Music at Elsewhere
Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly updates.
Delgirl: Porchlight (Yellow Eye)
4 Nov 2009 | 1 min read
This trio from Dunedin impressed on their debut album two, maybe three, days ride which saw them nominated for a Tui award and, as I noted at that time, it was a real step up from their first EP. This even better album -- 15 tracks -- confirms what I have always believed, the more you work (ie play, perform and record) the chances are the better you will get. There is a musical maturity... > Read more
Delgirl: Stars
Wolfmother: Cosmic Egg (Universal)
3 Nov 2009 | <1 min read
To be honest I rarely watch music television, but the other night I caught about 30 seconds of these Australian rockers and was hooked: they seemed to be nothing especially new but were genuinely exciting. I heard a bit of early Black Sabbath, some terrific guitar sounds of the kind that used to be common in the late Sixties, a swag of Seventies pre-stadium rock (Black Oak Arkansas) and whole... > Read more
Wolfmother: New Moon Rising
The Brunettes: Paper Dolls (Lil' Chief)
3 Nov 2009 | 1 min read
The cute and coy pop of the Brunettes has always been much enjoyed here at Elsewhere for its humour and slightly twee quality, and their previous album Structure and Cosmetics remains a Firm Favourite, as they say. But frankly on this one some of the charm is wearing off: they work the same lyrical quirkiness about domestic matters and observations as always; the "relationship"... > Read more
The Brunettes: Magic (No Bunny)
Dead Man's Bones: Dead Man's Bones (Anti/Shock)
2 Nov 2009 | <1 min read
This will be an acquired taste but its release around Halloween is I suppose apt, especially if for you Halloween is a Serious Event and doesn't have a lot to do with buying a witches' hat or trick'n'treat. A project for the actor Ryan Gosling and his mate Zach Shields, this is like a faux-spooky meltdown of a kitsch carnival House of Horrors, a small part of Tom Waits, a BBC sound effects... > Read more
Dead Man's Bones: Buried in Water
Wall of Voodoo: Dark Continent/Call of the West (Raven)
2 Nov 2009 | 1 min read
Stan Ridgway, frontman for Wall of Voodoo, was one of the smartest, story-telling songwriters -- and nervously energetic singers -- to emerge in the wake of American new wave in the early Eighties. Sadly most people might only know them for their terrific single Mexican Radio and relegate them to that one-hit-wonder category reserved for bands which turned Japanese (the Vapors) or sang of... > Read more
Wall of Voodoo: Call of the West
Noah and the Whale: The First Days of Spring (Shock)
2 Nov 2009 | <1 min read
Beauty is not a quality that popular music (ie pop, rock, r'n'b, indie-rock or whatever) places much store in: yet from the Velvet Underground through Mazzy Star and the early Cowboy Junkies to the Fleet Foxes, or from Eno to the landscape of guitars in Explosions in the Sky, there has been beauty aplenty. Beauty need not be sentimental or cringe-inducing. So when a record company... > Read more
Noah and the Whale: Stranger
Doug Cox: Without Words (Black Hen)
2 Nov 2009 | <1 min read
Dobro player Doug Cox from Canada appeared here previously with his lovely album Slide to Freedom where he worked with Indian slide guitarist Salil Bhatt. That album alone would recommend this compilation of instrumentals from his obviously extensive back-catalogue. Cox has a light touch, plays without unnecessary embellishment and brings a beautifully warm tone out of his instruments... > Read more
Doug Cox: Easy Place to Be
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone: Advance Base Battery Life (Tomlab)
2 Nov 2009 | 1 min read
When the superbly named CFTPA (Owen Ashworth from Chicago) played before a couple of dozen in Auckland a few years back he was utterly beguiling: a small selection of lo-fi keyboards; a voice soaked in melancholy; and pointed songs which had a bed-sit consciousness without moping or self-pitying. His 06 album Etiquette was chock full of poetic miniatures, but this collection of singles,... > Read more
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone: Sunday St
Jan Hellriegel: All Grown Up (Blind Date)
27 Oct 2009 | 1 min read
The title tells its own story, it has been well over a decade since Jan Hellriegel made an album and that might explain the huge interest in this one: lotsa interviews, articles and media attention, my guess from people who remember Hellriegel fondly for her swagger and sensitivity in bands and on her solo albums. The swagger is still here on this widescreen and often dramatic... > Read more
Jan Hellriegel: Orange Liqueur
Rosanne Cash: The List (EMI)
26 Oct 2009 | 1 min read
Of all the songs Johnny Cash recorded in his final years the most moving was September When It Comes on his daughter Rosanne‘s album Rules of Travel: “I cannot move a mountain now,” he croaked. It brought tears to the eye. Rosanne Cash has had an erratic career: her first albums were excellent then things went wobbly; she stopped touring when she married Rodney... > Read more
Rosanne Cash: I'm Movin' On
Mayer Hawthorne: A Strange Arrangement (Rhythmethod)
26 Oct 2009 | 1 min read
There's a lot of soul -- and faux-soul -- around these days what with Duffy, Amy Winehouse (is she still around?), James Hunter, Beth Rowley who gives it a blues and rock twist, Alice Russell with a funk spin and, on the local front, Opensouls. Of them all, on paper at least, Hawthorne might have the hardest task persuading an audience of his credibility: a buttoned-down and... > Read more
Mayer Hawthorne: Maybe So, Maybe No
Flight of the Conchords: I Told You I Was Freaky (SubPop/Rhythmethod)
26 Oct 2009 | 1 min read
In retrospect, one of the funniest incidents in the Flight of the Conchords' second television series was when the nice but naive New Zealand prime minister Brian turned up and seemed out of his depth, and desperate to be liked. Who knew that the actual PM John Key would later turn up on Letterman looking alarmingly like Brian? But the Conchords -- in the series and especially their... > Read more
Flight of the Conchords: Hurt Feelings
Ned Collette and Wirewalker: Over the Stones, Under the Stars (Fabric/Rhythmethod)
26 Oct 2009 | <1 min read
When Australian Ned Collette's previous album Future Suture appeared at Elsewhere the closing line was "check this guy out". I suspect few did, even though he visited New Zealand a couple of times. But here's another chance, although this sounds a little different to its predecessor: often downbeat, lean and less augmented, more clearly defined as he teams up with his longtime... > Read more
Ned Collette and Wirewalker: All the Signs
Maisey Rika: Tohu (Moonlight Sounds)
26 Oct 2009 | 1 min read | 1
This debut album introduces an impressive singer-songwriter who manages to be expressive without resorting to the cliches of the faux-soul yodel which has infected many in the post-Whitney/Idol generation. Rika keeps the melodies close and constrained and the result is her nakedly emotional lyrics have even more impact. That Room is far too close a rewrite of Bill Withers' Ain't No... > Read more
Maisey Rika: Apollo
Grant-Lee Phillips: Little Moon (Yep Roc)
26 Oct 2009 | 1 min read
Phillips -- formerly frontman for the LA alt-rock/indie-pop outfit Grant Lee Buffalo in the 90s -- may never release a solo album quite as exceptional as his Mobilize of 2001. But after the country-folk of Virginia Creeper of 04, the 06 covers album Nineteeneighties (you always ask, “Why?” of such projects) and Strangelet of two years ago which was excellent but disappeared... > Read more
Grant-Lee Phillips: Little Moon
Danny McCrum Band: Say What You Mean (Paper Plane)
25 Oct 2009 | 1 min read
This bristling, tight, and emotionally taut album by McCrum and his Auckland band is a real step up from their already impressive debut Awake and Restless which found much favour at Elsewhere. This time out everything from the energy levels to the songwriting has been taken up a notch or two, there is a sense of real urgency in these rocking songs (some of which have a terrific and... > Read more
Danny McCrum Band: Cold Outside
Tzenka Dianova: DeConstruction (Atoll)
18 Oct 2009 | <1 min read
The words "contemporary classical music" probably strike as much fear into the hearts of innocent civilians as "free jazz". For some reason these terms equate to cacophony for many (sometimes, to be fair, that is the case) . . . but on this album where Dianova plays piano, prepared piano and celesta we might have to reconsider what "contemporary classical"... > Read more
Tzenka Dianova: Le piege de Meduse (Satie)
Damien Binder: While the Wind's At Your Back (Binder)
18 Oct 2009 | 1 min read
In a recent interview Greg Johnson told me that after almost seven years in Los Angeles slugging it out writing, playing and hustling he'd made the conscious decision to leave the live work behind and concentrate on being a songwriter. And working with sympathetic others of a similar mindset. Lord knows, we need more good songs. Damien Binder is another former Aucklander like... > Read more
Damien Binder: Damage
Warren Cate: The Reparation Tapes (Warcat)
18 Oct 2009 | <1 min read
Cate is what we might call an "occasional" rock'n'roll singer-songwriter: this is only his fourth album in about 14 years. He has a day job. I recognise on his website some highly favourable comments (uncredited) from me down the years, and his music has always found a place on my Sunday afternoon Kiwi FM show. This album will too. Cate has real feel for a power-pop into... > Read more
Warren Cate: Say What You Will
Malajube: Labyrinthes (Shock)
18 Oct 2009 | <1 min read
Elsewhere is certainly not immune to charms of Canada: we have acknowledged Arcade Fire, the collective Broken Social Scene, Patrick Watson, the challenge of vocal contortionist Tagaq and others (as well as watching the Anvil doco with tightening sphincter, hailing the droll TV comedy Corner Gas, and delighting in the landscape and people). But not a lot of Canadian music gets to the far end... > Read more