Music at Elsewhere
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James Yorkston: When the Haar Rolls In (Domino/EMI)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
For someone who makes the only kind of alt/indie.folk music I like and respect, I'm astonished this Scottish singer-songwriter with all the right connections for me (Beta Band, KT Tunstall, Bert Jansch, John Martyn, opening for Turin Brakes, Lambchop and Tindersticks) seems to have largely gone past me.He has released three studio albums (some live ones too I think?) and prior to this I'd only... > Read more
James Yorkston: Tortoise Regrets Hare
Brett Dennen: So Much More (Rhythmethod)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
This great album came out so long ago that I had it at Elsewhere about a year back and then deleted it because I just assumed it was lost to all (except me) and I needed to free up some space.Lord knows why it has now reappeared in a different cover and with "PRIORITY RELEASE!" emblazoned (three times) across the top of a promo flyer.I guess -- because this new version comes with six... > Read more
Brett Dennen: Darlin' Do Not Fear
Silver Jews: Lookout Mountain Look out Sea (UNSpin/EMI)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
This US indie-rock band with loose links to early Pavement might not be to everyone's taste -- but singer-songwriter David Berman's easy blend of the occasional Johnny Cash gravitas in his delivery, his shaggy-dog stories, unexpected metaphors and rhymes, skewed stories and memorable alt.country pop has had this one on steady Elsewhere play at home and in the car (his stories make good... > Read more
Silver Jews: Suffering Jukebox
Neil Worboys and the Real Time Liners: Some Day Soon (Ode)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read | 1
The blues gets short shrift in the New Zealand critical community (see comments about Billy TK Jnr) and my guess is that most writers think it is somehow easy to play. Or is sort of "imported" (and reggae, indie.rock and alt.country ain't??)Anyway these guys from Wellington play that terminally unhip music -- and play it well.Singer Worboys has a career which goes back to the Bulldogs... > Read more
Renee-Louise Carafice: Tells You To Fight! (Monkey)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read | 3
Frankly I'm always suspicious about the whole music-as-therapy thing: most often the music is godawful, and the lyrics so tortured and self-referential that they rarely reach any further than the bedroom or hospital ward that spawned them.Which is why I come to Carafice -- institutionalised in Auckland with severe depression in 2005 -- with considerable reservation. And it cuts no ice with me... > Read more
Renee-Louise carafice: Sweet, The Leaves of Jamestown
Travis & Fripp: Thread (Southbound)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
By coincidence this disc turned up as I was reading David Sheppard's fascinating (if fruitily written) biography of Brian Eno, On Some Faraway Beach.I was at the chapters about his work with avant-guitarist Robert Fripp on two of my favourite albums No Pussyfooting ('73) and Evening Star ('75) which seemed to define an art music within a rock context, even though they owed nothing to rock... > Read more
Travis & Fripp: Before Then
John Clarke: The Fred Dagg All-Purpose DVD and Music CD (Screenline)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
The genius of John Clarke in channeling rural culture and dry observations through his character Fred Dagg hasn't diminished in the two decades-plus since Dagg made his first appearance.In part that is because there was a droll social and political observation woven into Dagg's view of the world. Dagg was a character with limitations of course so it was inevitable Clarke would take off to... > Read more
Fred Dagg: The Phone Call
Hammond Gamble: Ninety Mile Days (Liberation)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
Two years ago when this Auckland singer-songwriter and very special guitarist released his Recollection album (acoustic treatments of Street Talk and solo songs) I noted that it served to remind what a great songwriter he was.He'd long been acknowledged as an expressive bluesy singer and guitarist, but it had been too easy to forget just how crafted songs such as Whistling the Blues in the... > Read more
Hammond Gamble: You Cheated Me
Dave Murphy: Yes That's Me (Ode)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read | 3
Yes, and that's me with the quote on the back cover of this excellent collection by longstanding Wellington bluesman Dave Murphy.Here's what I say: "The blues is a music made by people who have struggled, have hard and true stories to tell and do so in a voice that is compelling. Dave Murphy, 35 years a journeyman on New Zealand's blues highway, is one of those characters and this captures... > Read more
Dave Murphy: Yes, That's Me By The Cigarette Machine
Tyler Ramsey: A Long Dream About Swiming Across the Sea (Shock)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
In equal parts drawing from early acoustic Neil Young, ambient Brian Eno and a touch of the Jackson Browne singer-songwriter tradition, this album by the guitarist in Band of Horses (an Elsewhere favourite) redefines understatement.With a small and often barely present band (upright bass, drums, violin, cello, pedal steel etc) he eases his way through a dozen songs notable for his deft... > Read more
Tyler Ramsey: These Days
Hacienda Brothers: Arizona Motel (Southbound)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read | 1
A sad shadow hangs over this album by a traditional country outfit whose two previous albums have found a place at Elsewhere: singer-songwriter and frontman Chris Gaffney died of liver cancer in April after this album was completed.With his musical partner Dave Gonzalez, Gaffney formed the Hacienda Brothers six years ago and their exceptional debut album What's Wrong With Right was produced by... > Read more
Hacienda Brothers: Used to the Pain
The Black Leaf: Dusty Road (Waht Records)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
And here is part deux of the Howden/Waht picture: an acoustic mini-album (29 enjoyable minutes) written while he was in Brazil for four months and there is a chronological flow here of his travels, encounters and impressions.A concept album, I guess?Again what works is the modesty, understatement, layered musicality (guitar/vocal line/subtle embellishments from keyboards I think I hear)... > Read more
Black Leaf: Hook Around
The Black Leaf: The Black Leaf (Waht Records)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
We'll start at the start on The Black Leaf and Waht Records: this first posting is of the home-studio debut album by Aucklander Mark Howden (aka The Black Leaf) and from what I read Waht Records began as his PhD project in 2006. It has now branched off into three directions: a studio; a rock band; and Howden in acoustic singer-songwriter mode.This album takes off from the Church/the late... > Read more
Black Leaf: Drawn Tight
Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun (Capitol)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
In what sounds like another step in his on-going recovery programme, this album from the former Beach Boy doesn't much change that well-established formula of layered vocal harmonies, uplifting or reflective melodies, and classy orchestrations.What makes this of interest though isn't that it is a kind of song-cyle about his beloved California (complete with B-grade post-Beat spoken words bits)... > Read more
Brian Wilson: Midnight's Another Day
White Swan Black Swan: White Swan Black Swan (Arch Hill)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
An excellent earlier EP by this Auckland duo and friends made repeat appearances at Elsewhere previously -- and this follow-up is their "double mini album".W/B Swan are Sonya Waters and Ben Howe who have long and illustrious careers (in bands such as the Instigators, ICU in London, Orange, Superette) and they were together in the acclaimed Fang. Bassist Ben Furniss and drummer... > Read more
White Swan Black Swan: Castle of Useless Junk
Nicole Atkins: Neptune City (Sony BMG)
2 Jun 2008 | <1 min read
Because I was lucky enough to grow up in a time of tough-voiced women singers (Dusty, Cilla, Lulu and then Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and onwards) the wispy wee-girl types like Jewel just irritate the hell out of me. I'd rather not even talk about Mariah's endless sexual obsession with herself either. So round my way great belters like Duffy will get airtime and those... > Read more
Nicole Atkins: Maybe Tonight
Gin: Extended Play (Island/Universal)
2 Jun 2008 | <1 min read | 1
The other night we were flicking across the music channels and did that rare thing, paused for more than five seconds because there was a remarkable voice about which I said, "Wow, I'd like to hear more from that one". "That one" -- as it turned out two days later when a copy of this EP was pressed into my hand -- was this young singer originally from New Zealand but now... > Read more
Gin: Under My Skin
Speck Mountain, Summer Above (Blunt Brown)
2 Jun 2008 | <1 min read
And if you are looking for more of that ethereal, drifting alt.pop with a slight space-rock country-folk atmosphere about it (you didn't know you were looking?) then Speck Mountain from Chicago have delivered this enticing and intimate item. I know nothing about them other than this album which is enchanting in a low impact way: recorded on valium and warm milk some wag suggested -- but it... > Read more
Speck Mountain: Fjord Song
The Nothing: A Warm Gun (Amaj001/Rhythmethod)
2 Jun 2008 | 1 min read | 1
Lately on my Kiwi FM programme I have been playing quite a lot from Chris Knox's albums and thoroughly enjoying rediscovering them. (Like Mike Leigh movies and city buses you often didn't feel the need to catch them because another would be along soon enough). Knox has been prolific and always offers good value -- his last one Chris Knox and the Nothing ran the full 70 minutes available.... > Read more
The Nothing: Empty
The National: A Skin, A Night/The Virginia EP (Beggars Banquet)
1 Jun 2008 | <1 min read | 1
Don't be put off by the under-selling title here, this is much more than an EP (which I consider to be what, four, maybe five songs?) This "EP" is a 12 track collection which features this group of New Yorkers on some new material, some rather smart demo tracks and three live songs (including a fine, scraped-cello version of Springsteen's Mansion on the Hill). And there's more:... > Read more