Suffering Jukebox

This morning's epiosde features an interview with the members of Mess Esque. Helen Franzmann is joining me in the studio and we are linking up with Mick Turner (in Melbourne) via phone call. This Friday, March 28th, Mess Esque release their third album, Jay Marie, Comfort Me, via Remote Control/Drag City Records. Find out more about Mess Esque -and purchase their music- via https://messesque.bandcamp.com/music alternately you can hear more of Helen and Mick's solo work here; https://mckisko.bandcamp.com/ and https://mickturner.bandcamp.com/music

Nick's Pick of the Week is Ed Kuepper and Jim White's After The Flood. You can hear the whole album, or purchase it, here https://edkuepper1.bandcamp.com/album/after-the-flood and my review can be read below.

Ed Kuepper & Jim White: After The Flood (Remote Control/12XU)

Released 21st March 2025

In what is sure to be considered one of the greatest collaborations in Australian music —and the most overdue— Ed Kuepper and Jim White deliver a collaborative album featuring a selection of songs from Kuepper’s extensive career. Initially, the pair came together to perform a series of, mostly cancelled, shows in 2021. One year later they reconvened to finish what they started, playing a run of gigs across Australia and forging a musical partnership that would culminate in the recording and release of After The Flood.

Neither of the artists involved need much of an introduction, but for the uninitiated Kuepper was a co-founder of Brisbane’s The Saints, after which he formed The Laughing Clowns before kickstarting a solo career that continues to this day. White, however, made a name for himself playing with various Melbourne punk bands like Venom P. Stinger before forming Dirty Three with Warren Ellis and Mick Turner. More recently he has come to be known as one of the most idiosyncratic yet versatile drummers around, working with everyone from Bill Callahan to PJ Harvey.

The Crying Dance, a track by The Laughing Clowns, is After The Flood’s first and only single. It is a completely different beast to the version released in 1982 and although the jaunty, carnivalesque piano is missing, it retains the slightly sinister edge of the original. Even with a more minimalist structure, Swing For The Crime still possesses a punk-rock swagger that matches the black humour of the lyrics, while the extended rendition of Collapse Board is epic in every sense of the word.

It is the quieter songs on After The Flood that provide the album with its most memorable and moving moments. Demolition, an understated highlight from Kuepper’s Jean Lee And The Yellow Dog album, is a particular standout and while this version is not starkly different from the original, White’s expressive drums add further emotional weight to an already affecting tune. Likewise, Miracles isn’t vastly different to its predecessor, the main exception being that Kuepper’s vocal delivery sounds even more heartbroken and forlorn.

Age has not dulled the impact of Kuepper’s words or music, if anything it has given him a deeper insight into his own material and the ability to unearth elements buried in the original compositions. White’s intuitive playing scaffolds these discoveries, ensuring that he supports but never overshadows them, whilst still incorporating his own personality into the fabric of the album. After The Flood is a masterful record that captures two Australian greats at the top of their game. Kuepper has stated that enough material was recorded for a double album; in that case, bring on the sequel.

Nick Stephan