Music at Elsewhere
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Savages: Adore Life (Matador)
25 Jan 2016 | <1 min read | 1
At this distance it was easy to be sceptical about the British music press embracing Savages and their album-cum-manifesto Silence Yourself three years ago. The all-women quartet — who asked people not to take photos at their shows and are thrilling live by all accounts — delivered a bellicose take on Siouxsie and the Banshees/Penetrations//post-punk thrash which was... > Read more
When in Love
Max Stowers: Elements of Funk (bandcamp)
25 Jan 2016 | 1 min read
Anyone who doesn't know of New Zealand bass player Max Stowers clearly hasn't been paying attention for the past few decades. Here is a very short list (taken from a very long one) of the bands he has been in and people he's played with: Te Vaka, Moana and the Tribe, Annie Crummer, King Kapisi, Emma Paki, Strawpeople, Lisa Hunt, Nathan Haines, Mark Williams, Manu Katche, Leo Sayer,... > Read more
Various Artists: Golden State Psychedelia (Big Beat/Border)
18 Jan 2016 | 1 min read
The Golden State of the title refers to a top flight but largely obscure Bay Area studio run by the little known Leo De Gar Kulka and the various artists could rightly be described as equally obscure and little known . . . unless in the mid to late Sixties you were in that part of San Francisco and happened to see bands like the Goody Box, the Carnival, the Bristol Boxkite, the Short... > Read more
Wet Chant by the Immediate Family
Elvis Costello: Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album (Universal)
18 Jan 2016 | 1 min read
Elvis Costello's non-chronological, episodic and extremely large (666 pages of hefty paperback) autobiography Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink is a fascinating insight into his life in music with one proviso: You have to be something of a fan, and be prepared to follow his story down narrow alleys of family history. A chapter which begins with him the late Seventies can end up... > Read more
April 5th by Costello, Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash,
Dodson and Fogg: Roaming (wisdomtwinsbooks)
18 Jan 2016 | 1 min read
Elsewhere always tries to lend an ear to anything by the very prolific Chris Wade who records as Dodson and Fogg. But he releases such a steady stream of interesting folk-rock from his home in England that it has been rather hard to keep up. Thank goodness for the Christmas break therefore so we could catch up with this new release where is joined by -- among others -- the actor/singer... > Read more
For a While
Jeffrey Lewis and Los Bolts: Manhattan (Rough Trade)
11 Jan 2016 | 1 min read
With the sounds of sirens, wheezing cars and ambient noise on the speak-sing opener Scowling Crackhead Ian (about a guy who bullied him when they were younger), New York anti-folksinger-cum-sidewalk poet Lewis drops you straight onto the inner-city streets of his hometown . . . and it's quite some disconcerting journey over the next 10 songs. Apparently this is his twentieth-something... > Read more
Thunderstorm
The Murmaids: A Few of the Things We Love (Ace/Border)
11 Jan 2016 | 1 min read
Those many of us who delight in the girl group phenomenon of the early Sixties (wasn't Reparata and the Delrons one of great group names?) freely concede it wasn't all Shangri-Las, Ronnie Spector and so on. There were a lot of fellow travelers in the wake of the greats, so it's no surprise to learn to the sole hit for the teenage trio of sisters Terry and Carol Fisher with their friend... > Read more
Heartbreak Ahead
Sam Gleaves; Ain't We Brothers (samgleaves.com)
11 Jan 2016 | 1 min read
This album slipped out in the US in the last quarter of last year but saw no New Zealand release . . . but no matter, that's why we have the internet, iTunes, Spotify and so on. Gleaves is something of a rarity perhaps (although maybe not as rare as cliche might suggest) in that he is a gay singer-songwriter from southwest Virginia who explores traditional Appalachian music and writes his... > Read more
Two Virginia Boys
David Bowie: blackstar (Columbia)
8 Jan 2016 | 2 min read
The pall of Bowie's unexpected death now hangs over this exceptional album, bringing an element of tragedy to it that, just last week when it was released, wasn't there. It now becomes a final statement to scan for clues. However, not even the pre-release singles, unusual as they are, prepare you for the emotional and musical breadth of this, Bowie's 25th studio album. The 10-minute title... > Read more
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2015; READERS' CHOICES
21 Dec 2015 | 8 min read | 2
And now for the big reveal. Recently we posted the Elsewhere “best of the year” list and also a “best of reissues”, and now comes the readers' chance to have their say. Some of these albums below Elsewhere had in our list, others we reviewed during the year but didn't make our final cut. (And, as always, some people mentioned albums that had come out last... > Read more
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2015; THE YEAR IN REISSUES
16 Dec 2015 | 7 min read | 3
Popular culture has become very good at recycling. On any given week more and more music from the archives is exhumed and held up to the light once more. Often the reason is very simple, the music has reached the end of its sales life – if you don't have Fleetwood Mac's Rumours by now you'll probably never buy it – and streaming services are choking the life out of CD... > Read more
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2015; THE EDITOR'S CHOICES
15 Dec 2015 | 18 min read | 1
As always, our selection of the Best of Elsewhere begins with qualifications: We didn't hear everything released this year (Didn't even try. Would you?) and so missed some which will be on others' lists. And that these are only notionally “The Best” because as you know next month something else will become My New Favourite Album and . . . And that of course we heard a lot... > Read more
Kong Fooey: Final Destination (Bella Rose)
12 Dec 2015 | <1 min read
In a cover which amusingly references that of Elvis' debut album (and by association the Clash's London Calling which did the same), this Auckland outfit deliver an enjoyable fusion of hip-hop, old school funk bass, searing rock guitars, a smattering of blues harmonica, dance floor shaking beats and slacker soul. If that cover is a look back with a fresh flavor, much of what's here is the... > Read more
Speak That Truth
Son Little: Son Little (Anti)
7 Dec 2015 | 1 min read | 1
If we believe what we read -- rather than accept the evidence of our ears -- this hip young black American from LA (real name Aaron Livngstone) is the bridge between classic soul and contemporary hip-hop. And more. Well, let's just come right out and say it. To be that you'd have to write stronger and more soulful songs than are on this debut album which is both half-baked and... > Read more
Loser Blues
Roy Orbison: One of the Lonely Ones (Universal)
7 Dec 2015 | 1 min read
The cruel Fates conspired against the great Roy Orbison. His personal life was blighted by tragedy and his career was a series of brief highs and then long periods far from the spotlight. In the early-mid Sixties he was a star but by '67 when he topped the bill over the Yardbirds and the Walker Brothers many people at the Auckland Town Hall walked out on him. As a ballad singer who... > Read more
Say No More
IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases
4 Dec 2015 | 2 min read
With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up New Zealand artists. Comments will be brief. Enya: Dark Sky Island (Warners): On a cursory listen through her catalogue, Enya may seem to deliver much the same. But while that... > Read more
So I Could Find My Way, Enya
SHORT CUTS: A round-up of recent New Zealand releases
30 Nov 2015 | 2 min read
Facing down an avalanche of releases, requests for coverage, the occasional demand that we be interested in their new album (sometimes with that absurd comment "but don't write about it if you don't like it") and so on, Elsewhere will every now and again do a quick sweep like this, in the same way it does IN BRIEF about international releases. Comments will be brief.... > Read more
Jonathan Bree, Once It Was Nice
ONE WE MISSED: Deerhunter, Fading Frontier (4AD)
30 Nov 2015 | 1 min read
Quite how we missed this new album by Deerhunter/Bradford Cox who has long been an Elsewhere favourite is simple: laziness. The album doesn't announce its contents in the clever cover so it probably just got sidelined when something with the artist and title bannered large yelled at us from the pile. Cox is one of the smarter guys in the pop business, although he'd doubtless prefer to... > Read more
Duplex Planet
Neil Young and Bluenote Cafe: Bluenote Cafe (Warners)
23 Nov 2015 | 3 min read | 2
Even diehard Neil Young fans would have to admit his most recent studio albums have been disappointing if not bloody awful . . . like the never-play-again rubbish A Letter Home and The Monsanto Years. Anyone who gave The Monsanto Years a four star (or even more idiotically a five star) review -- and some did -- had mistaken right-on politics for crap songs and should be forced to listen... > Read more
Bad News Comes to Town
Various Artists: Late Night Tales; Nils Frahm (latenighttales/Southbound)
23 Nov 2015 | <1 min read
Elsewhere has most often enjoyed these Late Night Tales compilations (and has written about quite a few) where someone famous (or little known) is invited to make a vaguely themed collection, and this one by Berlin-based composer Nils Frahn -- whose idiom is sort of electronica-classical -- is a real gem. It opens with his cover of John Cage's famous 4:33 (and it's not what you might think... > Read more