Music at Elsewhere
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Bettye LaVette and Drive-By Truckers: The Scene of the Crime (Anti) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007
29 Sep 2007 | <1 min read
This is an unexpected pairing: soul-singer LaVette with alt-country rockers Drive-By Truckers recording in Muscle Shoals in Alabama. A marriage made in heaven (or a somewhat hotter place) as it turns out: the band are edgy or supportive and nudge LaVette (who needs little prompting it must be said) through a collection of gritty songs which either jump out of the speakers or drag you into... > Read more
Bettye LaVette and Drive-By Truckers: I Still Want to be Your Baby
Tunng: Good Arrows (Full Time Hobby)
29 Sep 2007 | <1 min read
This Anglofolk-cum-indie altpop outfit were a previous Elsewhere pick with their beguiling and sometimes baffling Comments of the Inner Chorus. At time they sound like the Incredible String Band without the fey folksiness, at others like the Beta Band (a good thing) or the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, or evoke hot Hawaiian beaches beside a dark English forest, or seduce you with a gorgeous melody... > Read more
Tunng: Bricks
Tim Gane and Sean O'Hagan: La Vie d'Artiste (Too Pure)
29 Sep 2007 | <1 min read
In the long and ever-changing list of "favourite bands" two names come up for me consistently, Stereolab and the criminally ignored High Llamas whose Sean O'Hagan was doing Brian Wilson better than Wilson was for over a decade. Soundtracks in the absence of seeing or knowing much about the movie can be difficult affairs, but with Stereolab's Gane and O'Hagan penning the music for... > Read more
Tim Gane and Sean O'Hagan: Yoko Johnson
Various: Bowiemania (Naive)
29 Sep 2007 | <1 min read
Compiled by the French arranger/sound artist Beatrice Ardisson, this wayward collection of people covering Bowie songs is as enjoyable as it is uneven: but even the weaker moments hold considerable appeal. They are hardly household names here (Microsillion, Rhonda Harris, Los Chicros) but some are so engaging you might want to hear more from them (Medi and the Medicine Show's take on Rebel... > Read more
Yann Tierson and the Divine Comedy: Life on Mars
Patti Smith: Twelve
17 Sep 2007 | <1 min read
Even in Smith's often unpredictable career this is unexpected: a covers album which includes Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule The World? Its very straight treatment is equally surprising. You'd expect her to tear through it with righteous indignation but no, she delivers it as the bouncy pop ballad it always was. But better is elsewhere: her drawling treatment of... > Read more
Linda Thompson; Versatile Heart (Decca) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007
2 Sep 2007 | 1 min read
Few would make the mistake of coming to Anglo-folk legend Thompson for their jollies -- but even the well-prepared might gulp at the melacholy mood in which this is suffused. While the country twangin' foot-tapper Do Your Best For Rock'n Roll includes the promising line "take me to a bar" it ends with "and leave me there to die". That's pretty typical on an album where... > Read more
Linda Thompson: Beauty (with Antony)
Over The Rhine: The Trumpet Child (RedEye/Southbound)
2 Sep 2007 | 1 min read
When this Cincinnati-based duo came to New Zealand 18 months ago I did an interview with them and noted they were receiving media interest more befitting Really Big Stars: lining up for a chat were the Herald; Kim Hill; the Listener and student radio; and there was an intimate gig before well-placed radio and retail people. Not that they didn't deserve the attention, because over a series... > Read more
Over the Rhine: Nothing Is Innocent
Mist & Sea: Unless (PopFrenzy/Rhythmethod)
1 Sep 2007 | <1 min read
Because of the Pop Frenzy label's track record at Elsewhere -- pop delights posted by the much recommended Clientele, Radio Dept and Camera Obscura, and even recently the amusing David Vandevelde with his T.Rex manoeuvres -- anything on the label get an early audition. Hell, this is the label that has the bleakly amusing and very wonderful Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. This... > Read more
Mist & Sea: Like A Vampire
David Vandervelde: The Moonstation House Band (PopFrenzy/Rhythmethod)
26 Aug 2007 | <1 min read
Well, if Noel Gallagher is allowed to wake up and think he's John Lennon, and Mika can channel the pop-tart spirit of Freddie Mercury, then why shouldn't this 22-year old rocker from Chicago be T. Rex for our listening pleasure? To be fair this album does offer a little more than mere retro manoeuvres (but only a little more) -- however if you haven't heard T. Rex in a wee while this might... > Read more
David Vandervelde: Nothin Mo
Steve Earle: Washington Square Serenade (NewWest/Elite)
26 Aug 2007 | 1 min read
A decade after Bob Dylan washed up in Greenwich Village, Steve Earle left his home in Texas and started on the same journey -- inspired, he admits, by the cover photo on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan which showed the skinny Bob and his girlfriend Suze huddling on a wind-whipped street. Earle (see tag for interviews, album reviews) never made it past Nashville on that attempt but the thought of... > Read more
Steve Earle: Tennessee Blues
Richard Hawley: Lady's Bridge (Mute) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007
25 Aug 2007 | <1 min read | 1
If you believed what you read in the British press about this album by former Longpigs and Pulp guitarist you'd probably cross the street to avoid it. Distance lends us a better view I suspect, because Hawley's swooning croon (which at various times brings to mind Morrissey, Scott Walker, Roy Orbison and others with rich, dark and melodic voices) is utterly entrancing, and this reflective... > Read more
Richard Hawley: Lady's Bridge
Midge Marsden: Travel'n Time (Liberation)
25 Aug 2007 | <1 min read
The success of this Acoustic Series in Australia -- where the likes of Deisel sat down to play stripped back versions of their songs -- has been successfully adopted here with similarly conceived albums by Hello Sailor and Hammond Gamble, the latter reminding you just what a great singer, songwriter and guitarist he is. With any luck this album should do the profile-elevating for Marsden... > Read more
Midge Marsden: Little Ray
Holly Cole: Holly Cole (Alert)
18 Aug 2007 | <1 min read
Cole is the dark mistress of jazz-noir which probably sounds best in an ill-lit nightclub as you are waiting for Bogie and Bacall to drop in. That kind of smoke-filled and evocative music. Alley Cat Song is a typical Cole title. With a terrific band (which includes Gil Goldstein on piano, Marty Ehrlich and Lenny Pickett on saxes, and bassist Greg Cohen) Cole drags the notes lazily, oozes... > Read more
Holly Cole: The House Is Haunted By The Echo of Your Last Goodbye
Pete Seeger: American Favourite Ballads Vol 5 (Folkways/Elite)
18 Aug 2007 | <1 min read
Now closing in on 90, Seeger has had a great deal of attention lately: first Martin Scorsese's film on Dylan to '66 included interviews with him, and then Springsteen raided Pete's vast catalogue for his recent studio album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. He was also nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by an e-mail petition. Seeger's contribution to American popular culture has not just... > Read more
Pete Seeger: Sioux Indians
Martin Craft: Silver and Fire (Longtime Listener/Rhythmethod)
18 Aug 2007 | <1 min read
Okay, let's just hear what the British press had to say about this, the debut album from an Australian singer-songwriter now living in London. "Simply captivating" --- The Sun "A refreshing breeze to ruffle all preconceptions" -- Time Out "Divine!" -- The Observer "Pop never had it so good" -- The Fly "Fantastic" -- Vice You... > Read more
Martin Craft: Snowbird
Bat For Lashes: Fur and Gold (UNSpin/EMI)
11 Aug 2007 | <1 min read | 1
From the opening track with its repeated ripples of minimalism, the ethereal vocals, a sense of eerie strings and theremin-like synth, and the barely suppressed sense of urgency you know that something very special is in store from this oddly-named UK outfit which is the vehicle for singer/multi-instrumentalist/visual artist Natasha Khan. That sense of quiet drama, repressed emotion,... > Read more
Bat For Lashes: Horse and I
The Nextmen: This Was Supposed To Be The Future (Antidote/Elite)
10 Aug 2007 | <1 min read
This is a real meltown and mash-up of styles, yet somehow it works as a guest list which includes soul diva Alice Russell, various Jamaican DJs and toasters join the producers/songwriting/remix duo of Dom Search and Brad Baloo (who are the Nextmen) for a sonic colour chart which lopes from chantdown dancefloor to sultry soul and beyond. On paper it shouldn't work but what is here sounds... > Read more
The Nextmen: Tuffen Up
Joe Henry; Civilians (Anti/Shock) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007
10 Aug 2007 | <1 min read
With a small band, and guests Bill Frisell (on guitar) and Van Dyke Parks (piano), the much ignored Henry continues his singular path which owes a little to a less grumbly Tom Waits but remains properly in the singer-songwriter tradition with nods to folk and the blues. Here are classically-framed ballads (You Can't Fail Me Now) and songs with social and political resonance (Civil War, the... > Read more
Joe Henry: You Can't Fail Me Now
Josh Rouse: Country Mouse, City House (Bedroom Classics)
10 Aug 2007 | 1 min read
Rouse has an interesting record collection: we know this because for a few albums -- notably 1972 which nodded to Seventies singer-songwriters, and Nashville which raided 80s pop, rock and indie music -- have sounded like a man rummaging through his musical closet for new clothes to wear. It's fair to say his best album was Under Cold Blue Stars of 2002 and while those two mentioned... > Read more
Josh Rouse: London Bridges
Various; Contemporary New Zealand Poets In Performance (AUP) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007
10 Aug 2007 | <1 min read
This second volume of an excellent series (with CDs) of New Zealand poets reading their own work came from Auckland University Press and was edited by Jack Ross and Jan Kemp. It followed the previous volume, Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance. This one includes poems by Bernadette Hall, Sam Hunt, Bill Manhire, Ian Wedde, Keri Hulme, David Eggleton, Iain Sharp and others. A worthy and... > Read more