Midnight Oil To Reissue Ten Remastered Titles And Black Rain Falls DVD

One of our favorite sites, Slicing Up Eyeballs, has revealed that Midnight Oil will have eight of their albums remastered and reissued on June 20. These include the studio albums, Midnight Oil (1978), Head Injuries (1979), Place Without A Postcard (1981), 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 (1982), Red Sails In the Sunset (1984), Diesel And Dust (1987), which produced “Beds Are Burning”, Blue Sky Mining (1990), and Earth And Sun And Moon (1993). The remastered reissues will also include two EPs,  Bird Noises (1980), and Species Deceases (1985).

In addition to the reissues, and likely the bigger news for Midnight Oil fans, is the main announcement that the remastered albums piggy-backed on of the DVD release of their Black Rain Falls protest show filmed during the band’s cessation of their North American tour to protest Exxon Oil in NYC due to the oil company’s mishandling of the Valdez disaster along the southern Alaskan coastlines (Eleven MILLION gallons of spilled oil!). This May 30, 1990 protest show drew a crowd of over 10,000 for the band’s appearance on a flat bed truck in front of the Exxon Oil building.

The Black Rain Falls protest DVD consists of the performance of six songs (“Progress” – from the Species Deceases EP, “Sometimes”, “Dreamworld” – from Diesel And Dust, “Blue Sky Mine”, “River Runs Red” – from Blue Sky Mining, “Instant Karma”). In addition to the six songs of the show, the DVD will include a video of “King Of The Mountain”, as well as commentary of each of the songs played from the band.

All CDs and the DVD are scheduled for Australian release. Soon, I’m sure, a wider-reaching release will be announced. For now, you will have to import these titles from Australia.