Music at Elsewhere
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Yes: Keys to Ascension (CD/DVD, Proper/Southbound)
26 Sep 2010 | 1 min read | 1
San Luis Obispo isn't a name you readily associate with rock music. The picturesque coastal town in northern California -- near Hearst's castle -- still isn't on the radar despite it being the place where Yes -- the original line-up -- relaunched their career in '95. Well, "relaunched" might be overstating it, but they certainly re-formed in their San Luis Obispo studio (world... > Read more
Yes: Roundabout (live)
Nina Simone: At Town Hall/The Amazing Nina Simone (Jackpot/Southbound)
26 Sep 2010 | 1 min read
Troublesome woman though she may have been -- angry, politically volatile, courageously self-obssessed -- there was never any denying her phenomenal, rare talent. Classically trained but with her heart also in gospel, r'n'b, jazz and blues, Nina Simone (1933 - 2003) crossed stylistic boundaries on piano as if they didn't exist, and her expression-filled vocals would occupy a lyric in a way... > Read more
Nina Simone: You Can Have Him
Bannerman: The Dusty Dream Hole (Rhythmethod)
20 Sep 2010 | 1 min read
Bannerman is New Zealand singer-songwriter Richard Setford whose purpose in life seems to be to confound those who would easily pigeonhole him. He appeared at Elsewhere previously with his quietly intense EP (here) which stood at some distance from his work with the roiling Batucada Sound Machine and the soulful One Million Dollars. For this debut album under his own nom de disque he... > Read more
Bannerman: She was a Mountainside
Robert Plant: Band of Joy (Decca)
19 Sep 2010 | 1 min read
In 2003 this former frontman for Led Zeppelin released Sixty Six to Timbuktu, a double disc retrospective of material from his solo years which was impressive in its scope: old blues and r'n'b to Zepp-framed stadium rock and his journey into music from North Africa. As a musical explorer Plant hasn't stopped: two years later came the exceptional album with his band Strange Sensation,... > Read more
Robert Plant: Monkey
JJ Grey and Mofro: Georgia Warhorse (Alligator/Southbound)
13 Sep 2010 | 1 min read | 1
Grey and his companions out of Florida have been pulling Southern funk, Memphis soul and dirty blues together for the best part of a decade now and their 07 Country Ghetto album should have gained them a lot of mainstream attention. But it didn't. This one – with guest vocalist Toots (of the Maytals), and hot young blues guitarist Derek Trucks laying sweet and spooky slide on... > Read more
JJ Grey and Mofro: Lullaby
Eels: Tomorrow Morning (Shock)
13 Sep 2010 | 1 min read
The story of Eels - aka E, or Mark Oliver Everett -- has been one of the most interesting, and often autobiographical, journeys to follow in recent years. There were many, rather too many, dark days in Everett's earlier life and he scrupulously recorded them in a way which made them universal. His candour and lyrical directness was not only courageous but affecting. He was also hard on... > Read more
Eels: Baby Loves Me
The Coral: Butterfly House (Shock)
13 Sep 2010 | <1 min read
Sometimes sounding like an odd collision in the studio of early Echo and the Bunnymen and America, Liverpool's the Coral here deliver their big songs (big on melody, choruses, drama and references) with enjoyable passion but never quite approach that frisson they had on their thrilling self-titled debut album of '02. However these lightly-delic and powerfully pop-conscious songs (produced by... > Read more
The Coral: Two Faces
The Yardbirds: Shapes of Things, The Best of the Yardbirds (Music Club/Triton)
13 Sep 2010 | 2 min read | 1
Aside from the obvious ones -- the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and arguably the Small Faces and perhaps the Animals -- was there any other group in the mid-Sixties which was such a magnet for, and breeding ground of, talent? And it's not just the roster of guitarists who passed through its ranks -- Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page -- or that in their closing overs (with no... > Read more
The Yardbirds: Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (1966)
Grinderman: Grinderman 2 (EMI)
13 Sep 2010 | 2 min read
The black wings beat at the window and there is a smell of sulphur in this dark southern land where crazed prophets and murderous mountain men walk . . . From a distance, through the leafless trees comes what sounds like the voice of judgement and doom. A man in black is declaiming filthy sex and raw passion, killing and redemption. Must be Nick Cave, right? Ever since he left the... > Read more
Grinderman: Kitchenette
Annemarie Duff: Music for Sleep and Creativity (Mmdelai)
12 Sep 2010 | 1 min read | 1
Because I confess a love for Brian Eno's ambient music -- and that what I call "massage music" isn't unfamiliar in my home (my wife does massage) -- I have heard my share of music which can be either vacuous or beguiling . . . and there's a fine line betweeen them. New Age spawned a lot of music which was also neither, it just was. But wasn't really. Duff out of Christchurch... > Read more
Annemarie Duff: Bark Sketches
Various Artists: The Ideal . . . Dinner Party (Global Journey/Rajon)
12 Sep 2010 | <1 min read
And now for something completely different, just because we can. I spotted this series of CDs with recipes and they are absurdly cheap, so . . . This series by chef Bettina Samain offers you simple four course, themed dinner party recipes for Mexican, Italian, Chinese, French, Indian and Thai evenings. The recipes are alarmingly simple -- chefs among you will embellish, more chilli... > Read more
Generic Mexican music to eat to
Various Artists: Head Over High Heels; Strong and Female 1927-59 (Trikont/Yellow Eye)
12 Sep 2010 | 1 min read
Much as some might like to think strong females arrived with Madonna (or maybe in the late Sixties with feminism), there were always those independent, tough-minded and free-spirited women out there -- especially in the world of jazz and blues. This collection which opens with Pearl Bailey and You Can be Replaced (from her album Pearl Bailey Sings for Adults Only, 1959) and closes with... > Read more
Mae West: A Guy What Takes His Time
Eru Dangerspiel: Great News for Modern Man (Loop)
6 Sep 2010 | <1 min read
The Eru Dangerspiel rock'n'rolling caravan of soul, funk, reggae and more is helmed by Riki Gooch, formerly of TrinityRoots and here, recorded live at the Auckland Town Hall in August '09, the whole huge ensemble invited you to "leave your shit at the door" and get down with their good time grooves. With an extraordinary line-up of talent -- Jonathan Crayord on keyboards, jazz... > Read more
Eru Dangerspiel: You Would Know
TrinityRoots: Music is Choice (Rhythmethod CD/DVD)
6 Sep 2010 | 3 min read
There was good news for Flight of the Conchords fans this week: Jemaine Clement confirmed, yet again, there wouldn't be another series. Strange as that sounds, some things are so perfectly formed they are best left alone: Fawlty Towers and the English version of The Office . . . or the never-ending Lost and drearily drawn out V? Great bands deserve an enclosed lifespan. Those... > Read more
TrinityRoots: Home, Land and Sea (live, from Music is Choice)
John Prine: In Person and On Stage (Oh Boy)
6 Sep 2010 | 1 min read
The great John Prine falls somewhere between folk and country, but also has a rare downbeat sense of humour and his wry observations have always elevated his albums. Here on a collection of live tracks -- essentially a greatest hits by a man who has rarely had a hit -- he has some grin-inducing anecdotes at times which are kinda downhome'n'aw-shucks country. But don't be fooled -- when he... > Read more
John Prine: Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore
Endless Boogie: Full House Head (Shock)
6 Sep 2010 | 1 min read
In his rock'n'roll essays and fiction collection The Boy Who Cried Freebird, the American writer Mitch Myers traces the notion of “boogie” from its name (having sex, basically) through the blues (John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillun in 48) and boogie-woogie piano a building block of early rock'n'roll and then into those endless jams which longhaired guitarists get down'n'boogie on... > Read more
Endless Boogie: Tarmac City
The Magic Numbers: The Runaway (Shock)
6 Sep 2010 | 1 min read
By abandoning the pure pop-economy of their terrific, 05 self-titled debut for the more embellished and ambitious sound Those the Brokes in 06, this English outfit of two sets of siblings lost followers, and momentum. But where that debut was a radio/car album, Brokes was a headphones experience. The openers here – a string-enhanced five minutes of The Pulse and the gently... > Read more
The Magic Numbers: A Start with No Ending
Simon Comber: Endearance (CNZ)
5 Sep 2010 | 1 min read
Halfway through this slowly engrossing New Zealand singer-songwriter's album is the gently penetrating song Please Elvis, which opens with the singer asking the King not to make his mother cry as she again plays one of his dusty old 45s, but then the song unfurls into a darker and more deep story of family life: "she's twirling a brandy balloon . . . a family will drive you wild, she's... > Read more
Simon Comber: The Crossroads
Timothy Blackman: I've Never Lived (Home Alone)
30 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
Singer-songtwriter Blackman appeared at Elsewhere previously with his very interesting EP Modern Sprawl, and this is his short (half an hour) nine-song debut album recorded in Berlin in December last year -- which must have been cold. With sole assistance from a drummer in a few places, these are Blackman's naked ruminations (some philosophical, some imagistic) and while there is a... > Read more
Timothy Blackman: Where the Caterpillars Live
Ben Vaughn: Designs in Music (Vampisoul/Southbound)
30 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
It's not like Ben Vaughn needs a calling card into the world of television soundtracks, his music has apparently been used in That 70s Show and Third Rock From the Sun. But this delightfully referential album -- recorded with the cream of LA session players who are in on the game -- includes nods to everyone from Ennio Morricone to whoever wrote the theme to The Jetsons, Henry Mancini and... > Read more