Forgotten Music Thursday: Hunters & Collectors - Juggernaut (1998)

Several Australian bands tried to crack the U.S. market. Only a small handful (INXS, Midnight Oil, Little River Band, AC/DC, Crowded House, and the Bee Gees kinda sorta) were successful in that endeavour.

Much to our detriment, one of the groups whose attempt to crack the US market was met with little or no success was Hunters & Collectors-- a gritty pub rock band with a horn section.

Early on Hunters & Collectors were driven largely by their rhythm section-- John Archer on bass and Doug Falconer on drums and the gritty vocals of Mark Seymour. As the years progressed the bands music grew increasingly more accessible, the horn section became a stronger component of the band's sound and Mark Seymour really came into his own not just as a vocalist but also as a singer.

In 1998 the band decided they'd broken all the new ground they could. They entered the studio for one final studio album-- Juggernaut and a farewell tour (Juggernaut - Say Goodbye 1998).

While not as commercially succecssful as 1993's Cut or 1994's Demon Flower-- Juggernaut is easily Hunters & Collectors most accessible album. While their earlier material certainly had an audience, many found it to be a little TOO adventurous and at times a bit too pretentious in its adventurousness.

While this album lacks any real stand-out tracks it also lacks "filler" material. It's a consistent and strong and respectable album from start to finish.

There's something imminently enjoyable about hearing the horns "dancing" with Seymour's smooth vocals on True Believers, the infectious groove of Higher Plane, and the classic H&C sound of When You Fall which recalls the stylings of much of the "Hunnas" earlier material.

If you're looking for something a little bit different, an exit just far enough the main highways of music to be both enjoyable and accessible... This final farewell from a band that decided to burn out rather than fade away is well worth a few spins on your CD player.

Mark Seymour - The Closest Living Thing (2008)

From 1981 to 1998 Mark Seymour was the front man and vocalist for Aussie pub-rock band, Hunters & Collectors. Since Hunters & Collectors called it quits in '98, Seymour has taken his solo career in a more acoustic direction.

In 2008, Seymour released The Closest Living Thing a collection of acoustic versions of H&C songs for all of those nostalgic for the music of that era of Seymour's career.

The song selection is exceptional. While all of the fan favorites are included, Seymour also included some more obscure and deeper H&C album cuts like Titanic and True Believers from Juggernaut and What's a Few Men from Fate.

While the "horns of contempt" are conspicuously absent the more bare-boned acoustic arrangements of the classic "Hunnas" repertoire allow the listener to focus more on Seymour's vocal and songwriting talents. The acoustic arrangements give the songs a new freshness giving the listener not only a reminder of what he or she enjoyed about the original versions but also an opportunity to hear all of these songs for the first time all over again.

Some of the highlights include Talking to a Stranger which features exceptional vocal harmonies, Titanic which Seymour gives a unique spoken-word delivery to the verses and sings the choruses, Everything's On Fire which features some beautiful acoustic guitar playing, and What's a Few Men stripped to the bare essentials making the lyrics a bit more emotionally charged than they were in the original version playing an exceptional tribute to the fallen ANZAC soldiers of the Battle of Galipoli.

All in all, with this collection Seymour blows the dust off the better material of Hunters & Collectors 17 years and gives it new life. Whether your new to Hunters & Collectors and/or Seymour's music or a long time fan this album is a welcome addition to any music collection.


Related Links
Hunters & Collectors (wikipedia)
Mark Seymour (wikipedia)
Mark Seymour (personal website)
Human Frailty (Hunters & Collectors Official Website)
Other Hunters & Collectors Reviews
Interview with Nick & Mark Seymour from the H&C website (Mark's brother, Nick, is a member of Crowded House)

Hunters & Collectors - Living in Large Rooms and Lounges (1995)

If this double live set is any indication, I was born in the wrong country. Easily one of the best live albums I've ever heard, Hunters & Collectors exude a chameleon-like live energy that adapts to the size of the venue they're playing.

Disc 1 features H&C playing a rather intimate and more acoustic gig at the Continental Cafe. Among the highlights are their Aussie hit Throw Your Arms Around Me, their cover of John Hiatt's The Most Unoriginal Sin, The Slab, their anthemic Holy Grail, and the infectious Easy.

Lead vocalist Mark Seymour doesn't sing, he bleeds the emotion out of every song, every lyric. Even on The Most Unoriginal Sin, Seymour manages to make the song all his own.

Disc 2 features a selection of live performances from some of the larger pubs H&C played. There's a decidedly more electric feel to the material and there's something positively electric to hearing the audience singing "You don't make me feel like I'm a woman any more" on H&C's live staple Say Goodbye.

While there is some overlap of songs (Easy, Say Goodbye, and Holy Grail appear on both discs) the performances of the songs on the 2 discs are different enough to keep the album consistently interesting.

In addition to Seymour's empassioned vocals, the rhythm section is tight-- and much as it should be, the electric bass tends to be higher or at least equal in the mix with the guitar and the tight horn arrangements round out and give their songs that extra brass punch which sets Hunters & Collectors apart from so many other groups.

For those who are unfamiliar, the best way to describe Hunters & Collectors:

Bono + Michael Hutchence + a killer rhythm section + The Tower of Power horn section = Hunters & Collectors

Unfortunately, in 1998 Hunters & Collectors released their final album, Juggernaut, and proceded to go their seperate ways. Luckily, Living in Large Rooms & Lounges encapsulates the live performances which made this great band such a fixture of the eighties and nineties Aussie pub rock scene.

Hunters & Collectors - Fate/What's a Few Men (1990)

In 1990 Hunters & Collectors tried to make a splash in the American market with a retooling of their What’s a Few Men album.. Unfortunately, Fate (as the American version was titled) went largely unnoticed, much to the detriment of the American public.

The opening track, Back of the Breadline, features H&C’s trademark horns, prominent rhythm section, and Mark Seymour’s distinct vocals. The song is catchy and fun and provides a gentle, although not necessarily representative introduction to the band and their style.

There are a few standout tracks-- Around the Flame, Wishing Well, Breakneck Road, and So Long Ago. But even so, there are no truly “weak” songs on the album. Breakneck Road is probably the best representation of Hunters & Collectors style on the entire album.

Perhaps the best song on the album is What’s a Few Men. The song title is taken from a passage in Albert Facey’s autobiography, A Fortunate Life. It relates the tale of a British officer complaining of the smell of rotting dead bodies on the battlefield at Gallipoli in World War I. When told that cleaning up the corpses would result in even more Aussies getting mowed down by the Ottomans, the English colonel’s response, “What’s a few men?” While it’s certainly not traditional subject matter for a rock song, it’s that originality which makes the song so compelling. Seymour’s tone is rather dour and melancholy and few other singers could pull off singing such a unique song.

While the album is certainly one of their best, it’s unfortunately, not necessarily the best introduction to the band or their music. Hunters & Collectors are a band which tend to grow on their listeners with repeated listens and this album is one which needs multiple listens to get into. I’d recommend starting with 1993’s Cut or perhaps 1986’s Human Frailty before giving Fate/What’s a Few Men its due.

Hunters & Collectors

I ordered Hunters & Collectors Collected Works back in 1999 or 2000. At first I didn't know what to think of it. It didn't really grab me, other than the song Talking to A Stranger, so I shelved it. Every once in awhile I'd pull the CD back out again to give it another chance... I brought it to work awhile back and it's really grown on me. Every time I listen to it, it grows on me more and more.

There's something infectious about it. The lead singer, Mark Seymour, often sounds somewhat drunk (although still coherent). All of their songs are heavy on the electric bass which works very well for their music. It's like the bass gets into your skin like a set of fish hooks and pulls you along to their grooves. The bass is actually far more prominent and integral to their sound than the guitar... Their use of guitar is actually primarily as a rhythm instrument to supplement and accentuate the bass.

Their horn section, The Horns of Contempt, is pretty solid too.

Listening to this music now makes me wish I'd been born in Australia and had the chance to see these guys live before they split up (in 1998).

Hunters & Collectors - Cut (1993)

Lately my morning and evening commutes have been accompanied by and large by Hunters & Collectors. While normally I prefer the raw energy of their live material, I've lately come to appreciate the brilliance of some of their studio material.

There are those CDs you hear that are good from start to finish, nary a weak track on them. Cut is such an album.

The album immediately hooks you with H&C's trademark groove on the opening track, Head Above Water. For those unfamiliar with H&C's work-- their style falls somewhere between U2 and INXS. Lead singer, Mark Seymour has a style all his own, but on first listen one can certainly hear traces of Bono and Michael Hutchence in his vocal delivery.

Admittedly, at first listen I didn't get it, I didn't understand the fuss. I had purchased their Collected Works compilation, listened to it and set it aside... But without my realizing it, something had happened when I listened to it that first time. The groove snuck into my bloodstream and stayed there. A few years later I gave the CD another try... again I didn't "get it" (or at least I didn't think I had)-- but once again I was wrong, that groove that had snuck into my bloodstream the first time around, just kept getting louder on each subsequent listen.

I'm a self professed, "Oztraphile" (fan and collector of things Australian and pertaining to Australian culture-- including books, films, and music)-- I've sampled a handful of Australian groups, Cold Chisel, The Cruel Sea, and heck even the ones most Americans HAVE actually heard of (Little River Band, INXS, ACDC, Midnight Oil, etc.), but unlike those other groups that I've sampled, I find myself coming back again... and again... and again for more of this infectious groove, for more of Mark Seymour's voice (which I grow to enjoy more and more with each listen), for the subtle trumpet and French horns which sneak there way into and linger in the background of many of their songs.

A handful of these songs from Cut found their way into H&C's live set and thus onto their live albums in the mid-late nineties. But even those that didn't are strong songs, songs I find humming to myself, or serenading me to sleep on that mental jukebox that only I can hear in the wee twilight hours as sleep wraps me in its gentle embrace.

This band which got to me unknowingly at first just with subtle nudgings, has wrapped itself around me so tightly and made me fall in love with their music so deeply that even when I'm not listening to it, I'm hearing it in my head-- a soundtrack of my life. But as Mark Seymour so eloquently sings on the track, Hear No Evil-- "give me total control, and I'll give you salvation." I gave Hunters & Collectors total control and they gave me a musical salvation!