Music at Elsewhere
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Marie "Queenie" Lyons: Soul Fever (Vampi/Southbound)
20 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
Queenie Lyons was one of the many soul singers from the late 60s/early 70s whose career was as short as it was impressive: one album, this one, and gone. The little that is known about her is this: she came out of Louisiana on the chitlin' circuit, sang with King Curtis' band, and opened for the likes of Jackie Wilson, Fats Domino and James Brown (who may have scored her these 1970 sessions).... > Read more
Marie Queenie Lyons: Daddy's House
Ruia: 12.24 Tekau ma rua, rua tekau ma wha (Tangata)
20 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
I had thought the excellent Tangata label was defunct, but this beautifully packaged album suggests otherwise -- and the soulful reggae-flavoured music by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Hareruia "Ruia" Abraham should ensure the label prospers on the back of this warm and engaging collection. Ruia (who has previously released two albums of Bob Marley songs in Maori) has... > Read more
Ruia: Piki Kake Ake
British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music? (Rough Trade)
13 Apr 2008 | <1 min read | 1
The title of this glisteningly melodic album is doubtless rhetorical -- but these guys also seem to like Brian Wilson's ambitious pop symphonies, ambient music in the manner of Brian Eno, Paul McCartney's better pop ballads, Anglofolk, having mates hauled in to act as a choir, strings . . . So yes, they like rock music -- but aren't straitjacketed by it. They have a way of shifting from... > Read more
British Sea Power: No Lucifer
Tab Benoit with Louisiana Leroux: Night Train to Nashville (Elite)
13 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
Blues singer/guitarist Benoit recorded this album live in Nashville in 2006 with his band Louisiana Leroux the night before he picked up the BB King award for entertainer of the year and best contemporary performer. Guests on stage included Jim Lauderdale, Kim Wilson of the fabulous Thunderbirds and Jimmy Hall of West Willie. Benoit can play up a hurricane but he also has an aching voice on... > Read more
Tab Benoit: Fever for the Bayou
The Quick and the Dead: Heartbreak 365 (Cosmic Federation)
12 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
Elsewhere always has a warm place in its heart for young band full of energy, ideas (if not always original) and enthusiastic execution. And this Auckland three-piece has all those. While I might hear 60s garageband pop-rock, the Clash and Chris Knox -- and a worrying lurch into prog-psychedelia on She Knows -- that doesn't change the fact that this has been taking a hammering once I got... > Read more
The Quick and the Dead: Heartbreak 365
Malcolm Middleton: Sleight of Heart (FullTimeHobby/Rhythmethod)
12 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
This astringent Scottish singer-songwriter and former Arab Strap member appeared at Elsewhere previously with his excellent album A Brighter Beat, the opening track of which was the brittle but bouncy We're All Going To Die. That song was released as a UK single before Christmas last year and started at odds of 1000-1 against becoming Radio 1's Christmas number one. But -- shades of Love... > Read more
Malcolm Middleton: Blue Plastic Bags
Flight of the Conchords: Flight of the Conchords (SubPop)
12 Apr 2008 | <1 min read | 3
Comedy albums are usually good for two plays. Tops. But this collection of songs which parody artists (Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, the Stylistics among them) or genres (hip-hop, 70s soul) is astute, cleverly produced and so lyrically and musically layered that it has been commanding airplay around my place in the weeks since the advance copy arrived. And in the car too. Most of these tracks are... > Read more
Flight of the Conchords: Hiphopopotamus vs Rhymenoceros
The Rolling Stones: Shine A Light (Universal)
12 Apr 2008 | 1 min read
Some might say that the last thing the world needs right now is another live Stones collection. After all Get Yer Ya Ya's Out (released a whopping 38 years go!) is the hardcore fan's classic, and we've had Love You Live, Still Life, Flashpoint, Stripped and No Security since. And it was only four years ago that we had Live Licks, a sort-of-greatest hits done live. But the selling... > Read more
The Rolling Stones: Paint It Black
The Happy Prince by the La De Das (EMI reissue, 2005)
6 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
Most people remember Auckland's La De Das for classic r'n'b 60s rock such as How is the Air Up There? and Don't You Stand in My Way, two songs which established them as the Rolling Stones of our hometown. There was much more to them, but this album seemed to pass most people by. Even before Pete Townshend wrote Tommy, band members Bruce Howard and Trevor Wilson were talking of a... > Read more
The La De Das: Lullaby
Caroline Herring, Lantana (Signature)
6 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
To my embarrassment I admit to never having heard of this alt.country singer-songwriter, now onto (I think) her third album. Apparently she won the best new artist award at Austin's South X Southwest Festival in 2002 and I imagine she has picked a few awards and many fans since. She's won me with this one, her pure Baez-like vocals, the crisp and clear arrangements for pedal steel, fiddle... > Read more
Caroline Herring: Paper Gown
White Swan Black Swan: Castle of Useless Junk, (Arch Hill)
6 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
This five-song EP by the Auckland duo of Ben Howe and Sonya Waters is a charming little collection: a little bit alt.country, a little bit alt.pop. Considered and quiet -- and needlessly modest. Check their label www.archhill.co.nz (Good website all round) > Read more
Black Swan White Swan: Orange & Brown
North Mississippi Allstars: Hernando (Songs of the South)
5 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
These Allstars aren't really, but two of them are the sons of the great James Luther Dickinson whose last album was one of the Best of Elsewhere 2007: a swirling implosion of country, psychedelic rock, blues and cornmash liquor. The boys haven't fallen too far from the tree but sometimes bring a swag more gritty psychedelic blues into the picture here and you'd be forgiven for thinking some... > Read more
North Mississippi Allstars: Soldier
The Calico Brothers: God Left Town EP (Ode)
5 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
As with the Traveling Wilburys these "brothers" (three, a cousin and a friend) all share the coincidence of the same surname, "Calico". And as with the Wilburys they also share a love of clearly rendered country-pop pushed by acoustic guitars, distinctive vocals and memorable melodies. This six-song EP (I leave it up to you to figure out who some of these Aucklanders... > Read more
The Calico Brothers: Hundred and One
An Emerald City, An Emerald City (Monkey Records)
5 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
This extraordinary four-track EP by an Auckland band which is long on instrumental elegance and very short on pretention is a diamond, and like a precious gem you can turn it many ways and appreciate different refractions. These swooning, grand and widescreen instrumentals have something in common with the great US band Explosions in the Sky but they also have a more exotic element through... > Read more
An Emerald City: A Thousand Stars At Night
Beck: Odelay Deluxe Edition (Universal)
1 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
This cornerstone album from '96 confirmed that Beck was going to be something much more than the one-hit wonder for Loser and even the "Dylan of his generation" as some writers had it. Odelay was good enough in itself to stand some kind of re-issue/repackaging, but this Deluxe Edition (some unreleased tracks, another disc of remixes and a dozen B-sides, big booklet of lyrics,... > Read more
Beck: Thunder Peel Extra track)
REM, Accelerate (Warners)
1 Apr 2008 | <1 min read
Yes, REM are a Very Big Band Indeed and so you will doubtless be reading reviews of this in many other places -- but the reason it also gets a showing at Elsewhere where they keep company with rather more obscure artists is because I have faithfully bought every REM album in the past decade and have been mostly disappointed. But Accelerate vindicates the faith. The criticisms of it are... > Read more
REM: Mr Richards
Stephen Malkmus and Jicks: Real Emotional Trash (UNSpin)
26 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
With guitar playing that slips from Blue Cheer's fuzzy density to Television's ethereal astral flights, lyrics that typically defy interpretation, and some of Neil Young's intensity this is quite some statement by the former Pavement frontman who here takes his tight band through everything from driving and economic prog-rock to almost alt.country-rock moods. This is music that you simply... > Read more
Stephen Malkmus and Jicks: Hopscotch Willie
Elbow: The Seldom Seen Kid (Mag)
25 Mar 2008 | 1 min read | 3
Back in 2001 Elbow were shortlisted for Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize for their debut album Asleep in the Back* and for my money it has all been up since then, although I suspect sales haven't followed accordingly. They are a cult name in New Zealand (mid-sized cult however) and a band that is too easy to let slip past you. But they are musically unconstrained (Led Zepp who went from... > Read more
Elbow: An Audience with the Pope
The Magnetic Fields: Distortion (Nonesuch)
25 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
Okay, this is wilful on the part of Magnetic Fields' mainman Stephin Merritt and myself. On his part because here the wunderkind of US pop-rock saturates everything in feedback and distortion (hence the album title) -- and on my part because this album won't be easy to find in New Zealand (if you wanted to, that is). But I include it here largely to point to the Essential Elsewhere album... > Read more
The Magnetic Fields: Till the Bitter End
Eilen Jewell: Boundary County
25 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
Jewell appeared on Elsewhere a few weeks back (see tag) with her second album Letters From Sinners & Strangers -- but this debut from 2006 is actually much better, and it seems to have been given local release on the back of interest in that more recent one. Where Sinners/Strangers has a jazzy shuffle in places, this one is more firmly in the alt.country camp and her lazy, slightly... > Read more