THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and Graham Reid goes there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.
Elsewhere is an on-line magazine for new music (we filter out the mundane and spotlight the more interesting albums), different travel, arts and more. It is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It's an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter. Welcome . . .
Latest posts
THE VERLAINES' WAY OUT WHERE, REISSUED (2024): So many choices out there
24 Apr 2024 | 3 min read
In a recent interview Graeme Downes of the Verlaines – for these past four years retired from music and his academic life while recovering from a cancer operation – spoke proudly of their 1993 album Way Out Where. He had written all 12 songs while under considerable pressures: a deadline from the American label Slash, while completing his master's thesis, and... > Read more
Blanket Over the Sky
Broadfield Garden, New Zealand: In-A-Gadda-Da-Canterbury
24 Apr 2024 | 2 min read
The seemingly endless, straight road out of Christchurch to Rolleston cuts through the flat and often undifferentiated Canterbury Plain of farms punctuated by houses and sheds. But along Selwyn Road, an offshoot from State Highway 1, amidst the fields and paddocks is a property hidden from view by a high green wall of hedging. And behind it lies an unexpected and... > Read more
Ha The Unclear: A Kingdom in a Cul-de-sac (Think Zik!/digital outlets)
23 Apr 2024 | <1 min read
For a band with a surreal name, this indie.rock outfit from Dunedin (the vehicle for songwriter-singer Michael Cathro MSc), have appeared a few times at Elsewhere in the past decade, including with a video compilation. This latest release on the boutique French label Think Zik! is a kind of compilation-cum-new album which opens with a couple of their early and catchy... > Read more
Fish
THE AMA FINALISTS (2024): Guess who's baaaack . . .
22 Apr 2024 | 4 min read
After taking a year off in 2023 when there was an analysis of the awards and how inclusive (or not) they were, the Aotearoa Music Awards return. And that absence means that some albums -- like the Beths' Expert in a Dying Field for example -- which were released in 2022 were up for inclusion. It makes for a big -- and yes, inclusive -- awards so here goes. The... > Read more
CURVED AIR. PHANTASMAGORIA, CONSIDERED (1972): And now to the matter at hand
22 Apr 2024 | 3 min read
While there are plenty of songs about sex, there are fewer specifically about masturbation. We can readily think of Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark, Vanessa Daou's Long Tunnel of Wanting You and the Divinyls' I Touch Myself. But, with a few exceptions, songs about that touchy subject are often coded. Welcome then to a band who just got straight down to the job in... > Read more
Over and Above
Kiran Ahluwalia: Comfort Food (digital outlets)
21 Apr 2024 | 1 min read
Anyone with even just a passing interest in world news would be aware of what is happening in India under current prime minister Modi: a relentless shift to the right encouraging Hindu nationalism which is seeing the steady marginalisation of the Muslim communities and neighbours. In this country – so remote from the subcontinent and with news services which rarely... > Read more
Har Khayal
Deana Carter: Did I Shave My Legs for This? (1995)
21 Apr 2024 | 1 min read
Country music most often tells character stories, and Deana Carter -- named for Dean Martin -- nailed it with this title track from her '95 debut album. And when success came it had been hard won: She'd tried her hand in music without much success, tended bar and cleaned urinals, and graduated from university in Tennessee as a rehab therapist. But her demos caught... > Read more
Shabaka: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (Impulse/digital outlets)
20 Apr 2024 | 1 min read | 2
It doesn't seem that long ago that “jazz flute” was considered a joke. Thank you, Ron Burgundy. But there is a great tradition of jazz flute through daring players like Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Don Cherry to the quiet considerations of Paul Horn playing inside the Taj Mahal, Alice Coltrane's Indo-spiritualism and Tony Scott's Music for Zen Meditation.... > Read more
Aro: He Rākau, He Ngārara (digital outlets)
19 Apr 2024 | <1 min read
The Aro duo of husband and wife Charles and Emily Looker here present an immediately and immensely likable album which celebrates native plants and insects in te reo Māori and English language songs which sometimes sound like classic tunes from the Fifties (the lovely Tōtara with sweeping strings and Kaikōmako), beautiful folk (Pukatea) and contemporary pop... > Read more
Tōtara
Adrianne Lenker: Bright Future (digital outlets)
19 Apr 2024 | 1 min read
Outside of the experimental alt.folk group Big Thief, writer-singer Adrianne Lenker has run a parallel career which is dinstictive and engrossing in its own right. This album is, at least on paper, her sixth (her previous, the simultaneously released Songs and Instrumentals album turned up in many best of 2020 albums) and has a typically interesting backstory: it was... > Read more
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE; THE END OF THE BEATLES by PETER BROWN AND STEVEN GAINES
19 Apr 2024 | 2 min read
When Albert Goldman published his scurrilous, scum-sifting biography The Lives of John Lennon in 1988, the late Beatle's friends and acquaintances circled the wagons and vehemently denounced the book which, among other things, described Yoko Ono as a controlling junkie witch and suggested Lennon might have had a hand in what killed his friend Stuart Sutcliffe who died in... > Read more
Khruangbin: A La Sala (Dead Oceans/digital outlets)
15 Apr 2024 | <1 min read
One of the problems which comes with an artist having a distinctive and unique sound is that unless they move it around a bit, that signature becomes so familiar that casual listeners think, “Oh, more of the same”. That hasn't been too much of a problem for this trio out of Texas whose debut The Universe Smiles Upon You established their lovely brand of... > Read more
Pon Pon
DEAR COLIN, DEAR RON edited by PETER SIMPSON
15 Apr 2024 | 1 min read
Peter Simpson's meticulous research into the life and work of Colin McCahon has already given us the highly readable and insightful surveys There is Only One Direction and Is This The Promised Land? That there's more to be said is no surprise because frequently Simpson – recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in 2017, even before those... > Read more
THE WRITE STUFF: Twenty years of schooling and they put you on the day shift
15 Apr 2024 | 3 min read | 1
When I started at the Herald in 1987, Peter Scherer was the editor. Those were the days before titles like Editor-in-Chief or Editor-at-Large. Peter – who you could call by his first name – was simply the editor. Or more correctly The Editor. He was a remote figure to someone like me and I recall hearing little snippets about him: any aspiring... > Read more
JOHNNY ROTTEN, WRITING (1994): Punk picks up phlegm and pen
14 Apr 2024 | 1 min read | 1
When there is time, Elsewhere will be sourcing a rich vein of its archival material which was published in various places during the Eighties and Nineties which are not available on-line. These will most often be reproduced as they appeared in print. Some may be a little fuzzy in the reproduction but we think the story or interview are worth it for researchers or fans.... > Read more
The Goldebriars: Sing Out Terry O'Day (1964)
14 Apr 2024 | 2 min read
One of the pleasures of digging around through old vinyl for Elsewhere's pages From the Vaults is in discovering the occasional overlooked classic, the rare or the just plain peculiar. Rummaging through discount bins takes time but there are often cheap rewards, in this case very cheap. What attracted me to this $3 album wasn't just the fact the two women were wearing... > Read more
A FAST 15 MINUTES: Start Me Up
14 Apr 2024 | <1 min read
Here's something for you at Elsewhere when you have 15 minutes to spare. Have a listen to this, a short programme about how songs can be started with a hook, a riff, nagging repetition and so on. Enjoy . . . and see how many songs or titles you can recognise. > Read more
getting a song going
RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Giant Sand: Chore of Enchantment (Fire/digital outlets)
12 Apr 2024 | 1 min read
One of the most interesting interviews Elsewhere has ever done – and remember, we've done literally many-many hundreds, and then some – was with Howe Gelb. Gelb'sbest known for his band Giant Sand – which has clocked up nearly 30 albums – although he also has nearly that many under his own name. Back in 2011 we interviewed him at length... > Read more
No Reply
Laetitia Sadier: Rooting for Love (digital outlets)
12 Apr 2024 | <1 min read
Mostly known for her central role in Britain's wide-reaching, alternative band Stereolab, French-born singer and multi-instrumentalist Sadier has enjoyed a diverse solo career and interesting collaborations with the likes of San Francisco's Deerhoof and the Brazilian band Mombojó (as Modern Cosmology). For this fifth solo album she embraces nuanced art-pop... > Read more
Don't Forget You're Mine
Favourite Five Recent Releases
LUCIEN JOHNSON, ACCLAIMED, REVIEWED AND INTERVIEWED (2024): Reaching for a quiet place
9 Apr 2024 | 5 min read
When Wellington saxophonist Lucien Johnson released his album Wax///Wane three years ago it became an immediate Elsewhere favourite. At year's end it was in our Best of the Year list and also that of the Listener (which admittedly was a list chosen by us). What drew us to it was how different it was from most New Zealand jazz releases. In part we said,... > Read more