Something Elsewhere
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LIVERPOOL, A PHOTO ESSAY (2009 and 2022): And these memories lose their meaning?
13 Jun 2022 | 3 min read | 1
In 2008, Liverpool was designated the European Capital of Culture, an honor acknowledging the heritage status of its buildings and the city's contribution of British, and indeed, global culture. It wasn't all about the Beatles and Merseybeat, either. Although those images and presence are everywhere from the excellent Beatle Story Museum to Magical Mystery bus tours of the city and... > Read more
CHARLIE WATTS AND JIM KELTNER, DISCOVERED (2022): The beats of different drummers
30 May 2022 | 1 min read
When Rolling Stones' drummer Charlie Watts died in 2021 he was spoken of as the heartbeat of the Stones and a jazz lover who seemingly by accident ended up in the most enduring and biggest rock band of our time. Obituaries certainly mentioned his side projects with his quintet and big bands, some of his droll witticisms but none, at least not that I saw, mentioned one his most unusual... > Read more
10 SOLO ALBUMS BY GROUP MEMBERS (2019): Lemme back in, I was in that band!
23 May 2022 | 9 min read | 3
They are often as unexpected as they are uncalled for, as diverting as they are dire. They are the statement that people make when they step out of the band and try their hand at a solo album. Some should do more others should never even start. So here are 10 solo albums by people who put the security of their band aside and released an album under their own name. We start... > Read more
THE 2022 MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD (2022): Fee Fi Foo won
16 May 2022 | 2 min read
The second annual Music Photography Awards - Whakaahua Puoro Toa was run by the Auckland Festival of Photography, and was one of several events in the lead up to 2022's Auckland Festival of Photography (June 2-12). Winners were announced on Saturday 14 May as part of celebrating New Zealand Music Month at Auckland's Silo Park, including outdoor exhibitions of photographs from the... > Read more
10 SHAMEFUL RECORDS I'M EMBARRASSED TO OWN: A trip from the tip
15 May 2022 | 8 min read
Elsewhere has been down a similar path with a series of 10 Shameful Record Covers I'm Proud to Own (see here, here, here and here). And there was also 10 Good Albums in Bad Covers . . . and two columns on 10 Odd Unplayed Albums in the Collection (here and here). But here are 10 albums which it just seems embarrassing to have in the same house as those Essential Elsewhere Albums let... > Read more
10 GOOD ALBUMS IN BAD COVERS: Wash in warm soapy water, dry and play
9 May 2022 | 10 min read | 1
In the course of compiling the on-going series 10 Shameful Record Covers I'm Proud to Own I realised there were many albums in discount bins wrapped in unpromising covers but which were actually rather good. So with the caveat that you shouldn't pay more than $10 for any of these -- and ignoring greatest hits packages -- here are cheap albums worth the small outlay.... > Read more
She Went So Lonely
A FURTHER FIVE FOR FEWER THAN FIFTY: It looks weird and a bit scratched, but it's cheap
30 Apr 2022 | 6 min read
Previously Elsewhere has written about cheap vinyl picked up and enjoyed (or endured) because in a world of collectors out for rarities or obscurities we would like to note that not every old record is a hidden treasure. Some records are just rubbish. But a few even among the detritus can still be enjoyable albums going cheap. So once again we take $50 for a walk around a secondhand... > Read more
10 ODD UNPLAYED ALBUMS IN MY COLLECTION (2016): Get back on the shelf!
13 Apr 2022 | 10 min read
Charlie Watts once said of Keith Richards that he was someone music liked being around. Records seem attracted me in much the same way because they just keep turning up. Mostly it has been my fault, $20 could go a long way in the Real Groovy bargain bins just five years ago and so strange records would follow me home. But then there are a swag of others which I have and... > Read more
DOES HUMOUR BELONG IN MUSIC? (2021): Does anybody remember laughter?
20 Dec 2021 | 5 min read | 1
If you look at the charts, MTV or scoure your way through iTunes or whatever you'd be mistaken for thinking that songwriters only ever write about serious stuff. Not at all, there is a looooong tradition of comedy songs, parodies and so on. Most of them are gimmicky songs however and the artists are soon forgotten (one-hit wonders like Bob the Builder) but a number of them had good careers.... > Read more
THE EIGHTIES: THE AGE OF XS (2021): The music industry as the serpent that swallowed its tale
30 Oct 2021 | 2 min read
A century ago few musicians expected to make money from their records. Most were paid a flat fee for the session and if the record was popular then they could raise their performance rate. Records were incidental to making a living on the live circuit. In fact, when Thomas Edison created his gramophone he didn't think of it as a machine to record music, he expected it to be... > Read more
SEX vs SENSUALITY (2021): What's love got to do with it?
24 Oct 2021 | 11 min read | 1
"you gotta sin to get saved" -- old saying . Aside from love -- falling in love, falling out of love, moping around afterwards and writing bad poetry -- there are other great themes to explore in song. It goes without saying, surely, that death, redemption and the Devil have alwys been big ideas. And sex and sensuality have preoccupied writers ever since . . . Well... > Read more
10 MORE SOMEWHAT RARE REGGAE ALBUMS I'M PROUD TO OWN (2021): Off-beat and x-ray sounds
14 Oct 2021 | 10 min read
Has it been four years since Elsewhere grabbed 10 rare reggae albums off the shelves? Ahh, yes. So . . . Here then is the belated sequel as another 10 fairly rare reggae albums come to hand. (Actually nine, one is not that hard to find if you are prepared spend much of your life in secondhand record shops.) These albums all came my way various sources: those... > Read more
THE IMPENDING ADORATIONS and PROTEINS OF MAGIC (2021): A sound and vision collaboration
4 Oct 2021 | 1 min read
These are strange and inconvenient times but artists can often cleverly work their way around them. Paul McLaney from Auckland was in Wellington during the current lockdown which meant his new Gramsci project (The Hinterland) had to be put on hold until next year. "But the silver lining," he says, "is that it's opened up a window for some musical collaboration. I started... > Read more
OK GO. ON WITH THE VIDEO SHOW (2021): Trickery, trompe l'oeil and pop art in pop music
1 Oct 2021 | 2 min read
The music by the US band OK Go might be fairly mainstream and poppy for most tastes, but they are as much an art project as a band when it comes to their most innovative work, their videos. The cleverly choreographed clip for the single Here It Goes Again from their second album Oh No in 2005 had them moving between treadmills in a series of complex and interlocking manoeuvres. It went... > Read more
DOCPLAY DELIVERING (2021): The truth is out there . . .
31 Aug 2021 | 2 min read | 1
You see it from time to time. Something “broke the Internet”. Or you hear someone say they've seen everything on Netflix/Apple+ or whatever, announcing they can't find anything of interest anymore on those constantly refilling platforms. But you take their point, especially in these lockdown days. Just how many more murders in Scandinavia can you take?... > Read more
THE FINALISTS, 2012 APRA SILVER SCROLL AWARD: The envelope please
26 Aug 2021 | 2 min read
The annual Silver Scroll Award – which was founded in 1965 – acknowledges the depth of original songwriting in Aotearoa New Zealand, but there can only be one winner. The award goes to the song which the members of APRA considers the best song of the year, regardless of how much or little it sold or was played on media outlets. The award is for quality not quantity. The... > Read more
THE GREAT JB HI-FI VINYL MARKDOWN (2021): Darling, can I borrow your credit card?
11 Jun 2021 | 2 min read
And now a word from our sponsor. Not exactly, but JB Hi-Fi has been longtime supporter of Elsewhere and as readers would know we were invited to write a couple of magazines for them: The 2011 Cornerstone Collection of 101 (and more) CDs essential in any decent collection, and then the sequel late last year The JB Hi-Fi Guide to Essential Vinyl. With Record Store Day upon us and because JB... > Read more
THE FINALISTS, JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR (2021): Here they come again . . .
23 May 2021 | 1 min read
It's that time again when Recorded Music New Zealand Te Kaipuoro Tautito Toa/Best Jazz Artist and the APRA award for Best Jazz Composition. Elsewhere has written about many of these artists so the intralink will take you to our original reviews or interviews where relevant. Meantime we congratulate The Jac who have been performing original music since 2011, including tours in New... > Read more
FIVE ODD ALBUMS I'M FOOLISH ENOUGH TO OWN (2021): Hey! Ho! Let's . . . not go there!
9 May 2021 | 4 min read
You know how it happens. An album leaps out you from a dump bin in a secondhand record store (or dumped out in some strange neighbour's rubbish when they are moved on by the landlord ) and you think . . . why not? To Elsewhere's shame (and secret pride) we have more than our fair share of such stuff (see the links at the end of this embarrassment for further... > Read more
THE ART OF THE RECORD (2021): Pictures at an exhibition
2 May 2021 | 1 min read | 1
As we well know, album covers can be works of art in themselves, sometimes a hint at an album's content, sometimes a self-aggradising image of the artist, sometimes whimsical art, and quite often not having a lot to do with the artist or music at all. To celebrate the 21styear since the start of New Zealand Music Week which quickly morphed into New Zealand Music Month every May, a touring... > Read more