Music at Elsewhere
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The Rosie Taylor Project: This City Draws Maps (Bad Sneakers/Ode)
8 Sep 2008 | <1 min read
This six-piece from Leeds have a charming alt.folk/indie.pop thing going which also has one ear on Americana. Okay, you've heard all that before, right? But there is something quite beguiling and emotionally disarming about their understatement, the wee splashes of colour from trumpet and French horn, the haiku-like lyrics ("cut from paper/a line of dolls/drawn-on dresses/ a biroed... > Read more
A Good Cafe on George Street
Various: The Empire Strikes Back! (Glitterhouse)
8 Sep 2008 | 1 min read
Compilations and samplers don't often get a look in at Elsewhere (except for this week I note!) and this double disc stood even less of chance: it arrived about two months ago but after I listened to it and enjoyed it I lost the damn thing down the side of the bookcase. Which is where i found it last week.Ah well, better than . . .This is an excellent collection from the Germany-based... > Read more
Michael J Sheehy: Company Man
Sonny Day: The Collection (Ode)
8 Sep 2008 | <1 min read
It's a shame that it took Sonny Day's death last year to prompt this compilation, as one of this country's great journeyman musicians his career spanned from the early days of rock'n'roll and then through the Beatles/Motown era when he effortless shifted his style, taking in country and soulful material, and in '85 covered Springsteen's little known Saving Up.Sonny Day was a man who moved with... > Read more
Sonny Day: Things Will Be Different (1964)
Everest: Ghost Notes (Vapor/Elite)
8 Sep 2008 | <1 min read | 1
We can make this easy, a kind of tick-the-boxes thing: this LA band of indie.rock-cum-alt.folk people are signed to Neil Young's label (yes, they have a slice of his brittle and stuttering guitar solo-style), have performed alongside or been in bands with John Vanderslice and the Watson Twins (Elsewhere favourites), Sebadoh and Folk Implosion, and they sometimes nod towards mid-period Wilco.If... > Read more
Everest: Reloader
Jonathan Richman: Because Her Beauty is Raw and Wild (Vapor Records)
26 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
Some people know Jonathan Richman for being the singer-songwriter in the terrific New York new wave band The Modern Lovers -- although their "terrific" period was short-lived, in truth just the debut album which was produced by John Cale and spawned the classic songs Modern World (the title track), Pablo Picasso ("never got called an asshole"), Old World, Roadrunner and the... > Read more
Jonathan Richman: No One Was Like Vermeer
Death Vessel: Nothing is Precious Enough For Us (SubPop/Rhythmethod)
26 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
Just bringing this one to your attention because the band name might sound like a warning to many.Nope, this isn't death metal or anything much louder than acoustic guitars (mostly) -- but even if you get past that misconception another may get you.I listened to this right through before I realised that it was actually a man singing, a guy called Joel Thibodeau (the singer/songwriter etc) who... > Read more
Death Vessel: Bruno's Torso
Miracle Mile: Coffee and Stars (Miracle Mile)
26 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
As with the equally wonderful Blue Nile, this UK band (of Marcus Cliffe and Trevor Jones plus guests) take a leisurely approach to albums and only release something when it is refined and ready.Miracle Mile too work the treacherous -- and often casually dismissed -- area of "adult pop", that is music based around memorable and sometimes delicate melodies, and lyrics that don't talk... > Read more
Miracle Mile: Yuri's Dream
Paddy Free: Karekare: Te reo o te whenua (Dub Conspiracy)
26 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
Despite being one of the founding fathers of New Zealand electronica -- in the ambitious multi-media outfit Pitch Black with Mike Hodgson -- Paddy Free is perhaps largely unknown to a new generation of musicians.I believe he makes much of his living off-shore these days and has always struck me as preferring to be out of the spotlight if he isn't performing (which has been infrequent as Hodgson... > Read more
Paddy Free and Richard Nunns: Whai Atu
Eliza Gilkyson: Beautiful World (Red House/Elite)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
Given the tone of some of the 11 songs here -- political disillution, desperate love, a song called The Party's Over and one about the inevitability of the Great Correction -- you'd have to assume the album title is slightly ironic.Yet this Austin-based singer-songwriter never dips into the dark without leaving room for light, and even the aggressive cynicism of the porno prostitute on Dream... > Read more
Eliza Gilkyson: Great Correction
Dr John and the Lower 911: City That Care Forgot (Shock)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
The good Doctor's voice can be an acquired taste and there is no doubt he lost many loyalists when he went schmaltzy and kinda boring in the late 80s/early 90s. It was almost as if he had run his course when he started doing live albums and standards. Now of course this son of New Orleans has plenty to write about post-Katrina, and this album deals to politicians (Time For A Change, Promises... > Read more
Dr John: Time for a Change (with Eric Clapton)
The Fratellis: Here We Stand (Island)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
Last year's debut album Costello Music by this rowdy Glaswegian three-piece didn't make it to Elsewhere because, frankly, I didn't rate it as highly as some. I thought it had many of the problems and few of the advantages that attend a debut. But this follow-up is something else.If Costello Music was firmly in the pop-rock camp with an ear for radio singles then this is more rock-powerpop as... > Read more
The Fratellis: Jesus Stole My Baby
Pete Molinari: A Virtual Landscape (Shock)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
English singer-songwriter Molinari's debut Walking off the Map was a beguiling, blatantly Dylanesque affair which found great favour at Elsewhere -- but this time out he's like a pub quiz: which song am I referencing now?Usually it's Dylan but he lifts shamelessly from Sam Cooke, Hank Williams, the Stones' in 65, young Donovan . . . And you gotta love a nasal line like this: "they all held... > Read more
Pete Molinari: It Came Out of the Wilderness
Hellsongs: Hymns in the Key of 666 (Rhythmethod)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
It happens every now and again, someone turns a genre on its head -- like when Hayseed Dixie makeover hard rock as hoe-down bluegrass, Pat Boone takes metal classics and makes them big band ballads, or Metallica's music gets appropriated by a string quartet.This is familiar stuff, and Laibach taking Let It Be into aggressive martial music is a particular favourite at Elsewhere.So you only need... > Read more
Hellsongs: We're Not Gonna Take It (originally by Twisted Sister)
Silver Jews: Lookout Mountain Look out Sea (UNSpin/EMI)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
This US indie-rock band with loose links to early Pavement might not be to everyone's taste -- but singer-songwriter David Berman's easy blend of the occasional Johnny Cash gravitas in his delivery, his shaggy-dog stories, unexpected metaphors and rhymes, skewed stories and memorable alt.country pop has had this one on steady Elsewhere play at home and in the car (his stories make good... > Read more
Silver Jews: Suffering Jukebox
Pop Levi: Never Never Love (Border)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
Recently Mika and Kylie proved the durability of mindless, glam-pop which comes splattered with glitter and huge choruses, not much in the way of emotional depth and is just a whole heap of mindless fun.Those who criticised the enormously enjoyable Mika (see below) for ripping off Queen rather missed the point -- which was to rip off Queen.Pop Levi is in the same territory: he keeps the songs... > Read more
Pop Levi: Wannamama
Beth Rowley: Little Dreamer (Universal)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read | 1
In the wake of the success of Duffy comes this bluesy singer from Bristol who also possesses a touch of French chanteuse and pop belter in her delivery, is courageous enough to open her debut album with a downbeat version of the old standard Nobody's Fault But Mine (which Led Zepp covered), deliver Dylan's I Shall be Released with a reggae shuffle (not good) and cover Willie Nelson's Angel... > Read more
Beth Rowley: Almost Persuaded
Sigur Ros: Meo suo i eyrum vio spilum endalaust (EMI)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read | 1
The good thing about this being disappointing is that I doubt I'll have to type the album title (which apparently means "with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly") too many times.After their oblique sonic landscapes and the superb CD/DVD Heima, this time out these post-rock Icelandic musicians have gone for more economic "songs" in many places (11 tracks in total) and while... > Read more
Sigur Ros: Ara Batur
The Black Leaf: The Black Leaf (Waht Records)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
We'll start at the start on The Black Leaf and Waht Records: this first posting is of the home-studio debut album by Aucklander Mark Howden (aka The Black Leaf) and from what I read Waht Records began as his PhD project in 2006. It has now branched off into three directions: a studio; a rock band; and Howden in acoustic singer-songwriter mode.This album takes off from the Church/the late... > Read more
Black Leaf: Drawn Tight
Various: Life Beyond Mars. Bowie Covered (Border)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
The ever-increasing pile of tribute albums/covers is so high it is starting to topple under its own weight. Just last week Elsewhere offered the amusing lounge-sweet versions of heavy metal by Hellsongs.Bowie has always been ripe for covers and there have been any number of such projects already: the point of difference here is the obscurity of the bands (only Au Revior Simone, Kelley Polar and... > Read more
Leo Minor: Ashes to Ashes
The Tindersticks: The Hungry Saw (Beggars Banquet)
25 Aug 2008 | <1 min read
Tindersticks frontman Stuart A Staples -- whose solo album Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04 is excellent -- has a rich and soulful baritone which someone said recently reminded them of a more louche and brandy-sodden Roland Gift (if you remember Fine Young Cannibals). Maybe.Bryan Ferry without the over-emoting quaver is a fair call too.Certainly there is a world weariness in this languid, string... > Read more