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 . . .
Latest posts
YASMIN BROWN'S BEST EPs of 2019
16 Dec 2019 | 4 min read
Our EP reviewer Yasmin has bent her ears to dozens of releases this year, notes just how many good ones came from New Zealand artists . . . and then chooses thesze six for your consideration . . . Julia Michaels: Inner Monologue Part 1 Julia Michaels has been one of the biggest names in pop music this year, despite only having released two EPs and... > Read more
THE BEATLES. LET IT BE COVER, COPIED AND PARODIED (2019): Can you dig it, dig it . . .
16 Dec 2019 | 2 min read
You can't help but note that after their quickly knocked-off debut album Please Please Me (and its cover taking even less time), the Beatles' album covers were considered and became iconic. All except those for their movies. The cover for A Hard Day's Night was just a montage of uncredited stills from the film, Help! was shot by Robert... > Read more
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2019: THE READERS' CHOICES
16 Dec 2019 | 6 min read
Following Elsewhere posting its choices for the Best of the Year albums and The Best in Reissues (of what we heard, obviously a lot went past us) we invited Elsewhere readers to tell us what they were impressed by this year. Here is what people told us . . . and where Elsewhere had reviewed the album we have highlighted it with a link... > Read more
BOB DYLAN REWRITING HIMSELF (2019): Sometimes he didn't have such a tight connection
15 Dec 2019 | 3 min read
Right from the very start of his career Bobn Dylan was rewriting songs. First those by others -- or folk and blues songs whose origins were remote -- which he turned into his own. And then increasingly changing lyrics in his own songs in performance or in the studio. Elsewhere has shone the spotlight on New Danville Girl which became Brownsville Girl on the '86 album... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . ABNER JAY: Play dem bones and skulls
15 Dec 2019 | 2 min read
There is an interesting photo of singer and one-man band Abner Jay in the late Seventies playing at what is described as a folk festival. As he pours his all into whatever song has captured him, by his side is a young girl playing the bones. That is, she has what looks like the skull of a horse or cow strung around her neck and she is playing it with what appears to be a... > Read more
My Testimony (1963)
ONE WE MISSED: A Winged Victory for the Sullen: The Undivided Five (Ninja Tune)
15 Dec 2019 | <1 min read
Amusingly, we previously said of this ambient-cum-soundtrack-cum-classical duo who were on the fascinating Erased Tapes label that their work ensured anything on that label would grab our immediate attention. They are now on Ninja Tune. This stately and sometimes funereal music opens with Our Lord Debussy where sweeping slo-mo strings and dark piano chords set the... > Read more
THE DAY LINE-UP FOR WOMAD 2020: The world in your own backyard
13 Dec 2019 | <1 min read
And here we go with the day to day schedule of artists coming to Womad Taranaki in March next year. More specifics closer to the time and of course interviews and such. You should also have a look at our previous post which introduces the artists by way of words and video clips. That is here. For more details on Womad (ticketing, site maps and such) check... > Read more
CHRIS KNOX, COLLECTED AND DONATED (2019): From Enemy to archive
13 Dec 2019 | 3 min read
As some Elsewhere readers will perhaps know, for a couple of years I was one of the rostered caregivers for Chris Knox who suffered a stroke in June 2009. Although limited in physical function, Chris kept his wicked sense of humour, penchant for pranks and winding people up, and even began painting again . . . with his left hand. Examples of his work can be seen... > Read more
GENE CLARK, NO OTHER, REISSUED AND EXPANDED (2019): An album quite like no other
13 Dec 2019 | 5 min read
Just a personal observation: Gene Clark – who died in '91 at age 46 – wrote and sang some of my favourite songs by the Byrds. He co-wrote Eight Miles High with Roger McGuinn and David Crosby, and wrote the Byrds' jangle classic I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better (the b-side to All I Really Want to Do). But best of all for me, one of my... > Read more
Silver Raven (remastered album version)
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Seckou Keita
9 Dec 2019 | 2 min read
The extraordinarily gifted kora player Seckou Keita from Senegal has delivered a couple of Elsewhere's favourite albums on that warm instrument, notably 22 Strings of four years ago. In recent times he has paired with the Welsh harp player Catrin Finch for award-winning music which bridges the geographic divide by finding common space in beautiful melodies. The duo... > Read more
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE (2019): THE YEAR IN REISSUES
9 Dec 2019 | 8 min read
Round the Elsewhere way we used to joke that there's a reason people want to live in the past: It was cheaper back then. That's no longer true if in your listening habits you allow the past back into your life in box sets and reissues. Well -- unashamedly – we do, because round here we're always curious to hear not just what was done but – in the... > Read more
HORST STUNZNER OF THE SAMOAN SURF RIDERS INTERVIEWED (2018): Fresh off the boat and into the studio
9 Dec 2019 | 7 min read | 1
To hear 84-year old Horst Stunzner tell it, the recording session in 1964 took place somewhere just off Queen St in Auckland. The group was in and out quickly, he expected there might be a single come of it and as far as he remembers little if any money changed hands. “Rudolf and Hugo might have signed something,” he recalls, “but the rest of us never... > Read more
Tiligiligi (Medley)
Lee Scratch Perry: Heavy Rain (On U Sound through Border)
8 Dec 2019 | <1 min read
If the renegade Perry's Rainford album of earlier this year – produced by Adrian Sherwood – seemed to signal some final statement from the dub master then it was yet another piece of misdirection. Because he has just released another album (the dub-heavy Life of Plants) and now this, a reworking of Rainford material and other... > Read more
RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Various Artists: AK 79 (Flying Nun)
8 Dec 2019 | 1 min read
In the Eighties and Nineties, EPs or appearing on compilation albums were the key currency for most young post-punk bands. Hard to know where we'd be without collections like the student radio cassettes and albums, Hits and Myths (Enz, Schtung, Th'Dudes to Toy Love, Swingers and Whizz Kids), Class of '81 (Blam Blam Blam, Screaming MeeMees, Newmatics), Goats Milk Soap... > Read more
Scavengers: True Love
Juliana Hatfield: Sings the Police (American Laundromat)
6 Dec 2019 | <1 min read
Here's a conversation starter or stopper: that given their diverse backgrounds in prog-rock, jazz and pop the Police were akin to the Cream -- another aggregation of trio talent -- of their period. Where Cream had blues and LSD the Police had reggae, a touch of dub and dope. Discuss among yourselves. The Police certainly sprung hits but they expanded the... > Read more
Murder by Numbers
Various Artists: The Kiwi Music Scene 1969 (Frenzy)
6 Dec 2019 | 1 min read
By the end of the Sixties – a decade which began with a musical whimper – New Zealand pop and rock was recognised as a business and cultural force. The APRA Silver Scroll awards launched in 1965 acknowledged local writing talent, there were music and entertainer awards, Radio Hauraki was playing local music, a thriving live scene and... > Read more
Hayride, by Dedikation
MALCHICKS REVISITED AND REISSUED (2019): Flying high then, then flying away
4 Dec 2019 | 10 min read
Despite a fine EP Lotus, the excellent album Mercury and songs beloved at student radio (notably Drive), Auckland's Malchicks barely rate a mention in overviews of the New Zealand rock scene of the Nineties. Yet there they were, a tight four-piece which had elements of shoegaze, dream-pop, Goth gloom and melodic thrash alongside real roof-raisers. They were produced... > Read more
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2019: THE EDITOR'S PICKS
2 Dec 2019 | 11 min read
Yes, it is that time again when contentious lists are posted about the Best Albums of The Year. And we can only reiterate what we always say,: the “best” albums are those which you enjoyed the most. End of that discussion? The more obscure an album does not – in Elsewhere's world anyway – mean it is any better than a blockbuster by, say,... > Read more
Prince: 1999 Super Deluxe Edition (Warners)
1 Dec 2019 | 1 min read
In 1982 when Prince invited us to “party like it's 1999” he didn't so much anticipate some Y2K apocalypse as invite us into millennial hedonism at a New Year's Eve party like no other. And drove it home in the sexual-imagery of Little Red Corvette. The double album 1999 tipped him into the Serious Contender category after his sometimes alienating overt... > Read more
Jimi Hendrix: Songs for Groovy Children; The Fillmore East Concerts (Sony)
30 Nov 2019 | 2 min read
The Jimi Industry shows little sign of slowing down and since Eddie Kramer – his longtime engineer and designated producer of posthumous albums – announced the vaults of studio recordings were now emptied, attention has turned to releasing live sets. And lord knows there were enough of those in his short lifetime. Many of course have been... > Read more