Political awareness among musicians these days is a rare commodity. The idealistic '60s rode along on a wave of rockers and folkies, but after Vietnam war protestations wore off and the '70s punk radicalism morphed into big biz "alternative," the years have gradually evolved into an ongoing series of "me decades," and with them so has the music.

The uneasy marriage of politics and rock 'n' roll has been slowing down incrementally, decade by decade, until by the end of the '90s it's practically come to a screeching halt. The Clash's bang seemed to be the last strident hold-out of a genre that ended the '80s with barely a whimper. Sure U2, Peter Gabriel, and even Sting have been out there swinging, but where's the new blood? Rock bands don't bother going out on a political limb these days for a variety of reasons. Unless you're an established star, you're sure to be met with assistance from every level, especially in the all important marketplace. Even the ultra political radical activists in Chumbawamba have succumbed to a pop/dance mentality.

And then there's Midnight Oil.

Formed in Australia in 1976, the band has consistently joined a fiercely staunch political stance with blistering, pounding rock 'n' roll that cuts through apathy like a Martin Luther King speech in 1960s Washington. Their 1987 platinum album Diesel And Dust was a huge commercial success and provided the U.S. radio breakthrough that had eluded them and the few other bands of their ilk. There have been four more releases since then, each tackling issues as diverse as political rights for Australian aborigines and broader global environmental issues. The Oils have managed to stay contemporary and vital by seldom (but sometimes) letting the message get in the way of the music. Peter Garrett, the band's bald, almost seven foot, lumbering singer/songwriter and front person has been the obvious focus of the group, even though drummer Rob Hirst and guitarist Jim Moginie have written or co-written most of the songs.

On their 20th anniversary as a band (actually 21st but who's counting?), Midnight Oil hits the racks with 20,000 Watt R.S.L., an 18-cut tour through their recorded history that's not only a fine summary of the most musically potent, politically savvy rock of the past two decades, but a great introduction to the band.

They've already recorded a new album, Redneck Wonderland, due for release in the spring, but the occasion that connected Peter Garrett and me by phone was their current hits, or best known songs, collection. Garrett, an attorney (and narrowly defeated Australian senator), is as articulate a rock singer as you'll ever find, and it was a thrill to wade through Midnight Oil's past successes and sometimes frustrations with him.

One of the Oil's first major radical steps was setting up their own Powderworks record label in Australia. A noble act, but one that eventually gave way to the mega-monolith of Sony as the band gradually attained world- wide popularity. "We crossed ourselves over to Columbia from Powderworks some time back," explains Garrett in his calm but definitive voice. "It's a trade-off for any artist, whatever stage of their career they're at. They have to decide whether they want to be a packaging and promotion and distribution business-oriented bunch of people, or whether they're ultimately going to put it in someone else's hands. Having done it ourselves for a couple of years, we knew what it was like and I think we just got sick of putting the posters up in the record shops. And if you can go across with a reasonable amount of creative control, which we were able to do, then.... Of course, there were downsides with it. But it's just one of those trades where you just have to make up your mind what's more important to you and we didn't see ourselves as little mini-label managers. We saw ourselves primarily as songwriters and performers. We thought of resuscitating it, and kicking it back up again, but I think we realized that what we do is what we do. And we've never made quite enough money to employ other people to do it for us. So we've kept ourselves focused on the job."

The job being to get their music out to a worldwide, often non-English speaking audience. In fact their immense popularity in places like France completely confounds them. "France is the biggest mystery of all. We banned ourselves from playing there for years because of their nuclear testing. We've been politically very outspoken there. And the French market is a hard market. They've got a 50% quota for new and emerging French artists on French radio. So very, very few English speaking artists apart from the Phil Collins and Elton Johns, can get played on radio there. I was just there actually, writing articles about that. 'How does this strange band that we don't see that often with this big gawky, politically outspoken singer producing this music...how does it stick here?' No one seems to know."

The current disc, 20,000 Watts R.S.L., is a sharply chosen and wonderfully programmed hits package which the band wanted to release for their worldwide fans since they didn't tour for their last album, the commercially disappointing Breathe. "We feel now is a good time because the catalog was getting rather long. These are the songs we chose in the order that we chose them. We don't feel like it's a nostalgic exercise. Maybe it sounds clich, but we felt we had a responsibility to get something into the market that people could respond to, which also had songs that showed people the direction we were going in. We didn't want to do an anthology [there are no B sides or live cuts], but I know in Australia fans and early purchasers did get a B side list."

Garrett goes on to describe the next, already recorded Midnight Oil album. "It'll be out February/March. It's a very strong, focused record. It's us reacting to what's happening in our own part of the world politically, and swinging in another direction from Breathe. It's a lot more aggressive. A lot more guitars. A lot of sampling and loops and bits and pieces. The sort of thing that Midnight Oil does, we think, quite well. We feel quite comfortable in this idiom. Pretty hard edged." The title, Redneck Wonderland, is, as you might have guessed, politically motivated as well. Garrett explains. "We're going through a really intense period of addressing inherent racism at home. The rednecks see nirvana as a place that they can drink as much beer and spit at as many black people as they can."

It's another rather risky move from a band that's no stranger to those over the course of more than two decades together. How have they managed to stick it out through all these years? "It's the weird mystery of making music. The fact that we don't have to communicate by memo or fax, we communicate with notes and rhythms. That seems to have kept us alive. Maybe it's because we've never gotten into the stratosphere of popularity. We've never really come in from the outside. We've always had a social and political focus in our work. As musicians we've always been very particular about how we've made our records. We've stayed at home, in this strange place that's very remote. So our identity is very much shaped by the fact that when we do anything we have to do it as five people."

Five people that have, if not quite changed the world, at least brought its problems to a wider audience. And judging from Garrett's cautious optimism, might just be doing that for another 20 years.

From The Music Monitor, by Hal Horowitz

(Note: this article has not been approved for reproduction.)