Music at Elsewhere
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Drive-By Truckers: Go-Go Boots (ATO)
2 May 2011 | 2 min read | 3
Despite doing well on the charts, the last album by the Truckers -- The Big To-Do -- was a disappointment: perhaps the knocked-off-quickly feel worked against it, you wouldn't attribute it directly to the loss of one of their songwriters Jason Isbell to a solo career (although many felt that). Its occasional rowdiness had undoubted appeal, but as an album it was far too uneven, so any... > Read more
Drive-By Truckers: The Weakest Man
The Middle East: I Want That You Are Always Happy (Unspk)
2 May 2011 | 1 min read
When a five song EP by this group out of Townsville appeared in '09 Elsewhere erroneously reported they had broken up and mourned their passing. Fortunately we were quickly corrected -- misinformation is easy to find on the internet, huh? -- and so therefore this album has been welcomed. Recorded in Australia and in Midlake's studio in Texas, this album confirms that this collective around... > Read more
The Middle East: As I Go To See Janey
Sonny and the Sunsets: Hit After Hit (Unspk)
2 May 2011 | <1 min read
Here's a guess. This enjoyable but rather superficial pop outfit from San Francisco have in their collections albums of one-off Sixties pop by the likes of the Hombres (Let It All Hang Out), Sam the Sham, Tommy James and the Shondelles, the Shangri-Las, Brill Building songwriters, the McCoys (Hang on Sloopy) and plenty of early Kinks, Beatles, Beach Boys and so on. Just a guess of ourse,... > Read more
Sonny and the Sunset: Teen Age Thugs
Michelle Nadia: Firefly (Ode)
1 May 2011 | 1 min read
This fine New Zealand singer-songwriter isn't one to hang around obviously. She's already played in the UK and the States, and of course in Australia where she attended the Australian Institute of Music for her vocal studies. As a songwriter she has a light touch (song titles like Firefly, Ache For Beauty and Lost in You might tell you as much) but she's also got a smart way with a clean,... > Read more
Michelle Nadia: Falling off the Radar
Bob Dylan: The Very Best of Bob Dylan's 80s (Sony Legacy)
1 May 2011 | 1 min read | 3
As it was happening, Bob Dylan's Eighties seemed somewhat of a wasteland only sparsely populated by songs which had any great resonance. And many which did -- Brownsville Girl co-written with playwright Sam Shepard for example, on the largely awful Knocked Out Loaded in '86 -- weren't sympathetically produced. Certainly songs like Jokerman stood out (although it was hard to fathom what he... > Read more
Bob Dylan: The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar
David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights: Left By Soft (Arch Hill)
29 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
For his defining guitar playing in the Clean and beyond, David Kilgour has inspired two generations of acolytes: the first being the generation of Flying Nun followers in the Eighties and Nineties, and more recently young bands and Arch Hill labelmates like Surf City and Ghost Wave. Kilgour -- who has answered the Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire here -- offers up the eighth album under his... > Read more
David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights: Way Down Here
Foo Fighters: Wasting Light (Sony)
28 Apr 2011 | 2 min read
There were those who said grunge died when it was adopted by fashion designers, but that presumes those who were into the music actually cared what happened on the catwalks of New York, Milan and Paris. Certainly the death of Kurt Cobain in '94 dealt the noisy, often angst-filled music a serious blow but none of the bands swept along in the wake of Nirvana's success suddenly went away.... > Read more
Foo Fighters: These Days
The De Sotos: Your Highway For Tonight (Ode)
27 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
If the very fine previous album Cross Your Heart by this Auckland-based four-piece country-rock band went past you and the name is unfamiliar, then you may have heard their widescreen sound which was the theme music for Marcus Lush's overrated smallcreen programme North. (Too much telling us how interesting the people were and how beautiful the landscapes and too little letting us find that for... > Read more
The De Sotos: Dysfunction
Bob Dylan: In Concert, Brandeis University 1963 (Sony)
26 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
As has been noted here, there is a lot more of Bob Dylan's past out there in the world than there ever was -- and of course he has quite some past. This from the very distant days in May '63 was recorded at the peak of his politicised folk period (the anthems Blowing in the Wind and Masters of War, the former not here, would be on his album released a fortnight later). So while... > Read more
Bob Dylan: Masters of War
Princess Chelsea: Lil' Golden Book (Lil' Chief)
26 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
Cleverly packaged to replicate a Little Golden Book (but with appropriately dark illustrations), this album by Chelsea Nikkel (with Jonathan Bree formerly of the Brunettes co-producing) walks a narrow line between twee sounding childlike pop and those more menacing undertones found in children's stories like the Grimms' fairytales. So here you have Ice Reign which warns that people can... > Read more
Princess Chelsea: Cigarette Duet
Emmylou Harris: Hard Bargain (Nonesuch)
26 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
Emmylou Harris is now 64 but her voice sounds as beautiful as it always was, although it seems a little lower these days, but no less affecting. On this album the woman known for her interpretations of songs by others writes three and co-pens eight others with Will Jennings, which brings a more autobiographical quality to some. The opener The Road for example refers to her former... > Read more
Emmylou Harris: Darlin' Kate
Fergus and Geronimo: Unlearn (Hardly Art)
26 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
Andrew Savage (Fergus) and Jason Kelly (Geronimo) from Texas have consciously adopted that deliberately quirky approach which allows them to be labeled as "experimental", although if you suggest they might be slightly ADHD in their approach you'd probably be accused of not "getting it". It is actually easy to get. They quite like early Zappa/Mothers of Invention in... > Read more
Fergus and Geronimo: Powerful Lovin'
Occult Detective Club: Crimes (Alive/Southbound)
26 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
This can perhaps be very brief. If you haven't heard a decent punky rock album since the Jam's In the City and All Mod Cons then this Dallas four-piece has an album for you. In fact you might say they pretty much have In the City and All Mod Cons rejigged and redelivered for you. (Up from the Underground, the sample track posted, is a Jam join-the-dots, right?) Good band, just... > Read more
Occult Detective Club: Up From the Underground
Andrew Keoghan: Arctic Tales Divide (Brave Beluga/Border)
25 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
With Dudley Benson's recent Forest existing between a cappella choral singing and waiata, and classical composer John Psathas using loops, sequencing and having pieces played by jazz musicians, interesting niches are being prized open in local music. Classically trained violinist and singer-songwriter Keoghan's debut finds another, somewhere between brightly memorable pop and cleverly... > Read more
Andrew Keoghan: Wheels Keep Turning
The Blind Boys of Alabama: Take the High Road (Stem/Southbound)
24 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
The on-going career of the Blind Boys -- now well past the half century mark -- takes an interesting turn away from the bluesy and soulful sounds they embraced in the past decade. Here they team up producer Jamey Johnson for an album which pulls in country artists to sing and testify on material which has the overt religious commentary but also digs deep into very human problems. So here... > Read more
The Blind Boys of Alabama: Jesus Hold My Hand
Various Artists: She Sings And Plays (Jayrem)
21 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
This 20-track collection of women artists on the Jayrem label -- a loosely chronological run from Naked Spots Dance in '83 to Donna Muir of last year -- is released as one of package of seven albums to coincide with the 35th anniversary of this interesting and diverse New Zealand indie label. It is not just a useful retrospective but also allows us to hear the synth-heavy post-punk Eighties... > Read more
Turiiya: Thread of Gold
The Mountain Goats: The Eternal's Deck (Merge)
20 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
The dramatic, almost declamatory, voice of John Darnielle (aka The Mountain Goats) is as distinctive as it is well enunciated. You get every word he sings, which means you are dragged from one poetic line to another where images tumble over one another (think Dylan '65-'66) and if there is a story it comes from an accumulation of ideas and impressions rather than from any narrative. A... > Read more
The Mountain Goats: For Charles Bronson
Gruff Rhys: Hotel Shampoo (Ovni)
20 Apr 2011 | <1 min read | 1
The singer for Wales' Super Furry Animals here delivers his third album and the reference points are pure Sixties melodic pop (the Vogues, Buckinghams, early Lennon-McCartney, the Beach Boys) and the LA singer-songwriters of the early Seventies (all those various Taylors, Dan Fogelberg etc). And a little mariachi trumpet. This makes for a light and breezy pop confection guaranteed to bring... > Read more
Gruff Rhys: Honey All Over
Various Artists: Power of Soul; A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix (Sony)
18 Apr 2011 | 3 min read
This chock-full 17-track tribute to Jimi Hendrix arrives on no significant Hendrix anniversary: his short career in the headlines was bookended by his arrival in London in late '66 and he died there in September '70. And although this isn't the first (nor will it be the last) tribute to his particular genius, there is always a place to remind a new generation of just how towering his... > Read more
Bootsy Collins, George Clinton and P-Funk: Power of Soul
Bill Callahan: Apocalypse (Drag City)
18 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
After his last exceptional album Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (a Best of Elsewhere 2009 album) it was hard to imagine how this Americana singer-songwriter -- who previously recorded as Smog -- could remain on the margins of mainstream acceptance. That the album demanded, but also commanded, attention might just have put him once more into the too hard category for most. This time... > Read more