Music at Elsewhere
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Robert Forster: Strawberries (digital outlets)
16 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
Brisbane on Australia's sunny central east coast has hardly been a hotbed of musical creativity although it did give us the protopunk band the Saints lead by the late, whippet-smart Chris Bailey, the rock band Powderfinger, the alt.pop of the Veronicas and the mainstream Savage Garden. Of course there have been others but the city's great musical export were the Go-Betweens which had a rare... > Read more
Such a Shame
Pulp: More (digital outlets)
16 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
Sometimes you can feel you are living in a previous time. It happened a couple of years back when the Beatles' new single Now and Then was released and Bob Dylan was back with the Shadow Kingdom album. That same year, 2023, Iggy Pop, Uriah Heep, Genesis, the Zombies, Jethro Tull and others whose time seemed long ago also had albums out. And of course so did Willie Nelson and Neil Young... > Read more
Farmers Market
Jenny Mitchell: Forest House (digital outlets)
9 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
As we noted recently when writing about the rise of certain genres, in that instance dream pop-cum-shoegaze, “Anyone who steps back and observes the changing tides of popular music would have seen the success of country music coming a little while ago. “And the reasons were simple: country music tells stories, has some stock imagery and metaphors, familiar melodic patterns and... > Read more
Little Less Lonely
RECOMMENDED RECORD: Fly My Pretties: Elemental (Loop/digital outlets)
8 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes with full credits, photos and background notes about the concept on the inner sleeve. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . There are some highly successful business models in New Zealand music, among them the Phoenix Foundation, Six60 and... > Read more
See Me Flying
Marc Ribot: Map of a Blue City
6 Jun 2025 | <1 min read
As a session guitarist (Waits, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Costello, John Zorn, Jeff Bridges and others), Marc Ribot brings an evocative angularity. But left to his own devices he can be challenging, playing with jazz musicians and left-field avant-types like himself. His 2023 Connection album with Ceramic Dog was close to Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth. This new album had its origins... > Read more
For Celia
Bub: Can't Even (digital outlets)
6 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Priya Sami made a brief, high profile appearance with siblings Madeline and Anji as Sami Sisters with their Happy Heartbreak! album over a decade ago. (Not to be confused with the fictional Katene Sisters of Annie Crummer, the late Nancy Brunning and Lisa Crittenden created for a Shortland Street episode and who went top 5 with their sole single... > Read more
Bored
Arjuna Oakes: While I'm Distracted (digital outlets)
6 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
Singer/writer/producer Arjuna Oakes – who seems to divide his time between Britain and Aotearoa New Zealand – has appeared a few times at Elsewhere, but always in association with others. He collaborated with his mentor, the classical composer John Psathas, on the It's Already Tomorrow project, played and sang on albums with Serebii, Nathan Haines (on his recent Notes) and... > Read more
Catch Me
Throw: Dreambaby Goodbye (Failsafe/digital outlets)
2 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
Anyone who steps back and observes the changing tides of popular music would have seen the success of country music coming a little while ago. And the reasons were simple: country music tells stories, has some stock imagery and metaphors, familiar melodic patterns and allows the writer to insert their own narrative. Those stepping back to look at that bigger picture might also have observed... > Read more
Freefall
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RECOMMENDED RECORD: Sparks: Mad! (digital outlets)
30 May 2025 | 1 min read
From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes with all the lyrics (necessary with Sparks) and credits. And is available on white vinyl. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . Sparks brothers Ron and Russell Mael (aged 79 and 76 respectively) open their 28th studio album with Do Things... > Read more
Lord Have Mercy
Voom: Something Good is Happening (Flying Nun/digital outlets)
26 May 2025 | 1 min read
For those outside his immediate orbit, Buzz Moller is something of an enigma. His intermittent project Voom – debut album Now I Am Me arrived in 1998, the follow-up Hello, Are You There? eight years later and given vinyl pressing in 2021 – have enjoyed great affection for their heartfelt, sometimes raw and always melodic alt.pop-rock which roams freely between ragged rock and... > Read more
Crazy Feeling
RECOMMENDED RECORD: Suzanne Vega: Flying With Angels (digital outlets)
26 May 2025 | 1 min read
From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics and credits. And is available on white vinyl. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . Some artists soar like bright flares across the sky and immediately engage our attention, but then their light dims and... > Read more
Chambermaid
Ocean Beach: Long Road Home (Freezing Works Records/digital outlets)
23 May 2025 | <1 min read
Although the charts would suggest there's no great demand for them, people still form guitar-driven rock bands. Something in the camaraderie of like minds as much just getting together to make a thrilling noise? Auckland five-piece Ocean Beach -- named for the former freezing works in wind-blown Bluff at the bottom of the South Island -- manage both on this debut album with committed... > Read more
On My Way
Viagra Boys: Viagr Aboys (digital outlets)
19 May 2025 | 1 min read
Set aside the silly band name, because here is a band which is part rocking Beck in slacker-punk mode, part Beastie Boys, part political comedy act and probably a bit more of other things. This Swedish outfit – fronted by US-born singer-writer Sebastian Murphy – are frequently described as dance punk and garage punk. They seem adequate descriptors for a band big on energy,... > Read more
Dirty Boyz
Tune-Yards: Better Dreaming (digital outlets)
19 May 2025 | 1 min read
The classy songwriting and delivery of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner has been one of the delights and discoveries of the past decade as they weave soul, r'n'b, funk and pop into art-pop. But they also deliver more as on this album which, despite the sheen of the surfaces and the clever music, has something to say about these straitened times. This from the hypnotic and elevated... > Read more
Swarm
Car Seat Headrest: The Scholars (digital outlets)
19 May 2025 | 1 min read
Labels “indie” and “alternative” haven't meant much since one-time indie bands (R.E.M., Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Husker Du) signed to major labels. But they are convenient shorthand. Seattle-based Car Seat Headrest fronted by singer-writer Will Toledo have remained loyally indie and alt.rock, but for this impressive 13th album they embrace one of rock's most demanding... > Read more
Devereaux
Jensen McRae: I Don't Know How But They Found Me! (digital outlets)
19 May 2025 | 1 min read
The jury is always out on an album where the artist uses it as public therapy. Of the few successful ones, the most outstanding for its courage was the John Lennon Plastic Ono Band album of 1970 which was cathartic and uncomfortable. It was uncommon at the time – has any other artist of his stature since been that emotionally naked and brave, musically and lyrically? – but these... > Read more
I Can Change Him
Jenny Hval: Iris Silver Mist (digital outlets)
18 May 2025 | 1 min read
Although Elsewhere championed Jenny Hval's excellent The Practice of Love album we're aware that she's probably a hard sell. She has rolled from dark metal, edgy art music and 2016's exacting jazz improvisations of In the End His Voice Will Be the Sound of Paper to alt.folk and experimental sounds under own name, and as Rockettothesky and Lost Girls. She's now 44, and accomplished... > Read more
To Be A Rose
Thom Yorke, Mark Pritchard: Tall Tales (digital outlets)
12 May 2025 | 1 min read | 1
Sometimes it's useful for a critic to make clear their position and preferences, especially when it comes to artists with lengthy and diverse careers. We've mentioned this in regard to Pink Floyd whose work before Dark Side is rated much higher at Elsewhere than all which followed; with U2 it is the two albums before Pop Mart (Achtung Baby and Zooropa) and just a few early singles. Very... > Read more
The Spirit
Greta O'Leary: River Dark (digital outlets)
12 May 2025 | 1 min read
Let's be clear: this debut album by the local “spook-folk” singer-songwriter is not delivered up as an easy proposition. It opens with three dreamy and melancholy songs – Baby I'm a Singer, The Greatest Peace I've Ever Known and Prelude, all previously released as singles – which certainly establish her distinctively high vocal style and the supportive accompaniment... > Read more
Prelude
Neither Do I: We're Not Known For Anything (digital outlets)
12 May 2025 | 1 min read
What's in a name? Quite a lot I would think. No band named something like Big Fat Possum, Up at Sparrow Fart or Drunken Uncle at a Wedding is making a serious pitch for wide attention. A band name can be an identifier of a sound also, or at least give a clue that it's metal and not gentle folk. Which brings us to this album and artist. With an album title deliberately... > Read more