Music at Elsewhere
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Vetiver: The Errant Charm (SubPop)
25 Jul 2011 | <1 min read
Although on the receiving end of polite but unimpressed reviews in some circles, there's no denying the quiet charm of this album which suggests last light in California and the sun glinting off the top of small waves which roll onto a warm beach as lovers are silhouetted at the water's edge. Although they haven't entirely abandoned their former folk influences in favour of Brian Wilson... > Read more
Fog Emotion
Brian Eno: Drums Between the Bells ((Warp)
19 Jul 2011 | <1 min read
Brian Eno first encountered the work of poet/spoken word artist Rick Holland more than a decade ago and despite some small attempts to collaborate things didn't come to much. Until now. Here Eno creates the textural soundbeds for these readings of Holland's work by various people (himself included) and sometimes they have a drilling, intense electrostatic quality (Glitch, Sounds Alien,... > Read more
Pour It Out
The Antlers: Burst Apart (French Kiss)
18 Jul 2011 | 1 min read
The previous album by New York's Antlers -- Hospice, reviewed here -- was so impressive musically and in its conceptual ambition I'm at a loss to know why I didn't include in the Best of Elsewhere 2010 list. More fool me. It wouldn't have been to everyone's taste as I noted, but my final line about singer/guitarist/writer Peter Silberman ("a major talent emerging") is confirmed by... > Read more
Hounds
Dave Alvin: Eleven Eleven (YepRoc)
18 Jul 2011 | 1 min read
The former Blaster (a band he shared with his brother Phil) has been delivering his earthy, rootsy blues out there on the road for decades now. He was briefly in X and the Gun Club, but mostly he's been taking his dusty, country-edged dark baritone to narratives about what he sees out there: railroads and desert highways, the losers and lost, the street angels and Texas bars. This... > Read more
Johnny Ace is Dead
Rosy Tin Teacaddy: All Mountains Are Men (Earl Grey Records)
18 Jul 2011 | <1 min read
The Department of Conservation seems an unlikely sponsor of local music, but under its Wild Creations artist-in-resident programme the indie.folk duo Rosy Tin Teacaddy (Andy Hummel and Holly Jane Ewens to their parents) spent six weeks at Lake Tarawera and wrote what became this gently delivered concept-album collection released a fortnight ago on the 125th anniversary of the Tarawera... > Read more
Beauty, My Dear
Various Artists: Paul McCartney's Jukebox (Chrome Dreams/Triton)
18 Jul 2011 | 1 min read
With the current reassessment of Paul McCartney's career immediately post-Beatles -- driven by the reissue of Band on the Run and the McCartney and McCartney II albums -- Mojo magazine offered a 15 track cover CD of "The Roots of Paul McCartney" which was a collection of songs which had influenced him. This 29 song collection however is far more extensive and interesting. Both... > Read more
Hippy Hippy Shake
Samantha Fish, Cassie Taylor, Dani Wilde: Girls with Guitars (Ruf)
18 Jul 2011 | <1 min read
Nothing like naming your album with a product description, right? This lead/bass/rhythm trio (with drummer Jamie Little) bridge sultry blues, a soul-kiss and rock'n'roll blues (bassist Cassie the daughter of the great Otis). Wilde's Stax/Aretha/sexy vocals impress and she's a double threat, pulling out mercurial and razor sharp lead solos. They deliver fine originals, and a feisty... > Read more
Leaving Chicago
New Telepathics: Clapping with Rockets (OUR Records)
12 Jul 2011 | 1 min read
New Telepathics' multi-instrumentalist mainman Darryn Harkness has certainly covered the waterfront in his 20-year career. He's been in straight ahead rock bands, the From Scratch percussion ensemble, written music to accompany the silent film Nosferatu, pulled together bands feeding off the spirit of Sun Ra and Fela Anikulapo Kuti, written self-published poetry, played and lived in the UK and... > Read more
River Calls Me Now
The Cave Singers: No Witch (Jajaguwar)
11 Jul 2011 | <1 min read
Over two previous albums this Seattle-based outfit weren't easy to pigeon-hole (alt.country, boho-folk, indie.something?) but were always interesting because of that, and not the least for singer Peter Quirk's distinctive vocals which were “quirky” for want of a better word. Here however they really throw in some visceral and edgy material (the abrasive and tense Black... > Read more
Faze Wave
The Vietnam War: The Vietnam War (Round Trip Mars)
7 Jul 2011 | 1 min read
Despite the explosive connotations of their name, Auckland's Vietnam War are far from an incendiary rock outfit. Rather, they are in that country rock lineage which reaches back to the Byrds (there's a little pre-Sweethearts Byrdsean jangle in the mid-ground of the opener High Window) and runs through the Band, and to the early Renderers and the Warratahs/Wayne Mason in New Zealand. They... > Read more
Same Thought
Joe Ely: Satisfied at Last (Rack 'Em Records/Southbound)
5 Jul 2011 | <1 min read
The very good news is that the great Joe Ely -- who has delivered a few patchy albums in the past decade -- doesn't sound at all "satisfied" as the album's title would suggest. In fact from the opener The Highway is My Home to Butch Hancock's Circumstance 40 minutes later this tight'n'tidy 10 song collection has much of the old Tex-Mex and narrative fire-power of some of his best... > Read more
Leo and Leona
The 3D's: Early Recordings 1989-90 (Flying Nun)
5 Jul 2011 | 1 min read
Inspired by everything from the Pixies and Neil Young's El Dorado EP, sonic noise and folk music, the 3D's were a Flying Nun band which inspired passionate loyalty for the visceral power of their sound and often weaving, beguling melodies (from singer Denise Roughan as well as the guitars). The re-release last year of their early albums (Hellzapoppin', The Venus Trail and Strange News from... > Read more
Evil Kid
Neil Young and the International Harvesters: A Treasure (Reprise)
4 Jul 2011 | 2 min read | 2
While many of us would wish Neil Young release the next long-awaited installement of his Archives series (ho ho ho, like that'll happen any time soon), in his wilful and non-chronological release schedule it was almost expected a follow-up to the terrific and raw Le Noise would be . . . a country music album. But even so, A Treasure is a little unexpected as it comes from his on-going... > Read more
Flying on the Ground is Wrong
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis: Smoking in Heaven (Sunday Best)
4 Jul 2011 | <1 min read
While some have be quite taken by KD&Lewis' retro look and sound -- which is undeniably entertaining on the surface and live -- I have remained immune and indifferent to their charms. And nothing on this album of all originals can persuade me to be otherwise. These songs sound lame when they aren't just plain dull, or working out some tropes which so many others have not only done... > Read more
I'm Going Back
Various Artists: Watch the Closing Doors (Year Zero/Southbound)
4 Jul 2011 | <1 min read
This ambitious double disc compilation of New York's musical melting pot (1945-59) by writer Kris Needs – who delivered the free-wheeling collection Dirty Water; The Birth of Punk Attitude – scoops up jazz (Ellington, Armstrong, Mingus), pop (Frankie Lymon), folk (Dave Van Ronk), blues (Sonny Terry, Big Maybelle) and Latin (Machito). Disc one ends with John Cage reading... > Read more
Autumn in New York
Various Artists: LateNightTales; Trentemoller (LateNightTales)
4 Jul 2011 | <1 min read
Another installment in the on-going LNT series, this compiled by Danish electronica artist Trentemoller who opts for a dark, almost suffocating and disturbing evening at home by many less familiar but very interesting artists (The Black Angels, Chimes and Bells, Darkness Falls, Thee Oh See's) alongside a few moody notables (This Mortal Coil, Low, Mazzy Star, Velvet Underground, M.Ward,... > Read more
Science Killer
Mickey Newbury: An American Trilogy (Saint Cecilia Knows/Southbound)
28 Jun 2011 | 1 min read | 1
Not many people know about Texan Mickey Newbury, who died almost a decade ago, age 62. Maybe it's enough Elvis (who made Newbury's medley An American Trilogy a cornerstone of his latter performances) did. And that Mickey's songs were covered by Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, Joan Baez and dozens of others. Often spoken of in the same sentence as Kris Kristofferson... > Read more
33rd of August/When the Baby in My Lady Gets the Blues
Urge Overkill: Rock&Roll Submarine (Redeye)
27 Jun 2011 | 1 min read
Possibly the most coolly knowing, confidently aloof band since Steely Dan, Urge Overkill out of Chicago were touring mates with Nirvana and Pearl Jam but their stylish and increasingly power pop sound (and cover of Neil Diamond's Girl You'll be a Woman Soon which was used in Pulp Fiction) took them to a mainstream, but small, audience. This, their first album in over 15 years, and has... > Read more
Poison Flower
Highway: Highway (Ode)
26 Jun 2011 | 2 min read
A decade or so ago there was a major excavation undertaken of New Zealand pop and rock of the Sixties, thanks to enthusiasts like John Baker and Andrew Schmidt, and Chris Caddick at EMI who actioned a series of terrific compilations. Some of the work of these people spilled over into the early Seventies. Thierry Pannetier at EMI was responsible for the three decade-bridging double discs of... > Read more
New Day
Tamar McLeod Sinclair: The Heart Notes (TaMartin)
22 Jun 2011 | 2 min read
No one would accuse this Auckland-born graduate of Wellington's Massey University Conservatorium of Music of lacking ambition. This, her debut, is the result of her internationalism (she has worked in various parts of Europe for over five years) and the songs were written everywhere from Sydney and parts of Italy to Scotland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic (where it was recorded, as well as... > Read more