There’s a new music-centric streaming platform in town—and it’s looking to change the game. Travis Johnson gives Mood a spin.
In the increasingly fragmented and soloed-off online world, finding music—old or new—has become a bit of a hassle. Yeah yeah, we have Spotify and YouTube, TikTok and X (fORmeLy KnoWn aS tWittEr, as we’re now required to say), but their algorithmically driven recommendations and feeds hew too closely to your tastes, giving you what the machinery thinks you want, but not necessarily what you need. It’s all pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, and numbered—but not curated. Whether you’re after new tunes or old bangers that passed you by, it’s increasingly tough out there.
Well then, praise the Lord for Mood, a new and, to my jaundiced eyes, spectacularly impressive streaming platform dedicated to bringing the discerning fan a heady mix of music, videos, documentaries, and more. The brainchild of New Zealand music impresario Grant Hislop, the man behind JuiceTV, Mood aims to be a one stop shop for music heads across Aotearoa and Australia offering a panoply of genres, multiple music channels, concert films, merch, and an exhaustive gig guide.
God, how I’ve missed gig guides. But let’s not dwell on the past, and instead look to the future. Here’s what’s on offer.
20,000 Days on Earth
First up, five curated, linear streaming channels: Juice, Melo (your chill vibe destination), Big Rig (country, folk, Americana, bootgaze), The Box (retro bangers from the ‘60s to the ‘90s), and The Greatest Rock of All Time (The Groat). Then there’s a wealth of music videos, naturally, all curated and cross-referenced, from piping hot fresh clips to old faves from currently touring artists. Local music is a particularly strong focus, with Kiwi and Aussie acts each getting their own roped off VIP section.
Then there’s the longer form stuff: documentaries, concert movies, interviews, and TV series. Want to dig into how Iron Maiden made Number of the Beast or Fleetwood Mac forged insane relationship drama into Rumours? The Classic Album Series is here. Feature documentaries range from the wrenching 20,000 Days on Earth with Nick Cave to the history of influential proto-punks The Stooges in Gimme Danger to back-up singer celebration 20 Feet From Stardom.
Concert films include everything from Johnny Cash Live at Montreaux to Harry Styles Live at Manchester, and all points in between. And if you’re the sort that needs something tangible in their hands, Mood’s online store will happily sell you albums, books, shirts, merch, instruments, turntables, mixers and more. All up, this is a wildly ambitious offering.
But for a taste of Mood’s filmic offerings, here’s five that caught my attention.
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
Punk’s court archivist, Julein Temple (who also gave us The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle and Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan) delves into the life and music of punk pioneer Joe Strummer, the fiercely political and uncompromising frontman of The Clash, documenting his early years in the crucible of the nascent UK punk scene, his political activism and, to balance the books, his often calculating ambition. A wealth of archival material and interviews with contemporaries should get young punks and old to tune in, plus celebs like John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Jim Jarmusch and Martin Scorsese show up to sing Joe’s praises.
David Bowie: Finding Fame
The multifaceted and mercurial Bowie is always a difficult subject to pin down. In the third of his trilogy about the Thin White Duke (the others being David Bowie: Five Years and David Bowie: The Last Five Years) Francis Whately looks at the former David Jones early career as he struggled to find both a voice and a persona, and usefully shows the viewer that even the coolest man who ever lived was once an anxious and uncertain youth battling to find himself and his place in the world.
Midnight Oil: 1984
A year in the life of Aussie political rockers Midnight Oil, long before manic frontman Peter Garrett got elected and learned to his dismay how the sausage is made. Director Ray Argall boiled the film down from 28,000 feet of 16-millimetre film he shot at the time, giving us a rare and immersive look at the band of activists as they undertake their momentous Red Sails in the Sunset world tour while, at the same time, Garrett makes his first foray into Federal politics as a candidate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party. Unmissable.
1480 Radio Pirates
Otherwise known as Three Mile Limit, this 2014 drama tells the tale of Radio Hauraki, still going strong today, who in the 1960s got around New Zealand’s draconian media censorship laws by the simple expedient of broadcasting a pirate signal from offshore. Director Craig Newland and co-writer Andrew Gunn bring us the story of music journo Richard Davis (Matt Whelan) and his ragtag band of rebels and their battle to bring rock to the masses, with steely Broadcasting Minister Jim Willis (David Aston) trying to counter them at every turn.
Persecution Blues: The Battle for the Tote
Actually coming soon to Mood, but it seems every city produces a lo-fi doco about that great pub/venue that got destroyed by greedy developers and/or buzzkill bureaucrats sooner or later (hell, I made one about the Hyde Park Hotel in Perth, Western Australia) and so this is worth earmarking. This rough diamond chronicles the battle over Melbourne’s inner city live venue The Tote, with the Victorian Liquor Licensing Commission in the villain role. A looming state election saw the fight become a key issue, with 20,000 people marching on Parliament House in support. This is a cracking take on the old slobs vs snobs genre, with the added value that it all actually happened.
