ARIA Can’t See Emma Donovan, FIFA Can’t Stop Gouging, and Someone Tried to Sell The Mona Lisa in Greece

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 on the main chart or the Australian chart.

The question isn’t aesthetic; it’s structural. Where do “successful” albums live now—physical sales, streaming equivalents, store reporting, some opaque blend of all three?

And if venues can sell out shows for artists who never appear on the lists, what exactly are the charts measuring besides momentum in the usual pipelines?

In response, Wise revives an old Rhythms tradition: a house chart, built less like a science experiment than a stubborn act of advocacy.

He reinstated the Rhythms chart (now a Top 30), and Mackenzie—playing the role of social-media drill sergeant—insists it has to be posted properly, with context, and tagged so the artists actually see it. In 2026, even indignation needs distribution.

Dynamic ticket pricing goes global
From chart mysticism, the conversation slides into the other modern system that feels both inevitable and wildly unjust: dynamic pricing. Last week’s concert outrage is this week’s sporting scandal, with tickets for the first Australia World Cup match reportedly sitting around $750, while the final is discussed as pushing beyond $6,000. Mackenzie calls it “elitism by algorithm.” Wise adds the kicker: FIFA clips the ticket twice, taking a percentage on the initial sale and again on the official resale.

It’s a model that normalises the idea that attendance is an auction, and fandom is a bidding war.

Wilco in Morocco: the luxury reality check
The episode returns to Wilco’s Morocco concept—three nights, Marrakesh—and turns it into a case study. Wise went looking at accommodation prices and found the kind of numbers that make the word “package” sound like a threat: roughly US$3,000 for four nights at the lower end. The conclusion is as bleak as it is accurate: music isn’t just selling tickets anymore, it’s selling sizzle—the right destination, the right brag, and the right photos.

Greek island climbs and a suspiciously cheap Mona Lisa
Between the economic rants, Mackenzie’s travelogue continues: from the Peloponnese to a fishing village called Kiparissi, via the Byzantine ruins of Mystras, and finally to Ithaca.

Along the way, he encounters a moment that feels written by a bored novelist: a grizzled man in a supermarket offering Mackenzie the Mona Lisa—stretched canvas and all—for 15 euros.

To find out what happens listen to the episode below.

Squeeze: perfect songs, imperfect partnership
Back in music, Mackenzie recommends the 2012 documentary Take Me I’m Yours, which frames the band’s enduring miracle: Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook can write beloved, razor-tight pop together while seemingly not liking each other very much.

With shout-outs from Jools Holland, Elvis Costello, and Aimee Mann, it’s presented as both tribute and cautionary tale: chemistry is not the same thing as harmony.

What they’re watching (and what’s watching them)
On the screen: Widow’s Bay (Apple TV) delivers proper under-floorboard nightmares, while Spider-Noir continues to impress with its stylised 1930s visuals and ambitious fight choreography.