Music at Elsewhere

Horsegirl: Phoenetics On and On (digital outlets)

24 Feb 2025 | <1 min read

Elsewhere was very enthusiastic about the 2022 debut Versions of Modern Performance by this trio of young women out of Chicago (singer/guitarist Penelope Lowenstein still in high school at the time). It ended up in our picks for the best albums of that year because it was more than just energetic alt.rock. It came with side-helpings of New Wave sensibilities, noise and distortion,... > Read more

2468

Daily J: Scatterbrains (digital outlets)

21 Feb 2025 | <1 min read

With a band name designed to induce a knowing smile, guitar-driven pop which is breezily conventional (verse/chorus) and an album which collects together previous singles and frontloads them, this one gets a tailwind straight away. The band of three brothers – Jayden, Johnny and Jeese Paul with their mate Rick Everard – have a keen pop sensibility (Go With the Flow) and,... > Read more

Dead Gowns: It's Summer, I Love You . . . (digital outlets)

17 Feb 2025 | <1 min read

The full title of this debut album by Maine-based singer-songwriter Genevieve Beaudoin is It's Summer, I Love You and I'm Surrounded by Snow. And that dichotomy of sun and snow is apt on album which should appeal to those who like their alt.folk with a bit of grit, darkness and raw-edge electric guitars in places. Beaudois can deliver with an engrossing weariness which is palpable (the... > Read more

Swimmer

Thala: Avalanche (Fire/digital outlets)

17 Feb 2025 | <1 min read

The highly productive and still active Juliana Hatfield (Lemonheads, numerous short-lived bands and projects) might take umbrage with the publicity for this second album by Berlin-based Thala: the songs are described as “like a modern day Juliana Hatfield”. The queen is dead, long live the queen? Other references given are Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) and Japanese Breakfast.... > Read more

Body to You

Rose City Band: Sol Y Sombra (digital outlets)

10 Feb 2025 | <1 min read

We came upon this band out of Portland – who define the description “mellow” – by chance a while back and their 2023 Garden Party album became a go-to CD for car journeys of some length. This new album of quiet country-rock, pedal steel-coloured material is more of the same if slightly less so in that the pulse is just slightly slower for the most part. But if... > Read more

Radio Song

Matthew Bannister: The Dark Backwards (Powertools/digital outlets)

10 Feb 2025 | 2 min read

No one could accuse Matthew Bannister of lallygagging around. His resume includes albums with Sneaky Feelings, The Dribbling Darts of Love, The Changing Same, The Weather, releases as One Man Bannister and under his own name, a couple of books (his memoir of his Flying Nun days and an analysis of the album Songs from the Front Lawn), various academic papers . . . Much of this in... > Read more

Hearts Don't Keep

RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Frank Black: Teenager of the Year (digital outlets/vinyl)

9 Feb 2025 | 2 min read

The programme for releasing albums is much the same as it ever was: a drip-feed of singles, promotion and PR swing into action, interviews . . . The biggest difference between now and five or six decades ago are the use of diverse social media and the number of digital platforms to release on. Two things which cannot be factored in or predicted are . . . timing and luck. The best... > Read more

Sir Rockaby

RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Peel Dream Magazine: Modern Meta Physic (digital outlets)

7 Feb 2025 | <1 min read

Because we accidentally stumbled on this LA band's last album Rose Main Reading Room late last year (“a lovely headphones album which embraces you gently”) we have been immediately drawn to this expanded reissue of their 2018 album which includes new songs and half a dozen demos. Somewhere between Stereolab, ambient German bands (Neu!, Can), minimalism and the laidback... > Read more

Deetjens

FKA Twigs: Eusexua (digital outlets)

3 Feb 2025 | 1 min read

Well, if it's good enough for William Shakespeare to make up words then I guess pop stars can do it too. Charli XCX redefined “brat” for us – although it hasn't caught on as widely as Bill's bedroom, fashionable, scuffle, cold-blooded and about 1700 other words. But here comes FKA Twigs who has coined “eusexua” to mean some kind of extremely deep feeling or... > Read more

Drums of Death

The Weather Station: Humanhood (digital outlets)

2 Feb 2025 | 1 min read

This is a much anticipated album given Canada's Tamara Lindeman (AKA The Weather Station) appeared as one of our best of 2021 albums with the beautifully arranged Ignorance which explored literal and existential loss brought on by the disconnect between Nature and humanity. It won considerable critical acclaim but somewhat overlooked was the introspective piano-led companion album... > Read more

Humanhood

Lemonheads: Car Button Cloth (double vinyl reissue/digital outlets)

24 Jan 2025 | 2 min read

Until he became a bit of an embarrassment to himself – I have a story about him trying to score on tour here, a week or so after he'd assured me he was clean – you had to admire Evan Dando of the Lemonheads. He shaped the sound of melodic indie.rock in the Nineties alongside Buffalo Tom, REM, Grant Lee Buffalo and others, and he was kinda fun. When I interviewed him in the... > Read more

I Don't Want to Go Home

Chris Prosser: Tune Spree – On 2 Violins (Rongotai Records/digital outlets)

24 Jan 2025 | <1 min read

With the economy of the Ramones, violinist Chris Prosser – who came to attention as half of Besser and Prosser with the late composer/pianist Jonathan Besser – here manages to get 39 pieces on one CD. Now if that sounds like a lot of short fiddle pieces where he duets and duels with himself you'd be right. But Prosser is smart enough to lean into various dances and... > Read more

Musicking

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Search for Yeti: Dark So Soon (digital outlets/vinyl)

20 Jan 2025 | 2 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one by a three-piece from Wellington/Te Whanganui a Tara which comes in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics and extensive liner notes (including the names of scores of people who joined their PledgeMe fundraising effort) and on coloured vinyl. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record... > Read more

What You Mean to Me

Corrella: Skeletons (digital outlets)

20 Jan 2025 | <1 min read

The Blue Eyed Māori hitmakers return with an album which ticks the boxes between reggae and soul but neatly weaves through social observation and jazzy horns (the smart Power), politics plus yacht rock (the less than subtle Cookie), reggae on the march (War with “I shouldn't want to fight no more, but in the end, it's always been this way”) and moments of quiet reflection... > Read more

War

Peter Perrett: The Cleansing (digital outlets)

18 Jan 2025 | 1 min read

Peter Perrett's post-punk band The Only Ones had no greater champion in this country than the late Dr Rock, Barry Jenkin. But then again, after a conversion worthy of St Paul, he fell hard for the new sounds like Teenage Kicks by the Undertones and most things by the Buzzcocks. But he did always seem quite smitten by Another Girl Another Planet. Opening with a surging energy,... > Read more

Fountain of You

Mokotron: Waerea (digital outlets/vinyl)

23 Dec 2024 | 1 min read

Many decades ago the great Irish singer-songwriter Christy Moore – no stranger to the bottle – said something like this about the Pogues: “Great, just what the world needs, another bunch of drunk Irishmen”. As someone who'd seen how the world responded -- embracing the image of the chaotically boozy band -- you can understand his frustration. But Moore admired... > Read more

Reo Totahi

Michael Kiwanuka: Small Changes

20 Dec 2024 | <1 min read

In one of those blink-and-miss it cameos, British soul singer Kiwanukahad momentary cameo in the Danny Boyle-Richard Curtis 2019 film Yesterday. Not that he needed the publicity, it arrived the same year his self-titled third album picked up the Mercury Prize. London-born to Ugandan immigrants, he had worked in studio sessions, released a couple of EPs, then came out the gates fast and... > Read more

Follow Your Dreams

Wendyhouse: Puddlekopf (digital outlets)

9 Dec 2024 | 1 min read

More than 25 years ago I heard an album by the slightly challenging but enjoyable avant-garde/literary-cum-music group Wendyhouse out of Wellington which used samples, spoken word and noise. I sent off my $15 and joined their fan club and received some little handmade magazines and such. It was kinda fun. But I lost touch with them until Bryce Galloway (who may be Mr Pudding) got in... > Read more

Meltflakes Pop

Various Artists: Reaction: The Label 1979-1989 (Frenzy Music)

9 Dec 2024 | 2 min read

Alongside the on-going celebration of Flying Nun (through new albums and vinyl reissues), Rob Mayes making more and more albums on his Failsafe label available and Peter McLennan's excellent book on the Deepgrooves label (although the music remains frustratingly unavailable), there are whole areas of New Zealand music being brought back to attention, notably through the independent labels which... > Read more

Forever Tuesday Morning, by the Mockers

The Coward Brothers: The Coward Brothers (digital outlets)