|
|
Parlez Francais? cliquez ici
some comments about
status
"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 December 8, 2000
"Elk City have gone and made a great indie-rock record." More . . .
-MAGNET Nov/Dec 2000 -Jason Ferguson
"What a weird, cool record this New York trio has made. Filmic, fragile, and hauntingly melodic." More . . .
-THE BIG TAKEOVER Winter 2001 -Terry Banks
"The first thing I liked about Elk City is their inability to sit still and behave. Singer/guitarist Peter Langland-Hassan and singer/bassist Renee Lobue volley verses back and forth in a reckless and playfully romantic manner, amid wheezing streams of keyboard buzzes and drones." More . . .
-PUNCTURE Nov./Dec. 2000 -John Chandler
"An elegant, heartfelt debut." More . . .
-CMJ June 2000 -Kelso Jacks
"It's hard to get a handle on Elk City, in part because the music lulls you, enwraps you to the point that you don't realize you've listened to the damn record two or three times in a row . . . Elk City: classic, yet original." More . . .
-POP CULTURE PRESS Winter 2000 and Ink19.com -James Mann
"Elk City have put together a beauty of a record here, one full of grit and grace." More . . .
-POPMATTERS.com -Geoff Stahl
"One of the best pop surprises I've had this year." More . . .
-DELUSIONS OF ADEQUACY.net -Jeff Marsh
Full Text Articles
"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 now 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."
MAGNET Nov/Dec 2000 - Jason Ferguson
"What a weird, cool record this New York trio has made. Filmic, fragile, and hauntingly melodic-but somehow modest and straightforward about it all-Elk City is the Portishead you don't want to slap. On "Love's Like a Bomb", singer Renee LoBue conjures up Judy Garland lost in a 40's noir film scored my a more eager-to-please Velvet Underground. On the album's best track, the totally winning "Freeze Two Over Eight", singer/guitarist Peter Langland-Hassan and LoBue approximate the unearthly charms of primetime Cocteau Twins (minus the effects), while adding something distinctly their own."
THE BIG TAKEOVER Winter 2001 - Terry Banks
"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‰026 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 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‰026").
PUNCTURE Nov-Dec 2000 - John Chandler
"An artful New York City trio, Elk City exposes many surfaces on the strikingly quiet, though emotionally draining Status. The album reflects everything from the mournful strains of austerely romantic alt-country to Mazzy Star-styled dream pop. An unlikely blend of instruments, including melodica and accordion, constructs a thin atmosphere of cool sadness, while filtered voices and odd samples flutter about. Extra sentiment emerges from the juxtaposition of Renee Lobue's breathy, feminine pipes and Peter Langland's languid moans. The peculiar exception to this rule is a peppy cover of the Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreamin'", which arrives late in the album, almost as if to shake things up a little. An elegant, heartfelt debut."
CMJ June 2000 - Kelso Jacks
"It's hard to get a handle on Elk City, in part because the music lulls you, enwraps you to the point that you don't realize you've listened to the damn record two or three times in a row. It's only when a song such as "Love's Like a Bomb", with its twisted lyrics about eating bread on you parents' graves rolls by again that you notice you've been hitting repeat a lot. This is a good thing, and it's in large part due to the sound of Renee LoBue's voice. She can move (in the course of a single song) from a soothing, almost "Twin Peaks techno" ambiance to a guttural Marianne Faithful groan, perfecting fitting the ragtag montage of the music. Part Velvets, part turn of the century hurdy-gurdy minstrels, Elk City confounds and delights in equal measure. A cover of "California Dreamin'" surprises you partly because it takes a few minutes to recognize the song as a cover -- it fits so well with the rest of the record, you think it's an original. In fact, that's a good thought to sum up Elk City: classic, yet original."
POP CULTURE PRESS Winter 2000 and Ink19.com - James Mann
"Elk City's Status comes across as an effortless echo of the Velvet Underground, Mazzy Star, Kristin Hersh/Throwing Muses/Tanya Donnelly, Lisa Germano and Yo La Tengo. A trio which manage a rich and dynamic sound, Elk City have come up with an album melding all these influences which unfold like the goth-folk of so many This Mortal Coil records. Like those TMC records, there's a deliberate attention to sonic detailing, effective for the most part, especially when it highlights Renee LoBue's vocal pastiches. To their credit, Elk City are less affected than most TMC recordings, less precious, less pristine and less interested in burnishing songs into impossibly smooth surfaces with no depth. Instead, Elk City's artful precision lies in the ability to neatly space the instruments and vocals, leaving just enough room for experimental embellishment and neatly appointed ambient flourishes, eschewing TMC's detached chilly cool and bathing the album in a radiant sophistication that's warm to the touch. Status is an open sounding record, at moments given over to a folk/hippie pop sensibility, at others inclined to rock out. To their credit, any threat of ethereal drift dissipates quickly, with well-placed guitar and drums providing an anchor throughout the album. Perhaps that underhanded hippie diss is a little disingenuous, as most of their reference points firmly locate them in a New York/East Coast boho scene, with a visual affirmation of cosmo-cred on the cover supplied by three shadowy figures cast in a dingy dimly-lit loft. If it does nothing else, it's an image that certainly ironizes their cover of "California Dreamin'" (while also pointing to the origins of the Malkmus-like vocal stylings of Langland-Hassan). The opening track, "Dreams of Steam", sets the mood: light country twang, accordion, boy/girl vocals trading off, gelling around some placeless samples and ambient noise. The post-apocalyptic setting of "Love's Like a Bomb", with its cleverly cryptic lyrics ("Make bread and take it to your father's grave / Break bread and eat it on your mother's grave"), placed alongside the muted grandeur of "Fall Out of Reach", are immediate standouts. The rockiest track, "Groundbreaking", comes across like Pavement doing Luna doing the Velvets, and "Fall Out of Reach" sounds like the Throwing Muses doing T-Rex posthumously commissioned for a Hal Hartley soundtrack. This sort of influence peddling is less than criminal if done with some savvy. Elk City have loads of it, and they've put together a beauty of a record here, one full of grit and grace that's just in time for languid summer nights."
POPMATTERS.com - Geoff Stahl
"Elk City is a trio that formed from the ashes of a band called Melting Hopefuls, of which I know nothing other than that they played in the mid 90's and were reasonably well received. So put all of that nothing behind you and look at who they are now: a band that is probably about as unique and yet accessible as any indie pop band I've heard this year. I really wasn't prepared to like this album as much as I do. The two songs I heard on the college radio station were poppy, synth-driven ditties that were fun but not spectacular. But this band has another side, or two, or three. Because Elk City play a style that is well described on their label's site as folkwave, as contradictory as that might sound. Taking equal measures from synthesizer-lead new wave and more melodic, vocal-focused folk sounds, the band has created a sort of mixture of the styles. And while bands like Wolfie, Mathlete, and so many others are using synthesizers to lead off infectious but relatively disposable pop songs, Elk City manages to keep the pop first and the new wave second, thereby giving much more depth and structure to these songs. The vocals of Peter Langland-Hassan and Renee Lobue merge on some songs and sing separately on others, but that boy-girl (not too cutesy, mind you) pairing is perfect for this group of tunes. The band manages to have several different faces. Some songs are more folk-based, like the acoustic guitar tuneful warblings of "Dreams of Steam". The use of accordions and the switching of vocalists on different verses is a great touch on this one. There's also a sort of carnival, noisy clamor going on in the background at one part. "Mysteries Unknown" and "Fall Out of Reach" are both beautifully soft, almost minimalistic tracks that liken to Low but with some slightly different sounds added in, the latter of which is probably the album's most lovely track. "Solar Girl" is similarly light and airy, with a feel of Black Tambourines to the echoed vocals. And they end with the soft, airy and lovely "Don't Cha Wait". Elk City shows off their new wave, fun side on other tracks. "Chocolate Girl" has plenty of synthesizers, although it is one of the slower tracks, and the vocals have that kind of 70's passionate wail quality that Guided By Voices brought into indie pop. And it flows perfectly into "Freeze Two Over Eight", which picks up the pace, with catchy yet original keyboards and lovely "ooo-ooo" backing vocals. This one kind of blows my mind, even though it feels more like a flowing pop mixture of sounds than a full song. Then there's the rocking, catchy "Groundbreaking", which uses Lobue's vocals perfectly and still manages to have a bit of a throwback feel, complete with hand-claps. And "Tell the People" merges the two styles, slower and more melodic but with some burst of rocking energy and drums and synths. The lovely "doo-da-doooo" makes this one sound very spacey. OK, so the band's not perfect. A few of these songs do kind of blend together. And placing their cover of the classic "California Dreamin'", while turning outrocking with some crunchy guitars, in the middle of the album wasn't the best idea. Save these fun covers for secret bonus tracks or B-sides.
While I was expecting another Wolfie-style band, cute and catchy but generally underwhelming and simplistic, Elk City showed me something completely different. Their slower, more pop-based songs are perfectly structured and often quite lovely. Their catchier, faster songs are just as infectious as expected. And the two vocalists really turn these songs into something special. All in all, one of the best pop surprises I've had this year."
DELUSIONS OF ADEQUACY.net - Jeff Marsh
| |
