Down Under Hour
- Wednesdays, 1:00pm–2:00pm
- Saturdays, 3:00pm–4:00pm
Email The Down Under Hour at
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or check us out on Facebook at Down-Under-Hour
Find us on Substack too. The entire 2023 playlist is posted there.
at the pub, or at a party, whenever you're stuck, for what to say,
if
you wanna be dinky-di, why don't you give it a try,
look
'em right in the eye and say g'day..."
(Slim Dusty)
Show 190Not
new recordings
Expert
in a Dying Field - the Beths, from New Zealand, the title track of
their 2022 album. We heard about this recording via one of our
favorite writers, Greil Marcus: "It’s wonderful when a band
you’ve never heard of becomes your favorite as soon as you do. That
happened to me with the Beatles, it happened with the Fastbacks, it
happened with Sleater-Kinney, and now it’s happened with the
Beths."
Everything
About You - the Gin Club, from Brisbane, it's on their album Southern
Lights, a 2015 release.
Saw
You At the Eastern Beach - Rolling Blackouts C. F. (Coastal Fever, to
spell it out), from their album Endless Rooms, a 2022 release.
They're from Melbourne.
2026,
relatively speaking
SLMP
- the Bures Band, the song is on their album Ozonia, an August
release. SLMP is the title given on the album, but the lyrics speak
of a Street Lights Percussion Man. The band is from Perth, Western
Australia, and some listeners detect some Grateful Dead influences in
there.
I'm
Not Crazy
- Grace Cummings, from
her album Bloodhorse!,
an August release.
She's from Melbourne.
You
Can't Turn Away -
Crow, a
single from their
July album release
Hold Sway,
their first in
more than 15 years.
While making a big
noise on the Sydney music scene in
the early '90s,
Crow was called "the
best band in Australia since the Birthday Party" by the
music magazine Juice.
It also marks the final recordings to feature founding guitarist,
songwriter and singer Peter Archer, who died in May.
Crossing
Open Ground -
These Future Kings,
from an album released
in March titled
Via Dolorosa, which was
recorded in 1990 but lost until recently,
when
the tapes turned up
in Portugal.
Into
the vault
Betty
McQuade came to Australia as a child with her immigrant family, in
their case, arriving from Scotland in 1949 and settling in Brisbane,
Queensland, when Betty was 8. She discovered her talent for singing
and dancing and turned it into a show-business career that lasted
more than 50 years. We heard three singles from Betty McQuade:
-
Midnight Bus - from 1962, the A-side of one of her most successful
singles, written by prolific US musician John D. Loudermilk.
-
Tongue Tied - the B-side of Midnight Bus; you can hear the influence
of US rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson, who recorded the song in 1961.
-
You Make Me Mad, it was the B-side of a 1963 single. On the A-side
was a song titled Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.
The
Australian phrase describing this set is "all over the shop"
Irresponsible
- Peter Black, from his album A Bowl of Spiders, released in February
2026. Fans of Australian punk rock will know Peter Black as Blackie
from the Hard-Ons and Nunchukka Superfly. He's from New South Wales.
Jamaican
Farewell -
Ariel, a
band from Melbourne,
the
song was on
their 1973 album A Strange Fantastic Dream.
Ariel was led by the
prolific Mike Rudd and his
frequent collaborator Bill
Putt and featured Tim Gaze on guitar, from the band Tamam Shud.
We
also heard a bit of comedy from beloved Aussie variety TV show Hey
Hey It's Saturday, which ran from 1971 to 1999.
Thin
Aspirations - Heir To the Squandered Millions, a March 2026 single
from Ross McLennan's latest group, with a new album coming that is
rumored to be titled Ancient Egypt. He's from Melbourne.
Keeping
up with the trends
More
recordings from the past coming back, but this time on vinyl
A
Curse On You - the
Blackeyed
Susans,
from their 1993
album All Souls Alive.
It's supposed to be available
in October. Originally
from Perth and later of
Sydney and eventually Melbourne,
the band has enjoyed
with a revolving
door of players including members
of the
Triffids and the
Dirty Three.
The
Deer In You -
Gerling, from Sydney,
one of the singles from
their 2001
album When
Young Terrorists Chase the Sun.
It is coming out in November in a splashy first-time-in-vinyl deal.
The story goes that the
album was originally
set to be released on
September 16, 2001, but
those plans were scuttled by the horrors of 9/11.
With
the album title changed to Headzcleaner for release in the northern
hemisphere,
it was eventually released later in September 2001.
Dom
Mariani and the Majestic Kelp start us off, movie us along, and tell
us when we're done.
#downunderhour
Email
us at downunderhour11@gmail.com
