Music at Elsewhere
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BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2010 Midlake: The Courage of Others (Inertia)
12 Dec 2010 | 1 min read | 3
This quintet from Texas -- now on their third album -- has only appeared once previously at Elsewhere, a wonderful track on the collection Secret Love 4. That piece (the sample track posted with that album) was so impressive their name imprinted itself on my memory -- and then this album turns up. In the absence of hearing much else by them this one seduces on a first hearing and it has... > Read more
Midlake: Fortune
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2010 John Grant: Queen of Denmark (Shock)
12 Dec 2010 | 2 min read
Although he recorded three albums with the band the Czars, we should perhaps treat this quite exceptional, moving, funny, droll and heart-breaking singer-songwriter as a new artist. And on those terms he immediately places himself in the company of early Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson and a more humorous Rufus Wainwright for songs like Sigourney Weaver in which he laments his life in terms of... > Read more
John Grant: Queen of Denmark
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2010 Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses: Junky Star (Lost Highway)
12 Dec 2010 | 1 min read
The name "Ryan Bingham" has been getting a lot of eartime recently -- it was the name of George Clooney's character in the movie Up in the Air. But more importantly in the real world it belongs to one of the most interesting Americana singer-songwriters of the past deacde -- the man who picked up an Oscar for his song The Weary Kind in the film Crazy Heart (in which he also played... > Read more
Ryan Bingham: Junky Star
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2010 The Black Crowes: Croweology (Silver Arrow)
12 Dec 2010 | 1 min read | 1
Two decades ago when the Black Crowes launched their career with the swaggering Shake Your Money Maker they came off as a version of Rod Stewart and the Faces with a little of the Allman Brothers thrown in: theirs was party-style rhythm'n'booze played out in front of a marijuana leaf banner. But more recently – with vocalist Chris Robinson back after some solo years – they... > Read more
The Black Crowes: Soul Singin'
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2010 Eels: End Times (Shock)
12 Dec 2010 | 2 min read
The last album by Eels/Mark Oliver Everett was the split personality of Hombre Lobo where gritty and sexually aggressive songs were alternated with lovely ballads as if he was exploring two sides of the human condition. It is a terrific album (you may only like half the tracks depending on your current frame of mind) and was Everett adopting a persona. This time out he has written... > Read more
Eels: In My Younger Days
Jimi Hendrix: West Coast Seattle Boy; The Jimi Hendrix Anthology (Sony)
6 Dec 2010 | 3 min read | 2
In 1964 the Isley Brothers – a doo-wop/r'n'b outfit from Cincinnati who had scored a hit with Twist and Shout – were playing a show in a baseball stadium in Bermuda. They had their own in-built support act, they simply sent their band out to warm up the crowd. But on this night there was whooping from the audience and a guy came into their dressing room and asked, “Who... > Read more
The Isley Brothers with Jimi Hendrix: Move Over and Let Me Dance (1965)
Caitlin Harnett: All in the Golden Afternoon EP (CHCD)
6 Dec 2010 | <1 min read
Working in that vein of "sensitive singer-songwriter", Sydney-based Harnett keeps things clear and simple here in a series of six songs which -- like Flip Grater's When I'm Awake I'm At War -- deliver everything in the first person to/about the unspecified "you". Make what you will of that, I find it broadcasts on a narrow emotional frequency. That said (as with... > Read more
Caitlin Harnett: Favourite Dress
Duffy: Endlessly (Universal)
5 Dec 2010 | 1 min read | 1
Poor Duffy. The preview tracks for her debut album Rockferry had everyone hailing her as one of the great new voices (even though she referred to classic pop and soul traditions) but when the album did arrive -- with some admittedly weaker tracks -- a section of the British press turned on her. They got in with the backlash even before the album was in stores. But not so poor Duffy --... > Read more
Duffy: Girl
Magic Arm: Make Lists Do Something (Switchflicker/Yellow Eye)
5 Dec 2010 | 1 min read
This techno-pop, Pro Tools-folktronic album by Manchester's one-man band Marc Rigelsford finally gets belated local release (it appeared in the UK a year ago). But it's timely with the Band on the Run reissue because Rigelsford's reference points are the younger McCartney and classic Beach Boys as much early Beck and pre-fame Bright Eyes (the folktronic stuff) and the woozy folkadelic pop... > Read more
Magic Arm: Move Out
Edwyn Collins: Losing Sleep (Shock)
5 Dec 2010 | 1 min read
Scotland's Orange Juice fronted by singer-songwriter Edwyn Collins only had one persuasive album (You Can't Hide Your Love Forever in '82) and one UK hit (Rip It Up from the album of the same name, also in '82) but their arch, often ironic and non-threatening pop has recently occasioned a 6CD/DVD collection, a reflection of the high regard in which they were held. Since they split in... > Read more
Edwyn Collins: Searching for the Truth
Renee-Louise Carafice: I Will Raise a Bird Army (Bird Army)
29 Nov 2010 | 1 min read
There is no doubt life has been difficult for Renee-Louise Carafice, her previous album (here) was born out of clinical depression and time in an institution . . . and this one addresses the break-up of a relationship (which she concedes was always flawed) in chilly Chicago. Art wrought out of such personal crises can often be therapetic of itself but may not necessarily engage an... > Read more
Renee-Louise Carafice: Radars Dead
Various Artists: Kris Needs Presents Dirty Water; The Birth of Punk Attitude (Future Police/Southbound)
29 Nov 2010 | 1 min read
This excellent, wayward and musically diverse double disc is like a mix tape/vanity project from a friend who just wants to get down his/her favourite raw rock'n'roll/mad attitude songs in the one place for you, the stuff that has been inspirational and still stands up. Here UK rock journalist (Zigzag) and sometimes band frontman Needs takes a broad view of the word "punk" to... > Read more
The Flamin' Groovies: Teenage Head
Barry Saunders: Far As The Eye Can See (Ode)
28 Nov 2010 | <1 min read
More than just a compilation of tracks from his various albums and radio sessions (including some from his excellent Zodiac album), this collection of songs by country-inflected singer-songwriter Saunders was a prompt for various painters and visual artists. Wellington curator Ron Epskamp of Exhibitions Gallery (here) invited 14 artists to interpret Saunders' lyrics -- and their works are... > Read more
Barry Saunders: Black Eyed Girl
Israel Cannan: Walk (Poets Corner)
28 Nov 2010 | <1 min read
Cannan from the east coast of Australia has ben itinerant for some while -- hence the title of this album -- and has spent his time looking, writing and finally recording this quietly impressive album. There's a folk-rock quality at work mostly (although he veers alarmingly close to early REM on To The Left) but he is also something of a road philosopher-poet on material like On My Way... > Read more
Israel Cannan: Let It Rain
Cassandra's Ears: The Cassandra's Ears Story (Blind Date)
28 Nov 2010 | 1 min read
Early in 2010 the women who had been in the late-Eighties Kiwi band Cassandra's Ears got together for a gig and to their delight discovered that James Moss of Jayrem (which had released their two EPs Private Wasteland and Your Estimation) still had the master tapes. Jan Hellriegel -- Ears' singer -- had pursued a creditable solo career after the band broke up in 1990 and had her own label,... > Read more
Cassandra's Ears: Crystal
Fistful of Mercy: As I Call You Down (Hot)
28 Nov 2010 | <1 min read
Further proof – if required – that something less than a supergroup can deliver something considerably less than super. And this group – Ben Harper, the far-too-prolific singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur and Dhani (son of George) Harrison – come up so far short on every front that their folksy I Don't Want to Waste Your Time (“but I will, yes I will”)... > Read more
Fistful of Mercy: I Don't Want to Waste Your Time
Antony and the Johnsons: Swanlight (Spunk)
28 Nov 2010 | 1 min read
This fourth album by Antony confirms what many already suspect, that a little of this divine, sublime voice can go a long way. All that high drama and quivering vocals, the allusive lyrics, the symphonic strings . . . It's all high-wire emotion and, as with Rufus Wainwright's All Days Are Nights, over the long haul it becomes demanding and undifferentiated. To his credit however Antony... > Read more
Antony and the Johnsons: Swanlights
Various Artists: Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah; 70s New York Disco (Backbeats/Triton)
28 Nov 2010 | <1 min read
Some music -- even from the first few bars -- is time-specific. The merest whiff of a particular drum sound and guitar can conjure up rockabilly of the Fifties, and some beats plus swooping strings or a horn part can just scream "disco" at you. In that case, this 11 track compilation is unnecessarily subtitled because you get its straight away: New York + Seventies. It's disco,... > Read more
The Ripple: The Beat Goes On And On
Kelley Stoltz: To Dreamers (SubPop)
26 Nov 2010 | 1 min read
Let's say this for San Francisco's Kelley Stoltz, he's done his homework: his thoroughly enjoyable album Circular Sounds (here) came off like a potted history of pop for them what missed the classes on UK 1965-68 and the Beginners Guide to Songwriting (with special reference to Boyce and Hart, Harry Nilsson and Paul McCartney). This time out with a full cast of players he adds a bit of glam... > Read more
Kelley Stoltz: Pinecone
John White: The Inkadies (Monkey)
21 Nov 2010 | <1 min read
This album could slip past as easily unnoticed as White's recent New Zealand tour, it whispers rather than shouts, is mostly dreamy rather than grounded. Formerly out front of Dunedin's Mestar, White recorded these airy but sometimes fuzzy, acoustic-framed songs in Wisconsin three years ago and apparently this one follows two previous albums. Over the 11 short Anglofolk-styled songs... > Read more