I never paid especially close attention to the producer credits on albums during my college radio days, but there were a few names that I definitely knew. One of those names was Mitch Easter.

Easter has a certain venerated status in those circles because of his involvement with the earliest efforts by college radio standard bearers R.E.M. On the little labels that adorned the albums in our station, a wide array of Music Directors had often felt compelled to note Easter’s involvement with a record, and his own band was properly adored by those DJs in the know. There was certain sound that was associated with albums that Easter laid has hands upon. It was the crisp, gorgeous jangle pop that was so common on the left end of the dial those days that it could have been the shared jingle of noncommercial stations across the nation. It was a sound that usually emanating from a certain breed of American bands, especially those, it seemed, from the south. But of the hidden treasures one Easter’s discography belongs to a band from Australia.

The name of the band was The Hummingbirds, and they were one of the rooArt acts that bubble up anxiously as the eighties gave way to the nineties. The had the same predilection for charmed pop hooks as most of their labelmates, but the songs were built around a chiming, resonant sound that could have put them in some Athens, Georgia club opening up for Guadalcanal Diary or someone similar, convincing the happy crowd that they were locals under some bit of between-song banter exposed their Down Under diction. Easter was a perfect match for them, bringing out the bouncy driving and ringing tones of their music on the band’s debut release, Love Buzz.

Easter may have been good, even renowned in a cult hero sort of way, but his involvement was no guarantee of success. The Hummingbirds’ album came and went with barely a whisper of interest from most college radio programmers, although it undoubtedly fared better in their homeland, where supporting homegrown bands is a matter of national duty. According to online sources, there was only one more album, released years later, seemingly as an afterthought. Luckily, that first album is still out there, full of gems for anyone with the wherewithal to mine them.

The Hummingbirds, “Word Gets Around”

(Disclaimer: It surely appears to me that Love Buzz is out of print. It also doesn’t seem to be available for digital purchase, but that could be a different story on different parts of the globe. The song has been posted here under the belief that it’s readily available to be acquired through a means that will provide monetary compensation to the artist. I will gladly and promptly remove the song should anyone with the proper authority to make such a request reaches out to me and insists upon such an action.)