Elsewhere by Graham Reid

music - travel - arts

Wide angle reviews, interviews and opinion by writer Graham Reid

Saints and icons on display, Hawaii

ELSEWHERE: THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE

Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and for many years Graham Reid has been going there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review columns and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.

Elsewhere is an ever-expanding on-line magazine for people curious about new music, different travel, interesting arts and much more. This site is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It is an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter and be in to win CDs, DVDs, books and more. Welcome . . .

Music, videos, reviews and interviews posted on this site are provided to profile the artists. Please support them by buying their music (in many instances links are provided, some direct to the artists) and attending concerts.

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My Back Pages

Charley Pride: Lawyers, sums and money

The phone call was going to be a simple one. The gentleman in question was truly one of country music's real gentleman, Charley Pride, the black singer who had conquered the whitest music genre in America and won fans over with the comfortable demeanor as much as his warm baritone. So I was prepared to ask about the colour lines in country (secure in the knowledge... more >>

Absolute

THE DOORS; LA WOMAN, 1971: Four decades gone, the big beat goes on

On record at least, the Doors career began and ended well. Their self-titled debut album of early '67 arrived in the same year as any number of striking first outings (Hendrix, the Velvet Underground, Country Joe and the Fish, Moby Grape etc) and classic albums (Cream's Disraeli Gears, the Beatles Sgt Peppers). And in this company, the Doors' dark and poetic music stood... more >>

Riders on the Storm (rehearsal)

The Bargain Buy

THE BARGAIN BUY: Black Keys; El Camino

Given this album was in the Best of Elsewhere 2011 list (see here for the full list . . . and here for this album) -- and in fact every decent best of the year countback -- it is hard to deny it should be in any sensible music collection which errs towards to noisy. One of the chief features of the album is its cuisinart approach to rock and blues: it cheerfully throws... more >>

Money Maker

Music

Little Willies: For the Good Times (Milking Bull/EMI)

You'd be entitled to wonder if Norah Jones wasn't in Little Willies, would mainstream reviewers who seldom touch country music at any other time be quite so interested in this group from New York? The point is moot of course, because Jones -- who brings a real love for the idiom she grew up on in Texas as a child -- is here on these 12 (mostly) covers of such country... more >>

Permanently Lonely

From the Vaults

Pere Ubu: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1975)

Truly terrifying music is rare: there aren't that many pieces which make the hair on the back of your neck prickle, fill you with a sense of impending doom, make you feel uneasy somewhere deep within a part of your brain where rational thought no longer works for you. Pere Ubu -- whose debut album The Modern Dance appears at Essential Elsewhere incidentally -- manage... more >>

The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: James Hughes of Batucada Sound Machine

Batucada Sound Machine -- who deliver a boiling blend of Latin, African and Afro-Cuban rhythms with rock guitars and a stabbing, funky horn section -- have really hit their straps with their new album Don't Keep Silent (see review here). They have also enjoyed a global reach and have played in Britain and Europe frequently where they won glowing -- burning, in fact --... more >>

The Best for You

From the Vaults

The Beatles: Three Cool Cats (1962)

Among the many odd things about the Beatles audition for Decca Records on January 1 1962 wasn't that the company's Dick Rowe famously turned them down saying they sounded too much like the Shadows and that groups with guitars were on their way out. On the evidence of the sessions the big question was, "What were the Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein... more >>

Jazz

COLIN HEMMINGSEN PROFILED (2012): With his heart in both camps

In many countries, what Colin Hemmingsen has done all his life would not be considerd so unusual. But in New Zealand he has been a rarity, a musician who has had successful careers in both classical music and jazz. Hemmingsen was for many years the principal bassoonist in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra but also worked extensively playing jazz saxophone (tenor and... more >>

Playing Defense

Film

THE UNDERWATER MELON MAN, a film by FANE FLAWS (Yellow Eye DVD)

This film (with tie-in CD and book) by artist/musician Fane Flaws has long been something of a cult favourite with kids and a guilty pleasure for adults. Flaws, whose most visible work was the opening animation for Radio with Pictures in the late Eighties, created The Underwater Melon Man and Other Unreasonable Rhymes in '97 and called on some of New Zealand and... more >>

Neville the Enchanted Rug

From the Vaults

Pearl Bailey: A Man is a Necessary Evil (1956)

Hard to believe, but Richard Nixon once appointed an "Ambassador of Love". It was 1970 (after Woodstock, but also after Altamont and the Tet Offensive) and more unbelievable was just who he appointed . . . the sassy, sultry and sometimes topless vaudeville and cabaret star Pearl Bailey who had recorded albums in the Fifties and Sixties "for adults only".... more >>

ELSEWHERE: THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE

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