects Busby. He didn't know anything about Greek mythology but saw the beauty and the danger there just the same. On fishing trips with his father and a cast of characters who might have walked out of the pages of a John Steinbeck story, he must have heard a hundred times: 'People drown in here.' Seeds were planted. ' The whole Stanage Bay / Styx River area, and the people there, are a big part of this record. When some of the band and our friends started to inform the songs, I knew I had to set it at the bay,' says Busby. ' It's a place full of beauty and mystery. I had been wanting to base a story there for a long time.' There is nothing mythic about these stories of love, lust, longing, and leaving, which feel as real as an errant fishhook deep into flesh. Brothers George and Lennie are the kind of hard-bitten characters who might be found in stories by Steinbeck or Richard Flanagan, battling the elements and themselves and always with an eye out for the fishing inspectors. Just before daylight, Lennie goes to check the nets. He doesn't return. The recording of the album took on a different form for the band, who recorded themselves in Brisbane before Mark Nevers (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Lambchop, Calexico, George Jones) shaped the mix of the songs at his South Carolina studio, with Busby alongside him. ' We usually just record live in a room, but this one started quietly. Just my guitar and vocals, layering it track by track, and then recording the drums last. A weird back-to-front album, but it gave us the chance to put the story / songs first rather than concentrate on how the songs would work live.' The sound the band has concocted is one of sweeping beauty and sonic grace, both heartfelt and tragic. Guitar strings and keys wash across the speakers, like the ocean breeze and the river tide. Drawing on the influence of bands such as The Triffids and Phosphorescent, Halfway seamlessly blend alt-country and indie rock sensibilities, providing the songs with a hypnotic and compelling backdrop to these poetic tales from the Australian coastline. As in their songs, as in life. Love lost and found, the pain and the hope, the past and the landscape ever-present. Great songwriting often finds a way to make the deeply personal feel universal. Few bands navigate that path as surely as Halfway across their nine timeless albums.
Sydney Morning Herald
09-05-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
At 66, I've finally declared war on my wrinkles
At age 66, I've finally succumbed to face cream. I bought it at the chemist at the ridiculous price of $27.95 for a tiny jar. It's imported from Switzerland and promises to 'remove wrinkles'. Inspired by time-honoured male wisdom, I quickly decided that since a tiny amount is said to benefit the skin, giant handfuls of the stuff will be even more advantageous. Which is why I now start every morning looking like Marcel Marceau. Why has vanity suddenly overtaken me? I have never previously taken any trouble over my appearance. Up to now, I've been influenced by that lovely chunk of wisdom from Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, warning against 'the awful fate of the man who always knows the right clothes to wear and the right shop to buy them at'. I've worn torn jeans, rock T-shirts from before Midnight Oil was famous, and assorted shirts from that well-known businessman's accoutre-rer, Harris Scarfe Ulladulla. I have jumpers with 'built-in air-conditioning', my name for the holes that decorate both front and back, and shorts that could easily lead to a charge of public indecency. And yet, here I am, slathering my cracked skin with face cream, offering particularly copious offerings to a section, just below my right eye, which has developed a large vertical gully, much like you'd see in a poorly farmed Western Australian wheat field. In my anxiety, I'm reminded of a famous quote from George Orwell. 'At 50,' he wrote, 'everyone has the face he deserves.' I first read this when I was 15 and happily imagined the face I'd have 35 years later – one marked by a lifetime of laughter, with a sunburst of lines radiating from my mouth, and some crinkled kindness around the eyes. Not a bit of it. At 66, it's just cruel thin lips, a forehead that's had a plough through it, and this unexpected outbreak of cheek-based erosion. And so I slather on the expensive cream, a tightwad appalled by his own extravagance, as well as by his own tiresome vanity. 'You are a terrible person,' I say to my mirrored image, as I scoop out another over-priced handful.
The Age
09-05-2025
- Health
- The Age
At 66, I've finally declared war on my wrinkles
At age 66, I've finally succumbed to face cream. I bought it at the chemist at the ridiculous price of $27.95 for a tiny jar. It's imported from Switzerland and promises to 'remove wrinkles'. Inspired by time-honoured male wisdom, I quickly decided that since a tiny amount is said to benefit the skin, giant handfuls of the stuff will be even more advantageous. Which is why I now start every morning looking like Marcel Marceau. Why has vanity suddenly overtaken me? I have never previously taken any trouble over my appearance. Up to now, I've been influenced by that lovely chunk of wisdom from Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, warning against 'the awful fate of the man who always knows the right clothes to wear and the right shop to buy them at'. I've worn torn jeans, rock T-shirts from before Midnight Oil was famous, and assorted shirts from that well-known businessman's accoutre-rer, Harris Scarfe Ulladulla. I have jumpers with 'built-in air-conditioning', my name for the holes that decorate both front and back, and shorts that could easily lead to a charge of public indecency. And yet, here I am, slathering my cracked skin with face cream, offering particularly copious offerings to a section, just below my right eye, which has developed a large vertical gully, much like you'd see in a poorly farmed Western Australian wheat field. In my anxiety, I'm reminded of a famous quote from George Orwell. 'At 50,' he wrote, 'everyone has the face he deserves.' I first read this when I was 15 and happily imagined the face I'd have 35 years later – one marked by a lifetime of laughter, with a sunburst of lines radiating from my mouth, and some crinkled kindness around the eyes. Not a bit of it. At 66, it's just cruel thin lips, a forehead that's had a plough through it, and this unexpected outbreak of cheek-based erosion. And so I slather on the expensive cream, a tightwad appalled by his own extravagance, as well as by his own tiresome vanity. 'You are a terrible person,' I say to my mirrored image, as I scoop out another over-priced handful.
News.com.au
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Kylie Minogue and the big winners miss big Aussie awards show due to overseas gigs
An effervescent Kylie Minogue said '17-year-old me would not be able to compute the life that music has given me' when she was bestowed with one of Australia's most prestigious honours at the 2025 APRA Music Awards on Wednesday. The national music treasure, who is in the middle of her biggest American tour, joins legends including AC/DC, Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel, Helen Reddy and the Wiggles as a recipient of the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music. Accepting via video from Los Angeles, the proud Melburnian said this triumphant chapter of her career found her loving music more than ever. 'I mean, we all know it's work. You work for it. But I feel like whatever we give and whatever it might take from us, we receive more,' she said. 'And as I'm on tour at the moment, I'm singing songs throughout my entire catalogue. So, from the first one, The Locomotion, right up to songs from Tension. And I'm really aware of, I guess, the passage of time and how much more music means to me.' Minogue's award was accepted by her nephew Charlie, who attended with his dad Brendon and brother James. 'My first Kylie show was in 2011, I was five years old. Since then, I've been lucky to attend almost every concert. On behalf of our family, I wanted to say how proud we are of her, not only for what the world sees, but for everything it takes behind the scenes to make the magic happen,' Charlie said. The big winners of the 2025 awards, which recognise songwriters and music creators, were all out of the country and missed the ceremony in Melbourne. That may be an event organiser's nightmare but it speaks volumes about how successful Australian artists are on the world stage, even as the local industry struggles to get streaming services, radio and local fans excited about backing homegrown songs. The peer voted Song of the Year was U Should Not Be Doing That by indie rockers Amyl and the Sniffers who caused a ruckus with their performance at the Coachella festival and kick off the US leg of their world tour next week. Tame Impala supremo Kevin Parker, a go-to co-writer and producer for some of the world's biggest pop stars, won two trophies for his work on Dua Lipa's smash hit Houdini. There were murmurs in the room about Houdini picking up the Most Performed Australian Work gong, with some suggesting APRA introduce a new category to recognise local songwriters who have helped create huge international hits. Troye Sivan, who also starred at Coachella as a special guest of pop provocateur Charli XCX, was named the Songwriter of the Year. His Something to Give Each Other album, which reached No. 1 at home and top 20 in the US, is now a certified global star whose pioneering queer pop has reshaped the sound of now. 'Songwriting is my favourite thing that I get to do. I think I'll be something that I do for the rest of my life,' he said via a video acceptance speech. 'I feel like it's one of the greatest gifts that I was born with. Not even that like the ability to write a good song, just the ability to create at all.' Electronic music superstar and stage-slayer Dom Dolla, who is touring in Korea, continued his award-winning run of the past year with his smash hit Saving Up named the Most Performed Dance/Electronic Work. Breakthrough Sydney indie rock duo Royel Otis, working in LA on new music, also added to their trophy cabinet with the Emerging Songwriter of the Year award. But one of our biggest, and quietest, achievers at the 2025 awards was Grammy-winning producer Keanu Torres, also known as Keanu Beats, who was given the International recognition award for his work with a jaw-dropping list of superstars including Taylor Swift, the Kid Laroi, Doechi, Beyonce and warring rap gods Drake and Kendrick Lamar. And is it even an APRA awards if Sia doesn't win anything? Courtesy of her huge streaming presence, her 2016 hit Unstoppable is literally unstoppable when it comes to taking out the Most Performed Australian Work Overseas for the second year running. Other winners included blues rocker Ziggy Alberts, Kaiit and King Stingray while nominees Missy Higgins and Tones and I also attended the awards.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Rock musician battling cancer has had almost ‘every treatment known to man'
The drummer for a revolutionary Australian rock band has opened up about his battle with pancreatic cancer. Rob Hirst, who co-founded Midnight Oil in the 1970s, said he has been battling the disease for two years in a recent interview with The Australian. 'So it's ongoing,' he told the newspaper. 'I've had pretty much every treatment known to man — every scan, ultrasound, MRI. I've kind of had 'the works.'' Hirst said he was diagnosed 'early' and that the cancer was at stage 3 when he found it. The drummer then underwent months of chemotherapy before having an unsuccessful, eight-hour surgery to remove his tumor. Hirst is still getting both chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Cancer Australia reports that the survival rate for men with pancreatic cancer between 2016 and 2020 was 12% for men. 'Coming up to two years, I thought I just need to get this, literally, off my chest,' Hirst told The Australian. 'Also, I think that lesson for me — and maybe why I've lasted this long — is because, if you do have any of that kind of symptom, where there's something that you feel is wrong, just go and get a simple blood test. It could be life-changing, and life-extending.' Midnight Oil is multi-platinum-selling, award-winning band whose material has brought 'a new sense of political and social immediacy to pop music,' according to AllMusic. The band's 1987 single 'Beds Are Burning,' which advocates for Indigenous land rights, is regarded as a landmark of Australian music. The song peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at No. 6 in Australia. The band first formed in Sydney in 1972 as Farm, before changing its name to Midnight Oil in 1976. Midnight Oil released three albums before the band's breakthrough project, '10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,' arrived in 1982. The album peaked at No. 3 in Australia and contained the top 10 single, 'Power and the Passion.' Midnight Oil's next three albums — 1984's 'Red Sails in the Sunset,' 1987's 'Diesel and Dust' and 1990's 'Blue Sky Mining' — all topped the Australian charts. The latter peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 chart. Midnight Oil earned two more chart-topping albums with 2020's 'The Makarrata Project' and 2022's 'Resist,' which was released just one week before longtime bassist Bones Hillman died of cancer at the age of 62. The band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2006. Rock icon has been engaged to longtime partner for 'two or three years' '90s rock singer says he was 'high 24/7′ while making band's biggest hits Country music legend snaps picture with worker at Dairy Queen drive-thru Drummer 'surprised and saddened' by firing from legendary rock band Trump admin 'tried every trick' to stop rock legend's US citizenship
