Music at Elsewhere

The X-Rays; Booze'n'Speed (Cargo/Southbound)

18 Nov 2013 | <1 min read

Umm, you can perhaps guess the sound of the contents here from the album title alone, but if you need more clues then here are some of the titles of the 26 flat-tack, lo-fi songs: Nitro Burnout, Hittin' the Booze, Trashed Out, Good for Nothing, Dragstrip Killer, Arrogant Fucked-Up Shit, Don't Fear the Repoman (that's funny), Grease Monkety Go, Special Agent Whore . . . We could go on (right... > Read more

Trashed Out

Various Artists: Legendary Wild Rockers 3 (BBE)

17 Nov 2013 | <1 min read

After the previous, somewhat unhinged collection of late Fifties/early Sixties garage rockabilly and surf rock this one counts as something of a disappointment. Across 20 songs -- compiled by UK DJs Keb DeBarge and Little Edith -- there are of course a few standouts (the B-grade horror of I'm The Wolf Man by Round Robin, the weird cat screech on Geraldine by Ole Miss Down Beats, the... > Read more

The Raging Sea

Various Artists: George Harrison's Jukebox (Chrome Dreams/Triton)

13 Nov 2013 | 1 min read

Although no one would seriously argue that people should have fewer choices, it's interesting to observe that before the balkanisation of radio into genres and demographics which ensured audiences would ony listen to music that was narrowly focused, most people before the Seventies grew up listening to a wide range of songs. Because in the Fifties and Sixties one radio station would have to... > Read more

Raunchy (1957)

The Courtneys: The Courtneys (Conquest of Noise/Flying In)

12 Nov 2013 | <1 min read

Dunno about you, but sometimes when you've heard enough polished pop you just want a bit of fun-infused, lo-fi, unschooled but thoroughly enjoyable pop-rock where fast strummed, chiming guitars and simple drumming are about as sophisticated as it gets. Enter then this trio from Vancouver -- Courtney Loove (sic), Sydney Koke, Jen Tynne Payne -- who might just have quite a number of Clean and... > Read more

Manion

Tumbleweed: Sounds from the Other Side (Shock)

11 Nov 2013 | <1 min read

Wollongong's loud and hairy Tumbleweed enjoyed a decent reputation here in the Nineties on the back of a couple of fine albums (notably their self-titled debut of 92) and some live showings which confirmed their reputation as the post-psychedelic hard rock band for stoners who liked to party. Although they went through periods of inactivity and had some line-up changes, the good news... > Read more

ESP

Tiny Lies: The Oaks They Will Bow (Lyttelton/Southbound)

11 Nov 2013 | <1 min read

Not to be confused with Tiny Ruins (Hollie Fullbrook), this Lyttelton-based duo of Harley Williams and Charlotte Ivey here deliver a debut album of dark and often bittersweet country-folk embellished by lap steel (from labelmate Delaney Davidson), violin (Anita Clark), pedal steel (John Egenes) and other appropriately evocative instruments. Ivey's melodic harmonica playing brings a... > Read more

Old Heart

RECOMMENDED DIGITAL REISSUE: Golden Harvest; Golden Harvest

11 Nov 2013 | 1 min read

With six out of 10 music purchases now being downloads, Elsewhere is happy to recommend albums now available on iTunes which have no physical release (or which may be hard to find or prohibitively expensive). The good people at www.recordedmusic.co.nz who look after licensing, copyright and so forth have a major project underway of trying to get every New Zealand album up online and... > Read more

All Along the Watchtower

Robert Ellis: Photographs (New West)

10 Nov 2013 | <1 min read

Although this album was released two years ago, we bring it to attention now because Ellis from Texas is appearing in Auckland this coming week (details below) and it's never too late to discover a country singer who frequently comes off like a softer version of George Jones. In many ways he is very traditional and also in the lineage of Randy Travis, although there's as much of the LA... > Read more

Westbound Train

Arcade Fire: Reflektor (Sonovox)

10 Nov 2013 | 1 min read | 1

In these times when artists stick with an identifiable sound (Gee, what might the next Coldplay album sound like?) you don't expect anyone to offer a reviewer that humorous line, "Hope you like our new direction?" So it's hats off then to Arcade Fire who here across a double disc get in touch with their inner Eighties and at times conjure up the spirits of Tears For Fears/Duran... > Read more

It's Never Over

Nightmares on Wax: Feelin' Good (Warp)

9 Nov 2013 | <1 min read

Now this is downbeat electronica which effortlessly keeps the beats and pulses moving, but also puts the trip-hop in the same emotional space as touches of reggae (Now is the Time) and the electro-glitch stuff (the very cool Tapestry). NoWax is George Evelyn (first signing to the now legendary English label Warp) and although much of this can drift past you in the manner of the best... > Read more

Luna 2

The Beatles: On Air - Live at the BBC Vol 2 (Universal)

8 Nov 2013 | 2 min read

Just as the Beatles enjoyed that long and rare association with producer George Martin and EMI's Abbey Road studios, so too they had a mutually beneficial relationship with the BBC. The "Beeb" as it is affectionately knows may have been the conservative face of British broadcasting, but it was also aware of its mandate to represent a wide cross-section of British tastes and... > Read more

I'm Talking About You (March 1963)

Barrence Whitefield and The Savages: Dig Thy Savage Soul (Bloodshot/Southbound)

4 Nov 2013 | <1 min read | 2

On the bruising evidence of this album – the energy of British pub-rock in a noisy collision with bluesy Chicago-soaked rock'n'soul – you'd probably crawl across broken booze bottles to see them live. This, the third album by this re-formed (but not reformed) band from Boston, finds classic rock and soul shouter Whitfield in roaring form in front of the band helmed by... > Read more

Bread

David Dallas: Falling into Place (Dirty/Universal)

4 Nov 2013 | 1 min read

In times to come when collections of contemporary New Zealand poetry are written (if not published in the form we have been used to), you'd like to think recent lyrics by Miriam Clancy, Moana Maniapoto, the Veils, Dubious Brothers, Lorde and people like Mareko will be in there as a reflection of who we are/were. And I'd be astonished -- if not outraged -- if lyrics from this sometimes... > Read more

Southside

Males: Run Run Run/MalesMalesMales (Fishrider)

3 Nov 2013 | <1 min read | 1

Attuned to elevating West Coast USA pop – with a twist of power-pop in the manner of the close-harmony Shoes – this Dunedin duo here add an early single (the likably chipper, slightly New Wave So High) and last year's MalesMalesMales EP to a new EP Run Run Run. The result is an economic nine-song collection of mostly brightly summertime pop cramming a lot of melodic hooks... > Read more

Madeline

Blackfield: Blackfield IV (Kscope/Southbound)

2 Nov 2013 | <1 min read

This century has seen the rehabilitation of prog-rock. Generations which weren't around for punk's late Seventis scorched-earth policy towards progressive tendencies are finding something in thoughtful, musically interesting and vaguely philosophical prog. Contemporary prog is often more economic, sometimes hauls in elements from metal as much as whiffily pretentious poetics, and the... > Read more

Firefly

Bond Street Bridge: The Explorers Club: Antarctica (Banished from the Universe)

28 Oct 2013 | <1 min read

Auckland's Sam Prebble of Bond Street Bridge admits to something approaching obsession after reading about Robert Falcon Scott's fatal expedition to the South Pole in 1912. Immersing himself in Scott's diary, books about the journey (they arrived at the South Pole to find Norwegian Roald Amundsen had beaten them) and looking at photographs of brave but doomed men in that aridly icy... > Read more

The Wreck of the Endurance

Paul McCartney: NEW (Universal)

21 Oct 2013 | 1 min read

After his previous pop-rock album Memory Almost Full six years ago which included songs that seemed to be farewells or self-penned eulogies (“On the day that I die I'd like bells to be rung . . .”), this one by 71-year old McCartney comes with a title that exudes capital letter optimism and in a cover radiating assurance. Working with smart young producers (Paul Epworth... > Read more

Appreciate

Julian Cope: Revolutionary Suicide (Head Heritage/Southbound)

21 Oct 2013 | 1 min read

When Julian Cope emerged in the late Seventies/early Eighties as the singer-writer with the often thrilling and melodramatic Liverpool band Teardrop Explodes, few could have guessed -- perhaps not even Cope himself -- what a life he would make for himself. He has written knowledgeably and with passion on Krautrock and Japanese rock, was very early on an advocate for the rediscovery of Scott... > Read more

Paradise Mislaid

Gareth Edwards: Nowhere To Go Nothing To Do (garethedwards.co.nz)

20 Oct 2013 | <1 min read

Although few -- actually none -- would hail UK-born singer-songwriter Edwards as an exciting new voice in New Zeaand music, his unpretentious and often rather simple take on country-rock and pop has some charm for the ordinariness of his worldview which takes straight shots at just hanging around, relationships and a laid-back existence. On the singalong Friends he sings; "Where would... > Read more

Sitting in the Sun

Tamikrest: Chatma (Glitterbeat/Southbound)

14 Oct 2013 | <1 min read

More than a decade ago what became known as “Sahara blues” or “desert blues” -- the mesmerising sound of mercurial guitar, drone-like vocals and rolling rhythms – floated into consciousness via bands like Etran Finatawa and Tinariwen, and great female singer Malouma, out of North Africa. The next generation are represented by Terakaft and Tamikrest who have... > Read more