Show 190
Not 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
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