In the Eighties and early Nineties, bands on Flying Nun Records made tiny, sheep-clogged New Zealand seem like indie-rock's last wild frontier -- an aboriginal paradise where post-Velvet Underground guitar rhapsody was pursued for its own transporting sake, untouched by irony or careerism. This anniversary retrospective samples thirty years of the label's top kiwi-pop: zoned-out strum mania from the Bats and Clean, ornery skronk from the Dead C and Gordons, bedroom clatterings from the Tall Dwarfs and Chris Knox, and 2000s inheritors of the national pretty-noise gene like the Shocking Pinks. The capper is the Chills’ kaleidoscopically lush 1990 nugget "Heavenly Pop Hit," a number-one single in NZ that can still sun up your private island too.

Listen to "Tally Ho!":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."