Music at Elsewhere
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Pearl Jam: Back Spacer (Universal)
28 Sep 2009 | 1 min read
Just as some would have you believe there were "Beatles fans" Vs "Stones fans" back in the day (usually by old people styling themselves Stones fans to appear cooler than they actually were at school), so too there was that weird schism set up between Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Nirvana were, of course, "authentic" and Pearl Jam were somehow just pretend-grunge in... > Read more
Pearl Jam: The Fixer
Tim Finn: Anthology; North South East West (EMI)
28 Sep 2009 | 1 min read
Anyone who considers the Tim Finn timeline would quickly conclude that here was a man who always did it his way: the theatrics and manic energy of Split Enz combined with alarmingly engaging and durable music; solo albums which were sometimes uncomfortable for their self-analysis; others which were snappy and poppy; soundtracks and side-projects . . . So a double disc overview of his... > Read more
Tim Finn: Straw to Gold (from the album The Conversation)
The Wailin' Jennys: Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House (Shock)
27 Sep 2009 | <1 min read | 1
On the release of their Firecracker album a couple of years back I noted that you'd be forgiven for getting burn-out on this whole old-time country music sung authentically by people who are probably middle-class and well educated. Still, people like Gillian Welch do it so well, and you don't want to open up that whole "can white people sing the blues?" discussion. So if you... > Read more
The Wailin' Jennys: One More Dollar
John Fogerty and the Blue Ridge Rangers: Rides Again (Verve)
21 Sep 2009 | 1 min read
The odd thing about hearing the great Creedence Clearwater Revival on the recently released Woodstock set was that they sounded exactly like themselves: that's what happens when you keep your music simple and sharp, and you have a voice as distinctive as John Fogerty's up front. Fogerty is still out there playing Creedence songs and new material (and sounding damn good at it) but here... > Read more
John Fogerty: I'll Be There
Taken by Trees: East of Eden (Rough Trade)
15 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
This ethereal and exotically charming album by Swedish singer-composer Victoria Bergsman (aka Taken by Trees) is something of a rarity: she travelled to Lahore where she encountered not just the local musicians but a certain, shall we say, unusual attitude towards unmarrried women in Pakistan. None of that tension is here in the music however where her languid vocals float over tabla, flute... > Read more
Taken by Trees: To Lose Someone
The Duke and the King: Nothing Good Can Stay (Shock)
14 Sep 2009 | 1 min read | 3
The singer-songwriter behind this gorgeously tuneful, lyrically probing debut is Simone Felice of the terrific Felice Brothers, two times Best of Elsewhere artists (2007, 2008) for their amalgam of ragged-but-right country which owed huge debts to the early Band and country-styled Bob Dylan, but who put their own stamp on proceedings. The songwriter/drummer has left the band and teamed up... > Read more
The Duke and the King: One More American Song
Kieran Kane: Somewhere Beyond the Roses (Shock)
13 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
If nothing else, and there is a lot of "else" here, the instrumentation on this new album by the Nashville singer-songwriter Kane would be pretty arresting: drums, electric guitar, banjo and baritone sax, the latter from Deanna Varragona who has played with Lambcop. It makes for a sound which can be sprightly (the banjo) but also full of dark corners (that deep sax), and that... > Read more
Kieran Kane: Why Can't You?
Yim Yames: Tribute to (Rough Trade)
13 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
Yim Yames is actually Jim James from My Morning Jacket (no, don't ask me why) and these six songs were actually recorded in 2001, a few days after George Harrison's death as a tribute to a man whose life he said was "a prime example of the healing powers of music". There have been bigger and more self-conscious tributes to Harrison, but none more heartfelt or so emotionally direct... > Read more
Yim Yames: Ballad of Sir Frank Crisp (Let it Roll)
Jesse Harris: Watching the Sky (Inertia)
13 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
The news that Norah Jones has co-written a song with with Ryan Adams for her forthcoming album The Fall (due in November) is interesting: will he move in her direction or she to him? And which her, or which him? Many of the other tracks are Jones' own work (no bad thing) or with longtime partner Jesse Harris who here delivers up a polished, almost easy listening line of melancholy melodies... > Read more
Jesse Harris: Looking Back
Tahuna Breaks: Black Brown and White (Chocolate)
7 Sep 2009 | <1 min read | 1
I'd be astonished if Tahuna Breaks don't have hugely successful concerts on their current tour, and sell truckloads of this album -- because they tick every stylistic box that New Zealand audiences seem to like: you want James Brown-styled soul-funk (you've got it on Giddy Up which isn't the Katchafire song, and Funky Mama), or you want light lovers rock (here on Only You)? There is the... > Read more
Tahuna Breaks: Crisis Situation
Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs: Under the Covers Vol 2 (Shock)
7 Sep 2009 | <1 min read | 2
The previous album by this hugely underrated power pop/rock singer songwriter and the former Bangle was a snapshot of their favourite Sixties songs (by the Beatles, Dylan, Neil Young, Stone Ponies, Who and so on) under the banner of Sid'n'Susie. Here they undertake the diversity of the Seventies which means power pop (a rather mundane version of the Raspberries Go All the Way which lacks... > Read more
Matthew Sweet, Susanna Hoffs: Beware of Darkness (by George Harrison, Dhani Harrison on guitar
Family Cactus: Come Howling (Sony)
6 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
Given that members of this seven piece have connections with excellent New Zealand bands such as the Brunettes, the Nudie Suits, Grand Prix, Good Laika and others, you'd think this album would have made quite a splash. You'd also think that some competing egos would have been apparent, but this coherent and quietly compelling album works through understatement as much the dramatic (where... > Read more
Family Cactus: In Transit
Marianne Dissard: L'entredeux (TEM/Border)
6 Sep 2009 | <1 min read
Given that this album was produced by Calexico's Joey Burns (who also wrote the music) this one comes as something of a surprise: you might have anticipated some kind of alt.Americana. There is something of that in the music and arrangements in places, but Dissard vocals (all in French) have that whispered, intimate, beguiling quality of the classic chanson singers. More engaged and engaging... > Read more
Marianne Dissard: Merci De Rien Du Tout
The War on Drugs: Wagonwheel Blues (Longtime Listener)
31 Aug 2009 | <1 min read | 3
Some music is purely functional: music in airports; massage music, Kiwi backyard-bbq reggae etc. This one by a US band I know nothing about is driving music -- annoying inner city stop-start or highway freedom -- and comes off in places like amphetamine-fuelled and wordy Dylan '65 (or more correctly, Butch Hancock when he was doing that style, if you get the reference). The singer has a... > Read more
The War on Drugs: Arms Like Boulders
Louisiana Red: Back to the Black Bayou (Ruf/Yellow Eye)
31 Aug 2009 | <1 min read
This seventysomething year old has earned to right to sing the blues: his father was lynched by the Klan back home in Alabama when he was boy; he was moved around staying with various relatives; played with John Lee Hooker for a while; has recorded for about as many blues labels as there are; lived in Europe for a while . . . He's accumulated a lot of life experiences. When the mood... > Read more
Louisiana Red: The Black Bayou
The Verlaines: Corporate Moronic (Dunedin Sound/Yellow Eye)
31 Aug 2009 | 1 min read
The problem with writing songs which have a political intention or address social issues is that these complex matters cannot easily be reduced to lyrics, and so you end up with songs which are slogans (Power to the People) or full of posturing pomposity (the court calls U2). It's in the nature of a three or four minute song that everything comes off as headlines but no story. Graeme Downes... > Read more
The Verlaines: Tomorrow Without You
The Clean: Mister Pop (Arch Hill)
31 Aug 2009 | <1 min read
There has often been a spiralling quasi-psychedelic quality to the Clean, but this time out the mood drops back into a more gentle, thought-provoking, marijuana-ambient sound which recalls moments from guitarist David Kilgour's solo albums. There is a lovely langour to many of these pieces, the long and rolling rhythms, the leisurely pacing and effortless forward momentum. There's a gentle... > Read more
The Clean: In the Dreamlife U Need a Rubber Soul
Dappled Cities: Zounds (Inertia/Border)
30 Aug 2009 | <1 min read
This Sydney-formed band don't lack the grand gesture: this album is chock full of wide screen, sweeping, heroically realised pop-rock noise propelled by massive guitars, strings, the kitchen sink etc. They do however lack consistent and tight songs which might have allowed this to have greater impact (in the manner of Empire of the Sun, Pop Levi, Mika, MGMT and the like) but my impression... > Read more
Dappled Cities: Miniature Atlas
Allen Toussaint: The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch/Warners)
30 Aug 2009 | 1 min read
This godfather and keeper-of-the-keys in New Orleans music has popped up quite a lot recently in a more mainstream popular culture context by appearing on albums with James Hunter and Elvis Costello (The River in Reverse), and would be well known to Elsewhere readers. For this album however (produced by the remarkable Joe Henry) the pianist/arranger goes right back to the early jazz era of... > Read more
Allen Toussaint: West End Blues
Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses: Roadhouse Sun (Lost Highway)
30 Aug 2009 | 1 min read
American singer-songwriter Bingham's voice was so lived in and road-hardened on his debut Mescalito (a Best of Elsewhere 2008 album) that he sounded like a man far beyond his mid-20s. He seemed to have literally lived the rough roadhouse life and whisky bars that others could only suggest they had. You didn't doubt his stories of hard times but this time out with a band (under a... > Read more