Music at Elsewhere
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Ghost Wave: Ghost Wave (Arch Hill)
18 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
With some of the momentum of their labelmates the Clean, urgent droning vocals and pure psychedelic guitar jangle, this debut EP by the Auckland-based three-piece touches a lot of familiar places – you could add JPSE and some of the Manchester guitar bands to those reference points – but they do it with such economy and style it comes off as joyous . . . and the sound of a band... > Read more
Ghost Wave: On a Breeze
Obits: "Moody, Standard and Poor" (Sub Pop)
18 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
Following their derivative but enjoyable I Blame You debut, former Drive Like Jehu's Rick Froberg and pals again deliver post-punk garageband trash-rock (Ramones, Dead Moon, Stooges, the Animals and other Sixties r'n'b-based pop-rockers) on 12 short, sharp and urgent grit-guitar songs which only loses points when it gets too poppy (Shift Operator) or errs towards a pop-metal sound (Killer,... > Read more
Obits: I Want Results
Hoquets: Belgotronics (Crammed Discs)
18 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
This quirky trio from Belgium who sing in English, French and Flemish take their name from the form of interlocking musical patterns or “hockets” (From Scratch had an album Global Hockets in the late 90s) which in French rhymes with “okay”. The album title refers to the Congotronics albums out of Kinshasa (also on Crammed Discs) where musicians use... > Read more
Hoquets: Stoemp
Joan Baez: Play Me Backwards (Proper)
18 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
Joan Baez has never had her rediscovery by a new generation, but this reissue of her excellent folk-rock album of ' 92 – with an extra disc of demos including Dylan's early Seven Curses which only appeared on his recent Witmark Demos 1962-64 – is a smart starting place as it found her back in Nashville after a 20 year absence and at the top of her game. With cracking session... > Read more
Joan Baez: Steal Across the Border
Aaron Neville: I Know I've Been Changed (Tell It)
14 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
Aaron Neville saying he's been changed is hardly news, and nor is his soulful, vibrating falsetto which is given a florid showcase in the long intro to the gospel-cum-r'n'b opener here Stand By Me. This sounds like an American Idol exaggeration of his quivering sound, but when the band kicks in (Greg Leisz on dobro, Allen Toussaint on piano, a gospel chorus) he reins himself in and... > Read more
Aaron Neville: Don't Let Him Ride
Manos Achalinotopoulos: Flight on Light (Rattle)
14 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
In the rather fruity liner notes here -- admittedly in translation -- the Greek clarinet player Achalinotopoulos speaks of the ocean of his childhood and how he imagined horizons from above, of here flying into uncharted territories of the unconscious, and of "one clarinet narrating seven stories, each in a continuous stream". And of not being limited by "the barriers of pattern,... > Read more
Manos Achalinotopoulos and Tim Prebble: Dragonlake
Meat Puppets: Lollipop (Megaforce)
12 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
The very great Meat Puppets out of Arizona delivered exciting, desert-baked psychedelic rock with an edge of country and hard rock in the Eighties. If the collected lyrics of Curt Kirkwood would stump even the most dedicated thesis writer with an interest in surrealism, it hardly mattered. The guitars would sear off into the wide open spaces driven by a tight rhythm section of brother Cris... > Read more
Meat Puppets: Damn Thing
The Tin Syndrome: Artefacts Which Reason Ate 1980-83 (Jayrem)
12 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
The Tin Syndrome were very much a Wellington band in a number of ways. Their reputation didn't translate much into the rest of New Zealand in the early Eighties, but more than that they also had what we might call "Wellington" concerns to the fore. If you live in the capital city of any Western country you are bound to see a lot of men in grey suits (politicians, bureaucrats,... > Read more
The Tin Syndrome: Plastic Bag (1980)
Shane Nicholson: Bad Machines (Liberation)
11 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
Nicholson is one of the finest of Australia's singers-songwriters with his feet in alt.country and Americana, but he's as comfortable with Dylanesque wordplay in a strange narrative (Blueberry Pie with its "monkey with the golden tooth") as he is delivering emotionally weighted acoustic ballads (Trick Knee Blues). And as always he gets strong support from a tight band (which... > Read more
Shane Nicholson: Famous Last Words
Maggie Bjorklund: Coming Home (Bloodshot/Southbound)
11 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico have become something of a mark of quality when it comes to spacious sounding albums. They certainly showcased Marianne Dissard in that way and here -- even though they don't produce -- they appear with acclaimed pedal steel player Bjorklund from Denmark on an album which has all the spaciousness of Tucson skies, albeit a little more chilly... > Read more
Maggie Bjorklund: Insekt
Raul Malo: Sinners and Saints (Concord)
11 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
The former frontman for the seemingly defunct Mavericks continues his credible solo career here on an album which unself-consciously bridges dramatic Spanish-influenced Tex-Mex, alt.country and stinging guitar rock, and which pulls his powerful vocals to the fore. You can't turn away from a voice this nail-hard and when it is arc-welded to his equally forceful guitar playing -- as on the... > Read more
Raul Malo: San Antonio Baby
Dropkick Murphys: Going Out in Style (Born and Bred)
11 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
At one level this is another installment of raucous, shot-slamming, singalong rowdiness from Boston's Celtic-punk outfit . . . and in that it is not only effective and enjoyable. It certainly makes you want the bartender to splash another shot of whisky into your jar before you throw an arm around the shoulder of mate and bellow "burn me to a rotten crisp and toast me for a while, I could... > Read more
Dropkick Murphys: Memorial Day
Over the Rhine: The Long Surrender (GDS)
8 Apr 2011 | <1 min read
After a series of fine albums, Ohio's Over the Rhine here -- with sympathetic producer Joe Henry – deliver their most sophisticated album to date, one with an ear on their European-cabaret sounding alt.country (with exceptional players such as steel guitarist Greg Leisz) in songs of uncertainty and reassurance, and torch ballads of love lost. Singer Karin Bergquist has seldom... > Read more
Over the Rhine: All My Favourite People
Little Bushman: Te Oranga (Little Bushman)
8 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
Continuing their exploration of folk-influenced rock and the ethos, if not the actual sound, of Sixties psychedelic rock, this quartet (and friends) come over reflective and quasi-cosmic on this third studio album as they attempt to find middle ground between roots music/Maoritanga, social comment and the hi-tech world of the 21st century. That many of these are in opposition plays out... > Read more
Little Bushman: Dream of the Astronaut Girl Part II
The Fleshtones (featuring Lenny Kaye): Brooklyn Sound Solution (YepRoc)
6 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
The limited edition of this album comes with a DVD doco about this New York garageband. It's entitled Pardon Us For Living But the Graveyard is Full and that's apt, the Fleshtones have been around forever (well, at least 30 years) and in all that time they have studiously avoided anything like polish or finesse. Here they crank out B-grade rock'n'roll grounded in Eddie Cochran,... > Read more
The Fleshtones: Daytripper
Buddy Miller: The Majestic Silver Strings (New West)
4 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
Although a supergroup of guitarists is at the core here -- the great Miller (of Emmylou Harris' band and Robert Plant's Band of Joy among others) brings on board Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz whose names are on albums by Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, many alt and straight country acts as well as ECM jazz albums -- the vehicles they use might not persuade enough... > Read more
Buddy Miller et al: Meds (with Lee Ann Womack)
k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang: Sing It Loud (Nonesuch)
4 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
A common complaint amongst those who interpret the lyrics of others is that very few people write good words anymore. Incidentally Sinatra had the same gripe in the late Forties, although some might say he was just picking badly. Lang here with her new band (and they are superb, more in a minute) has no such problem with classy material, she co-write five songs with producer Joe Pisapia and... > Read more
k.d. lang: Perfect Word
Poly Styrene: Generation Indigo (Future Noise/Southbound)
4 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
The voice, face and braces of X-Ray Specs back in the punk era, Poly Styrene had a sassy line in probing and poking at convention (even the codes of punk) and despite an intermittent career ever since she bounces back with this often satirical album driven by techno-beats and Seventies synths. She nails relationships on the internet (Virtual Boyfriend), the consumer socity (I Luv Ur... > Read more
Poly Styrene: I Luv Ur Sneakers
Peter Bjorn and John: Gimme Some (Cooking Vinyl)
4 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
By giving themselves three thumbs up on the cover of this, their sixth album, Sweden's pop-friendly outfit are doubtless hoping for some similar critical consensus for their return to a more power pop sound after the rather more interesting but failed experiment of the darker Living Thing two years ago. Nothing here will rattle rafters or make anyone rewrite the book of pop, but these are... > Read more
Peter Bjorn and John: Down Like Me
Ben Ottewell:Shapes and Shadows (Shock)
1 Apr 2011 | 1 min read
The name might not be familiar but from the first bar the voice certainly is. It belongs to that rusty balladeer in Gomez who here steps out with a classy, soulful solo debut of originals co-written with Sam Genders of the rather bent UK alt.folk outfit Tuung who have barely raised a ripple in this country. With a sound as distinctive as any in rock, Ottewell could get away with... > Read more