Music at Elsewhere
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Elvis Presley: The Complete '68 Comeback Special (SonyBMG)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
By 1968 the man who had almost single-handedly created rock'n'roll culture just a decade previous was all but irrelevant: Elvis hadn't sung live since a concert in Hawaii in 1961; his last top selling single had been Good Luck Charm six years previous; and his recent single Guitar Man had failed to enter the Top 40. He hadn't been on television since a Frank Sinatra special in May 1960.While... > Read more
Elvis Presley: Baby What You Want Me To Do (rehearsal)
John Matthias: Stories From the Watercooler (Counter)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read | 1
No one sang stuff like this at any watercooler of my acquaintance, but maybe that's because socio-political folktronica is hard to pull off without accompaniment -- and edgy violin solos just don't sound right when hummed.Matthias is a mate of Radiohead's Thom Yorke and some have drawn a line between this album and Yorke's abrasive solo album The Eraser of a couple of years back.I'm not... > Read more
John Matthias: I Will Disappear
China Forbes: '78 (Inertia)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
To be honest, I don't like this as much as everybody who has heard it when it has been playing at my place. I put it on and thoroughly enjoy the lightweight pop-rock quality of it (mid-period Sheryl Crow, after she lost the edge, comes to mind) and can certainly appreciate that this singer from Pink Martini has assured pop-pipes.But it lacks a certain something. Kick, I think.The many songs of... > Read more
China Forbes: One Less Word
Bannerman: The Bannerman EP (Nice Like Pie/Rhythmethod)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
Bannerman is not former Sneaky Feelings/Dribbling Darts frontman Matthew Bannister as I assumed on seeing this EP, rather it is Richard Setford who was the mainman behind Auckland's large soul-funk outfit One Million Dollars and its offspring Batucada Sound Machine, two party-large bands that had punters up and dancing.Time for a sitdown though folks because this lo-fi, seven song collection is... > Read more
Bannerman: Head Like a River
Malcolm Holcombe: Gamblin' House (Borders)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
Your first response to this gruff-voiced, whisky-stained singer-songwriter may be, "how come I haven't heard of him sooner?"Well, diligent Elsewhere listeners may well have: he appeared on the massive and ambitious Songs of America triple set which appeared here some months back. He sang The Old Woman Taught Wisdom, a song which dates back to the 1800s -- and Holcombe can sometimes... > Read more
Malcolm Holcombe: Goin' Downtown
Cassandra Wilson: Loverly (Blue Note)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read | 1
More so than her Blue Note labelmate Norah Jones, vocalist Wilson (along with violinist Regina Carter on Verve incidentally) has redefined the parameters of what we know as "jazz" in the 21st century.Jones may be a superb jazzy singer-songwriter with a country heart, but Wilson can turn her attention to material from all across the musical spectrum (not unlike what used to happen in... > Read more
Cassandra Wilson: Gone with the Wind
Joan As Police Woman: To Survive (Liberator)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
Joan As Police Woman certainly has an arresting name (sorry!) but it is her remarkable voice that will capture you (and sorry again!).Joan Wasser's debut album Real Life of two years ago was a remarkable album and was hailed at Elsewhere and elsewhere. The Guardian said of her voice that it was "so wondrous and moving that it makes everyone else's seem ordinary and mundane".That... > Read more
Joan as Police Woman: To Be Loved
The Clean: Mashed (Arch Hill)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
What can you say? The Clean recorded live during their '07 national tour.Really, enough said: David Kilgour's guitar just gets more mercurial and expressive over time (if sometimes pulling back from the edginess of previous decades) and Hamish and Robert create and ride these often oceanic surges of sound. But nuance is everywhere also.Magic at high volume -- and the version of Point That Thing... > Read more
The Clean: Point That Thing Somewhere Else
Jakob Dylan: Seeing Things (Sony/BMG)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
This son of Bob will be 40 next year and has a substantial career behind him with the Wallflowers (five albums) plus some high-profile guest spots. But with this debut under his own name you have to ask, "Aren't you a bit young for this?"That's because the album is a stripped-back (mostly) solo affair produced by Rick Rubin who is widely known these days for reviving the careers of... > Read more
Jakob Dylan: Something Good This Way Comes
John Hiatt: Same Old Man (Elite)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
It has been two decades since John Hiatt hit a high profile with the albums Bring the Family and Slow Turning. But despite some fine albums since (and a few duffers) he seems to be missed by the spotlight and has now become one of those rock-country journeymen who is more respected than actually listened to.His Crossing Muddy Waters at the start of the decade gained him some good reviews (I... > Read more
John Hiatt: Hurt My Baby
Krista Polvere: Here Be Dragons (Inertia)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
This Adelaide singer-songwriter may sound a little weak in a couple of places here but that hasn't stopped some high-power friends lining up in a New York studio to help out on these delicate and somewhat stately alt.country songs: Ryan Adams (who co-wrote Let's Go), cellist Jane Scarpantoni, Adam Snyder and Grasshopper from Mercury Rev, and Emmylou/Dylan producer Malcolm Burn are all here. And... > Read more
krista polvere: crying out loud
Sigur Ros: Meo suo i eyrum vio spilum endalaust (EMI)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read | 1
The good thing about this being disappointing is that I doubt I'll have to type the album title (which apparently means "with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly") too many times.After their oblique sonic landscapes and the superb CD/DVD Heima, this time out these post-rock Icelandic musicians have gone for more economic "songs" in many places (11 tracks in total) and while... > Read more
Sigur Ros: Ara Batur
Eliza Gilkyson: Beautiful World (Red House/Elite)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
Given the tone of some of the 11 songs here -- political disillution, desperate love, a song called The Party's Over and one about the inevitability of the Great Correction -- you'd have to assume the album title is slightly ironic.Yet this Austin-based singer-songwriter never dips into the dark without leaving room for light, and even the aggressive cynicism of the porno prostitute on Dream... > Read more
Eliza Gilkyson: Great Correction
Dr John and the Lower 911: City That Care Forgot (Shock)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
The good Doctor's voice can be an acquired taste and there is no doubt he lost many loyalists when he went schmaltzy and kinda boring in the late 80s/early 90s. It was almost as if he had run his course when he started doing live albums and standards. Now of course this son of New Orleans has plenty to write about post-Katrina, and this album deals to politicians (Time For A Change, Promises... > Read more
Dr John: Time for a Change (with Eric Clapton)
The Fratellis: Here We Stand (Island)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
Last year's debut album Costello Music by this rowdy Glaswegian three-piece didn't make it to Elsewhere because, frankly, I didn't rate it as highly as some. I thought it had many of the problems and few of the advantages that attend a debut. But this follow-up is something else.If Costello Music was firmly in the pop-rock camp with an ear for radio singles then this is more rock-powerpop as... > Read more
The Fratellis: Jesus Stole My Baby
John Mellencamp: Life, Death, Love Freedom (Universal)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read | 1
John Mellencamp's last album Freedom's Road was so good -- a grounded, raw and uncompromising look at America in the hinterland and heartland -- that this similarly conceived new one should attract immediate attention.Mellencamp -- who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year -- somehow falls below the sight lines in New Zealand, despite a long and creditable body of... > Read more
John Mellencamp: Longest Days
Little Pictures: Owl + Owl (Lil' Chief)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
Electropop married to slightly whimsical faux-naivety isn't an easy call and I have no doubt some will recoil from this bedroom music -- and when this Wellington duo quivers through the awful Tips for Domestic Bliss you can count me among the naysayers.But elsewhere here are charming little pop songs adeptly realised and working well within the self-imposed limitations. They do command an... > Read more
Little Pictures: Hopeful and Hopeless
Bonnie Prince Billy: Lie Down in the Light (UKSpin)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read | 1
After establishing himself as the downbeat and somewhat gloomy singer-songwriter living in a half-lit corner of oldtime Americana, Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy, Palace, Palace Brothers etc etc) sounds like he has changed his listening habits and maybe gone into a sun-soaked cornfield.Some will find this disappointing and it does need to be said that this feels very lightweight in... > Read more
Bonnie Prince Billy: Keep Eye on Other's Gain
Ry Cooder: I, Flathead (Warners)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
Right, I'm not going to pretend this is easy to follow, but it's Ry Cooder so it's worth the effort.This album apparently completes the trilogy of Californian albums Cooder started with Chavez Ravine and My Name is Buddy, but this one is slightly more problematic in that it comes from the perspective of an imaginary musician called Kash Buck (ho ho) who plays roadhouses and bars with his band... > Read more
Ry Cooder: Steel Guitar Heaven
The Tindersticks: The Hungry Saw (Beggars Banquet)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
Tindersticks frontman Stuart A Staples -- whose solo album Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04 is excellent -- has a rich and soulful baritone which someone said recently reminded them of a more louche and brandy-sodden Roland Gift (if you remember Fine Young Cannibals). Maybe.Bryan Ferry without the over-emoting quaver is a fair call too.Certainly there is a world weariness in this languid, string... > Read more