Absolute Elsewhere
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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
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
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'
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
Can: Pinch (from Ege Bamyasi, 1972)
THE ROLLING STONES; 1981 TO NOW: On with the show . . .
25 May 2009 | 9 min read
The Rolling Stones stumbled out of the decadent decade of the Seventies into the uncertain Eighties which kicked off with post-disco dance, post-punk, New Wave and other styles which they weren't familiar with. But what else could these rich boys do but play in a rock'n'roll band? Not a lot as their career from '81 to the present day proved. Flashes of the old genius, internal fights... > Read more
The Rolling Stones: Back of My Hand (from A Bigger Bang, 2005)
MARTIN PHILLIPPS, OF THE DISBANDED CHILLS, INTERVIEWED (1992): The dream is over
24 May 2009 | 11 min read
Martin Phillipps looks bad. His skin is pasty, he’s unshaven and his eyes look like an owls in an arc light. He’s been up for 24 hours and although it’s only lunchtime he’s going to hang out until the Iron Maiden concert that night. He’s tired ... though an 18-hour flight from the States does that to anyone. But it’s more than that. Back there in America... > Read more
The Chills: There is No Point In Trying (from Soft Bomb, 1992)
THE ROLLING STONES; THE SIXTIES: Through the past darkly (again)
24 May 2009 | 5 min read | 2
Quite when pop became rock is difficult to pinpoint. It is possible to argue that dark, dense and adult rock has been around for more than 50 years. Think of Ronnie Hawkins' threatening delivery of Who Do You Love with these hard edge lyrics: "I walked forty-seven miles of barbed wire, got a cobra snake for a necktie". That doesn't sound too far removed from the Rolling Stones'... > Read more
The Rolling Stones: Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (1964)
THE ROLLING STONES IN THE SEVENTIES: The decade of decadence
24 May 2009 | 8 min read | 1
When Virgin Records paid about US$50 million for a slice of the Rolling Stones back in 1991 they were investing in the past more than the future. That’s with all due respect to the legend that is Jagger-Richards -- a collective proper noun appropriate given their separate solo careers have been abject commercial failures and largely artistic nadirs for both. No one in their right... > Read more
The Rolling Stones: Hey Negrita (from Black and Blue, 1976)
PAUL SIMON; THE SOLO YEARS: The boy out of his bubble
9 May 2009 | 5 min read
In October ‘93, when Paul Simon took up what amounted to a month-long residency at the Paramount Theatre in New York, it was billed with typical Nineties hyperbole as “The Concert of a Lifetime” At this particular spectacular -- Art Garfunkel, Phoebe Snow, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and other Simon collaborators and friends present -- Simon was celebrating his 52nd birthday... > Read more
Paul Simon: Slip Slidin' Away
EMINEM IN 2004: Time for an encore?
8 May 2009 | 4 min read
It's probably never been easy to be Eminem. But these might be particularly trying times for him. Which seems a strange thing to say given he's so successful. But that's the problem. When Eminem was the angry underdog you could believe his rage and enjoy the swipes he took at American presidents, Osama bin Laden, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, Marky Mark, Michael Jackson and Moby.... > Read more
Eminem: Without Me (from The Eminem Show, 2002)
ROBERT WYATT IN CUCKOOLAND (2003): A man, his muse and his music
26 Apr 2009 | 3 min read
Robert Wyatt occupies an unusual place in rock culture. He's in it, but also apart from it. He's not known for his hits, although did enjoy brief chart success and a Top of the Pops appearance with his singular version of the Monkees' I'm A Believer back in '74. He doesn't do videos and won't be coming to a concert stage near you, unless it has access for a wheelchair. He's been in one... > Read more
Robert Wyatt: Old Europe (from Cuckooland)
JOE COCKER INTERVIEWED (2005): Up where he belonged
26 Apr 2009 | 6 min read
Even Joe Cocker finds it amusing he should be staying in his hotel in Denmark under an alias. After all, he’s hardly fan-bait as a crumpled 61-year old and, once out of his regulation black stage uniform, he can walk any street in most cities unrecognised. “In the daytime when I’ve got my denim jeans on and a polo shirt I can keep a low profile. Once in a while in shops... > Read more