Died Pretty's Doughboy Hollow: can Australia's most overlooked album finally find the audience it deserves?

"Back in 1991 after spending a few weeks mixing the band's classic fourth album, Doughboy Hollow, in London he nervously played a tape of the finished work in the New York offices of the band's overseas label, Beggars Banquet. Myers was aware it was different from anything the band had done before but that didn't mean he knew whether it was any good. Until the first song, Doused, lit up the room. By the end of the second, DC the late Ron Peno's elegy for a departed friend Beggars' staff were out of their seats, dancing and cheering."

"Later, back in Sydney, the band was driving to a gig in Parramatta when DC's opening piano riff pounded through the Tarago radio. Averse to hearing the band's own songs on-air, Myers instantly flipped the dial from Triple J to Triple M, only to be stunned to hear the self-proclaimed Ozzest rock station playing the same song. Thirty-five years later, Doughboy Hollow is finally getting a vinyl reissue so limited that it sold out on pre-orders."

"The label, Eminent, assures that more are being pressed, but that is itself a sad echo of how an album that is now routinely cited as a cultural touchstone didn't make bigger stars of Died Pretty at the time. Earlier in their career, the Sydney-via-Brisbane band had a well-earned reputation for volatility. On stage, they could be a mess or transcendent, sometimes in the same show."

"Their records, which drew on the legacies of the Doors and the Velvet Underground, were rich, expansive and sometimes baffling. But once you got past Doughboy Hollow's inscrutable title (named after a swampy depression on the New England Highway in northern New South Wales), there was nothing baffling about it. The songs were immediately appealing without forsaking the band's musical iden"

Brett Myers, former guitarist of Died Pretty, described how he doubted his ability to judge the band’s own work after mixing Doughboy Hollow in London. He played the finished tape to Beggars Banquet in New York, unsure whether it was good, until the first song, “Doused,” energized the room and the second song, “DC,” prompted staff to dance and cheer. Back in Sydney, the band heard “DC” on the radio while driving to a gig and was surprised it was played on Triple M. Decades later, Doughboy Hollow is receiving a limited vinyl reissue that sold out on pre-orders, reflecting its lasting cultural significance despite not making the band bigger stars at the time.

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