Music at Elsewhere
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BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2008 Deerhunter: Microcastle (4AD)
22 Dec 2008 | <1 min read | 1
To be honest, this album by Bradford Cox and his Athens, Georgia band -- he's also the man behind his solo project Atlas Sounds, an album reviewed very favourably here some weeks ago -- sounds like a lot of other people, but what a lot of great other people: the Velvet Underground, the Church, the Pixies, the Cure, Mojave 3, Jesus and Mary Chain, early 90s shoe-gazer/paisley underground pop... > Read more
Deerhunter: Nothing Ever Happened
Various: Bob Dylan's Jukebox (Chrome Dreams/Triton)
15 Dec 2008 | 1 min read
The influence of the young Bob Dylan (64-66) is evident today in singer-songwriters such as AA Bondy and Pete Molinari (among many others), and you can certainly hear unashamed echoes of Dylan 67 - 72 in the likes of the Felice Brothers and many more in the alt.country, folk-blues vein. So there should be an audience for this 25-track compilation of artists who influenced The Man Himself,... > Read more
Hank Williams: Lost Highway
Tehimana Kerr: Defamation of Character (Capital)
15 Dec 2008 | <1 min read | 1
Over 10 years in the making by all accounts, which means that this is either a mammoth of Floyd-like dimensions or that Kerr is one helluva laidback character. It's the latter if this lazy Sunday outing is anything to go by -- and of course he has been busy as Jetlag Johnson, guitarist with Wellington band Fat Freddys Drop. This is mellow and soulful to the point of being horizontal -- it... > Read more
Tehimana Kerr: Summer 97
AA Bondy: American Hearts (Fat Possum/Shock)
15 Dec 2008 | <1 min read
From what I have read, this dark folk album isn't what we should have expected from Mr Bondy out of Alabama. It seems he was previously the lead singer of an alt.rock band and drew favourable comparisons with Kurt Cobain. Quite what made him drop the volume, pick up acoustic guitar and harmonica, craft literate and questioning songs, and aim for a place between Dylan (65 and... > Read more
AA Bondy: How Will You Meet Your End?
Brett Dennen: Hope for the Hopeless (Inertia)
7 Dec 2008 | <1 min read
This American singer-songwriter has been an Elsewhere favorite long before Rolling Stone picked him as one of the 10 artists to watch in 2008. Elsewhere was clocking him in 2007 when his album So Much More arrived. Said it previously but he's got a touch of the Paul Simon in his lyrics although he delivers with a more jaunty, open-hearted strum style and has opened for artists as diverse as... > Read more
Brett Dennen: Heaven
Various: Stars; Do You Trust Your Friends? (Shock)
7 Dec 2008 | <1 min read
Very interesting if a little bewildering, especially if the Canadian band Stars' acclaimed 2004 album Set Yourself on Fire hasn't crossed your path. What they have done is invite friends to cover/remix tracks from that album and so the album is re-presented in the same running order as a kind of self-created tribute. I'm going to flip all the cards and tell you I haven't heard the... > Read more
Jason Collett: Reunion
Tim Finn: The Conversation (EMI)
7 Dec 2008 | 1 min read
Tim Finn has had an interesting solo career punctuated by as many great albums as disappointments. He's done the folk-Irish thing and a bit of Nashville, rocked out, been with an orchestra or back with Neil, and at times you wondered aloud if his voice hadn't really lost it. Some of his best work (the superb Feeding the Gods in 2002 for example) seemed to go past people who embraced his... > Read more
Tim Finn: Invisible
CHRISTMAS STOCKING SHOPPING: Tis the season to be repackaging . . .
6 Dec 2008 | 1 min read
In the absence of new "product" or to take advantage of the season of giving, there are a number of repackaged albums and/or bonus collections around right now. For your information they include the following . . . Amy Winehouse's two albums Frank and Back to Black have already appeared as deluxe editions with a bonus disc of extra tracks with each. Now both repackagings have... > Read more
Kanye West, 808s and Heartbreak (RocAFella)
1 Dec 2008 | 1 min read | 1
Because I don't listen to much of the over-produced, schmaltzy, ululating music that passes for r'n'b these days (in my old-fashioned definition I still link r'n'b to the soul of Otis, Sam Cooke and others), and nor do I spend much time with rap outside of some old school 80s favourites when there seem innocent innovation going on, or enjoying the menace of NWA, Public Enemy and Tupac), I... > Read more
Kayne West: RoboCop
Car Crash Set: Join the Car Crash Set (Anna Logue Records)
1 Dec 2008 | <1 min read
Elsewhere is always pleased to bring local vinyl to your attention (see Super Turtle and Body Corporate) and so here's another welcome opportunity: the album release of Auckland 80s electronic outfit Car Crash Set, here collected on vinyl by (of course) a German company. The Germans have a thing for archiving Kiwi music on record (in the early 90s Little Wing of Refugees pulled together... > Read more
Car Crash Set: Outside 12" version
Various: The Woolshed Sessions (Creature)
1 Dec 2008 | <1 min read
The low-key sessions which led to this album must have been a pleasure to observe or participate in: they took place at a shed in Golden Bay with singer-songwriter Age Pryor, Justin Clarke and Lee Prebble variously on production, engineering and/or mixing. This is a collection of wide-open singer-songwriter material from Jess Chambers, Andy Hummel, Age Pryor and others with gentle lap... > Read more
Age Pryor: Waterfall
Jason Collett: Here's to Being Here (Shock)
1 Dec 2008 | <1 min read | 1
This Canadian singer-songwriter's previous album Idols of Exile was one of the Best of Elsewhere 2006 so this one was always going to come to the top of the pack. As a former member of Elsewhere favourites Broken Social Scene alongside Feist he is also worthy of attention, and although this album doesn't quite have same frisson of surprise as his previous one, his blend of early... > Read more
Jason Collett: Through the Night These Days
Mary Coughlan: House of Ill Repute (Shock)
1 Dec 2008 | <1 min read | 3
This remarkable Irish singer who soaked her life and songs in whisky at the start of her career slipped from sight for a number of years but here returns with an album that should be counted among her best. In 2004 at the end of a 13-year relationship she ended up in New Zealand (according to the liner notes) where she felt quite at home and so later returned with Erik Visser who had helped... > Read more
Mary Coughlan: Love is Extra
Guns N Roses: Chinese Democracy (Geffen)
1 Dec 2008 | 2 min read
On a recent Panel discussion on National Radio the topic of this new Guns N' Roses album came up. Why you would ask these people (columnist Rosemary McLeod and Investigate magazine editor Ian Wishart if I heard right) their opinion of a rock'n'roll album is beyond me. You might as well as a 14-year old streetkid their opinion of the New Zealand Ballet. My guess is the streetkid would... > Read more
Guns N' Roses: Scraped
Strange Fruit: Whole (Odd)
30 Nov 2008 | 1 min read | 1
A long time between drinks, as they say: more than a decade I think since this Auckland jazz group released an album - and that seems tardy or just plain careless. Their two previous outings - the self-titled debut in 94 and Eavesdropping in 97 - were very enjoyable affairs and in Barbara Cartwright they had a vocalist who was sultry and memorable. So that means this one gets straight to the... > Read more
Strange Fruit: Dream to Return
Arthur Russell: Love is Overtaking Me (Rough Trade)
24 Nov 2008 | 1 min read
Well over a decade ago I was introduced to a remarkable album on Point, the label started by minimalist/composer Philip Glass. It was Another Thought by Arthur Russell and its weird poetics, mix of cello and electronics, and just out-there but almost pop attractiveness made me want to hear a whole lot more from this New Yorker. That wasn't going to be easy, he'd died of Aids-related... > Read more
Arthur Russell: What It's Like
Super Turtle: All Our Friends b/w Never Came Back single (Sarang Bang)
23 Nov 2008 | <1 min read
Elsewhere has previously applauded bands/artists who release vinyl albums and there is still something special about getting that slice of black plastic. So it is only fair to put the spotlight on this Auckland band (fronted by Darren McShane formerly of Chainsaw Masochist) which has gone the 7" single route (fold-out sleeve! manufactured in the Czech Republic) to promote their... > Read more
Super Turtle: Never Came Back
IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO TODAY
23 Nov 2008 | <1 min read
In November 68 the Beatles released what became known as The White Album, a diffuse and diverse double-vinyl which in places sounded like the work of three separate songwriters who has seconded various other band members. Their producer George Martin argued for a tight single album, and many others have suggested since it might have been stronger if some of the lesser material had been dropped.... > Read more
The Neil Cowley Trio: Revolution 9
The Whispertown 2000: Swim (Acony)
22 Nov 2008 | <1 min read | 1
This alt.country/indie-pop four-piece from LA will doubtless be an acquired taste: but they are certainly alt.country (Jenny Lewis appeared on their debut which makes sense and they are the first signings on Gillian Welch's label so that means something); they do indie okay (a wee bit of fuzzy guitar) and pop pretty well too (jangle guitars). I'm going to leave it at that: it's an odd... > Read more
The Whispertown 2000: Old Times
Barry Saunders: Zodiac (Ode)
22 Nov 2008 | <1 min read | 1
By my count this is Saunders' fifth solo album, and is by far the strongest from the Warratah frontman. He reaches to the Phoenix Foundation for a downhome(ly) remake of their Going Fishing and his own lyrics are allusive, just specific enough to nail down some hard images ("down at the Kingdom Hall") and the snappy band (which includes guitarist David Long, Nick Brown on violin... > Read more