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
Andrew Fagan: It Was Always Going To Be Like This (bandcamp)
20 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
Outside the circle of poets and writers from academia and creative writing courses anointed by a cabal of similarly inclined critics, there have always been those who find their audience by a more direct route, by a clear and unmediated connection with the broader population. In this group we have, however unfashionable and even reviled he might be today, novelist Barry... > Read more
GUEST WRITER DAVID G BROWN EXPLAINS WHY HE TRAVELLED TO THE WORLD'S WORST PLACES
20 Apr 2018 | 6 min read
Editor's note: The late David G Brown was born in Tuakau, a small town south of Auckland in New Zealand. In the course of his life -- he died in Helsinki, Finland in 2015 -- he travelled to 100 countries and among them some of the most blighted, damaged and dangerous on the planet. His collection of journeys to these places and his impressions has been posthumously published... > Read more
THE BULFORD KIWI; THE KIWI WE LEFT BEHIND by COLLEEN BROWN
19 Apr 2018 | 4 min read | 2
The question is very simple and so should the answer be, but let's ask it anyway. When World War I ended with the armistice on November 11, 1918 what happened to the thousands of New Zealand soldiers – around 40,000 stationed in Europe and Britain – who had left their homeland to fight and were now still in Europe? The answer of course is obvious:... > Read more
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING, A VIDEO ESSAY (2018): Of speed, in space and under the ground
18 Apr 2018 | 2 min read
Over three albums, a batch of EPs, impressive videos and exciting live shows, Britain's Public Service Broadcasting have created a niche for themselves between the worlds of dance, electronica, rock, art music and audio-visual spectacular. New Zealand audiences caught them at a Womad in 2015 but each of their albums -- and the attendant videos -- are mesmersing... > Read more
Tom Cunliffe: Template For Love (usual digital outlets, CD)
18 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
Anyone expecting this second album by folk-rocker (and then some) Tom Cunliffe to be more focused than its predecessor will be disappointed . . . but also perhaps pleased by the increased diversity here. If that debut Howl & Whisper seemed to have its roots in pubs (the Pogues were a reference point for a few songs) this steps sideways, right from the power-pop of the... > Read more
Primrose Hill
HAMMOND GAMBLE INTERVIEWED (2018): Of another career in the same town
16 Apr 2018 | 10 min read | 1
Trees are down, power is out everywhere, the temperature has dropped and our house is freezing. So when a conversation with Hammond Gamble is relocated to the warmth of Galbraith's Ale House in Eden Terrace it's very welcome. The purpose of meeting Gamble – one of this country's finest blues-rock guitarists, an earthy singer and a much underrated and Silver... > Read more
The Disappointments: The Disappointments (Morningstar)
16 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
Get past the self-deprecating band name and look closer: Here are singer-guitarist Hammond Gamble and bassist Andy MacDonald who, in the early Eighties co-founded one of the greatest blues-rock bands this country has ever produced: Street Talk. They toured extensively and fired off two terrific albums, their self-titled debut (somewhat knobbled by the production of... > Read more
Jack's Got Work (But It Ain't All Good)
IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases
16 Apr 2018 | 3 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 and Yasmin does with EPs. Comments will be brief. . Chris Smither: Call Me Lucky (Signature/Southbound) This... > Read more
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels: Devil with the Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly (1966)
16 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
Whatever the reason -- working class industrial, mix of races, impurities in the water -- Detroit has been a hotbed of great music. From Bill Haley and Hank Ballard in the Fifties through Motown, Bob Seger and the Stooges to the Dirtbombs, Eminem and the White Stripes, it just keeps coming. And let's not forget -- although many do -- the great Mitch Ryder and the Detroit... > Read more
THE BARGAIN BUY: Various Artists: Ultimate Disco
15 Apr 2018 | 2 min read
One of the more interesting developments in the past decade has been the rehabilitation of disco and many artists in their Thirties – especially those with tastes so eclectic to point of being musically ADHD – are incorporating the mirrorball grooves in what they do. And in most instances it isn't even ironic. Disco, boogie, dancefloor funk or however you... > Read more
You, by Samuel Jonathan Johnson
Mein: Mein (Rocket/Southbound)
14 Apr 2018 | <1 min read
A kind of second-tier supergroup if you will, the four-piece Mein draws its members from the Horrors, the Earlies, Black Angels and Elephant Stone who pulled this together from shared audio files coupled with an Indo-influenced psychedelic ethos, and a touch of rave culture grooves (Happy Mondays/Black Grape etc) and a smidgen of Krautrock motorik. Which comes out more... > Read more
Odessey
VINYL VINYL VINYL (2018): Record Store Day at Southbound
13 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
Although Record Store Day -- this year Saturday April 21 -- has become a commercial enterprise with limited edition vinyl of records you probably don't need by major artists cashing in, there is still something quite exciting about the buzz around it . . . and of course an excellent catalogue of albums on freshly minted vinyl which you actually do want. Southbound... > Read more
MUSIC MANAGERS AWARD (2018): You're on in five. Jeez, where's Dave!
13 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
Now in its 14th year, the NZ Music Managers Awards acknowledge those who are there to ensure the artists get to shine under the lights, under take a tour, are organised and their music comes to your attention. It can be a big job (like rounding up cats by sheepdog I imagine) so we should al acknowledge these people and on the night of the awards (held at The Tuning Fork... > Read more
EILEN JEWELL INTERVIEWED (2018): Got them weird, oldtime blues again
13 Apr 2018 | 6 min read
The weather’s often like this at this time, raining and cold,”says Eilen Jewell from her hometown of Boise, Idaho. “It’s the only time of year that it rains, because of the desert here, and most of that rain happens during this month.” Not that she, her drummer/husband Jason Beek, their young daughter Mavis and bandmates Jerry Miller... > Read more
You'll Be Mine
A PROVOCATION OF RATTLES (2018): Digressions, sojourns, shadows and sonorous sounds
10 Apr 2018 | 4 min read
If it is a murder of crows and a clowder of cats, why not “a provocation of rattles” to describe a bunch of new contemporary music releases on the Rattle label? Rattle out of Auckland has become the preeminent label for improvised music (aka jazz) and contemporary music (aka classical) as well as holding the banner high for taonga puoro (traditional Maori... > Read more
The And Band: Outhern (Spacecase Records)
9 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
It's a game any seriously frivolous music lover has played, making up names for bands and albums. My imagined album title – probably for some lousy rhythm and blues band – is Cheap Muscatel and a Korean Guitar. I remember at school my mate Barry came up with The The and The And Band. And lo! It came to pass . . . This actual And Band was George D... > Read more
George Harrison: Bye Bye Love (1974)
9 Apr 2018 | 3 min read | 1
And it's a belated happy birthday to the former British model Pattie Boyd who turned 74 on March 17. Boyd is something more than a footnote in pop culture – she was only a model for a few years – because she inspired a remarkable number of songs from her two husbands, George Harrison and Eric Clapton. She first met George Harrison on the set of the... > Read more
Suzanne Vega: Solitude Standing
9 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
In recent years Suzanne Vega -- who came to attention wth the beguiling Marlene on the Wall song on her self-titled debut album in '85 -- had taken to going back into her catalogue and re-recording her songs as part of her themed Close-Up series. That was in part a response to her former record company stil retaining owneship of her master tapes. That the project... > Read more
Bill Frisell: Music IS (Okeh/Sony)
7 Apr 2018 | 1 min read | 1
When Elsewhere profiled Bill Frisell in advance of his appearances at the Wellington Jazz festival in 2017 we headed the piece “Guitarist Without Portfolio”. And that was because – as the piece outlined – he has been claimed by and appeared in the ranks of jazz, avant-garde music and rock, played alongside the likes of Elvis Costello, Paul Simon,... > Read more
The Pioneers
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Sex & Food (Jagjaguwar)
6 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
Much has been made of the various locations at which the tracks on this album were recorded – Seoul, Hanoi, Portland, Mexico City, Auckland and Reykjavik – as well as how eclectic it is: Prince-like soul, scouring rock, funk etc. But it is just how coherent and self-contained it sounds which is so impressive, despite those seemingly disparate factors of place... > Read more