Elk
City - Status
The debut from NYC avant-pop trio
ELK CITY is a collision of smoky folk and classic New Wave.
Organic drums and guitars are interwoven with synthetic textures
from analog synths and tweaked electronics, as co-ed vocals
that range from ethereal to earthbound intertwine above the
mix.
Arising
out of the implosion of MELTING HOPEFULS, a critically acclaimed
mid-90s pop band
that garnered rave reviews in SPIN, Melody Maker, CMJ and
NME, Elk City began in autumn 1997 as a back-to-basics, "Let's
have fun", no rules, experimentation project. Having
originally recruited guitarist/vocalist Peter Langland-Hassan
to play in MELTING HOPEFULS, drummer/producer Ray Ketchem
and vocalist Renee LoBue (the core of the Hopefuls) soon
saw better possibilities in their new partner.
The chemistry within the new trio
was apparent immediately. Peter and Renee sang together with
a natural, unconscious grace, and the songs were pouring
out at the rate of several per week. The three of them spent
the entirety of 1998 in their recording/rehearsal studio,
The WOMB, jamming, writing, making noise, and recording every
moment onto multi-track tape. Listening back to their favorite
moments, the band later picked songs from these early sessions
to fully flesh out and turn into tracks for Status.
As
you listen to the varied tracks of Status, you can hear the
band toying with any number of
genres. There's the GUIDED BY VOICES cruncher "Groundbreaking," the
LOW-like hush of, "Mysteries Unknown," and the
WEEN-like Moog-mugging of "Chocolate Girl." And,
of course, there are tracks such as "Dreams of Steam," "Love's
Like a Bomb", and "Fall Out of Reach," which
are completely their own.
Status has
the glow of something projected through a lens bent by the
VELVET UNDERGROUND,
polished by the CARS, and re-focused by YO LA TENGO. In 1999
ELK CITY emerged from The WOMB to play monthly shows at Lakeside
Lounge and various other venues in New York, Brooklyn, and
Hoboken. The year 2000 will find ELK CITY on the road (touring
the East Coast in the summer, West Coast in the fall), and
on the radio with their first single, "Dreams of Steam." Ride
the Folkwave.
"If you like… The
smart, passionate pop on PJ HARVEY's new 'Stories From the
City,
Stories From the Sea', check out New York City fave ELK CITY's
recent debut, 'Status'. -ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY -
Friday, December 8, 2000 Issue
"The first thing I liked
about Elk City is their inability to sit still and behave.
The songs bound from one odd patch to the next (from juiced
folk to bang-zoom pop to electronic curiosities… to
name just a few leaps). Scarcely a thought is spared for
such obsolete, boring concepts as consistency and continuity.
Instead, this NYC trio spray-paint some really vivid colors
over an unsteady synth-folk foundation. Singer/guitarist
Peter Langland-Hassan (he's the one with the Ira Kaplan voice,
only better) and singer/bassist Renee Lobue (sort of Kim
Deal meets Kate Bush) volley verses back and forth in a reckless
and playfully romantic manner, amid wheezing streams of keyboard
buzzes and drones. These feats are well displayed in the
sweet, hallucinatory love song "Chocolate Girl",
which segues directly into "Freeze Two over Eight",
a rhythmic deluge that reminds me of both the Tom Tom Club
and Young Marble Giants. "Groundbreaking" tears
away from the bubbly synth and refocuses on a battalion of
chugging guitars charging straight across the burning sands
towards a power-pop oasis. Composing and arrangements are
never less than catchy and intriguing, but the real bite
comes from the unpredictable back and forth between Lobue
and Langland-Hassan that refreshingly never generates into
gender bickering: both singers seem thoughtful and imaginative
even if their duologues really don't connect in any real
sense. The cornerstone of 'Status' is the eight-plus-minute "Fall
Out of Reach", a song that drifts along on a somber,
contemplative bed of acoustic guitar and thumping beats,
with Langland-Hassan wondering aloud about his passing years,
while Lobue offers optimistic counsel ("It's all about
being alive/Now YOU try…"). John Chandler - PUNCTURE
#47
"Occasionally, an album is
released that makes you wonder just what the hell happened
to indie rock after 1995. The debut from New York's Elk City
is exactly one of those records. Within it, you'll find all
the trappings that>used to make indie rock so interesting:
space-shifted harmonies, infectious melodies, adventurous
tunings and, not least, a sense that these musicians enjoy
what they're doing. Light years away from the strictly compartmentalized
indie world we live in--'Status' is no post-rock/twee-pop/trip-hop
genre suicide--the three members of Elk City simply excel
in making beautiful pop songs that are as interesting as
they>are unassuming. Drawing a line that connects the
simplicity of Galaxie 500, the etherealness of the good 4AD
pop bands and the avant tendencies of Yo La Tengo's better
moments, Elk City is striving for some "otherness" on
these 11 songs that belies the fact that the band is only
three years old. Of course, that Elk City emerged from the
dissolution of the Melting Hopefuls indicates it may indeed
know what it's doing. The sound here is certainly fresh and
amply demonstrates that though it may be decidedly out of
fashion, the members of Elk City have gone and made a great
indie-rock record. Good for them." -Jason Ferguson - MAGNET
#47
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