One Liner: Great, straight-forward rock and roll with some pop cross-over success and massive singles
Wikipedia Genre: Alternative rock, indie rock, psychedelic rock, garage rock, punk blues, post-punk
Home: London (via Kentucky, of all places)
Poster Position: First Quarter - Line 2
Day: Friday
Both Weekends.
Thoughts: Fascinating. If you would have asked me when they were last here, I would have absolutely bet on the last three or four years. Nine years ago!?! 2016 seems insane to me, but I think maybe there are other bands with big hits that sort of bite their style, and so it feels like they have likely been around since. Time is weird, man.
To the extent you do not recall who they are, you have almost assuredly heard some of their songs. They have a pile of extremely popular rock tracks that are still getting radio play long after they were released. When I wrote them up in 2016, I didn't touch on their background at all - shame on me - so let's dig in there a touch.
Formed in 2006 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I have been rewatching Justified so that my wife can see it (which is based in Kentucky), and it has been a funny realization that Raylon's badassness, which resonated so well for me, seems like a turnoff for the wife. Strange. Anyway, shortly before their initial album was released, they actually moved to London. Which I think is very interesting, because the lyrics on a song like "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" make him sound like a Brit. Matt Shultz is the lead singer, and his brother is the rhythm guitarist, which always seems cool too.
The band's name, according to Matt Shultz, came from an incident in 2006 when a man approached the band after a show. He hugged Shultz and kept repeating the sentence "You have to cage the elephant" over and over again. They signed with a label after the 2007 SXSW showcase, and then toured with the Queens of the Stone Age. When they moved to London, one member was only 16, so his parents signed parental guardianship over to the band. WTF!?! They do it differently in Kentucky!
Their first album, the eponymous Cage the Elephant, was released in 2009 and the initial single fired up into the charts. "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" is still their second-most streamed tune with 836.9 million streams.
Great bluesy, classic rock action right there. I hear a Jack White influence or homage in there every time. Have no clue if that was intentional or not, but it is definitely in there. 2011's Thank You Happy Birthday stuck with the same formula, although its biggest track paled in comparison to that last one. "Shake Me Down" has 135 million streams.
Kind of more introspective to start out, and then the rock kicks in. Again, dude has totally adopted an English sound! That is fascinating to realize they moved to London. They also have a song on there named 2024, which probably got a lot of play last year on those playlists that try to write a story through the song titles.
2013's Melophobia broke them out even bigger, with the biggest streamer and their third place song as well. "Come a Little Closer" is a good tune for sure, with 514.2 million streams. But "Cigarette Daydreams" is the one that gets them into the BILLION stream club with 1.18 billion.
I think I said this for Rilo Kiley. Always odd to see which song is the major streamer for some of these bands, because I think some of the other early tunes are better than that one. Maybe I just have terrible taste. Not that it is bad, I'd just choose "Wicked" or "Closer" first.
If I am being entirely honest, I really never gave them that much credit back in these days - felt like a pop rock band getting tunes played on the radio but nothing special. Like everyone else, I'd heard their hits on the radio ("Ain't No Rest of the Wicked," "Shake Me Down," "Come a Little Closer," or "Cigarette Daydreams.") but none of that really made me want to go out and buy and album or even give them a chance on Spotify. But they had a great write-up in Rolling Stone that made me want to root for them, and so I got into it for 2015's Tell Me I'm Pretty. It is great. The best tune on there, which by now has become one of the hits on the album, is called "Mess Around," and it is a sincerely fun jam. 91.7 million streams.
This is a great band with a bunch of fun songs, I'd like to see them play at the 'Fest.
That song just makes you want to absolutely jam out and dance. Good stuff. Tight and funky, with a perfect sound we will all yell along to when they play ACL. Waaaaaahhhahhhaahhhaaaaa! Oh no! You know she don't mess around! They sound a little like the Black Keys at times here, and that is likely because Dan Auerbach was in on production now and you can hear some of the soul-rock and psych tweaks that he would normally bring to a rock band. They also trace a line between the old style of Arctic Monkeys (hear "Sweetie Little Jean") and Tame Impala's psych weirdness. Freaking fun track. This show is going to be fun.
Next is 2019's Social Cues. About the time this came out, they played a double-bill with Beck and I was bummed to miss. Although my friend Joseph told me that their show was pretty annoying. And then another friend gave me the invite to see their ACL taping and I had to skip out on that too because of family commitments, and I read an Austin Chronicle article talking about how they blew the doors off of the place. Dammit. As for this album, I don't think it is as good as their last one - "Night Running" with Beck is pretty catchy, but not great. "Ready to Let Go" is pretty good, as is the frenetic "Broken Boy." This disc just seems softer than their prior music, and I liked that harder edge better. Like "Skin and Bones" got a lot of radio play, and I actually think it sounds really good, but it is also kind of soft and sneaky. "Social Cues" is the top streamer, so I'll give you that one. 138.7 million streams.
That wavery little piano thing makes me think of The Cars. I think that is the Cars - Midnight Oil used an effect like that a long time ago as well, but I think I'm thinking Cars here. Whatever, just an OK tune. How I feel about the whole album - it keeps coming back along and I don't hate it, but I'm always kind of hoping for something else to hurry up and come on.
Finally, you have 2024's Neon Pill. This album is reliably great. When I tried it out last year, it dawned on me yet again how I sort of forget about this band as an entity overall. But when you jam the stuff, it is like "oh yeah, this is one of the better current rock and roll bands out there." Super hooky, catchy, danceable, fun rock and roll goodness. This disc has that poppy, upbeat rock, but also dives into some of that Beatles-ey ballad stuff that these sorts of bands can veer into at times. Looking at "Out Loud" while I write that last bit, and "Over Your Shoulder" a little bit too. The top song is the title track, with 21.9 million streams.
No clue WTF that song is trying to say though. Sort of a longing song about his love, but what is the double-cross or the hit and run? Dammit. Going to make me research and stuff. Oh wow. Apparently, lead singer Matt Schutz says that he was prescribed a medication that put him into a psychosis without him even realizing it (thus the hit and run and being double-crossed by a pill). At one point, he was arrested for gun possession in NYC while under the influence of this pill (thus the loaded gun bit). Crazy! Autobiographical, while just sounding like a random collection of cool-sounding words! "Rainbow" and "Ball and Chain" are both fun tracks too. This album is tasty if you like catchy, slick rock and roll.
No comments:
Post a Comment