Augie March unpack their cash-cow hit album, Moo, You Bloody Choir

On 3 March 2006, the sonic plates shifted for Glenn Richards.

As the vocalist and rhythm guitarist of Shepparton-born, Melbourne-fostered Augie March, Richards and his band mates and childhood friends bass guitarist Edmondo Ammendola, drummer David Williams, and keyboardist Kiernan Box, would release a body of music meant to move; one that would cement their band name in the Australian music history books. 

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Moo, You Bloody Choir was far from the band’s first offering. Following a slew of EP’s, and their polished products in debut and sophomore albums Sunset Studies (2000) and

Strange Bird (2002), respectively, Augie March had already established the band and their sound in the live and recording music scene, garnering attention from radio and venues. But Moo, You Bloody Choir did what most third albums cannot do – it exceeded any plausible expectations. 

The album with its pièce de résistance single ‘One Crowded Hour’ would climb the charts, achieve Platinum status, take out the crown for the Australian Music Prize, appear in nomination categories across the board during Australia’s music award season, and ultimately contribute to Augie March receiving the Best Band title at the EG Awards (now Music Victoria Awards) the following year.

For Richards, it was the equation of timing and natural progression that built the foundations for Moo to fly.

“The first album did quite well… then the second came and there was a lot of bad stuff that happened for us and that was a recovery album, a bit of an “angry at the world” record. With Moo I think we were back in and remembering what was so good about the band. We invited Kiernan Box to join and he brought a sophistication to things that hadn’t been there prior which was really timely because I was starting to write with a little more ambition I suppose. It came together really nicely.”

 

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He continues, “We toured in America. We kind of knocked ourselves around that way a bit. It was the good one you know we did. I think we did three tours and that was the good one – even though it was exhausting we got to do a lot of interesting stuff and kind of brought that to the record. It’s a very Australian record, a bit of it was recorded over there and I think we had some of that come into the album with us. I mean there was never really any outsized ambition or anything. We just figured this is the next step. We’d always played as much as we could and built to this venue, and this venue and this city, and so it was never really “this is amazing” or “this is the next thing we have to do”. A little anti-climactic in a way but a very natural organic thing.”

This tour stop-in was to none other than Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, the birthplace of hundreds of iconic, history-changing albums including Rumours for Fleetwood Mac, American Beauty – The Grateful Dead, and the bulk of Jefferson Airplane’s catalogue.

“As far as history goes it was the Creedence Clearwater Revival studio where they recorded most of their big ones – Cosmos Factory and all that [Green River (‘69), Pendulum (‘70)] – so that was kind of nice but it was also just a small, overheated brown place in the end, so never really that spectacular. But we were working with Eric Drew Feldman and that was nice. He was there, somebody introduced him to us – he’s the bass player for Captain Beefheart, so this renowned legendary cult band from San Francisco and we went back to his house and he oversaw the sessions. I think having him there…his presence was enough to make us want to do our best. That’s all it really takes for some shy Australian boys to make it happen,“ Richards explains, humble to a degree. 

Between Wally Helder Studios, Melbourne and their own studio in Nagambie, Moo You Bloody Choir was pulled together across three and a half years, relatively unscathed by a label merger between BMG and Sony Music Australia. We all know the end result. Now it’s time for a revisit as the album hits a massive 20 year milestone. The band are taking it on the road to play the entire 14 tracks in full, just over one crowded hour of material, some of which have never seen the live space, and others that have shined in every set for two decades.

“We’ve done [an anniversary tour] before with the first record but unfortunately that was during the first Covid lockdown so it got destroyed a little bit so we thought with this one, because it is the big record that most people know us for, that we’d try it again. I think at this point, it’s the only way we can justify getting around the country with the full band, so we’re going to take the opportunity when you can.”

Don’t let the touring opportunity go to waste. In Victoria you can see Augie March run through Moo, You Bloody Choir on Friday 10 April at Croxton in Melbourne.