Ghostwriters, Political Animal (Sony/BMG, 2007)

Ghostwriters started in 1991 as a side project for Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst and Hoodoo Gurus bassist Rob Grossman. Even though Midnight Oil broke up in 2002 and the Gurus have had an extended hiatus as well (they did re-unite in 2004), the Ghostwriters reconvene only occasionally. Political Animal, the fourth Ghostwriters album, is primarily a compilation, with four new songs followed by remixes of older material.

The singing and songwriting in Ghostwriters are done almost entirely by Hirst. Hirst also plays more guitar than drums on this CD -- like Phil Collins and Dave Grohl, he discovered that it's hard to front a band from behind the kit, no matter how good of a drummer you happen to be. Drummer Lee Moloney and guitarist/keyboardist D.C. are carryovers from the last Ghostwriters CD Fibromoon (from 1999), and Midnight Oil guitarist Martin Rotsey has just been added as well.

The opening song and single "Start the Day" is a hard-edged diatribe about current political events, in keeping with the kind of songs Hirst wrote for Midnight Oil. The other strong new track is "Follow the Leader," which could be about the Australian people's acceptance of the Prime Minster John Howard's government as Howard led them off a cliff, or possibly about Howard's eagerness to fall in line with President Bush's agenda. (Since this album was made, not only did Howard's party lose its majority in Parliament in a general election, causing Labor party leader Kevin Rudd to take Howard's place as Prime Minister, but Howard couldn't even win re-election to the seat in his home district. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage, and the Arts in Rudd's new Cabinet is Peter Garrett, whom Hirst and Rotsey know very well.)

There is always a bit of a danger to mixing new material with old material, though, because the new material has to justify the purchase of the full CD to long-time fans. And indeed, the four new songs aren't quite as good as what follows. Five songs are taken from the Ghostwriters' strongest album, 1997's Second Skin. Classic songs like "Impossible Shame" and "Not My Time" are on the same level as Midnight Oil's best songs. Of course, it's very tempting to wonder how these songs would have sounded if Hirst had brought them to the Oils. Only one song each from the first Ghostwriters album and Fibromoon were re-mixed for inclusion on this CD. The album does include as a bonus track the original version of "Someone's Singing New York, New York," the very first Ghostwriters' single.

Political Animal is not an easy album to rate. On one hand, the new material by itself would warrant a B or B+. Most people in the U. S. are entirely unfamiliar with the Ghostwriters' back catalog, though, and even I've had to make do with a taped copy of Second Skin. So for practical purposes, Political Animal might as well be treated as an album of wholly new material for listeners in this country, and I've decided to rate it accordingly.

Overall grade: A

reviewed by Scott

Augie March, Moo, You Bloody Choir (Red Ink, 2007)

Augie March hail from Melbourne, Australia. Led by guitarist/vocalist Glenn Richards, this modern rock quartet specializes in melodic but melancholic laments of love and loss. It's a familiar formula to be sure, but Richards, drummer David Williams, guitarist Adam Donovan, bassist Edmondo Ammendola, and keyboardist Kiernan Box mostly make it work due to some tight musicianship and good songwriting. Richards, in particular, has a feel for melodies and a soulful voice that is well-suited to the kind of songs he writes.

Their third album, titled Moo, You Bloody Choir, came out last year in Australia but just got released in the U. S. last month. The band plays mostly straightforward rock, with some country leanings. A lot of the album is pretty moody, as typified by the opening song and single "One Crowded Hour," which will please some people more than others. I don't mind music that leans towards the more somber side of things, but after hearing the band rock out on "Just Passing Through" and get somewhat rustic on "Thin Captain Crackers," I kind of wish Augie March had made the album a bit more diverse.

Moo, You Bloody Choir does have enough good tracks to justify giving it a listen, though. It will appeal to people who like melodic, no-frills guitar rock with tinges of country and soul.

Overall grade: B

reviewed by Scott

Crowded House, Time on Earth (ATO Records, 2007)

Neil Finn initially founded Crowded House after his previous band Split Enz, still the most famous group to originate in New Zealand, split up in the early eighties. Drummer Paul Hester was recruited from the final Split Enz lineup, and bassist Nick Seymour completed the original trio. The band eventually became a quartet during a career that spanned ten years and four albums, with Mark Hart adding keyboards and guitar on the last album Together Alone. The members of Crowded House fought with their share of inner demons, though, especially Hester. Despite his outward happy-go-lucky demeanor and the light-hearted songs he contributed to the band, Hester suffered from bipolar disorder to a crippling degree. In 2005, ten years after Crowded House split up, Hester hung himself.

Finn had spent the years after Crowded House alternating between performing as a solo artist and as half of a duo with his brother Tim, who was part of Split Enz and also a member of Crowded House for one album and tour. The songs Neil wrote in the wake of Hester's suicide were clearly affected by that event, so much so that it only makes sense that Finn decided to record these songs together with Seymour and Hart as a re-united Crowded House. Ethan Johns and Matt Sherrod split the drumming responsibilities during the recording sessions, and Sherrod has officially joined the band as the fourth member.

The new CD is called Time on Earth, and it can be argued that Hester is as present on this album as he was on the four Crowded House albums he drummed on. The opening song "Nobody Wants To" talks about the fear and reluctance people have to address the subject of death or their own mortality. On "People Are Like Suns," the closing song, Finn sings about the limited time we have. Several of the songs in between follow similar lines as well. The material gets heavy at times, but the sincerity of Finn's feelings comes through, especially on the sonically agressive "Silent House," the album's most emotionally potent track.

Given the subject matter, much of the music on Time on Earth is predictably on the darker side. Finn has made a very long and productive career largely out of making melodic and accessible songs that hold up even when they veer towards melancholy, though. There might not be a "Don't Dream It's Over" on Time On Earth, but songs like the anti-war ballad "Pour le Monde" make the album a worthy addition to the Crowded House catalog. The CD has a couple of good upbeat tracks too, including the power-pop song "Even A Child" which Finn
co-wrote with Johnny Marr (from The Smiths, obviously, but also more recently with Modest Mouse).

Time on Earth is not always an easy listen or a feel-good record, but there is plenty of quality on it, and it serves as a fitting tribute from Crowded House to a fallen bandmate and friend.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

Garage Days (2002)

Garage Days is the movie version of the popular phrase "Sex, drugs, and rock n' roll," with an Aussie twist. It features Kick Gurry and Maya Stange. Despite the name, there is no connection to the popular music software that Apple includes in the iLife package.

We start with a group of twenty something’s on the streets of Sydney. They're looking for their first gig, you know, their big break. When they finally get it, their debut concert is more fizzle than sizzle, and the lone saving grace is a chance connection that gets made with a record producer. Eventually this does pay off, but along the way there is a healthy heaping of struggle among the band members. True to any serious rockers, the band can barely stay together amongst the frequent drug use, and the nonmonogamous intercourse that characterizes their daily activity.

While Garage Days had some potential, it gets quagmired in the band's difficulties as they strive towards their goal. Also, I needed frequent use of the DVD’s subtitles to understand the thickly accented Australian English. If you've watched "This Is Spinal Tap" more times than you'd like to admit, than Garage Band is your kind of film. Rock on!



Overall Grade: B-

--Jonas

Eric Bogle, At This Stage (Rouseabout, 2005)

Over the years since he emigrated from Scotland to Australia in 1969, Eric Bogle has developed an enormous reputation in folk and Celtic circles. It could be argued quite compellingly that nobody has written better songs about war. Bogle's songrwriting covers many facets of the human condition, though, with plenty of humor to counterbalance the sadness. The original version of the album At This Stage consisted of a concert from 1984 and contained most of what would be considered his greatest hits. This two-CD set, released in 2005 with the same title, contains all the material from the original version along with some performances of newer tunes.

Every song except the very first one ("Hard, Hard Times," about the plight of aboriginals) is preceded by an introduction on a separate track. The listener thus has the option of skipping all the talking, which gets quite lengthy at points, but the introductions do provide a considerable amount of insight into Bogle's personality and songwriting, along with the true stories behind most of the songs. "A Reason For It All" was inspired by an article about a woman whose body was found in her house nearly a year after her death; nobody, not even her two children, had checked up on her during that whole time. "No Man's Land," a classic song about the brutally pointless waste of an entire generation of young men in the First World War, was written after a visit to a hopelessly vast French graveyard. Bogle's trademark song is the often-covered "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda," a song about an ANZAC soldier critically wounded by a Turkish shell in Gallipoli. In the introduction to this song, Bogle mentions a letter received from somebody who identified himself as A. Nonymous. This person felt that the song was crippling the moral fiber of Australian youth and preventing them from opposing communism. When the yellow tide reaches Australia, the writer went on -- Bogle wasn't sure if the "yellow tide" referred to the Chinese or Russians with jaundice -- he hoped Bogle would be among the first to get shot. On one level, I suppose it's reassuring to know that crude comments from ignorant right-wingers preceded the internet by at least a decade or two.

Bogle also has written some very humorous songs, which provide some needed relief from the very weighty material in his typical set. "Nobody's Moggy Now" was inspired by a truck route into the outback that evidently runs through some residential areas, leaving colorful displays of feline roadkill along its sides. (Cat lovers might consider skipping this one, but if you know the song and like it, Bogle's flub on the word "masticating" is worth the price of the CD.) Giving equal play to dogs, "Little Gomez" tells the tale of a rather horny chihuahua who meets his match trying to mate with a St. Bernard. His set closer is "I Don't Know Any Bob Dylan." It was the curse of folkies in Bogle's generation to be asked to sing Dylan songs everywhere they brought their guitar, whether they wanted to sing Dylan or not, and Bogle vents his frustrations in a very funny way with this song.

The performances on At This Stage are quite solid throughout, and at least match the studio versions that I've heard. As Bogle's "best of" CD's are much harder to find presently than this album is, this is as good an introduction to Bogle's music as you're likely to get. Certainly "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and "No Man's Land" (also called "The Green Fields of France" by some of the performers who've covered it) are songs that everybody should know. Of the newer songs, my favorite is a light-hearted song about continuity in life called "The Dalai Lama's Candle," originally recorded in 2002. Eric Bogle is a master of eliciting powerful emotional responses from his audiences. Sometimes he'll make you laugh, and sometimes he'll have you reaching for the kleenex. At This Stage brings together most of his best songs in a live context, complete with the stories behind them. Any fan of Bogle, and anybody interested in hearing a great singer-songwriter, will like this recording.

Overall grade: A

Jim Moginie, Alas Folkloric (EMI, 2006)

As far as I'm concerned, no rock band of the past thirty years has produced as much quality music as the Australian band Midnight Oil. Their combination of strong melodies, a tireless commitment to principle, and furious energy produced a series of great albums between 1978 and 2002. Almost all of the attention people have given to the band focuses on Peter Garrett, their tall, intimidating, opinionated, and profoundly unstylish singer who currently sits on the front bench for the opposition party in the Australian Parliament. But that paints a misleading picture, as the bulk of Midnight Oil's songwriting and the heart of their sound came from drummer Rob Hirst and guitarist/keyboardist Jim Moginie. With Garrett committed to politics full-time, the remaining band members have pursued other projects. Bones Hillman was last seen playing bass with Russell Crowe and the Ordinary Fear of God. (Yes, it's that Russell Crowe.) Hirst has a number of side projects, most notably The Ghostwriters, and he recently recruited guitarist Martin Rotsey for another group of his called The Angry Tradesmen. That has left Moginie to produce the first true solo album from any Midnight Oil member, called Alas Folkloric.

The album opens with the aggressive "All Around The World," with guest appearances from Hirst and Rotsey. Hirst's manic drumming gives this angry lament of the state of world affairs the feel of vintage Midnight Oil, but while it's one of my favorite tracks on the CD, I couldn't help wondering how this would have sounded with Garrett singing lead instead of Moginie. Otherwise, Moginie refrains from sounding too much like his former band. A number of the songs aim for an ambience reminiscent of many Daniel Lanois-produced recordings, most notably the beautifully eerie "A Curse On Both Your Houses." On the upbeat side, "Outer Space" is brilliant power pop with a psychedelic twist, and an obvious choice for a single. Despite clocking in at less than a minute, the turbocharged instrumental "Zero to 110" shows that Moginie can still rev it up with the best of them.

On the whole, Alas Folkloric is a very worthy effort from an elite musician whose contributions to some of the best rock and roll in my lifetime generally go overlooked. Moginie's voice lacks the confidence and polish of somebody more accustomed to singing lead, but it has sincerity to it and a distinctive character that serves these songs well enough. This album probably won't get a whole lot of attention here in the U.S., and I doubt Moginie and his backing band The Family Dog will cross the Pacific any time soon, but fans of quality rock should get to know Jim Moginie. At the very least, anybody who liked Midnight Oil should make the effort to get this CD.

As an added bonus, the version of Alas Folkloric I purchased includes the four-song 1996 EP by Fuzz Face, a project which featured Moginie and frequent Midnight Oil producer Nick Launay. This disc is over-the-top loud, which some listeners will enjoy a lot more than others. It's noteworthy in a historical context, because it reflects the sonic experimentation that Moginie would bring to Midnight Oil's 1998 CD Redneck Wonderland, the most musically challenging (and my personal favorite) of their albums. The opening song "Mr. Doomsday" is especially a keeper.

Overall grade: B+