Music at Elsewhere
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Super Turtle: All Our Friends b/w Never Came Back single (Sarang Bang)
23 Nov 2008 | <1 min read
Elsewhere has previously applauded bands/artists who release vinyl albums and there is still something special about getting that slice of black plastic. So it is only fair to put the spotlight on this Auckland band (fronted by Darren McShane formerly of Chainsaw Masochist) which has gone the 7" single route (fold-out sleeve! manufactured in the Czech Republic) to promote their... > Read more
Super Turtle: Never Came Back
The Whispertown 2000: Swim (Acony)
22 Nov 2008 | <1 min read | 1
This alt.country/indie-pop four-piece from LA will doubtless be an acquired taste: but they are certainly alt.country (Jenny Lewis appeared on their debut which makes sense and they are the first signings on Gillian Welch's label so that means something); they do indie okay (a wee bit of fuzzy guitar) and pop pretty well too (jangle guitars). I'm going to leave it at that: it's an odd... > Read more
The Whispertown 2000: Old Times
The Bats: The Guilty Office (Arch Hill)
22 Nov 2008 | 1 min read | 2
The first time and the last time I saw the Bats (at the dawn of time, at the Big Day Out in . . . 2008?) I loved them. In fact at that BDO gig I thought they were one of the best bands on the bill, they seemed utterly invigorated and quite driven. However I often felt I was enduring rather than enjoying them every time between those two distant points. I recall seeing them at the Gluepot... > Read more
The Bats: CastleLights
Barry Saunders: Zodiac (Ode)
22 Nov 2008 | <1 min read | 1
By my count this is Saunders' fifth solo album, and is by far the strongest from the Warratah frontman. He reaches to the Phoenix Foundation for a downhome(ly) remake of their Going Fishing and his own lyrics are allusive, just specific enough to nail down some hard images ("down at the Kingdom Hall") and the snappy band (which includes guitarist David Long, Nick Brown on violin... > Read more
Barry Saunders: To Roberta
Various by Various: a wrap-up of collections and compilations
22 Nov 2008 | 3 min read | 1
With the season of giving approaching it is also the time when compilations by the dozen start to arrive and take up valuable shelf space in CD stores. As a "service to our readers" here's a look at some. And nope, I cannot lie and say I listened to every track on every album -- sometimes you can just look at a track listing and say "okay, uh-hu, I get it . . ." PAUL... > Read more
Forbidden Joe: Oh, what a queer sensation . . . (FJ)
16 Nov 2008 | 1 min read
This three-piece from Auckland certainly arrive on this five-track EP with a weight of great expectation on their shoulders: singer Frances Dickinson has been hailed by someone on 95bFM as an "up and coming folk superstar" (it would be interesting to have our first) and they -- Dickinson, Emily Giles and Alex Borwick -- are billed as "the wicked new folk sound".... > Read more
Forbidden Joe: The Bulgine Run
Woody Guthrie: Original Folk, The Best of Woody Guthrie (Music Club)
14 Nov 2008 | <1 min read
Judging by the roar of approval when Steve Earle paid tribute to Pete Seeger at his Auckland concert, and the rediscovery of the earthy wisdom and political position of Woody Guthrie by another generation, this double CD of 50 songs (with minimal liner essay) is welcome. Disappointingly it is the abridged version of The Land is Your Land which opens the collection, but elsewhere it corners... > Read more
Woody Guthrie: Talking Dust Bowl Blues
The Mother Truckers: Let's All Go to Bed (Shock)
14 Nov 2008 | <1 min read
This tough Texas country-rock outfit with twangin' guitars, a stupid name and a photo of Led Zepp behind their amps is here because there is a huge pub audience for this kind of Southern barroom rock'n'roll which shaves off a bit of Lynyrd/Black Crowes/The Faces etc and arc welds it to a post-punk version of Stevie Ray Vaughan/Tail Gators etc. Drinkin' music I think we might call it -- but... > Read more
The Mother Truckers: Streets of Atlanta
Rodrigo y Gabriela: Live in Japan (Shock)
14 Nov 2008 | <1 min read | 1
The incendiary Dublin-based acoustic guitar duo out of Mexico that is Rodrigo y Gabriela have redefined what we might mean by "acoustic". As post-punk hard rockers -- and Gabriela capable of hilarious, Ozzy-amounts of profanity in interviews -- they bring that kind of energy and intensity to their playing which is also driven along by using the guitar bodies as percussion... > Read more
Rodrigo y Gabriela: Juan Loco
Lucky Dragons: Dream Island Laughing Language (Mistletone)
9 Nov 2008 | <1 min read
Hmmm, interesting and definitely not for everyone as this LA group (with a very flexible line-up) strip things right back to primitive music-making (handclaps, simple percussion, shakers, flutes, wordless vocal chants) and then edit the results into spare "pieces" which have a neatly minimalist quality. They aren't averse to electronica but it is very subtle. Much of what is here... > Read more
Lucky Dragons: Givers
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: Cardinology (Lost Highway)
9 Nov 2008 | <1 min read | 2
The prolific Adams returns with his longtime band with a collection of songs which are often downbeat and reflective, but have a quietly inspirational quality behind the pains of love and pondering The Big Questions. On Let Us Down Easy, a gentle plea to God to be sympathetic to our weakness, he gets a little gospel feel going -- but at the other end of the spectrum Magick (the weakest cut... > Read more
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: Let Us Down Easy
Lindsey Buckingham: Gift of Screws (Warners)
7 Nov 2008 | 1 min read
Although he came to attention as a (very) soft-rocker with his partner Stevie Nicks in the days before they joined Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham was the one in the group whose music was the most interesting . . . and often challenging. Around the time of Tusk in 79 while Stevie was still crafting those glorious ballads (Sara), Buckingham had heeded what the punks and New Wave were saying and... > Read more
Lindsey Buckingham: Treason
Various artists: Ost Klub, Kapitel 2 (Chat Chapeau)
3 Nov 2008 | <1 min read
The electro-ska Balkan/Russian sound seems to be taking off, what with internationally successful bands like Russkaja, Shukar Collective and Balkan Beat Box, and on the homefront too with the popularity of the Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band, and even The Mamaku Project who have assimilated just a smidgen of gypsy-rock into their sound. It seems the movement is driven out of Vienna and... > Read more
Balkan Beat Box: Hermetico
Body Corporate: Howlaround (KVA004)
3 Nov 2008 | 1 min read
Because I love the guitar landscapes of Explosions in the Sky, the brittle and dramatic widescreen noise of the early Cure/Joy Division, rowdy locals like HDU and Bailterspace, the sonic textures of Brian Eno, and latterly local instrumental outfits like Jakob and An Emerald City, this debut by an Auckland band big on all of those elements grabbed the stereo straight away. Actually, it... > Read more
Body Corporate: Everything Happens for a Reason
Grace Jones: Hurricane (Wall of Sound)
3 Nov 2008 | 1 min read | 4
It has been about 20 years since the formidable Grace Jones menaced us, but she's back and her opening salvo on this typically groove-oriented album is her declaiming "this is my voice, my weapon of choice". And that track This Is marries a Sly'n'Robbie Caribbean sensibility (and sensimilla) with the Serengeti. It is larger than life, much like Jones herself. It's quite... > Read more
Grace Jones: This is
Nick Granville Group: Wishful Thinking (Ode)
1 Nov 2008 | <1 min read | 1
There has been quite a wave of New Zealand jazz in the past few months: reissues of albums by Parallel 37 and Space Case, the new album by Strange Fruit, the schoolboy band Grammaphone . . . And now this very timely outing from a band helmed by guitarist Granville which arrives just after that extraordinary show by saxophonist Joe Lovano and guitarist John Scofield. As with Sco'n'Joe,... > Read more
The Nick Granville Group: Mr Brown
Michael Nesmith: Rio, The Best of Michael Nesmith (Music Club)
1 Nov 2008 | 1 min read
Mike Nesmith was the first to kick against the constraints of being a Monkee: after all he was an established songwriter and proficient guitarist before he scored a role in that Hard Day's Night-styled knockabout tele-comedy -- and his original songs were covered by a number of artists, not the least Different Drum which Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys picked up, and which launched her... > Read more
Ry Cooder:The Ry Cooder Anthology, The UFO Has Landed (Warners)
30 Oct 2008 | 1 min read | 1
Given the length - not to mention the breadth - of his career, this crammed double disc could almost still seem paltry. Cooder has recorded about 30 albums, reached from classic film soundtracks (Paris Texas and The Long Riders) to the Buena Vista Social Club, recorded concept albums (the recent LA trilogy) and pared-back acoustic material. It's quite some length and breadth, but this 34... > Read more
Ry Cooder: Dark End of the Street
Toni Childs: Keep the Faith (MGM)
27 Oct 2008 | 1 min read | 1
I didn't know this until recently, but apparently Toni Childs - who appeared with her impressive debut album Union 20 years ago - was really only big in Australia and New Zealand (she had half a dozen hits on the singles charts here), despite being Grammy-nominated for Union. I certainly remember a sell-out Supertop show and that hit which had the back-of-the-throat line "don't walk... > Read more
Toni Childs:Because You're Beautiful
Alison Moorer: Mockingbird (New Line)
27 Oct 2008 | <1 min read
Moorer has quite some story: she is the younger sister of Shelby Lynne, was 14 at time of the murder-suicide of her parents, her ballad A Soft Place to Fall appeared in The Horse Whisperer and earned her a Grammy nomination, and she is the seventh Mrs Steve Earle (although to be fair to Steve he married Lou-Anne Gill twice) with whom she currently tours. As with Earle - who only appears here... > Read more