Elephants

A BUZZ is eminent in the air at tonight's Vacuous Pop label showcase featuring the likes of Radio One spun heavy rock act Elephants.
The sighting of two-thirds of possibly one of Oxford's most prominent bands Young Knives among the throng merely adds to the feeling that we may well be about to witness the next big thing.
For a band still finding their footings at less than half a year old, openers Elephants are already laying the foundations for a promising future..having been aired by Radio One's Huw Stevens and Steve Lamacq.
And if nothing else the fledgling Folkestone quartet – incidentally a mission to search for on Myspace possibly down to some previously unbeknown-to-me new craze of naming your group after large mammals – live up to their name, leaving a giant footprint with their brazen, Americanised grungy heavy rock.
Their bespectacled singer, sporting a trendy haircut comprising a floppy fringe and one side of his head shaved, does a fine balancing act on guitars and keyboards, supported by two other guitarists and drums.
Listen carefully and you can rather bizarrely hear fragments of Oxford band This Towns Need Guns' intricate guitar-riffmanship, seeing as there is not really any connection between the two acts.
However multiply the same pounding rock template they pedal repeatedly and one is left shuffling ones feet, eagerly awaiting a contrast.
On the rare occasion that does transpire, it's like a breath of fresh air, as on Alexander with its jangly punk riffs, their singer bellowing through a loud-speaker and wielding his guitar like a rifle in the direction of the audience.

- The Fly

Kent based band Elephants were recently featured on BBC Kent Introducing with their song “Lions”. Listener, Stephen Morris casts his ear over the band’s Myspace material and tells us what he thinks:

The road to rock and roll success is, it seems, paved with broken hearts. It’s often said that boys form bands to get girls.

If the lyrics of many up and coming bands (and a few mainstream ones) are to be believed, this should come as no surprise: songs are often filled to the brim with tales of heartbreak, dejection and romantic turmoil.

Broken Hearts:

Elephants are no exception (the Kent based band, that is, not the large land mammals). Their songs are littered with lovelorn tales of woe. The opening lines of “Alexander” say it all: “Love feels like an anchor/it only brings you down”.

The theme runs through “Lions” as well. The danger of love appears in the bizarre metaphor of the song’s eponymous big cats, supposedly there to protect but more capable of doing anything but. This is less the case of a broken heart and more like a heart that’s been ripped and torn to shreds - or simply devoured whole.

Hope Springs Eternal:

Despite this, there is an air of optimism woven into the tracks. There are lines like “I’ll be your direction/if you’ll be my resurrection” (“Alexander”).

Even when threatened by lions and all they represent, there is the twisted comfort of “at least I’ll never be alone”.

Love/Hate:

The songs that Elephant offer are based on a love/hate relationship where a boy loves a girl but the girl hates the boy. He ends up crawling around to pick up whatever scraps of affection (or any kind of emotion) that he can: at best she’ll run her hands through his hair and at worst she’ll “break me so no other girl can use [me]”.

Throw in the revelation that “it seems I wanted you more than I need you” (“Lions”) and maybe the poor bloke in the songs will be able to move on one day.

Floor Fillers:

Musically the band have embraced modern indie in all its Noughties glory. There a hints of acts from The Wombats through to Vampire Weekend that influence but do not overwhelm Elephant’s songs. The music projects some of the blind optimism carried in the lyrics making the songs both floor fillers and thought provoking elegies to love lost in equal measure.

If capitalism is based upon the needs of the consumer, then so is good pop music. While there will always be exceptions (Sigur Ros singing about a red hat in a made up language immediately springs to mind), the majority of good music is about stuff that everyone can identify with.

Gaining Interest:

The question then is about presentation - and how to make the songs interesting. Many bands fall and fail at this point because they think that a three chord structure and a lyric about nice girls hating them is going to be enough.

Where Elephants succeed is in their imaginative tunes, matched equally with well thought out lyrics that sweep from childhood memories of telling “secrets using cups on strings” through to the plain weird use of metaphorical lions.

Elephants are an exciting band who tell an old story in a new way. Listen out for more of them and catch them while you can.

Written by stephen Morris
- Stephen Morris