Something Elsewhere
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TRASHY OLD MOVIES, TRASHY YOUNG PEOPLE (2021): Sex and drugs and out of control
2 May 2021 | 2 min read | 1
Every now and again we need to remind ourselves just how appalling young people are. They smoke and drink, they take drugs and skip off from school or work. They are irresponsible, steal cars, drive too fast and they swear all the time. They terrorise the streets, their peers, whole communities and small towns. They run in packs like rats and talk back to their... > Read more
THIS YEAR'S IMNZ CLASSIC RECORD (2021): Taku poi, e!
2 Apr 2021 | 3 min read
Every year Independent Music NZ makes its classic record award to a landmark song, EP or album released on an independent label. Past winners have included Shona Laing for South, Moana and the Moahunters (Tahi), Headless Chickens (Stunt Clown), Herbs (Whats' Be Happen) . . . Into this company in 2021 comes the wonderful Poi E by Patea Maori, the first song in te reo Maori to top the New... > Read more
13TH FLOOR, CONGRATULATED (2021): That thing you do, Duda
24 Mar 2021 | 1 min read
This week the multi-layered 13thFloor website celebrated its 10thbirthday, a remarkable achievement given it is a project of love and passion with little thought of profit or how to make it pay. The helmsman is Marty Duda, a radio man, music lover and producer originally from Rochester in northwest New York State who came to New Zealand with an irrepressible enthusiasm for music of all... > Read more
BEHEMOTH BEERS, ENJOYED AND ENJOYED (2021): Four from the dark side
15 Mar 2021 | 3 min read
Elsewhere confesses: beer rarely finds favour at our place. Yes, we believe you when you say nothing tastes better than a cold one after mowing the lawns. But we got rid of that lawn-mowing nonsense decades ago and, even before that, a crispy pale ale didn't often enter the picture. We grew up with Guinness and hefty porters so developed a taste for dark, heavy and tasty... > Read more
THE TAITE MUSIC PRIZE FINALISTS (2021): The independent spirits
12 Mar 2021 | 2 min read
Named after the late Dylan Taite, one of New Zealand’s most respected music journalists, the Taite Music Prize recognises outstanding creativity for an entire collection of music contained on one recording. The award is open to all genres of music and judged on artistic merit regardless of genre, sales, or record label. Any New Zealand album released during the calendar year... > Read more
TODAY IN HISTORY: The day John Kennedy died
22 Nov 2020 | 1 min read
In an interview with Elsewhere in advance (well in advance) of his two concerts in New Zealand in 2014, the conversation with Steve Earle turned -- as it usually does with him -- to politics. After some to and fro about various issues of homelessness and such, I asked him why he had the same touchstones in his lyrics (Guthrie, Kennedy, Kerouac) and if they symbolised something in America... > Read more
Radio broadcast WQMR, Nov 22, 1963
THE NZ MUSIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES (2020): Here's the who's who of "who?"
31 Oct 2020 | 5 min read
The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame has been contentious, right from its first inductees Johnny Devlin and Jordan Luck in 2007. Many complain certain eras or important figures have not been represented. If you're a teenager you might look at an old inductee and say, “Who?”. If you're of pensionable age and some young upstart in their 40s is acknowledged you might say the same.... > Read more
AOTEAROA MUSIC AWARDS 2020 NOMINEES: I'd like to thank . . .
18 Oct 2020 | 5 min read
Now to be known as the Aotearoa Music Awards (AMA, same initials as the American Music Awards unfortunately), the annual awards for New Zealand music of all persuasions -- from alternative to children's music, from te reo Maori to cover design -- will take place this year on Sunday November 15. Obviously things have been a little confused and uncertain of late in these Covid days but more... > Read more
THE BEATLES AS COMIC AND CARTOON CHARACTERS (2020): The greatest story ever sold, and sold again . . .
16 Sep 2020 | 3 min read | 1
From the moment they first appeared, the Beatles' look was so distinctive that it only took a few scribbles of a black pencil and you had the makings of a mop-top hairstyle. Often not much more than that appeared in advertisements and on Beatle product. It was a powerful enough visual signifier. As individuals they were also distinctive so by the time they had got a couple of hits... > Read more
THE ALBUM ART OF EXOTICA (2020): Bachelor pad images from a time before this
31 Aug 2020 | 3 min read
It was long ago and – for many in the US, UK and the rest of the Western world – far away and rather exotic. Hawaiian music was enormously popular from the Thirties onwards and for many people the restful sound of lap steel guitars evoked palm trees swaying in the breeze, the lap of the waves against the side of the outrigger and other such cliches poured into a... > Read more
THE FINALISTS, 2020 APRA SILVER SCROLL NOMINEES: And the judges decision will be final . . .
22 Aug 2020 | 3 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
FIVE FOR FEWER THAN FIFTY: Picking up homeless albums from the rescue shelter
29 Jul 2020 | 7 min read
There are websites and online pages dedicated to the serious art of collecting vinyl records from secondhand shops, junk bins and so on. Most people are looking for rarities and items of value, and that is fine and worthy. Nice to see them going into collections where they will be cared for. Elsewhere's not like that, our vinyl shopping entails assessments such as “that looks... > Read more
FIVE FAMOUS BUT OVER-RATED ALBUMS IN ROCK: Acclaimed often, disappointing or dull mostly
22 May 2020 | 7 min read
Picking bad albums is child's play, acclaiming classics even easier still because mostly the work has been done for you by generations of critics, fans and the foolhardy. And acclaiming some obscurity as a lost classic is a breeze because chances are most people haven't heard it so aren't in a position to agree or disagree. However picking over-rated albums is much more difficult... > Read more
The 11th TAITE MUSIC PRIZE (2020): Make a date for the Taite, mate
1 May 2020 | 3 min read
Named after the late Dylan Taite, one of New Zealand’s most respected music journalists, the award recognises outstanding creativity for an entire collection of music contained on one recording. The prize winner will receive a cash prize of NZ$12,500 to be spent as they wish, thanks to Taite Music Prize founding partner Recorded Music NZ; recording time at Red Bull Studios... > Read more
THE BRITISH COUNTERCULTURES, ARCHIVED (2020): Shall we go to the pub or the protest?
26 Apr 2020 | 3 min read | 2
The British counterculture movements from the late Fifties onwards have been difficult to define and comprehend from our geographical, political and social distance. The decade up to the Rolling Stones' ambiguous Street Fighting Man simply blurs into images of CND protests, poetry events, Richard Neville and the Schoolkids issue of Oz, Tariq Ali, Michael X, the Grosvenor Square... > Read more
ANOTHER SPIN OF HISTORY'S WHEEL (2020): Music in the time of solitude
3 Apr 2020 | 4 min read
About 140 years ago when Thomas Edison made a machine which captured sound he initially thought it could preserve the grand statements and speeches of great men. But he quickly realised – even before his phonograph which used wax-coated cylinders was made available – here was how music could be passed down the generations, the past always present in the future. Edison wasn't... > Read more
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE AIN'T FREE (2020): The lives – and livelihoods – of others
27 Mar 2020 | 2 min read
Well, the “gig economy” that sociologists and economists were so excited about has gone belly-up for most of those involved. People in the creative arts who relied on an audience are doing it harder than many right now. Time for those of us who have enjoyed their labours to lend a hand. We here at Elsewhere have never illegally downloaded a movie or music, have... > Read more
EIGHT OBSCURE USA INDIE SINGLES I'M SURPRISED I OWN: And believe me, eight is enough!
13 Jan 2020 | 5 min read
The small town of Paeroa in New Zealand's North Island (the other island being named . . .) can make a couple of claims for itself. First, it is the origin of the “world famous in New Zealand” soft-drink Lemon & Paeroa, and second that it is the antiques capital of the country. These days “antiques” mostly just means old stuff, but in the town's many such... > Read more
CHRIS KNOX, COLLECTED AND DONATED (2019): From Enemy to archive
13 Dec 2019 | 3 min read
As some Elsewhere readers will perhaps know, for a couple of years I was one of the rostered caregivers for Chris Knox who suffered a stroke in June 2009. Although limited in physical function, Chris kept his wicked sense of humour, penchant for pranks and winding people up, and even began painting again . . . with his left hand. Examples of his work can be seen and purchased from... > Read more
10 UNUSUAL ECM ALBUMS OF THE EIGHTIES I OWN (2019): But there's no pattern to the pattern . . .
29 Nov 2019 | 9 min read
When Manfred Eicher founded his record label ECM (Editions of Contemporary Music) in 1969 it was, he told Elsewhere in a 1992 interview, with a view to recording jazz at the same high quality afforded to classical music. At that time however most of the key jazz musicians had found homes on important big or small American labels, so ECM was launched with the... > Read more