THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and Graham Reid goes there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.
Elsewhere is an on-line magazine for new music (we filter out the mundane and spotlight the more interesting albums), different travel, arts and more. It is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It's an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter. Welcome . . .
Latest posts
Fuzzy Robes: Midday Prayers (Winegum Records/digital outlets)
28 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
As with Banksy, the Residents and Daft Punk, let's allow a cloud of enigma and mystique to remain settled over the Ōtautahi Christchurch band Fuzzy Robes whose previous album Night Prayers in 2021 was a elevating mix of liturgical and gently psychedelic music. Although it's probably as easy to identify their members as the aforementioned – there are... > Read more
Collect for Midday
Various Artists: Caribbean Celebration (Putumayo/digital outlets)
25 Mar 2024 | <1 min read
With Womad in the rear-view mirror and reggae the easy default position for many local artists, we point to this collection of Caribbean music beyond Jamaica. Quite far from there in fact, with a number of the Haitian artists here based in Canada, they must feel lucky to be distant from their homeland right now but distressed by what is happening there. But here are... > Read more
Kon Oun Lotomat, by Chris Combette
World Party: Goodbye Jumbo (1990)
25 Mar 2024 | 3 min read | 2
By any measure, 1990 was a pretty good year in rock and pop: Sinead O'Connor announced herself with the single Nothing Compares 2 U and the album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got; George Michael's Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 delivered timeless music; and things toughened up in Seattle with Sub Pop signing Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden and Nirvana. Janet... > Read more
Way Down Now
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Ted Brown
25 Mar 2024 | 4 min read
As we mentioned when we reviewed his new album Solstice Canyon Loop, Ted Brown has been away from New Zealand for over 20 years, living and working in Los Angeles. That means he's probably slipped off the radar although as longtime guitarist for expat Greg Johnson – also living in Los Angeles – some will certainly remember him. However now is the time to... > Read more
Dark Side of Memory Lane
Les Big Byrd: Diamonds, Rhinestones and Hard Rain (digital outlets)
25 Mar 2024 | <1 min read
It has been almost a decade since we stumbled over Sweden's psychedelic rockers Les Big Byrd, probably through their association with Anton (Brian Jonestown Massacre) Newcombe's A Recordings label. This fourth studio album – recorded in small-town Visby on the island of Gotland in the Baltic – finds them focused on elevating, spacious astral rock in a space... > Read more
Ensam i stan på sommarlovet
Octopus: I Am the Walrus (1971)
25 Mar 2024 | <1 min read
Although they muck up some lyrics, this live version of John Lennon's classic – recorded at the Storthfield Country Club in Derbyshire – isn't a bad stab at a very difficult song. But it's who was in this band which had fallen under the wing of impresario Larry Page that is most interesting. The band was based around brothers Paul (vocals/guitar) and... > Read more
CRYING IN THE NIGHT: Wide awake and wondering
25 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
The sound of a baby crying in the night is a terrifying thing. The screams go on and on, no one seems to be taking care of it, you look out your window into the darkness but cannot see where the cries are coming from. You feel helpless. My ryokan in Shin-Nakano, a suburb to the west of central Tokyo was perfect -- except at night when I heard the baby crying.... > Read more
Kim Gordon: The Collective (digital outlets)
25 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
If you hadn't already twigged onto what Kim Gordon brought to Sonic Youth, the innovative and influential band which broke up in 2011, her autobiography Girl in a Band shone the light on her serious intellectual smarts and tenacity. And her recent solo albums just confirm all of that, and then some. Her gritty electronica-cum-alt.rock 2019 solo debut No Home... > Read more
Psychedelic Orgasm
The Jesus and Mary Chain: Glasgow Eyes (digital outlets)
23 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
Sibling rivalry in bands – almost exclusively the preserve of males – can have all the deep divisions of a Balkan conflict but is often traced to petty jealousies and arguments with all the intelligence of a playground spat. Who really knows, or cares, what pulled Ray and Dave Davies apart, was the source of division between Rich and Chris Robinson of the... > Read more
Chemical Animal
SOUND THINKING #9: The podcast for music people
22 Mar 2024 | <1 min read
The ninth episode of the music podcast in which Marty Duda of 13th Floor hosts some reviewers who discuss new albums. This week Chris Warne, Veronika Bell, Andra Jenkins and I review four new albums by Jesus and Mary Chain, Delaney Davidson, Kaylee Bell and Adrianne Lenker. Good informed comment. Here it is. For other episodes of Sound Thinking go here > Read more
Alice Coltrane: Shiva-Loka (Impulse!/digital outlets)
22 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
The rediscovery of pianist/harpist/composer Alice Coltrane in the past decade picks up speed this year with the “Year of Alice” which will see attention shone on her recordings for the Impulse! And Verve labels. The widow of John has had sporadic attention over the decades so we are forgiven if we haven't paid serious attention previously. Her original albums... > Read more
The Wonders: That Thing You Do! (1996/1964)
22 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
In his Grammy-grabbing career -- between Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan, You've Got Mail and The Green Mile -- Tom Hanks did a small, cute, mostly inconsequential and slight pop movie, That Thing You Do! Clearly this story of an imaginary one-hit wonder pop group from Pennsylvania in '64 was something close to his heart. He wrote the... > Read more
Graeme Woller: Repetitions (digital outlets)
21 Mar 2024 | <1 min read
Perhaps because we at Elsewhere put in the long hours at a desk, there's nothing better we like than finding intelligent ambient music which challenges and seduces as much as it calms while we work. We've been known to make our own Spotify playlists (if you care to check them out here and here. This interesting collection comes from an unexpected source --... > Read more
Korimako
ONE WE MISSED: Noise Play: Junk (digital outlets)
20 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
After a brace of strong pop-rock albums which bumped up against indifferent radio programmers (but which found favour at Elsewhere), Auckland singer-songwriter Danny McCrum did the obvious. No, he didn't quit. He just carried on. He turned his production skills and home studio to the service of others (check out this recent slice of electro-pop by Soulti from... > Read more
Just a Little Bit, ft Mark Steven
Dandy Warhols: Rockmaker (digital outlets)
18 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
Despite their seemingly ramshackle career, Portland's Dandy Warhols have survived line-up changes, being seduced by the major label Capitol, being dropped, making poor business choices and albums which changed their direction from ragged indie rock to psychedelia, synth-pop, New Wave influences and shoegaze. They often seemed casually dismissive of any career releasing... > Read more
The Summer of Hate
Ted Brown: Solstice Canyon Loop (digital outlets)
18 Mar 2024 | <1 min read
It has probably been many years, if not decades, since most in New Zealand heard of Ted Brown, most commonly known as the longtime guitarist in Greg Johnson's band. Like Johnson, Brown has lived in Los Angeles for more the 20 years now and just as Johnson moved into the refined, singer-songwriter territory, Brown moved more toward alt.country. This highly... > Read more
Stops
Favourite Five Recent Releases
Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note/digital outlets)
18 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
Even those who just casually poke around Elsewhere will know the affection and high esteem in which we hold saxophonist/flautist Charles Lloyd. One of his albums Lift Every Voice is in our Essential Elsewhere selection and frankly there are another couple we could slip in there without apology. Now 86, Lloyd brings even more quiet sensitivity and emotional care to... > Read more
The Lonely One
JENNIFER LOPEZ. ONE ALBUM, TWO FILMS (2024): Oversharing overkill
18 Mar 2024 | 3 min read
When the brightest stars in the pop firmament – Taylor, Adele, Beyonce – release new albums, the announcement alone often ensures hysteria and hyperbole, expensive videos and soul-baring interviews. And so we come to Jennifer Lopez's new album This is Me . . . Now, its title updating her 2002 album This Is Me . . . Then. J-Lo – we'll default to the... > Read more
Young Guv: Couldn't Leave U If I Tried (2022)
18 Mar 2024 | <1 min read
A recent disc which came with a copy of a British music magazine alerted us to the power pop charms of Brooklyn-based Young Guv who on this song – which opened his 2022 album Guv III – distills the sound of the Shoes, Searchers, Raspberries and . . . Well, as we've said previously, power pop is a genre which announces and defines itself in the name: pop... > Read more
MINNIE RIPERTON: PERFECT ANGEL, CONSIDERED (1974): La la la la da da bee doo . . .
17 Mar 2024 | 2 min read
When Minnie Riperton died in 1979 many were shocked, and not just that she should be taken so young at 31. Nor was it that she looked so full of cheeky life on the cover of her hit album Perfect Angel which contained the extraordinary single Lovin' You. It was that she died of breast cancer which was probably the first time many of her young soul/r'n'b followers had... > Read more