Music at Elsewhere
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Over the Rhine: Blood Oranges in the Snow (GSD/Southbound)
12 Jan 2015 | <1 min read
Because this is a Christmas album we should perhaps have mentioned it a few weeks ago. But frankly I'm still trying to hold on -- even this far into adulthood -- to the vague idea that Christmas can be the season of good cheer. Not for these people, obviously. This is seasonal folk-misery from the usually interesting Over the Rhine which is at times hilariously maudlin and kitschy (the... > Read more
Another Christmas
Whitey Morgan and the 78's: Born, Raised and Live from Flint (Bloodshot/Southbound)
5 Jan 2015 | 1 min read
If there's any honkytonk, rockin' country cliche missed by this post-Waylon longhair wildman, it's probably only the one about the dog up'n'dyin'. With his hard rockin' band recorded live before a hometown crowd in Michigan, he ticks off the Cocaine Train, being a bad man on Crazy ("by any other name") and Bad News ("I've been hired and fired and jailed in any town you can... > Read more
Cheatin' Again
IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent releases
29 Dec 2014 | 3 min read
With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up New Zealand artists. Comments will be brief. Here were some that slipped in during the closing overs of this year. Marianne Faithfull; Give My Love to London (Naive): It's easy to argue Ms... > Read more
Man Against Machine
The Chills: The BBC Sessions (Fire/Southbound)
26 Dec 2014 | <1 min read
During their peak in the Eighties -- in '85, '87 and '88 -- various line-ups of the Chills recorded sessions for John Peel's famous radio shows on the BBC. Here collected are all 12 of the songs, and it is a thrill to hear this group/these groups at the top of their game as Martin Phillipps helms them through some classics (Rolling Moon, Brave Words, Night of Chill Blue) and other songs... > Read more
Moonlight on Flesh
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2014: THE READERS' CHOICES
22 Dec 2014 | 7 min read | 3
Okay, as editor of Elsewhere I have had my say on the 30 best albums I wrote about this past year (here) -- while freely conceding I did not, could not, hear everything. Doubtless you heard some music which moved you and wish to tell others about. Here is your chance. You could look at what Elsewhere covered in 2014 if you need some reminders or guidance (just start at this... > Read more
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2014: THE YEAR IN REISSUES
22 Dec 2014 | 2 min read
Just before we consider the best reissues of the year can we just pause for a moment and note that Jimmy Page is the year's most over-rated man: his photo autobiography was a crashing bore (unless you just want pages of an increasingly aging Jimmy playing guitar on page after page) and the Led Zeppelin reissues with additional material did little to enhance their legacy and much to diminish it.... > Read more
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2014: THE EDITOR'S CHOICES
19 Dec 2014 | 10 min read | 1
At a very rough guess Elsewhere probably reviewed or wrote about more than 200 albums in the past year . . . and we certainly didn't get to many excellent ones simply by constraints of time. So what follows are simply the 30 most durable albums from the past year in our opinion. The ones that you could listen to repeatedly . . . as we've done. They aren't “the... > Read more
Dictaphone Blues: Mufti Day (bandcamp)
18 Dec 2014 | 1 min read
Ed Castelow aka Dictaphone Blues is, for Elsewhere's money, one of the most talented, smartest and best pop-rock songwriter/singers at work in this country right now. He's also very funny as he plunders doo-wop (here on the absurd intro to Lance's Tape), writes very witty lyrics and some highly moving ones, latches them to memorable tunes (Her Heart Breaks Like a Wave deserves to be pouring... > Read more
Prepaid Fare
SHORT CUTS: A round-up of recent New Zealand releases
11 Dec 2014 | 2 min read
Facing down an avalanche of releases, requests for coverage, the occasional demand that we be interested in their new album (sometimes with that absurd comment "but don't write about it if you don't like it") and so on, Elsewhere will every now and again do a quick sweep like this. Comments will be brief. The Eastern; The Territory (RPR): Adam McGrath of the Eastern... > Read more
Talking Americana Cowboy Yeeha Blues
Nathan Haines: 5 A Day (Warners)
8 Dec 2014 | 1 min read
In a recent in-depth interview with Elsewhere, Nathan Haines spoke about how hard it was for him and his longtime producer Mike Patto to make this new album. In comments we didn't publish there he said, “we were running up against deadlines and it took a massive toll on our lives”. “I had to stop working because there were a lot of man hours in there. You read... > Read more
Hidden Fortress
ONE WE MISSED: Eyreton Hall: Featherstich (Aeroplane)
5 Dec 2014 | <1 min read | 1
Life, the need to make a living and a trip to Australia meant this exceptionally classy folk-rock and catchy-pop album by Eyreton Hall -- the antipodean duo of Andrew Keegan and Toni Randle slipped right by us when it was released a fornight ago. It is certainly not too late to discover this classy confection which was mostly written near Christchurch and was recorded Auckland by... > Read more
Parachutes
David Bowie: Nothing Has Changed (Parlophone)
5 Dec 2014 | 1 min read
The surprising resurrection of David Bowie with his extremely good The Next Day last year doubtless prompted this retrospective double CD chronological collection (which also comes as an impressively thorough four CD version). There's never been much shortage of Bowie compilations and doubtless the hopeful tipping point for this one is the new single Sue (Or in a Season of Crime) at the end... > Read more
Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)
FleaBITE: The Jungle is Jumping (Border)
5 Dec 2014 | <1 min read
Elsewhere rarely touches children's music (so please don't start sending them) but we have made an exception for Wellington's FleaBITE (Robin Nathan) because her songs are so quirky and when she was Fatcat and Fishface I swear I've referenced Spike Milligan, Yoko Ono, Mary Poppins and reggae when writing about this left-field stuff. This is another such outing with assistance from the... > Read more
Do the Woopsie
Curtis Harding; Soul Power (Warners)
1 Dec 2014 | 1 min read
Back in early June we posted a review of this album under our ONE WE MISSED banner because it had appeared through the indie distributor Southbound the previous month. Well, seems everyone is now playing catch-up because it is out again through Warners and suddenly the reviews are tumbling in. So we'll just re-post what we said five months back . . . This fascinating, genre-defying... > Read more
I Don't Wanna Go Home
Sylvie Simmons: Sylvie (Light in the Attic/Southbound)
1 Dec 2014 | <1 min read
Now in her early 60s, Simmons is acclaimed as one of the finest rock writers who has been a longtime contributor to Mojo (insightful articles, interviews and her Americana column), writing box-set liner notes (Johnny Cash, based on spending a week with him before his death) and for her most recent book, the thorough biography of Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Man. On her lengthy book tour... > Read more
Life Goes Bad
Erlend Oye: Legao (Bubbles)
21 Nov 2014 | <1 min read | 1
So here's how it goes in my Elsewhere world. A few months ago a friend was in Berlin somewhere, saw this guy Erlend Oye and his band, loved it, mentioned Elsewhere to the merchandising person after the gig and . . . Subsequently this CD showed up. "Clearly he seeks world domination," said my pal when I told him. I also told him . . . err, yes, Elsewhere was actually aware of... > Read more
Bad Guy Now
Foxygen: . . . and Star Power (Jagjaguwar)
20 Nov 2014 | 1 min read
There are such a lot of borrowed clothes being donned by this LA duo of Jonathan Rado and Sam France -- plus the various star power pals from Of Montreal, Flaming Lips and others -- that you either laugh at the sheer psychedelic gall of it all. Or play Spot the Source Material. Across two mostly groovy, tripped-out and casually delivered discs Foxygen -- who construct this as a... > Read more
Talk
Miho Wada: Miho's Jazz Orchestra, Live at the Lab (Aeroplane)
19 Nov 2014 | 1 min read | 1
On the occasion of her debut album Postcards to Your Bed in 2010, I expressed considerable reservations about this young flute player who billed her style as "Japanese punk jazz". That seemed a description so wide as to be meaningless, and nothing on the album suggested punk or jazz as I understand them. I also noted her bio made some striking claims: being... > Read more
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Dudley Benson: Deforestation (Golden Retriever)
17 Nov 2014 | 3 min read
Dudley Benson – who recently received a $25,000 New Generation Artist award from Westpac – has a small, and some might say, perfectly formed catalogue. But it is small. By my reckoning there have been just a couple of EPs (see here and here). And just two albums (this and this), some of which included EP material. Then there was the live album... > Read more
Pipiwharauroa (Iso12 remix
Various Artists: A Day in My Mind's Mind; The Kiwi Psychedelic Scene (Frenzy/Real Groovy)
17 Nov 2014 | 2 min read | 1
A few months ago a friend and I were discussing prog-rock -- it had been a long lunch, this topic doesn't come up often -- and I observed there had been very few great prog statements by Kiwi artists in the late Sixties/early Seventies. I suggested prog by its very nature was expensive music to create and perform. He demurred and I bowed to his greater knowledge. For a couple of... > Read more