Music at Elsewhere
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David Gilmour: Live in Gdansk (SonyBMG)
5 Oct 2008 | 1 min read
Although perhaps only the most dedicated Pink Floyd fan might want this double disc (or the double CD-double DVD version, or the collectors edition which is a five disc set!) let's get a little focus on this exceptional guitarist and his place in the pantheon. From the moment he joined Pink Floyd and more so immediately the band had cut loose Syd Barrett, Gilmour proved to be a player unlike... > Read more
David Gilmour: Astronomy Domine
Reb Fountain: Holster (Fountain)
5 Oct 2008 | <1 min read | 1
This Auckland-based singer-songwriter impressed Elsewhere greatly with her debut Like Water, but this album is a real step up on every front, from the elaborate and evocative cover art, through the supportive musicianship from the likes of Sam Prebble (aka Bond Street Bridge), Dylan Storey, Simon Gooding and others. But with Fountain writing everything and playing guitars everywhere, this... > Read more
Reb Fountain: Wrecking Ball
Rodney Crowell: Sex and Gasoline (Shock)
1 Oct 2008 | 1 min read | 1
Crowell's 2001 album The Houston Kid -- hard-won narratives in passingly autobiographical songs - hinted that he was getting a late-career second wind after some pretty indifferent albums in the late 80s/90s. This album confirms that, after The Outside of 2005, his songwriting and story-telling skills certainly haven't deserted him and in fact when it comes to crafting a bitter... > Read more
Rodney Crowell: The Rise and Fall of Intelligent Design
Dub Asylum: Ba Ba Boom! EP (www.dubasylum.co.nz)
1 Oct 2008 | <1 min read | 1
If I've been tardy getting to this terrific EP of beats, hip-hop meets reggae culture, and much more it's that I have been so busy backloading the archives. But let it be said that in downtime from that seemingly endless - but endlessly enjoyable - task I have been cranking these five tracks up way, way loud. Largely the sole project of former Hallelujah Picassos-man Peter McLennan these... > Read more
Dub Asylum: Ba Ba Boom!
Salmonella Dub with the NZSO: Feel the Seasons Change (Virgin)
30 Sep 2008 | 1 min read
To be honest, I have always been vaguely suspicious of the rock-meets-orchestra thing. For a kick-off I wonder who such events/albums are made for. But then again I had Deep Purple's terrible Concerto for Group and Orchestra as a formative experience and have since listened to various orchestras attack rock songs, and have found very little of interest in those much bannered symphonic... > Read more
Salmonella Dub and the NZSO: Love Sunshine and Happiness
Frightened Rabbit: The Midnight Organ Fight (FatCat/Rhythmethod)
30 Sep 2008 | <1 min read
This three-piece from Glasgow have an urgent delivery which puts you in mind of the Waterboys at their best, but of course this is very Scottish. Tossed out with garage band energy and a rare passion, they sound like they could play local halls to mature audiences (the charming Old Old Fashioned) as well as post-punk clubs where a wee bit o' headbuttin' wouldn't be uncommon. Driven by an... > Read more
Frightened Rabbit: Fast Blood
Bill Frisell Band: Lookout For Hope (ECM)
26 Sep 2008 | 1 min read
It would be a brave or foolish person who tried to give a snapshot of the career of this guitarist in just a few short sentences: so here goes a fool. Frisell came out of the Midwest (so there's some country, widescreen sensibilities and folk for you) and studied at Berklee with Jim Hall (some straight jazz into the mix). He became an integral player in the New York Downtown scene with... > Read more
Bill Frisell Band: Little Brother Bobby (1988)
Fatcat and Fishface: The Bestest and Horriblest Songs for Children (Jayrem)
26 Sep 2008 | <1 min read | 2
We here at Elsewhere don't disapprove of children (three, and a full stop) but rarely want to be subjected to kids' music which can actually be worse than tweenies music for sheer mindless repetition. But in the spirit of being a good citizen I bring this amusing item to your attention if you have people in your house you wouldn't let near a toaster with a fork, or your DVD player. Know... > Read more
Fatcat and Fishface: Favourite Undies
Yule: Aaaarrrggh!!! (Scandal Street)
26 Sep 2008 | 1 min read
"Interesting" is a word which suspends judgement ("Do you like my new dress?" "Hmmm, it's interesting") but to say that this debut album by a young New Zealand singer-songwriter who seemed to have done his apprenticeship in flats in Grey Lynn and Dunedin is "interesting" means that it is of genuine interest. He opens with a lo-fi complaint about... > Read more
Yule: Night Night
Fripp and Eno: Beyond Even; 1992-2006 (Opal/Southbound)
23 Sep 2008 | <1 min read
As mentioned in the previous posting of the Travis and Fripp album, when guitarist Fripp got into the studio alongside musician-without-portfolio Brian Eno for the albums Evening Star and No Pussyfooting in the early 70s a particular magic was created. Not ambient music (that was to follow from Eno) but more like music as an emotional landscape -- and if that's a description somewhat... > Read more
Fripp & Eno: Triploli 2020
Robert Wyatt: This Summer Night (Domino)
21 Sep 2008 | <1 min read
If you didn't know Wyatt and came to this soulful, slightly funky and utterly charming single by Robert Wyatt -- released in advance of the reissue of nine of his albums -- you'd never think this was the same man who delivered the definitive version of Elvis Costello's anti-Falklands War classic Shipbuilding; or that he is a lifelong socialist and has albums with The Red Flag and Trade... > Read more
Robert Wyatt: This Summer Night
The Weather: Aroha Ave (Powertools)
18 Sep 2008 | 1 min read
The singer and songwriter behind the Weather is Matthew Bannister, formerly of Sneaky Feelings who drew their inspiration and aspiration from the pantheon of classic pop (Beatles, Beach Boys) and reputable country (the Louvin Brothers). And that meant they were isolated in the middle of Velvet-influenced bands and noisy neighbours on the Flying Nun label. After three fine albums the Sneakies... > Read more
The Weather: Ask Anyone
Little Feat and Friends: Join the Band (429/Shock)
18 Sep 2008 | <1 min read
That Little Feat survived the death of founder Lowell George back in 79 wasn't so surprising. Much as George was the charismatic, stoned frontman there was no denying that this was a band of stunning musicians. They took time out after George's death -- a decade almost -- but their re-formation was somehow inevitable. Naturally their critics will tell you that the version touring these days... > Read more
Little Feat: Champion of the World (with Jimmy Buffett)
Josh Rouse: Best of the Ryko Years, 1995-2005 (Ryko/Elite)
18 Sep 2008 | <1 min read | 2
Some artists may always be the private passion of a few, and you sense this American singer-songwriter is hailed by some and utterly unfamiliar to most, many of whom would like him if they only knew. Rouse has been a regular at Elsewhere and his albums like Under Cold Blue Stars (02), the slightly troublking 1972 (of 03 when some said he'd retreated into LA-lite pop) and the terrific... > Read more
JOsh Rouse: Miserable South
Larry Jon Wilson; Larry Jon Wilson (1965 Records)
16 Sep 2008 | 1 min read | 1
Strange though it may seem that in the same week Elsewhere gives a heads-up to the forthcoming album by the formidable Grace Jones, we also acknowledge this positively ancient country-folk singer. But Elsewhere has always found a place for the likes of Wilson, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and others in their 60s and beyond. Wilson won't be a familiar name -- his last album was a whopping 28... > Read more
Larry Jon Wilson: Heartland
Various: While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Universal)
12 Sep 2008 | <1 min read | 1
There's a lot wrong with this double disc compilation: the title track is from the late Jeff Healy not by its author George Harrison; Thin Lizzy's Still in Love With You is the studio version rather than the far superior live one; you get soft-rockers Bread (Guitar Man) and Matthews' Southern Comfort (Woodstock) jammed between Fleetwood Mac's Black Magic Woman and Peter Frampton's live Show Me... > Read more
Doobie Brothers: Long Train Running
Stereolab: Chemical Chords (4AD)
12 Sep 2008 | <1 min read
Last week, for reasons too embarrassing to explain, we went on a brief bender of Roger Moore's Bond films. Awful, slow, wooden and guaranteed to have you asleep on the couch within 20 minutes. Anyway, my suspicion is that Stereolab might have been doing much the same at some point because there are a few tracks here which could have stepped neatly out of those soundtracks as incidental music... > Read more
Stereolab: Daisy Click Clack
Carrie Rodriguez: She Ain't Me (Manhattan)
12 Sep 2008 | <1 min read
This alt.country/rock singer out of Austin and Berklee College of Music in Boston came to attention with her 2006 solo album Seven Angels on a Bicycle which won great praise from the likes of Lucinda Williams and Elsewhere for its melodic darkness delivered by Rodriguez in a voice pitched somewhere between innocence and experience. And she brought a Williams-like world weariness to some of the... > Read more
Carrie Rodriguez: Mask of Moses
Atlas Sounds: Let the Blind Lead Those Who See But Cannot Feel (Rhythmethod)
12 Sep 2008 | <1 min read
This is either a strange coincidence or some weird serendipity -- but this solo album by Brandford Cox of the Atlanta band Deerhunter sounds like it has been made after he eavesdropped on my listenings in the past few weeks: a bit of JPSE's widescreen fuzzypop from Bleeding Star as filtered through Fripp & Eno's tonal landscapes, plus a colouring of Eno's moonscape Apollo, a seasoning of... > Read more
Atlas Sounds: Cold as Ice
The Dutchess and the Duke: She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke (Rhythmethod)
8 Sep 2008 | 1 min read
About 20 years ago there was a short-lived but interesting "new folk" movement which emerged out of New York's Downtown. Following the success of Michelle Shocked's Texas Campfire Tapes ('86) came Roger Manning, Cindy Lee Berryhill and Kirk Kelly who sometimes rapped like Beat poets, pulled in a fair swag of young Dylan and Woody Guthrie, and dressed like they were auditioning for... > Read more