Lurkers, The – Shoot to the Moon

Soon after meeting at mutual friend’s Climate Action Festival in 2007 the soon to be Lurkers realised they already had something in common; namely friends who held Climate Action Festivals in their backyard. Pretty Boy Floyd, The Weary Hobo and Desert Rat Shorty started making music together in various poses and styles, conscious of the impact a double bass, guitar, banjo, harmonica and where required an angry banjo-mandolin can have on solving the world’s ills. With their acoustic line-up, The Lurkers play ‘subversive homespun bluegrass’ in the vein of American hillbilly and old timey music. They draw on the tradition of artists and musicians who use their music for political agitation. In turn they use the donated rivers of gold to run the Lurker Van and continue this tradition across the state and country. Politically they are influenced by the likes of Woody Guthrie, Joe Hill, Pete Seeger and Berthold Brecht. Songwriting, lead vocals and harmonies are all shared lending each set a variety of styles, from blues to bluegrass, mountain music to traditional folk. Proudly anti-authoritarian, The Lurkers made this music to provide you with the soundtrack for your own resistance.
Shoot to the Moon Track listing 01. Get foxy news 02. Environmental evangelism makes no friends 03. Rotten to the core 04. $300,000 blues 05. Got my boots on 06. Couldn’t be better 07. Shoot to the moon 08. You girls 09. DIY Armageddon 10. Keeping a file on me 11. Blue sky day 12. Lay me down 13. North shore pirates
7 Lurky things you might not already know 1. The Lurkers raised nearly all the money to make Shoot to the Moon by busking. “The good people of Marrickville were the most generous, with a $50 note landing in our case, and lots of 2 year olds having their first experience of giving to buskers. The stingiest crowds were those in the ‘boulevarde of broken dreams’ in Tamworth, and the advertising executives from Bondi,” said Mithra Cox, banjo player.
2. The Lurkers have some roots in the Illawarra. Mithra was raised in Kangaroo Valley and went to high school in Bomaderry. Martin and Nick are from Sydney.
3. The Lurkers are going to Copenhagen. They have timed a tour of Switzerland, Germany and Denmark to coincide with the UN negotiations on climate change in December this year. “It really is make or break time for the world to do something about Climate Change and The Lurkers want to be part of it. Even if our contribution is small, change is made by millions of small contributions,” said Martin Cubby, guitarist.
4. Shoot to the Moon is released under a Creative Commons Licence. This means that people can copy and share it for creative and non-commercial uses. “We want out music to make a social and cultural contribution. Hopefully, listening to The Lurkers will encourage people to make their own music and be active in their communities,” said Nick Mueller, double bass player.
5. The Lurkers coined the phrases ‘Lurkerism’, ‘feeling lurky’ and ‘get lurked’ to describe their brand of antihumourless activism.
6. Musically, The Lurkers have taken the conventions of bluegrass and hillbilly music and married this with the folk tradition of the protest song.
7. The Lurkers have a combined age of 82.
The Lurkers – Shoot to the Moon CD Review by Chris Spencer
The short review of this cd is: The Lurkers are a bluegrass trio that perform political songs. The long review: I’m not familiar enough with the bluegrass tradition to know if any other previous bluegrass band performed political songs. Almost every song, with the exception of “Got My Boots On” and “Lay Me Down” which could be about someone gradually losing their memory, has a political or environmental theme. “Get Foxy News” is a critique of the media empire of Rupert Murdoch; “Environmental Evangelism Makes No Friends” is about … environmental evangelism; Banjo player, Mithra Cox takes lead vocals on “Rotten to the Core” commenting on the lack of ethics by the major banks, while Martin Cubby sings about the worries of having a mortgage that he can’t afford in “$300,000 Blues”. Cox also sings on the sparse, slower “You Girls” which laments the dangers women face when walking alone at night. Most of the tunes are written and sung by Nicholas Mueller, who plays double bass, banjo and mandolin. I assume he takes lead vocals on “Couldn’t be Better” that comments on people putting their head in the sand to ignore climate change, he’s particularly savage on religious people relying on God to save them with his ‘intelligent design’; “Got my Boots On” and the title track that deals with man’s greed in devouring all the Earth’s (and the Moon’s) natural resources. “DIY Armageddon” is another swipe at religion’s and society’s continued misuse of the Earth’s resources. Readers who are offended by swearing may fi nd some of the band’s language unacceptable, but in the context of the songs, the use of swearing isn’t out of place. “Keeping a File on Me” is about governments and organisations such as ASIO keeping tabs on [potential] troublemakers! The last song “North Shore Pirates” is about rising sea levels, performed in the mode of a sailors’ jig, complete with pirate sounding vocals, just to lighten the mood! All the tracks are recorded using acoustic instruments, guitar, banjo and double bass. No sound of a drum to be heard. Each track varies with the use of slightly different arrangements, and different genres: country bluegrass, folk bluegrass, blues bluegrass! I found this album interesting, particularly “Lay Me Down” and “Environmental Evangelism”. Recommended if you’re wanting to listen to something different, engaging and philosophical.