Midnight Oil is planning to release not one but two new musical projects this year, beginning with an eight-song mini-album called The Makaratta Project recorded with “some of our First Nations friends” to be released this summer, followed by a proper Oils studio album due out later in the year, according to the band’s website.
Midnight Oil played a pair of small Australian concerts in recent days ahead of a short run of European dates, and treated fans to both the debut of the band’s first new song in 16 years and the group’s first full-album performance of Diesel and Dust in its native country. Hear the new song right here.
Midnight Oil has confirmed it will return to the recording studio later this year, with the band’s drummer Rob Hirst saying their live reunion “was such a positive experience that it made us even hungrier to get back to making new music together.” Full details right here, including the latest tour dates.
A live set recorded at Walt Disney World during Midnight Oil’s U.S. tour in support of 1997 album Breathe will receive a limited-edition double-vinyl release — one LP will be red, the other white — on Record Store Day in the United States next month. Full details including tracklist and artwork right here.
After taking the last year off, the reformed Midnight Oil will head back out on the road in 2019, announcing Monday a run of 11 dates in the U.K., Ireland and Europe next summer along with a July festival appearance in the band’s native Australia. Full dates posted right here.
Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted. This week’s releases include titles Midnight Oil, Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis, Gary Numan and Big Country.
The new documentary chronicling Midnight Oil’s pivotal year of 1984 — which saw the release of Red Sails in the Sunset and Peter Garrett’s failed run for the Australian Senate as a Nuclear Disarmament Party candidate — will screen later next month in select U.S. theaters. Full dates and trailer right here.
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