PODCAST · music
Rhythms Magazine
by Rhythms Magazine Pty Ltd
Rhythms Magazine has been Australia’s roots music Bible since 1992.
Episodes
-
Dylan’s Electric Vehicle, Dalton’s Quiet Power and Costello’s Early Days
“I ain’t gonna drive in Maggie’s car no more.” Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm” gets an unlikely alternative lyric in Episode 44 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie, as the hosts consider its licensing to an Audi electric-vehicle ad. For Wise, the commercial’s invocation of Dylan’s...
-
Rubber Soul, Ringo’s Koala and the Secret to a Great Festival
Brian Wise has reached a familiar collector’s reckoning: “I’m just rebuying my entire record collection.” In Episode 43 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie, the latest Rubber Soul box set provides both the evidence and a persuasive defence. Wise hasn’t exhausted every outtake,...
-
Paul Dempsey Makes a Case for Covers With a Little Danger
What makes a great cover version? For Paul Dempsey, it is not fidelity. It is risk. In Episode 42 of On The Record, Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie welcome the Something for Kate frontman to discuss Shotgun Karaoke, his disarmingly loose—and increasingly popular—solo covers project. Across two...
-
Rock Stars, Pop Stars and Avoiding Lou Reed: On The Record Puts the Legends to the Test
What makes a rock star? It is not simply the hits, the haircut or the size of the crowd. In Episode 41 of On The Record, Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie turn to a 2014 essay by Robert Forster for a more exacting test: a rock star, Forster argues, is one even when nobody is watching. Show Notes...
-
Ep 40: Americana’s Big Night, Dylan’s Big Box and the Joy of Big Ears
The 25th Americana Honours & Awards at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium sits at the centre of Episode 40 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie. Though, as ever, the definition of “Americana” proves ripe for debate. Brian Wise watched the ceremony while keeping one eye on Hawthorn...
-
From Richard Thompson Tapes to Radiohead Ballots: On The Record #39
Radiohead’s long-awaited return to Australian stages provides the spark for Episode 39 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie—and the hosts could scarcely have more divergent views. Plus new and old Richard Thompson, Cassandra Wilson and Bill Nye's latest performances. Show Notes...
-
Ep 38: Gillian & Dave Return, Dolly Remembered and Robert Plant’s Record Shelf
Episode 38 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie begins with welcome news for Australian audiences: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will return in 2027, making it three visits in as many years. For a duo whose shows can feel like a form of secular communion, it is a remarkably...
-
OTR Replay: Andy White Joins In On Gillian and Dave, Presley’s Epic Reviewed, Bill Frisell’s Latest Album, and Michael and Brian Fall Out Over A Gaelic Murder
In this encore episode of On The Record, we worship at the altar of Gillian Welch & David Rawlings with guest Andy White joining the chat. The conversation widens into stagecraft: tuning mishaps, the art of filling dead air, and the delicate question of whether you should tell stories between…
more -
Rock Critics, Rubber Soul, MIFF, Cricket Greats and Colin Farrell’s Sugar Hit
Episode 37 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie travels from Melbourne International Film Festival screenings to the changing state of music journalism, with a detour through elite sport, television drama and the strange joy of old-fashioned telephones. Show Notes CONGO BOY...
-
Deadheads, Unsung Heroes and Don Walker’s Love Songs
Episode 36 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie moves from the car parks of a Grateful Dead revival to the piano stool of one of rock’s great behind-the-scenes players, with Don Walker’s new album providing the local centre of gravity. Show Notes Summer Tour At Miff The Session...
-
Rock Quiz, Ride or Die and the Fight for Artists’ Rights
Episode 35 of On The Record begins where last week’s conversation left off: with Glen Hansard. Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie watch the Irish singer-songwriter’s funeral, a ceremony that made plain the depth of affection held for the Frames frontman, Once star and inveterate musical…
more -
A Farewell to Glen, a Cult-Rock Classic and a Second Look at The Odyssey
Episode 34 of On The Record opens in sombre territory, with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie remembering Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter, Frames frontman and Once star who died aged 56 following a motorcycle accident outside Dublin. Hansard’s career stretched back to the formation of…
more -
Plas Johnson, Free Bluegrass and Christopher Nolan’s Trojan Horse
The episode opens with the passing of saxophonist Plas Johnson, 94, a player whose name might not mean much outside musician circles but whose sound is embedded in popular culture. Johnson’s cool, slinking work on Henry Mancini’s Pink Panther theme is his best-known contribution, but the wider CV...
-
Ep 32: A new Stones record, remembering Sam and Bob Dylan’s guitarist carousel
There are few things more reliable in popular culture than a World Cup penalty shootout inspiring arguments about fairness, a Rolling Stones album being handled carefully, or Bob Dylan inspiring precisely no usable information from anyone who has worked with him. Episode 32 of On The Record with...
-
Ep 31: Spielberg’s Aliens, Icelandic Jazz and a Thousand Gramophones
Episode 31 of On The Record ranges from Spielberg’s latest extraterrestrial spectacle to Icelandic cocktail jazz, via Australian festival programming, political songwriting, BBC football commentary and the fragile magic of shellac records. It is a wide-ranging conversation, but not a random one....
-
Hourly Daily Turns 30: Tim Rogers looks back without living in the past
There are plenty of artists happy to spend their careers polishing yesterday's trophies. Tim Rogers isn't one of them. Appearing on Episode 30 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie, the You Am I frontman could easily have spent an hour reminiscing about the band's landmark 1996...
-
Neil Young, James Joyce and The Big Lebowski: Andy White's wonderfully unpredictable road trip
Now and then, On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie wanders into territory that feels less like a podcast and more like the best conversation you've accidentally joined in the corner of a music festival bar. Returning Australian listeners may be forgiven for assuming Neil Young...
-
From Kefalonia to California: Earth, Wind & Fire, World Cup Fever, and Bob Dylan’s wisdom at 80
Episode 28 of On The Record finds Michael broadcasting from the Greek island of Kefalonia, but the conversation itself travels much further afield—from the cosmic ambitions of Earth, Wind & Fire to Tim Rogers, the World Cup and the lyrical reflections of Bob Dylan on being 80.
-
The Charts Are Broken, Wilco Is Pricey, and Squeeze Still Don’t Like Each Other (But the Songs Hold Up)
This week’s On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie begins where most music chats don’t: with a gripe about what the ARIA charts don’t show. Wise is baffled that Emma Donovan’s Take Me to The River—an album he rates highly after seeing her preview it live at Port Fairy—can’t be found…
more -
Ep 26: McCartney Gets Outscored by Ron Sexsmith, Wilco Books Africa, and the Stones' Best Secret Is a Demo
Episode 26 of On The Record is the first fully international edition—Brian Wise filing from Melbourne, Michael Mackenzie beaming in from the ancient fortified town of Monemvasia, deep inside the Peloponnese. The contrast isn't just geographic: Wise is braving Melbourne winter; Mackenzie is…
more -
Ep 25: Dylan at 85, TV paranoia, and the great Greek escape (with a side of camera lust)
Episode 25 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie begins where so many arguments in roots music eventually end up: Bob Dylan—specifically, the minor detail of him turning 85 (born 24 May 1941) and still looming over popular music like a sarcastic weather system. Plus two streaming...
-
David Byrne at 74, Waterboys at the Palais, and a Literary Glassware “Borrowed” in Dublin
Episode 24 of On The Record with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie opens not in a record shop or a green room, but in the unglamorous reality of domestic collapse: Brian’s gas hot water service fails, leaving him hunting for a plumber and waiting five days for resolution. Musically, the emotional...
-
Split Enz 50th review, Thatcher’s heroin war, and the Zombies’ long-delayed victory lap
On The Record’s Episode 23 leans in to great songs, better stories, and the strange afterlife of pop careers. Michael Mackenzie’s big night out is Split Enz at Rod Laver Arena, a reunion-sized crowd of “people in roughly our same demographic” packed into a venue that, he notes, holds 14,860. The...
-
Still in New Orleans — the Weather Wins, Wilco Go Long, and Joni gets the Biopic Treatment
On his final night in New Orleans, Brian Wise files a slightly frayed dispatch that captures Jazz Fest’s defining tension: a festival big enough to feel infinite, and a schedule brutal enough to make you choose your regrets in advance. Episode 22 becomes a story about how festivals actually...
-
Gumbo, Blues and Batiste: On The Record Finds Its Rhythm in New Orleans
By Episode 21, On The Record has moved beyond anticipation and into immersion. Brian Wise is no longer circling Jazz Fest—he’s in it, navigating its scale, its heat, and its constant, often punishing, decisions. Broadcasting from the French Quarter, Wise paints New Orleans as it always is…
more -
No Second Chances: Inside the Beautiful Chaos of New Orleans Jazz Fest
Episode 20 of On The Record finds Brian Wise reporting in from the field—first Austin, then New Orleans—with the kind of on-the-ground detail that reminds you why festivals still matter, even as many struggle to survive. There’s even time for a detour through Austin’s bookstores in search of…
more -
Stones, Trucks and Take-Off: On The Record Heads for America
Episode 19 of On The Record kicks off with one foot in the present and the other firmly planted on the long tail of rock history—touching on new Rolling Stones material before sliding into an excerpt from Brian Wise’s recent interview with Mike Mattison of Tedeschi Trucks Band. It’s a neat...
-
Four Tracks, Infinite Ideas: Why Revolver Still Sounds Like the Future 60 Years On
There are episodes of On The Record that wander; Episode 18 plants its flag firmly in one year—1966—and dares you to argue it wasn’t the moment pop music grew up. Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie mark the 60th anniversary of Revolver not as a nostalgic exercise, but as a forensic examination of…
more -
Bob Dylan’s April Fool's Day Prank, The Hail Mary Project, And Where To For ABC Radio?
If you want to know the exact moment legacy radio started to feel its age, it might have been when a major Australian station began giving away lacy doilies. In the latest episode of On The Record, Michael Mackenzie and Brian Wise—veterans with a combined 70 years behind the mic—stage a…
more -
After Bluesfest: Trust, Tribute and the Changing Sound of How We Listen
The long goodbye to Bluesfest continues in Episode 16 of On The Record, but this time the tone shifts from shock to something closer to forensic analysis. If last week was a reaction, this is reconstruction. If Bluesfest is a case study in organisational failure, Scarpetta is its televisual...
-
Dead At 36 : Why Bluesfest Couldn't Continue (What We Know So Far)
Episode 15 of On The Record is the sound of a long-running Australian institution going quiet — followed by the louder, messier noise of what happens when a festival doesn’t just “take a break”, but goes into liquidation. Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie devote the bulk of the episode to the…
more -
From Folk Big Tops to F1 Soap Operas: Port Fairy, Drive to Survive and the Gospel of Steve Poltz
The latest episode of On The Record opens where any self-respecting Australian roots podcast should: the Port Fairy Folk Festival. It then takes a characteristic detour into aging payment technology, Formula One, Mick Turner guitar lines and the comedic chops of Steve Poltz. Show Notes Port Fairy...
-
Paul in Scotland, Wings in Lagos, and a Hall of Fame That Can’t Stop Arguing With Itself
If you ever needed proof that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is less a museum and more a cultural argument with a gift shop, Episode 13 of On The Record opens by doing what the institution does best: stretching the phrase “rock and roll” until it politely accommodates everyone from Wu‑Tang Clan…
more -
Gillian and Dave Reviewed, Andy White Joins In, Presley’s Epic Is Seen, Bill Frisell’s New Record, Michael and Brian Fall Out Over A Gaelic Murder
In this episode, roots music returns via the altar: Gillian Welch & David Rawlings live at Melbourne’s Forum, with guest Andy White joining the chat. They describe the duo as deities in Australia, playing with disarming minimalism (mics on guitars, SM58s, no fancy DI wizardry), and drawing an...
-
New Madness Doco, John Peel’s Hidden Records, Blonde on Blonde Turns 60, Robert Finley, Gillian and David Reviewed, Small Prophets Enchants and Is This Thing On?
Episode 10 opens in the long-running genre they’ve accidentally perfected — two grown men versus consumer electronics — as Michael explains how he revived his ageing Samsung “smart TV” (now “a bit of a nuff-nuff”) with a cheap HDMI streaming box bought from an Australian online retailer that...
-
Bad Bunny, Bob Dylan’s Silence and Buddy Guy at 90: Ep 9’s Wild Tour Through Modern Roots + Fela and Charli XCX
Episode 9 is the one where Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie briefly mistake themselves for an IT helpdesk, a sports panel, and a moral philosophy seminar—before landing, somewhat dazed, back in music. It opens with Wise declaring he “can’t stand” the sound of his own voice (a bold confession for…
more -
Episode 8: Polka Legends, Reggae Giants, Why Tennis Triumphs Over Music, and Van Is (Once Again) The Man
Episode 8 of On The Record opens with Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie doing what many seasoned music listeners now do instinctively when the Grammys roll around: stare at the screen and wonder which planet they’ve accidentally landed on. Brian reminds us that the Grammys permanently lost their…
more -
Lucinda Williams discusses her new album World's Gone Wrong
Lucinda Williams talks to Rhythms Editor Brian Wise about her new album World's Gone Wrong, a scathing commentary on current political events in the USA.
-
Gillian Welch discusses her forthcoming Australian tour with Dave Rawlings
Gillian Welch spoke to Rhythms Editor Brian Wise about her forthcoming Australian tour with her musical and life partner David Rawlings. David was set to join us but was held up in the studio mastering the vinyl version of the Time (The Revelator) album. Music included: Neil Young’s Albuquerque...
-
Ep 7: Bob Weir and the Grateful Dead, New Bowie Doco, Songwriting, Loretta and Best Bands At Sporting Events
On the latest episode of On The Record, Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie ease into their weekly cultural ramble with the sombre news of Bob Weir’s death—remembering an artist whose band (The Grateful Dead) they half‑followed but wholly respected. Weir, who died on January 10 at 78 (the same date…
more -
On The Record Ep 6: Special Guest Liz Stringer, Mushroom Murders, Sam Fender and why Brian is Wrong About a Golden Globe Winner
If On The Record were a boxing match, Episode 5 would open with the bell ringing and Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie already mid-ring.. The topic? The Golden Globes. The real issue? Whether a film can be called a “musical or comedy” when it is clearly neither, and whether Paul Thomas Anderson...
-
On The Record Ep 5 : Bowie Remembered, Brian's Fave Band of 2025, Great Steak, and Why 1966 Didn't Suck
Episode 5 of On The Record, and the conversation has hit its sweet spot: loose, curious, opinionated—and occasionally interrupted by reality. There’s a healthy scepticism about hype, a refusal to confuse longevity with importance, and a shared belief that some things still genuinely matter—even…
more -
Paul Kelly On Writing And Recording '70'
Brian Wise talks to Paul Kelly in depth about Paul's latest album Seventy.
-
On The Record – Episode 4: Christmas, Chaos and Mango Pie
Episode 4 of On The Record opens exactly as listeners now expect: however, the technology relents and the Christmas episode is officially underway. What follows is a warm, rambling, oddly moving conversation about Christmas music, memory, faith, food and survival, with plenty of laughs along the...
-
Episode 3: Banks, Books, Bob Dylan and Albania's Accursed Mountains
Episode 3 of On The Record once again proves that no matter how long you’ve worked in media, technology will always sense weakness. Once operational, the episode quickly becomes a rallying cry for the quietly furious demographic known as Grumpy Older Men Who Have Had It With Banks. Michael...
-
From Fungi to Tom Waits, Chris Bailey to Emma Thompson: On The Record Ep 2
Episode two of On The Record begins exactly where great podcasts are born: with the crushing realisation that nothing has been recorded. After a brief collective sigh (and a generous decision to “power through”), Michael Mackenzie, Brian Wise and guest Nick Corr regroup and press on—braver…
more -
On The Record Debuts: Two Friends. Dodgy Tech. Endless Cultural Zig-Zagging. Zero Apologies.
In a gloriously shambolic podcast debut of On The Record, Brian Wise and Michael Mackenzie briefly wrestle with technology; however, once the cockpit stops flashing warnings, they settle into a free-wheeling conversation about music, ageing audiences, dodgy voting scandals, Patti Smith, Beatles...
-
Gregory Porter
Acclaimed singer songwriter Gregory Porter, who will be touring Australia in October, spoke to Rhythms editor Brian Wise. Porter talks about his recording career and his influences, including Nat King Cole and Donny Hathaway.
-
James McMurtry
This week’s guest is Texas singer songwriting legend James McMurtry, son of the author Larry McMurtry, who has just released his 11th studio album, The Black Dog & The Wandering Boy (via New West Records). Produced by Don Dixon, whom McMurtry worked with on his third album in 1995, the latest…
more -
Robert Randolph
Pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph talks about his brand new album Preacher Kids, released as a solo album with a new band and a forthcoming tour. (Produced by Jasmine Griffiths).
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Rhythms Magazine has been Australia’s roots music Bible since 1992.
HOSTED BY
Rhythms Magazine Pty Ltd
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Rhythms Magazine have?
Rhythms Magazine currently has 50 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Rhythms Magazine about?
Rhythms Magazine has been Australia’s roots music Bible since 1992.
How often does Rhythms Magazine release new episodes?
Rhythms Magazine has 50 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Rhythms Magazine?
You can listen to Rhythms Magazine on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Rhythms Magazine?
Rhythms Magazine is created and hosted by Rhythms Magazine Pty Ltd.
URL copied to clipboard!