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
THE LINE-UP FOR THE 2019 LANEWAY FESTIVAL: Here it comes again, that feeling . . .
18 Sep 2018 | <1 min read
And here it comes again . . . the annual Laneway Festival. Next year in Auckland it will once again be held in Albert Park (you can read Elsewhere's review of the 2018 Festival here, the 2017 here, the 2016 here and the 2015 here . . . yep, we are fans of this day-long and concise festival). The festival next year is the 10th and one of the returnees is the... > Read more
PAINTINGS BY PAUL (2018) The art of McCartney
17 Sep 2018 | 6 min read
When Sir Paul McCartney was going through his acrimonious divorce from Lady Heather Mills (who was apparently no lady at all) in 2006, a document was leaked to the media – perhaps by Mills, McCartney had no wish for the information to be out there. It contained details of the former Beatle’s actual worth. Everyone... > Read more
Universal Here, Everlasting Now by The Fireman (from Electric Arguments)
Tash Sultana: Flow State (Sony)
17 Sep 2018 | 2 min read
Anyone who has caught this Australian multi-instrumentalist live and in full flight, as she was at the Auckland City Limits 2018 festival, would come away impressed by her versatility and stage energy . . . but also realising that her free-form playing – where one thing morphed into another – and her songs (if that is what they were) needed some refining and... > Read more
Seven
El Hula: When the Devil Arrives At My Door (2003)
17 Sep 2018 | <1 min read
Expat Kiwi Blair Jollands has just released a new album under his own name, 7 Blood. It is musically diverse and because he has been in London for so long that his name is barely known back here in his homeland. It's a struggle to get people to listen to an album by an unfamiliar name, let alone one where the tracks are so very different, and it is even harder if he... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . EVIE SANDS: Ever the bridesmaid
17 Sep 2018 | 3 min read
When the pub quiz question comes up, be prepared: The guy who wrote Wild Thing, Chip Taylor, is the brother of actor Jon Voight and therefore the uncle of Angelina Jolie. For bonus points, he also wrote the country song Angel of the Morning which was a big hit for Merrilee Rush and further popularised by Olivia Newton-John and Juice Newton. Unfortunately it wasn't a... > Read more
Women in Prison
Juanita Stein: Until The Lights Fade (Nude)
16 Sep 2018 | <1 min read
On this, the second album under her own name in as many years, the former singer-guitarist in ex-Australia, London-based alt-rockers Howling Bells continues here affection for Americana rock, nods towards Patti Smith directness and Chrissie Hynde-inflected pop-rock (both collide on Forgiver written with Brandon Flowers of the Killers) with convincing swagger. There are... > Read more
Cool
Bonnie Jo Mason: Ringo, I Love You (1964)
16 Sep 2018 | 1 min read
When the Beatles conquered the US in '64, there were literally scores of tribute songs, parodies and satirical pieces -- from the lament of The Beatles Barber to You Can't Go Far Without a Guitar (Unless You're Ringo Starr) and My Boyfriend's Got a Beatle Haircut. But few have gathered as much attention as this one. Not because it's any good (it isn't) but because... > Read more
WAIATA MĀORI MUSIC AWARDS (2018): Kia kaha and the winners are . . .
15 Sep 2018 | 2 min read
The 11th annual Waiata Maori Music Awards held in Hastings last night were dominated by the legendary singer/composer and role model Rob Ruha. Ruha won four trophies from seven nominations. The “haka soul” artist (pictured) picked up the awards for his latest album Survivance included Best Māori Male Solo Artist/ Manu Tīoriori Tāne Autaia, Best... > Read more
Richard Thompson: 13 Rivers (Proper/Southbound)
15 Sep 2018 | 1 min read | 1
Longtime fans and loyalists – count Elsewhere among them – have long admitted defeat with Richard Thompson OBE: no matter how good the albums are by this extraordinary British guitarist and songwriter, and many are exceptional, his fan base never seems to expand. So despite us here reviewing his albums and conducting interviews we assume that the same small... > Read more
The Dog in You
The Warratahs: Drivin' Wheel (Southbound)
14 Sep 2018 | <1 min read | 1
This double disc 30thanniversary collection reminds you not just how prolific the Warratahs were in their heyday (things slowed down in the new century when singer-songwriter Barry Saunders and writer Wayne Mason released solo albums) but also how consistent they were with their considered country-influenced pop and rock. The non-chronological 24 song collection includes... > Read more
Cape Turnagain (w Sam Hunt)
Paul Simon: In the Blue Light (Sony)
14 Sep 2018 | 1 min read | 1
At the end of his recent, valuable if slightly flawed, authorised biography of Paul Simon by Robert Hilburn, the musician said his next project would be to go back and re-record and re-arrange some of his favourite but overlooked songs from his vast back-catalogue. “He'll never finish that album. It won't be challenging enough,” Simon's friend, the artist... > Read more
How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns
The Chills: Snow Bound (Fire/Southbound)
14 Sep 2018 | 2 min read
In a typically forthcoming interview with Elsewhere recently, Martin Phillipps – mainman of the Chills – observed that their last album Silver Bullets of 2015 (19 years on from the previous studio album Sunburnt) was in small part a clearing house of songs he'd been sitting on. So he could understand why some said it was just him tidying up scraps . . . but, he... > Read more
Complex
The Changing Same: Creative Evolution (Powertools)
12 Sep 2018 | 2 min read
Outside of the folk tradition (and maybe Don McGlashan every now and again) there's not a great lineage of songs which gently and often lovingly skewer specific places and people's mores in this country. On this new collection by the band helmed by Matthew Bannister (Sneaky Feelings, Dribbling Darts of Love, the Weather, One Man Bannister and solo albums) there is a... > Read more
Favourite Clown
EPs by Yasmin Brown
12 Sep 2018 | 4 min read
With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column by the informed and opinionated Yasmin Brown. She will scoop up some of those many EP releases, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up albums by New Zealand artists, and IN BRIEFdoes for international artists. You can read her previous... > Read more
STEVE KILBEY OF THE CHURCH INTERVIEWED (2018): Having to go through all these things again
10 Sep 2018 | 14 min read
Whoever first said it, someone probably centuries ago, doesn't matter because the essential truth of it holds true: Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it. In popular music the wish is often that Big Hit which can lift a band or artist from the wings and place them on centre-stage where those things they've yearned for – money, fame and acclaim... > Read more
Reptile (from Starfish)
MARTIN PHILLIPPS INTERVIEWED (2018): A lone guide cutting through snow
10 Sep 2018 | 12 min read | 1
Martin Phillipps takes the guitar off his knee so he can talk about, among many other things, the Chills' new album Snow Bound. But he immediately admits that he can leave such instruments around gathering dust. He can be “lazy” and “gave up on being a technically proficient musician a long time ago,” says the man who wrote sublime songs like... > Read more
Time to Atone
AMY WINEHOUSE'S BACK TO BLACK, a Prime Rocks Classic Album doco
10 Sep 2018 | 2 min read
When Amy Winehouse died in July 2011 there many of us who didn't cry, we were too angry to shed tears for this extraordinary talent which would be now denied us. Winehouse should have lived a long life and given more and more of the creative gifts which were all over her classic album Back to Black of 2006 which won her a Grammy and hearts everywhere . . . those who got... > Read more
Bob Dylan: All American Boy (1967)
7 Sep 2018 | 1 min read
American country-rocker Bobby Bare scored an unlikely hit with All American Boy back in '58 when his demo of the song for a friend Bill Parsons was chosen by the record company over Parson's version. Bare wrote it but Parsons got the credit, however what is of interest is how it was a kind of early run at songs which were cynical about success and fame. Bare's song... > Read more
Princess Chelsea: The Loneliest Girl (Lil' Chief)
7 Sep 2018 | 1 min read
Behind many fairytales there lurks a sense of unease, and so it is with the music of Princess Chelsea (aka Chelsea Nikkel), the Auckland singer-songwriter who has created an interesting persona for herself which she effectively plays with, but frequently delivers music which seems to possess all the magic of dreamy fairytale. But, as we know with fairytales . . . The... > Read more
Paul McCartney: Egypt Station (Capitol/Universal)
7 Sep 2018 | 2 min read
In our Famous Elsewhere Songwriter Questionnaire we ask, “The one songwriter you will always listen to, even if they disappointed you previously, is?” Names like Bob Dylan, Gillian Welch, Joni Mitchell and Bon Iver have come up a few times. But to the best of our recollection Paul McCartney never has, which is strange given an impressive track record in... > Read more