Music at Elsewhere
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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
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
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)
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
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
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
Back to Me
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
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
The De Sotos: Cross Your Heart (Ode)
25 Aug 2008 | 1 min read
If CDs are dead as we keep being told you do wonder why people not only keep making them, but also why record companies put so much effort into their expensive packaging -- like this from an Auckland-based band which shaves off a generous slice of Americana country rock (a mighty crowded genre) and wrap it up in an attractive package with a lyric sheet.Well, I guess Ode heard these crisp,... > Read more