Absolute Elsewhere
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J. MASCIS INTERVIEWED, AND CONCERT REVIEW (2002): No time for talking
12 Oct 2009 | 8 min read
J. Mascis is the Silent Bob of rock. Look at any of the few interviews on the internet and you can see large blocks of type (the question) followed by a paltry line or two (the closed answer which seldom allows for a follow-up). Mascis, once of Dinosaur Jr and now out on a solo career with the occasional band The Fog, is a man of formidably few words. Judge for yourself from this... > Read more
J Mascis and The Fog: Someone Said
NICK LOWE INTERVIEWED (2009): As times go by
5 Oct 2009 | 12 min read
It is one of the ironies of Nick Lowe’s life that -- despite producing the first three Elvis Costello albums, the success of his solo debut Jesus of Cool in ‘78 (retitled Pure Pop for Now People in the more sensitive American market), being in the dream team with Cooder and drummer Jim Keltner on the exceptional John Hiatt album Bring the Family in ‘87 and having delivered a... > Read more
Nick Lowe: What Lack of Love Has Done (from Dig My Mood, 1998))
RY COODER INTERVIEWED (2009): Dry, wry and moving right along
5 Oct 2009 | 11 min read | 2
Ry Cooder -- if a slightly flinty 15 minute conversation with someone who rarely gives interviews suggests -- gives the clear impression of someone who doesn’t like to waste his time. His answers can sound abrupt, he barely laughs even when he makes a mild joke, and bristles at some questions. The other problem in talking with Cooder is simply this: at 62 he has such a long... > Read more
Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Tour: Bonde (from the album Talking Timbuktu, 1994)
SIR HOWARD MORRISON REMEMBERED (2009): Howard's way
29 Sep 2009 | 4 min read
It gives me no pleasure to note the coincidence, but earlier this week I started watching the three-part doco Once in a Lifetime, a Maori Television two-hour interview with the late Sir Howard Morrison (and family, friends and fellow performers). It had just come out on Rajon DVD. Among my notes on the first chapter where he speaks with self-deprecating humour about adolescent... > Read more
TIM FINN, A TIMELINE (2009): A solo, and sometimes solitary, man
24 Sep 2009 | 9 min read
Tim Finn is one of New Zealand's most gifted songwriters. If his long catalogue sometimes lacks the easy pop-rock polish of those songs by his brother Neil (with whom he has frequently written and played) or the sentimentality of Dave Dobbyn's more recent output, that is only to say Tim has gone his own way. From the idiosyncratic and innovative songs with Split Enz through a series of... > Read more
Tim Finn: Poor Boy (with Split Enz)
BEATLES FOR SALE, YET AGAIN (2009): Remastered and remarkable
9 Sep 2009 | 4 min read
A familiar Beatles’ song from a lifetime ago comes from the speakers then, after little more than 30 seconds, is faded. It begins again, but now there’s an energy and freshness about it, the vocals crisp and lively, the guitars and drums having a thrilling immediacy. “It’s as if a layer of grime has been removed, isn‘t it?” says longtime Abbey Road... > Read more
THE BEATLES ROCK BAND 2009: One, two, a-one-two-three-faaa
4 Sep 2009 | 2 min read
It is one of the many ironies of the Beatles Remastered project (which I have noted in this Listener article) is that these albums might not have even come out at this time were it not for the Beatles Rock Band interactive game. The remasters were finished some years ago and have been sitting around waiting for . . .? Some kind of marketing tie-in, the go-ahead from the remaining Beatles... > Read more
The Beatles: Rain
THE BEATLES REMASTERED, 2009 (EMI): Here, there and everywhere
31 Aug 2009 | 5 min read
The story behind the extensive and long overdue remastering of the most important music catalogue in pop has been well canvassed. Indeed, I have written this, a Listener article, Getting Better based on my experience of listening through to a large sampling of tracks while in Abbey Road in June. What that article doesn't address is the music itself. From "I want to hold your... > Read more
THE BEATLES AFTER THE REMASTERS (2009): And in the end . . .
31 Aug 2009 | 2 min read | 5
So are the remastered Beatle albums released on 09/09/09 ("number nine, number nine, number") the full-stop on a career which ended almost four decades ago? Maybe not. While at Abbey Road in June listening to the playback of some of these tracks (about which I wrote this), it seemed natural to ask engineers Allan Rouse and Steve Rooke -- who have each spent the past couple of... > Read more
The Beatles: Keep Your Hands Off My Baby (January 1963)
MOANA MANIAPOTO INTERVIEWED (2003): Kia kaha with a backbeat
8 Aug 2009 | 9 min read
The view from Moana Maniapoto's Grey Lynn apartment is spectacular. Beyond huge windows, which can be flung wide to offer the impression of floor-to-ceiling sky is a vista across rooftops to the Waitemata Harbour beyond. Outside the front door is a pile of kids' basketball boots - the carpets have just been shampooed - and inside tasteful artwork decorates the walls. In the office... > Read more
Moana and the Tribe: Treaty
TOM WAITS IN THE 21st CENTURY: Alice, Blood Money, Real Gone and Orphans
3 Aug 2009 | 12 min read | 1
Think about it for a moment: "Stirring my brandy with a nail". Delivered in Tom Waits' oaken croak, it has everything: the mean spirit of drinking, the bitter taste of melancholy, the sheer aloneness of it all. It is a great Waits line. But it was also a typical Waits image. If there was a surprise about Waits' Mule Variations in 1999 -- from which the line came -- it was... > Read more
Tom Waits: Road to Peace (from Brawlers)
NEIL FINN INTERVIEWED (2001): Man alone
12 Jul 2009 | 26 min read
Neil Finn gives the impression he's happier than he has ever been. This year he's been around the country playing solo shows in small venues with contributions by ring-in local musicians, billing them as the Band of Strangers. Soon he starts a five-night stand at the St James in Auckland with a guest list that includes Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, a couple of the guys from Radiohead, Johnny... > Read more
Neil Finn: Secret God (from One Nil, 2001)
TRINITY ROOTS REMEMBERED (2005): Spirit in the dark, and light
1 Jul 2009 | 1 min read
What set Trinity Roots (1998-2005) apart for me was their musical subtlety, the nuanced way they moved from what we might call roots folk and reggae through elements of waiata, jazz and pop to create something which was at times indefinably about this country right now, yet also possessed a timelessness, as if it could have been written and sung here centuries ago. In that regard it was... > Read more
BILLY GIBBONS OF ZZ TOP INTERVIEWED (2000): The less things change, the more they stay the same
30 Jun 2009 | 3 min read
In a blur of urgency a pre-release copy of the new album is rushed across town, essential in advance of the phone interview. And here it is, ZZ Top's XXX, an album where the title reminds you of this Texas trio's 30-year career. This is a necessary artefact. Imagine not having heard it and the famously bearded Billy F. Gibbons opening the conversation with, "hope you like... > Read more
ZZ Top: Gimme All Your Lovin'
CHRIS CORNELL OF SOUNDGARDEN INTERVIEWED (1992): Pressure drop
30 Jun 2009 | 5 min read
Soundgarden were getting used to, but wary of, all the praise they’d been getting over the years. They’d been called “Seattle’s heaviest contenders since Hendrix” by Spin magazine-- and Circus, a little less imaginatively but just as enthusiastically, said “they are destined to be the next big hip thing.” Well, things happen fast in rock and... > Read more
Soundgarden:Rusty Cage
NIRVANA, IN THE MONEY (1992): Number one, with a bullet
29 Jun 2009 | 6 min read
The front cover of the business section of the New York Times isn’t the kind of place you expect to read about rock musicians...especially not a somewhat scruffy bunch of torn-denim, straggle-hair alternative rockers like Nirvana. But a couple of weeks ago there they were. Money talks – and it was positively screaming when Nirvana’s Nevermind album unexpectedly shot to the... > Read more
Nirvana: Polly
BRIAN ENO; THE EARLY SOLO YEARS 1973-77: Alchemy in the studio
23 Jun 2009 | 2 min read
Legend has it that when Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry fell out with the band's synth player (and avant-noise merchant) Brian Eno he accused him of being a "non-musician". Eno -- full name Brian Peter St John Le Baptiste de la Salle Eno -- took this as a compliment and departed to carve out one of the most influential, distinguished, distinctive and durable careers in contemporary... > Read more
Brian Eno: The Fat Lady of Limbourg (from Taking Tiger Mountain)
NEIL YOUNG ARCHIVES VOL 1 (1963-1972) REVIEWED: Here we are in the years . . .
9 Jun 2009 | 6 min read | 1
There is a difference between something being “much anticipated” and it being “long awaited”. Neil Young’s box set Archives Vol 1 (1962-73) is certainly much anticipated . . . But long awaited? I think most people gave up waiting many years ago: Young announced the series back in the mid Eighties. In subsequent years -- decades even -- every time it got... > Read more
Neil Young: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (with Crazy Horse, 1970)
CHUCK D OF PUBLIC ENEMY INTERVIEWED (2004): Business as usual
7 Jun 2009 | 5 min read
The man whose angry voice once sent shockwaves around the world answers his cellphone with a barely audible, “Hello”. Somewhere in the background a woman’s voice on a high-energy marketing rush is clearly audible talking about recouping costs, the outlay for advertising, and a settlement. I ask if this is a convenient time to talk. “Not really,” he says... > Read more
Public Enemy: Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man (from Fear of a Black Planet, 1990)
CAN, THE CATALOGUE AND THE CULT: Talkin' 'bout a revolution
31 May 2009 | 3 min read
By definition most people miss cult acts. And to their tuned-in loyalists that makes them even more special. There is nothing like the whiff or martyrdom, or being ignored or misunderstood, to elevate a musician’s reputation among the faithful. Like most people, I missed Can in the late 60s/early 70s. No matter, the albums are out there. Again. Can’s credentials as avant-rock,... > Read more