Mammoth Life

We're never sure how to write about music, especially tunes and ditties we dig. In Stephen Sondheim's (brilliant) Finishing The Hat, the composer accuses all music writers (save for a couple of NYT scribes) of being musically illiterate. Who are we to argue? And with that, you should check out tonight's Mammoth Life's record release party in the Mission. The only thing we can succinctly tell you about them is that we listened to their latest self-titled effort at recent dinner party and we thoroughly enjoyed them.
How's that for music criticism? - SF'ist

I’m not sure if the term “dream pop” was given to Mammoth Life or if the band adopted it themselves, but I will say it’s a brand they wear well. Their self-titled full length glistens with a clean and bright glow; a swelling sun over the water. It’s cool, calm, and relaxing. A pop record with catchy vocals, shining keys and guitars, and most of all, it soothes the heart. The former Lawrencians turned San Franciscans have crafted a record filled with odes to youth, love, and adventure. It’s easy to see how the West Coast has influenced Mammoth Life; their indie tunes have a certain surf and sun demeanor, but it is layered on top of a Midwest mentality. This is a band (and record) filled with hard work and determination, but most of all it’s genuine and heartfelt.

Kix Mead’s vocals are stellar; at one time breezy and light, then powerful and clear to reinforce the “heavier” parts of Mammoth Life. “Teen Dreamin’” starts with just the right amount of buzz on the guitar, and continues on with the terrific “Never Good At Goodbye.” Nicholas Goss’ guitar gives the pop tunes an edge and Mead’s vocals get an added grit. Just enough to really fire the emotions home. Even at their happiest, Mammoth Life holds nothing back; it’s a wave of emotion that hits like the drums on “Being Young.”

It may be dreamy and lovely, but the record has an overwhelming amount of devastating moments. Every subtle nuance is planned and implemented perfectly. They venture on without any fear and their strength fills the album with a tremendous amount of joy. As Mammoth Life continues their journey, I hope they will continue to find success. This record is a glowing example of it already.

Favorite Tracks: “Teen Dreamin’,” “Never Good At Goodbye,” & “Being Young” - I Heart Local Music

Mammoth Life’s self-titled album Mammoth Life is one of those records that you can fall in love after hearing it for the first time. The songs burst with an infectious joy that stems from people playing music and it is something that computers could in my opinion never replicate.

Kix Mead is the integral center of this project as her voice reminds me of a cross between the late Trish Keenan from Broadcast and Victoria Legrand from Beach House. Unlike either of those bands the music and the vibe is far more optimistic and progresses with an enthusiasm that may be akin to a band like Saint Etienne. These have near perfect pop aesthetics that are hard to deny even for the most cynical of music fans. The breezy, summer-song type melodies are ubiquitous throughout the album and are playable at almost any circumstance. Do you want to start the day with a bit more jib in your step and to increase the amount of serotonin in your body then just put on this record?

The album explodes with “Building Bridges” as a steady kick drum, crunchy guitars and piano lay a flowery canvas for Mead’s gorgeous vocal melodies. I can honestly say the music has no problem standing on its own but this is clearly Mead’s playground. While not quite as incredible as the first song, “Teen Dreamin” continues with a similar tone that catches your attention and doesn't let go until the end.

”To Suffer For Passion” contains intricate patterns with a white bed of distortion that create a new canvas for Mead to sing on. At this point in the record you start to realize how balanced yet different the music is from song to song. Each song contains a similar amount of energy and focuses on the same frequencies but each one musically brings something unique to the table. ”I’m Only Trying” is another highlight with three-plus minutes of progressive pop music that you will have on repeat while “Patterns” is a more subdued song without percussive elements. They end the EP with another gem “Being Young” which is a great song and is indicative of the way the whole album feels.

The emotions that this album brings are ones that are most identifiable with the zest a young person who just graduated from high school or college, just got married or started a new job has. It is the unyielding almost ignorant optimism that the future may contain with all of its possibilities. So even if you don't feel like that at the moment listening to Mammoth Life may reignite those feelings. - The Equal Ground

Mammoth Life’s self-titled album Mammoth Life is one of those records that you can fall in love after hearing it for the first time. The songs burst with an infectious joy that stems from people playing music and it is something that computers could in my opinion never replicate.

Kix Mead is the integral center of this project as her voice reminds me of a cross between the late Trish Keenan from Broadcast and Victoria Legrand from Beach House. Unlike either of those bands the music and the vibe is far more optimistic and progresses with an enthusiasm that may be akin to a band like Saint Etienne. These have near perfect pop aesthetics that are hard to deny even for the most cynical of music fans. The breezy, summer-song type melodies are ubiquitous throughout the album and are playable at almost any circumstance. Do you want to start the day with a bit more jib in your step and to increase the amount of serotonin in your body then just put on this record?

The album explodes with “Building Bridges” as a steady kick drum, crunchy guitars and piano lay a flowery canvas for Mead’s gorgeous vocal melodies. I can honestly say the music has no problem standing on its own but this is clearly Mead’s playground. While not quite as incredible as the first song, “Teen Dreamin” continues with a similar tone that catches your attention and doesn't let go until the end.

”To Suffer For Passion” contains intricate patterns with a white bed of distortion that create a new canvas for Mead to sing on. At this point in the record you start to realize how balanced yet different the music is from song to song. Each song contains a similar amount of energy and focuses on the same frequencies but each one musically brings something unique to the table. ”I’m Only Trying” is another highlight with three-plus minutes of progressive pop music that you will have on repeat while “Patterns” is a more subdued song without percussive elements. They end the EP with another gem “Being Young” which is a great song and is indicative of the way the whole album feels.

The emotions that this album brings are ones that are most identifiable with the zest a young person who just graduated from high school or college, just got married or started a new job has. It is the unyielding almost ignorant optimism that the future may contain with all of its possibilities. So even if you don't feel like that at the moment listening to Mammoth Life may reignite those feelings. - The Equal Ground

Congratulations to the San Francisco based dream pop rock band, Mammoth Life for winning The Deli Magazine San Francisco's Artist of the Month Poll! The fans have spoken and this unique and hard working band has come out on top. Mammoth Life creates a very cool mix of electro beach pop with smooth and dreamy folk aesthetics that makes their music ethereal and a pleasure to listen to. We'd like to once again extend our best wishes and congratulations, and we hope Mammoth Life continues to enjoy a great musical journey! - The Deli - SF

Dreamy pop outfit Mammoth Life moved from Kansas to San Francisco in November 2011, a move partially inspired by fellow Kansans Mates of State who made a similar move several years prior. Like any band making such a drastic change, Mammoth Life wrote a song about it: “Making Moves” off their self-titled LP released earlier this year. The video, which we’re happy to premiere today, features iconic and dreamy vintage footage of San Francisco that makes the changes the band underwent in the song feel even more important, exciting, and dramatic. Mammoth Life will play a free show October 3 at El Rio with Giggle Party and Omaha band Talking Mountain. - The Bay Bridged

Readers, you may not be aware of this, but certain Lawrence bands actually continue to exist once they leave the insular scenester world of Larryville. Case in point: Mammoth Life.

If you're a local music fan, you certainly remember their LFK days as a (uniform-wearing) art-pop collective followed by their days as a (uniform-wearing) duo. These days Mammoth Life is in San Francisco, digging the cool ocean breezes and performing as a (non-uniform-wearing) three-piece. We caught up with our old pals Nicholas and Kix for a wide-ranging chat about their new sound, the differences between the Midwest and coastal scenes, drugs, nudity, and scenester irony vs. sincerity. Enjoy! And keep up with Mammoth Life via their FB page . If you're in San Francisco this summer, make sure to catch a gig or just hang out with the growing LFK expatriate community on the coast!





Richard: I’ve seen Mammoth Life back in your “collective” days and later on as a duo. What’s the current line-up like? And how has your sound and songwriting evolved over the years?


Nicholas Goss: Out here in San Francisco, we're feeling a coastal/ indie/ pop vibe and the live arrangement is reflecting that direction; we've got ML performing in the Bay Area as a three-piece right now. Kix Mead sings, plays electric organ and is now adding some low-end synth sounds too, I'm kicking it out on the electric guitar, and Damon Larson, our newest member (an SF resident for 10 years), is playing drums.

Mammoth Life's sound and songwriting has evolved alongside our ever-changing musical tastes, personal interests, and age. I've always felt music is a medium that should be used to capture, document, and preserve one's self in a given moment in time; it is really no different than a diary or a journal per se. Good music and art should be honest and self-revealing; at least that is the foundation for some of my favorite records.

Kix Mead: We also slightly alter our writing based on the live lineup at the time. We had to evolve our writing when we switched to a two-piece, coming out of being a five-piece because individual instruments had to be “bigger” sounding as a two-piece which led to different arranging techniques. Now, having a live drummer, we can scale back again like with Nicholas on electric/lead lines instead of acoustic chords, and myself doing a synth/organ combo instead of heavy organ.

Chip: Are you still wearing uniforms? Or should I call them something else, like “outfits?” Tell us about the history of the Mammoth Life look?

Nicholas: Mammoth Life Apparel came about when I wanted my younger brother Neil to be in the band. The problem was that he is a visual artist and cannot keep a beat to save his life! So instead of him wielding a guitar or something, I thought he could play a needle and thread and fit in all the same. It turned out to be a significant aspect of Mammoth Life for all those years in Lawrence.

We were referencing DEVO, Nudie Cohn, Gram Parsons, B-52's, and Buck Owens & His Buckaroos, for example. Basically any new wave band or country and western swing band who ever dressed up in colorful/ matching stage garb. Neil produced 6 total, separate "waves" of ML Apparel uniforms for the band from 2005-2011. He decided to stay in Lawrence when we moved out here to SF and so the uniforms and cohesive visual aesthetic will stay there too; we are no longer performing in ML Apparel.

Richard: You guys certainly loved LFK. One need look no further than "An Oasis in the Midwest" to fully understand that passion! What do you miss most about Lawrence these days? Also, we hear there’s a great little Lawrence expatriate cojmunity out there, such as Extra Classic’s Dri and our buddy Nezbeat. Do you all get together and wax nostalgic about Replay shows and such?

Nicholas: The thing I miss most is being a part of the sickest untapped music scene in the United States. The Lawrence Music Scene has produced some of my favorite bands to date, i.e. White Flight, Cowboy Indian Bear, Cloud Dog, Hospital Ships, Ad Astra Per Aspera, Boo And Boo Too, and Fourth Of July; just to name a few. I miss everything that being in that scene entails, from the live venues like The Replay and Jackpot, to the music blogs/publications like yours and I Heart Local Music, to local businesses like Love Garden, Wildman Vintage, and college radio via 90.7 fm KJHK; ultimately all the things that have gone into shaping and sustaining a really cool and young, underground college music town.

And yes, Dri and Nezbeat are both out here in San Francisco as well! We all hung out during March Madness this year and caught the KU games together with other "SF by-way-of-Lawrence, KS" kids... you should have heard that Rock Chalk chant cut the mix in the bar!!

Kix: We miss our friends and family which made our time there so amazing. It has also been nice seeing and meeting so many ex-Lawrencians out here; we are truly at home in this city.
- Larryville Chronicles

It’s been about a year since Mammoth Life relocated from Lawrence to San Francisco, and they’ve got reason to celebrate. They just played their first gig since the move, they’ve developed their sound, and San Francisco is quite possibly one of the most beautiful communities in the nation.

We met up with the husband and wife duo for a nice little date in the park this week. We talked about the band’s growing experiences and what it’s like to change their sound by adding a third member. They also told me what finally nudged them over to the city. “Mates of State made that tangible,” says Nicholas Goss, who credits the former Lawrence-based indie rockers with helping him see the transition as a reality. “They were human beings who actually did it.” For those not familiar with Mates of State, they are also a husband and wife duo who made the move from Lawrence to San Francisco before skyrocketing to fame.

You can tell that life is just sunny and beautiful for the group at the moment. Their music sounds a bit more upbeat, and you can see their happiness in little smiles and shoulder shrugs while they perform. Lyrics like “being young and having fun / keeping calm and carrying on / there’s magic in this song” don’t hurt either. You can tell the move was a whirlwind romance in itself for Nicholas and wife Kix Mead. They can hardly believe they made the transition themselves, and make that clear when they sing “what a crazy year / this song feels so surreal” and “right here when I am with you / I feel like we can do anything that we want to do / so let’s do it now.” It’s a good thing Mates of State helped them work up the courage to take the plunge.

We recorded them playing the song that features those lyrics just so you can see how they’re doing over in San Francisco. Enjoy this clip we shot at Dolores Park, a popular spot for sunbathers and many, many happy-go-lucky residents in the city. - I Heart Local Music

New bands can take a while to warm up to, but the art pop of Mammoth Life is instantly endearing. Resting somewhere between pop and folk, the Lawrence, Kansas band’s bouncy sound is sugary yet rugged, equally suited for dancing or riding a horse.

In addition to their musical prowess, Mammoth Life have an eye for style. They’ve got their own clothing line — aptly named Mammoth Life Apparel — and they recently released a seven-inch called Enlightenment: A Romantic Gospel on fancy, transparent blue vinyl. The gorgeous record is individually numbered to 250 copies.

You can snatch up a copy on Friday, June 2nd, when the band brings its catchy melodies and Midwestern charm to the Soda Bar. The Hot Moon and Flying Objects will be joining them, so don’t miss it.

Band leader/box guitarist/producer Nicholas Goss was kind enough to share his Poetic Memory with us, which you can find below.

The Beach Boys (1964 – 1967): In the fall of 1966, Brian Wilson and co. released the infamous 45-rpm single titled “Good Vibrations.” For me, this song became the blueprint for how I define “pop music.” The song combines three crucial elements for a great pop single, that being “experimentation,” “progression,” and, most importantly, “approachability.” It did and to this day still sounds like nothing else I’ve ever heard before… yet under the exact same breath it is one of the most approachable and catchy pop singles to come from the incredible Beach Boy catalogue.

Marty Robbins (1959): Elizabeth Mead (piano, organ, vocals), Neil Goss (Mammoth Life Apparel founder & clothing designer) and I grew up together in Pratt, a small town out in Western Kansas. While there, she introduced me to her great uncle, George Wallace, who has played Fender Bass in and out of different Western swing groups over the past 50 years. I used to spend a lot of time with him exploring his vast catalogue of country and western music, i.e. Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant, Chet Atkins, Lefty Frizzell, Tex Williams & His Western Caravan, among many others. The album that stands out to me most was the 1959 Marty Robbins LP titled “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs.” Combining layered male vocal harmonies along with the musical backbone of a striding western “box guitar,” the album was unified by a loose theme of not only similar-sounding backing tracks, but lyrical content as well. This cohesive musical and lyrical concept album, along with Brian’s lost 1967 SMILE recordings, had a major guiding force and influence for Mammoth Life’s spaghetti-pop, western opus titled “An American Movement.”

DEVO (1978 – 1981): The Mammoth Life Apparel visual aesthetic owes greatly to two artists, the first of which is the incomparable Nudie Cohn, who is responsible for the flashy country-tinged uniforms worn by Rose & The Maddox Brothers, Buck Owens & The Buckaroos, and Gram Parsons. The second is the incredibly unique art-pop project known as DEVO. Not only was their look inspiring, but so was their lyric content. DEVO had something to say in each of their songs, unlike many of their contemporaries at that time, from the can-do American philosophy of “Whip It” to the conversationalist undertones of “Duty Now For The Future.” DEVO is every bit as important to me as David Byrne’s work with the Talking Heads.

Ennio Morricone (1966): This is the pioneer of the sound that we all define as “spaghetti western” music. Of course he is known for many other experimental sounds in many different respective genres, but it is his work done with the 1966 Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly that we take so much influence from. His control and precision as a composer is unrivaled and unmatched in my personal opinion. - Owl And Bear

Mammoth Life - "Kaleidoscopic Art Pop" cd (no label)
I really didn't know what to make of this disc when I first saw it - the artwork and pictures of the band look like something from a mormon renaissance fair (if such a thing could exist) - but I found myself drawn in when I put it on. My initial impression of the band wasn't entirely incorrect: with their frequent use of violin and the harpsichord setting on the keyboard, the music does have quite a baroque feel to it. They also seem to pack in a lot of musical changes, which at times can be a little bit too much (even approaching prog-pop in "Word Salad" and "First Semester Of College"). Or, to put it another way, "kaleidoscopic art pop" is a rather accurate description of their sound! But it's more than that, too; in their simpler moments, their music brings to mind the Left Banke and early Belle & Sebastian, with their gentle, yet often uplifting pop sound (not to mention the fact that the male lead singer's voice sounds an awful lot like Stuart Murdoch's!). Though there are a few songs I wasn't into (added to the fact that this band's music is better in somewhat smaller doses), I still quite liked the rest of this album, and would be interested to see what this band comes up with next. - Indie Pages

From presentmagazine.com
Review by Chris Weaver

Wednesday nights’ Mammoth Life show at recordBar drew the unfortunate lot of having to compete for the indie dollar against the Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert a few blocks to the east. The Lawrence, KS band was in town to provide a teaser their self-proclaimed “spaghetti-pop, western opus” entitled An American Movement, which should be released independently in early 2010. The handful of concert-goers who showed up were treated to a quick and deliberate set of grand ideas, with not-so subtle tips of the cowboy hat to some very distinct and lofty musical influences.

The five-piece band opened the show with a couple of selections off their upcoming release, which had some rather turgid titles. “With Sanctity, Our Declaration” was a bouncing number that featured a very heavy dose of Ennio Morricone-like yodeling from bass player and lead vocalist Bobby Sauder. The band, dressed in yellow-and-blue coordinated costumes that looked like something a fancy person would wear on “Little House in the Prairie,” counted the measures out, relying heavily on violinist Melicent King’s intricate string work for complexity.

The first third of the set seemed to be the least practiced, if you will. At best, the songs conjured up the ghosts of western swing, galloping horses, dirt streets, and western Kansas. There were times that the vocal harmonies between Sauder and keyboardist Elizabeth Mead seemed to work, and work well. There were echoes of early Camper Van Beethoven and a hint of the Beach Boys wandering around the tumbleweed. However, there were too many moments when the music was not being driven. The bass and the drums seemed too passive a rhythm section to drive such a steam engine.

That said, things seemed to take a different turn when the band delved into material off their first release Kaleidoscopic Art Pop. They purposefully transitioned into their much more chamber-pop influenced materials with an interlude that seemed at home accompanying a silent movie. Mammoth Life finally seemed comfortable when they played “To Suffer For Passion,” a pop song that could stand up to any Asthmatic Kitty release. It featured a playful give and take of lines between Mead and Sauder, and a certain sensitive-yet-aggressive urgency that was missing earlier in the set.

They carried that newfound confidence into the last third of their show. They returned to material off their upcoming release, which promises to be a concept album centered on a character named Boy Blue, whom, in “An American Lion,” the concert finale, says, “I can do anything.” The post-modern ideal of blending passé musical textures with current pop sensibilities is daunting if not exciting. Mammoth Life may be a little over their skis on this endeavor, but grand ideals are for the young and thoughtful, and Wednesday’s show proved Mammoth Life to be both.

-- this review can be found online w/ photos from the performance at: www.presentmagazine.com - Presentmagazine.com

by Zachary Hughes

With a blend of old familiar faces, a brand new musical act and one band that falls in between, Saturday night's live music jam at Beer:30 included genres ranging from indie and classic rock to new-age pop. Rock bands Radio City and Roman Numerals, in addition to newcomers Mammoth Life played sets in The Red Room.

"I love it in the Beer Garden, but the Red Room is a cool venue in Emporia," said Kyle Thompson, junior political science major. "Radio City was my favorite act, but all the bands were just great, and the whole lineup was astonishingly good."

Utilizing a wide variety of musical sounds in order to attract a larger attendance was a successful strategy, Thompson said.

"I really think they're doing the right thing at Beer:30, bringing in a wide variety of acts like that," Thompson said. "Nothing ever got old or stale."

The concert, which began at roughly 10 p.m., opened with Mammoth Life, a Lawrence pop band making their debut appearance in Emporia.

Mammoth Life's Myspace Web site describes their music as "kaleidoscopic art pop," a genre of music that relies on layering multiple instrument sounds with vocal backing and ambience sounds, said band leader and producer Nicholas Goss.

"The overall genre is pop, but we're in between sounds right now," Goss said. "The first sound we have is kaleidoscopic art pop, which is also the name of our debut album, and the second is more of an American Movement sound, influenced by spaghetti westerns and that sort of thing.”

Invited to the Emporia concert by local band Radio City, Mammoth Life's members are KU music students, graduates, or former students, and believe that their sound is especially relevant for college students, Goss said.
Second on the night's program was the return to Emporia of indie rock band Roman Numerals.

Band vocalist, bassist and guitarist Steve Tulipana described Roman Numerals' music as a blend of traditional indie rock and high-energy underground tempo.

"We're trying to strike a balance between math-rock and dance-heavy pop music," Tulipana said. "We really try to make our influences our own, rather than just sound like a mish-mash of other bands."

As unique as their sound is, the story of how their band came together is even stranger, Tulipana said.

"We were originally going to be a one-off thing for a special performance act, and we had no original intentions to form a band," Tulipana said. "But then we realized we had something, and decided to go for being our own band with our own sound."

The last band for the evening was Emporia regulars Radio City, who described finding a venue in Emporia as an adventure all its own.

"The music scene in Emporia is always interesting because here it's a matter of finding a place for a band to rest its head," said band freeman Matt Kosinski. "I mean for a while we were at Josie's, and now we've sort of found a new home here at Beer:30... It's sort of like being the musical equivalent of a refugee, we have a home and then it gets uprooted or things change, and we have to go in search for a new one."

Kosinski described Radio City's music as a combination of classic and modern rock influences, with a sound that has evolved over time to reflect the band's internal changes.

"We're working on our third release right now, our sound has changed a little bit since we switched drummers and tightened up our vocals," Kosinski said. "We're really excited about this album, it's a lot higher-energy than our usual, and we think it'll really carry our style."

In addition to playing at the concert, Radio City also had a large hand in bringing Mammoth Life to Beer:30 and in recommending the setup for the concert in general, Kosinski said.

'We actually found out about Mammoth Life through Terry Schmidt, the sound guy for tonight's concert," Kosinski said. "So we extended the invite through him to come out to Emporia and show everyone what they've got."

Schmidt, a freelance sound technician who works most closely with nu-grass band The DeWayn Brothers, said he enjoyed Emporia's atmosphere.

"I normally travel with the Dewayn Brothers, but Emporia is a terrific place to stop by," Schmidt said. "I mean, I get to work with Mammoth Life, which is just a truly unique band, and my job is to listen to music and make it sound even better, and who wouldn't want that?"

The concert, which ran for nearly four hours, is part of a series of local artist venues promoted by Beer:30 and drew a crowd of over 400 individuals. - The Bulletin

Wildy's World
Review on June 9th, 2009

Mammoth Life - Enlightenment: A Romantic Gospel Part 3 and 4

2009, Mammoth Life

Mammoth Life is an esoteric Kansas band with a mid-western charm and a sound that's out of this world. Pop convention goes out the window in the face of following their muse, and Mammoth Life creates like the sun flies, straight across the sky with no stop or pause for the mores of the moment. In anticipation of the 2010 release of their next album, An American Movement, Mammoth Life has released a highly limited (250 copies) 7" vinyl 45-rpm EP entitled: Enlightenment: A Romantic Gospel Part 3 and 4. The EP is pressed on transparent blue vinyl and hand numbered, and promises great things from An American Movement.

This two track single displays a continuation of the artistic and sonically aesthetic work undertaken begun on Kaleidoscopic Art Pop, although early indications suggest that Mammoth Life continue to delve deeper and deeper in this collective muse. Disrupting The Extinction Of Distinction (Part 3 – Ego), is a wide-ranging, piano-driven chamber pop experience. There’s an irrepressible pop feel to the song despite its more baroque elements. We Are Within A Holy War (Part 4 – Critical Thinking) indirectly challenges listeners to delve deeper than the sound bytes you hear on the news and consider both the realities and the impacts of events in the world. Listening to these songs you could image that if composer Ralph Vaughan Williams were writing today his material might sound a bit like Mammoth Life.

Mammoth Life continues to impress from deep in left field (beware the corn rows). This is one of those bands that’s just so unique and off the dial that it’s hard to imagine them gaining significant commercial footing, yet there is a distinct pop sensibility that runs through their brand of Art/Chamber/Folk Rock that is irrepressible. If these two songs are any indication, the forthcoming album, An American Movement, should be something exciting to hear. For now, try to get your hands on Enlightenment: A Romantic Gospel Part 3 and 4; it’s very much worth the effort.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5) - Wildy's World

Mammoth Life appeared on the Lawrence scene during last November's Farmers Ball-a long-delayed debut for a band that actually formed four years ago. The group's first album "Kaleidoscopic Art Pop" was already completed by the time the seven-piece outfit hit the stage. What began as a collaboration between Nicholas Goss and Elizabeth Mead has evolved into a friendly collective of musicians, artists, filmmakers, poets and clothing designers who share a headstrong vision to craft cheery chamber-pop music and inject a little bit of sunshine into the drudgery of everyday life. The Mammoths will emerge from hibernation this month to play two shows and preview tracks from their forthcoming spaghetti-western opus "An American Movement." The recently hitched Goss and Mead brought two new songs along for our podcast, which also features half a dozen cuts of their earlier music.c

lawrence.com: You just got back from a whirlwind honeymoon in Mexico, eh?

Goss: Yep, just recently married, and very happy about it.

lawrence.com: Would you recommend your destination (Cabo San Lucas) to other Hooneymooners?

Goss: If you're looking to relax at a resort, absolutely.

lawrence.com: Did you get any writing done while you were down there?

Goss: Oh no, that was the whole point. We were wanting to get a small break. We keep ourselves way too busy here.

lawrence.com: How did the band come together?

Goss: Once we got here we immediately started working on Mammoth Life at Hashinger Hall on Daisy Hill. (The songs) "Bicycle Rider" and "First Semester of Collage" just came right out and instantly we were excited about it and we knew we should start taking this seriously. We began hand-selecting different members to fill out this art project over the next year and a half. That included our vocalist Bobby Sauder, our violinist Melicent King, our clother designer Neil Goss, our film and tech support Cory Gugler and my lyric collaborator Nathan Girard. As soon as that happened we started recording "Kaleidoscopic Art Pop" at our house. We basically taught ourselves to record by buying a little 16-track Fostex recorder.

lawrence.com: You might be the first band I've had in here that also has a fashion department, a lyric department and an art department.

Goss: It's an art project with artistic integrity. We take all those areas very seriously, because everyone is very talented. Neil just recently released his second wave of Mammoth Life clothing and that's what the new photo shoot is from with Melissa Madison Fuller. Corey is doing a new video for us in spring '09 for "Bicycle Rider."

lawrence.com: Where did you guys grow up?

Mead: We're from Pratt, about an hour west of Wichita. We both went to high school there, and Nicholas and I came up here the same year. We were together for about four years before we started seriously writing music together.

lawrence.com: Do you have any streets named after you in Pratt yet?

Mead: Uh, not yet.

Goss: It's that small of a town. The main street still has bricks set in the road.

lawrence.com: What is "Mammoth Life?"

Goss: Honestly the beast from many years ago has nothing to do with it. This is a lifestyle. We are artists and we are always working on our craft and pursuing it every single day of the week.

lawrence.com: So the next project is influenced by country and western-swing music?

Goss: Absolutely. I founded a show on KJHK called "Swingin' on the Strings." I did it for about 2 ½ years but since I left college it's gone by the wayside. It basically had 1920s to 1960s country-and-western, western-swing, country-jazz the gamut of really fine artists working in that medium. Regardless of what modern country music has done to that image, I still think it's incredibly hip. People like Chet Atkins and Marty Robbins that's what we're taking influence from. With "An American Movement" we're taking country-and-western colors, spaghetti-western colors, surf-rock sounds and pop music and bringing that into our Kaleidoscopic Art Pop feel : Liz's great uncle George Wallace has been in a western-swing band since the '50s. He's got old Fender instruments and he turned me on to those sounds.

lawrence.com: When do you foresee the next record coming out?

Goss: Mid 2009. This is a big statement from us and we really want to work hard on it and make sure that it's the best we can possibly do with this feel because I think it's a special sound.

lawrence.com: When was the last time you played around town?

Goss: The first week of November '07 we did Farmer's Ball, and right before that was our very first show at the Jackpot opening for Archetype and The Spook Lights. We want to be out there and play for everyone, but we don't want to just go out and keep repeating ourselves. We want to have more exciting stuff to show, and if that means taking a little time off and dropping out of the live scene in Lawrence for a short time, that's just fine. - lawrence.com

Chamber Pop Quintet (and occasionally sextet) Mammoth Life hails from Lawrence, Kansas, where among the cornfields, under the hot Kansas sun they've been distilling a brand of alt-pop sweeter than corn bread and more powerful than ethanol. Kaleidoscopic Art Pop is the name of their debut album, and an apt description for the mellifluous music creates as easily as they breathe. Producer and bandleader founded Mammoth Life in 2004 with keyboardist/vocalist Elizabeth Mead. The band is rounded out with lead vocalist Bobby Sauder, Melicent King (violin, synths) and Rachel Mulford (drums).

Mammoth Life works because of strong songwriting and a sense of joy that comes across in their music. Its not that the songs are particularly happy or bouncy, but there's a real sense that Mammoth Life is having a ball doing what they're doing, and it rubs off on the listener. Bicycle Rider is frenetic, chaotic and tuneful with great harmonies and an almost classical song structure highlighted with quirky Folk/Pop instrumentation. Convoluted I starts out as a Gypsy/Klezmer hybrid led by the violin before resolving into a quirky pop confection. These are the sort of contradictions you'll encounter when listening to Mammoth Life, although they sound less like contradictions than happily coexisting musical improbabilities. At Once is a prime example. After several listens the only honest description I can come up with is that it’s bizarre, yet strangely catchy. You'll have to form your own opinion on this one, but the intrigue factor is enough on its own to keep you coming back.

Word Salad plays like a pop symphony masquerading as an alternative folk song, which serves as a warm-up for First Semester Of College. This may be the most inventive song on the album, opening as a Baroque harpsichord composition that devolves into what I can only describe as highly rhythmic toddler punk. Unburden Your Heart To Me is also highly unique, playing like a Medieval musical play. The instrumentation is a bit surreal but the song is highly entertaining. The biggest surprise on Kaleidoscopic Art Pop is Our Prayer, a classic mixolydian secular hymn played on what sounds like Organ and Sanctus Bells. Our Prayer is a beautiful piece of musical expression.

Mammoth Life looks like they might have just stepped out of the late 1960's. The creativity and ability to look at musical creation from outside the box is refreshing and enervating. Not everyone is going to get this music. It's definitely not the status quo, but it might just be the most original sound you're going to find this year. Kaleidoscopic Art Pop contains a couple of songs that just don't gel, but on the whole it’s an outstanding effort.

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Out of 5) - Wildy's World

MP3: Mammoth Life, "Boy Blue, An American Lion"

By Nick Spacek in Bands You Should Know, Local, MP3Tue., Nov. 3 2009 @ 11:36AM

Lawrence kaleidoscopic art pop act Mammoth Life recently returned from a trip to New York and the CMJ Music Marathon. As they're settling back in to life in the Midwest, the group has begun recording new songs in hopes of soon completing their second full-length, An American Movement.

They are releasing their next single, "Boy Blue, An American Lion" sometime in December or January, in advance of the album's drop in 2010. An American Movement was described thusly in a press release from the band:

A self described 'spaghetti-pop, western opus' about a character that goes by the name of Boy Blue...it is said, 'Boy Blue can do anything that he wants to do.' It is a romantic and introspective account about the author, but also a passionate and fanciful doctrine that asserts individuality, creativity, freedom acquired from knowledge, ego, critical thinking, perseverance and drive, tolerance for diversity, and attainment for this is to be an American movement.

"Boy Blue, An American Lion" will be on a single entitled Progress: The Metamorphosis Parts 1 and 2. The CD will be a limited pressing of 100, featuring the single (subtitled "{Part 2 - Perseverance and Drive}"), as well as the track "With Sanctity, Our Declaration {Part 1 - Progression}." - Pitch {pitch.com}

By Jake Lerman
Thursday, December 10th, 2009

The seeds of Mammoth Life were sown in the modest soil of a Hashinger Hall dorm room. Since then, the group has blossomed into one of the best-dressed groups in Lawrence.

Nicholas Goss founded the band with his wife and songwriting partner, Elizabeth Mead, in 2005. Though they weren’t married at the time, the pair discovered they had chemistry, and soon forged what would become the bulk of Mammoth Life’s first album.

With the addition of three members in 2007, Mammoth Life’s sound grew. Adding violin, synthesizer and vibraphone to the traditional rock instrumentation, the group topped it off with a blend of persistently buoyant harmonies.

A good feel for what Mammoth Life sounds like is right in the title of their debut album, Kaleidoscopic Art Pop. At the moment they are finishing their follow-up, which they describe as a “spaghetti-pop Western opus.”

The group doesn’t take its self-imposed art-pop genre lightly. Their approach to art is from all angles — aural, lingual and visual. The band plays in lavish costumes that are designed by Goss’ younger brother and updated every six months. Mammoth Life’s live show is a flurry of lustrous yellow and blue fabrics, complete with high socks and flowing collars — visual representations, they say, of their sound. “It’s all about a unified theme, like DEVO or The Beatles,” Goss says.

The Mammoth Life concept goes beyond just music and costumes, though. “Mammoth Life is where passion meets ambition, it’s the way you live every single day,” Goss says.

You can see Mammoth Life live on December 26 at the Czar Bar, 1531 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo., or find more information at myspace.com/officialmammothlife. - The University Daily Kansan

by Richard Gintowt

No band in Lawrence takes its shit quite as seriously as Mammoth Life. The cultish, eight-piece collective releases its songs on transparent blue vinyl and divides its members into teams that create “aural,” “visual” and “lingual” art. Want more? The group dresses in its own line of frilly apparel and sends out verbose press releases extolling the virtues of “emotional immortality” and “individuality, creativity and freedom acquired from knowledge.” It’s heady stuff, but Mammoth Life backs it up with twee chamber-pop that’s ambitious in scope and profound in purpose. The group’s forthcoming opus, An American Movement, invokes the spaghetti-western paradigm to tell the story of a character named Boy Blue, Who can do anything he wants to do. For absolute sincerity and dogmatic pop, live in the manner of the Mammoth. - The Pitch

by Ian Hrabe

Nicholas Goss doesn't care if people think his band — six 20-something musicians making orchestral pop and wearing ruffled psychedelic clothing — is weird. Mammoth Life just wants to stun Kansas City's senses with aural and visual art. The theatrics are just part of his philosophy.

"We passionately, ambitiously try to manifest this wild vision of being in a pop group," Goss says.

Every sentence he utters, in fact, is an assertive, unapologetically grandiose statement. Serious and longhaired, he suggests a bespectacled, hipster Jesus — if Jesus played guitar in a '60s psychedelic pop band.

With its 2007 debut, Kaleidoscopic Art Pop, Mammoth Life distinguished itself with harpsichord-heavy chamber pop and classic pop lilt. Mammoth Life's forthcoming sophomore LP, An American Movement, builds on the group's signature sound by borrowing musical elements of '50s country and '60s spaghetti-western soundtracks.

According to Goss, the stylistic shift is meant to be subtle. Harpsichord and synthesizers give way to piano and organs; lead electric guitar is swapped in favor of rhythmic acoustic strumming; and the violin — as classical instrument and as fiddle — sometimes becomes the lead instrument.

Goss explains: "If I were to say [the Beach Boys'] 'Good Vibrations' was the moment when I fell in love with pop and thought this is what pop music is to me, then spaghetti western was hearing Ennio Morricone and saying that's what spaghetti-western music is to me — then it was a matter of bringing those colors in to what Mammoth Life has already been doing: pop music."

So Mammoth Life isn't exactly going country. Instead, Goss and his bandmates say they're using the genre to propel their music into a new artistic sphere. "An American Movement is not about using the blueprint of older country-and-western luminaries but just using little bits of textures in our aural palette to paint with," Goss says.

Genre hopping has been Goss' master plan since the group's inception in 2005. The title of that first album offers a three-word summary of Goss' overarching manifesto for the project. "Throughout Mammoth Life's career, we're going to be bringing new aural colors into pop music," he says.

An American Movement features more collaboration than the first record, but Goss is still pulling most of the strings in the band's songwriting and aesthetic. "As the content is concerned, I am in control of the production and the arrangement because I want a cohesive record," he says. "Some people may not think very highly of a formula, but that's what's going on. We're funneling down the universe to this single formula that we can do well." This time, he says, "that's pop country."

Control aside, Goss admits that he alone is not Mammoth Life. "We all take full advantage of our strengths and weaknesses, and that's what we want to portray with this artistic project," he says. The project's concept extends to the band's modern-renaissance stage attire (designed by Goss' brother, Neil) as well as its upcoming single-release show, in March, at the Lawrence record store Love Garden. Though Goss is keeping the details of the performance under wraps, he drops a couple of hints regarding its inspiration.

"I had a dream about Speedy West, the pedal-steel player. He was in a library playing, and everybody in the band was wearing cowboy hats — big foam ones — and dancing around. A really tacky way of saying it would be 'spaghetti western on acid,' so to speak," Goss says. "As soon as I had that dream, the project became tangible. I had an idea: This will be our first stage production."

Though An American Movement isn't finished yet, Goss already has a plan for Mammoth Life's third album. "The next record is called Mammoth Lives and Times, and the new aural color is going to be folk," he says. "When I say folk, I mean a vocal style that is telling stories. I still want it to be in an American context. I consider myself an American artist in an American band, and that next American color is folk."

Despite Goss' visions of grandeur, Mammoth Life's mission is simple. "We want to keep writing the equation down, erasing it and writing it further," he says. "We're always trying to work down to the perfect three-and-a-half-minute pop song."

Achieving perfection is a tough calling. But achieving spaghetti western on acid? Now that's something to aspire to. - Pitch {pitch.com}