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
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . THE COMFORTABLE CHAIR: Much admired but short-lived psychedelic folk
27 Jan 2020 | 3 min read
Let's throw around the names of a few fans of this band out of California in the late Sixties. First we might mention Jim Morrison of the Doors who “discovered” them. And famous producer Lou Adler was so keen that he signed them to his Ode label. They were also in-house artists at the Bliss production company formed by John Densmore and Robbie Krieger... > Read more
Danny Winkle: Bad Luck (1961)
27 Jan 2020 | 1 min read
The line “if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have no luck at all” (and its minor variants) has been a staple in the blues . . . but here country singer Danny Winkle from around Biloxi, Mississippi – who just went by “Danny” on his two singles – pulled it into his stab at kind of rockabilly r'n'b, complete with Sun Records-style echo.... > Read more
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Marina Bloom
26 Jan 2020 | 5 min read
Here's a thought, if Marina Bloom's new album Back Where We Started had come out 20 or 30 years ago half the songs would be all over Classic Hits radio these days. She taps that same classic rock/big ballad/Taupin and Elton well of songs which have big choruses, memorable hooks, rock plus orchestration and so on. Bloom comes with an interesting backstory, some of... > Read more
HERMAN'S HERMITS, EXPORTING ENGLAND (2020): Into something interesting if not good
26 Jan 2020 | 4 min read
After the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in the US in February 1964 -- when they were seen by approximately 73 million people out of a population of 192 million -- American teenagers had an almost insatiable appetite for British pop music. And so began the "British Invasion" in which dozens of UK acts toured and had hits in the US, among them... > Read more
Wire: Mind Hive (Pink Flag/Southbound)
25 Jan 2020 | 1 min read
Although Britain's Wire delivered three seminal post-punk albums in the late Seventies, they never let that define them nor that minimalist style become an easy template. In fact, in the past decade they have been prolific and consistently delivering challenging, musically interesting and taut albums. As the title of their 2013 album had it, Change Becomes Us.... > Read more
Unrepentant
Black Lips: Sing in a World That's Falling Apart (Fire/Southbound)
25 Jan 2020 | 1 min read
While no artist – as we have said previously – should be held to their press release, someone with a functioning frontal cortex in Black Lips' team might have called a halt to the absurd hype about this band's reductive pop . . . . a band which had apparently gone where “no garage punk band had done before”. Uh-uh. And... > Read more
Holding Me Holding You
Harry Styles: Fine Line (Sony)
24 Jan 2020 | 1 min read
When Harry Styles – formerly of One Direction – released his self-titled debut album in 2017 we here at Elsewhere were not just surprised by it but actually very impressed. While noting that artists of his generation – we mentioned Lorde, Taylor Swift (once she and Harry were a couple) and Justin Bieber in the context – don't make music... > Read more
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Jackie Bristow
23 Jan 2020 | 6 min read
Singer-songwriter Jackie Bristow has appeared at Elsewhere many times for her consistently strong albums which exist comfortably in the country-rock/alt.country territory. Hardly surprising given she has lived and worked in Nashville, Texas for so long that perhaps many people wouldn't recognise her as a New Zealand artist. But her song Rollin' Stone from her... > Read more
BILL FAY, CONSIDERED (2020): A calm balm for these hard times
20 Jan 2020 | 4 min read
Everywhere is madness, disaster and chaos. The young feel on the precipice of the climate apocalypse as rivers dry and oceans rise, the land burns and the air chokes. If you read anything about current politics you can confidently say that yes, anyone can aspire to be the president of the United States. If this vile, bullying, lying, dangerous and psychopathic... > Read more
Pinegrove: Marigold (Rough Trade/Rhythmethod/digital outlets)
20 Jan 2020 | <1 min read
New to Elsewhere, this New Jersey outfit here deliver a strangely enticing fourth album of downbeat material which sometimes errs towards worn-down narrative pop-poetry delivered over elemental, almost alt.country settings (Dotted Line, the arresting Alarmist) or gently urgent power-pop (Moment about an unexpected incident on the road). Spiral is a 75... > Read more
Moment
The Mighty Sparrow: Jack Palance (1956)
20 Jan 2020 | <1 min read
Actually no, the great Trinidad calypso singer Mighty Sparrow isn't paying a tribute to the wonderful character actor Jack "pick up the gun" Palance (1919-2006). Rather, he is making a very unflattering comparison between the actor's rather battered looks and the faces of aging prostitutes: "Without any doubt they could be my granny but they walk around at... > Read more
RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Pale Saints: The Comforts of Madness (4AD 30thAnniversary Edition)
19 Jan 2020 | 2 min read
Although not exclusively the “shoegaze” band they have been tagged as, Britain's alt.rockers Pale Saints could hopefully get some traction for this expanded, 30thanniversary reissue of their debut album, because it seems shoegaze is currently enjoying a resurgence. Maybe this terrific compilation of shoegaze from a few years ago has lead to the renewed... > Read more
Sight of You
I WANNA BE YOUR MAN, RECONSIDERED (2020): The hit the Beatles stole and on-sold
18 Jan 2020 | 3 min read | 2
Most people who know the story of the Beatles' success are aware that before they conquered America by appearing on the Ed Skelton Show in February 1964 they had already made their reputation in Britain. Not only had they had hits like Love Me Do, Please Please Me, Hold My Hand and She Loves You, but the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team had written hits for Billy J... > Read more
Algiers: There is No Year (Matador/digital outlets)
17 Jan 2020 | 1 min read
The previous two albums by this sometimes incendiary, political, four-piece soul rock-cum-punk experimentalists out of Georgia made Elsewhere sit up and listen for the powerful sonic punch coupled with direct social and historic comment. Of their self-titled debut we simply concluded “extraordinary” and of The Underside of Power we said “although... > Read more
VIOLENT FEMMES' BRIAN RITCHIE INTERVIEWED (2020): Playing to the gallery
17 Jan 2020 | 1 min read
Ahead of his veteran band Violent Femmes' return to New Zealand, Brian Ritchie talks about his other life – working at Tasmania’s Mona art gallery. When Brian Ritchie – bassist in Milwaukee folk-punk band Violent Femmes – moved to Hobart 12 years ago, as the band he founded was in a... > Read more
Selena Gomez: Rare (Interscope/digital outlets)
15 Jan 2020 | 1 min read
While Elsewhere always takes considerable amusement in how many writers and producers it takes to shape a mainstream pop album these days (see the screenshot below!), we also believe that if that's what it takes to make a great album then that's what it takes. Is this a great album by onetime Disney child star Gomez . . . who is now 27? Well, actually that gets a... > Read more
THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND: Away with the faeries and poets
15 Jan 2020 | 4 min read
Unexpected people are into the Incredible String Band: Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin you can understand, given Led Zepp played a kind of Anglofolk/Tolkein thing alongside their hijacking of black blues and other hoary riffs. But bristling DIY post-punk Chris Knox speaking highly of this slightly fey Scottish folk group who pioneered the use of instruments from... > Read more
The Incredible String Band: The Mad Hatter's Song (from The 5000 Spirits/Onion album)
EIGHT OBSCURE USA INDIE SINGLES I'M SURPRISED I OWN: And believe me, eight is enough!
13 Jan 2020 | 5 min read
The small town of Paeroa in New Zealand's North Island (the other island being named . . .) can make a couple of claims for itself. First, it is the origin of the “world famous in New Zealand” soft-drink Lemon & Paeroa, and second that it is the antiques capital of the country. These days “antiques” mostly just means old stuff, but in the... > Read more
The Serpent Power: The Endless Tunnel (1967)
13 Jan 2020 | 1 min read
The cover of their sole album in 1967 on the Vanguard label told part of the story: psychedelic Californians with a female vocalist in the line-up. That much is clear, but the music added to much more to the Jefferson Airplane reference point. Songwriter-guitarist David Meltzer was a poet around San Francisco and his wife Tina was the singer. But then add in organ... > Read more
DELINQUENT DAYS; OUTSIDERS ON THE SILVER SCREEN (2020): The kids aren't alright
12 Jan 2020 | 3 min read
In the shorthand of pop culture, some would have you believe there was nothing going on between the death of Buddy Holly and the arrival of the Beatles. Certainly there were a lot of bland, production-line pretty-boy pop stars as we noted here, but there was also much more happening. As we said in that piece, “there were surf bands and Motown, Phil... > Read more