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By J.R. Griffin Black magic men The members of Elefant are in a bad way. Their lead singer, Diego Garcia, has a bum foot he injured during a show that has him on crutches. Another member is deathly ill with a throat so sore, hes contemplating chugging an entire bottle of Vicks Chloraseptic throat spray to get through the day. And theyre all hungry, salivating over the Mexican food thats just arrived poolside at Hollywoods Grafton on Sunset hotel, where the New Yorkers are conducting interviews about their gloriously dark new album, The Black Magic Show. All of this, smack-dab in the middle of the press tour, and a real tour opening for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club that leads the guys to a marathon of gigs for the South by Southwest music conference. Garcia, guitarist Mod (thats just Mod), bassist Jeff James and drummer Kevin McAdams are made of tough stock, though, and the troops are ready to rally. Argentinean Garcia chats away with foreign press while Mod scoots away from his plate of rice and beans to better focus on our interview, his moppy hair covering his face most of the time, his rock star complexion the complete opposite of the sunny SoCal afternoon. Were making it work, he says. Diego just kind of stands in one place when he sings. Then were doing some acoustic shows at the festival where he can sit. We want to get this music out there. And they should. After making a splash with 2004s Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid, the guys made what Diego calls the definitive Elefant record. Full of lush, Goth-y romanticism (the title track), crowd-pleasing Interpol-esque rockers (Lolita) and even clap-your-hands-and-jump-up-and-down pop numbers (Uh Oh Hello), it will not only stop the constant onslaught of Strokes comparisons itll squash em. Its more focused, says Mod. When we recorded the last album we just went into the studio and created something there and then tried to represent that on the road. But this time we road-tested these songs first and then built on them. It seems like the normal way to do things. In fact, some of The Black Magic Shows songs have been around for years, going back as far as 2003, before hits like Misfit made their way onto KROQ. Weve had some of these songs for quite awhile and wanted to get them down, says Mod. Then, when we got into the studio, we realized that we wanted to expand the sound. We wanted to do that last time, but we ended up taking all of the layers away and stripping down the music. This time, though, if we wanted to add more guitar parts and more keyboards, we did. And it all fit into place. The growth adds a new level of drama to songs such as Brasil, Lolita and My Apology, which are equally inspired by Diegos personal experiences as they are by literary Russian masterworks. And whereas Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid started out with the brighter songs and ended up in a dark, miserable world, according to Mod, The Black Magic Show has a little more ebb and flow to it. Its all packaged nicely by producer Don Gilmore, who, after working with the likes of Duran Duran and Linkin Park, knows when to let a band stretch its wings and fly. The best thing he did, says Mod, was just let us find ourselves. With that Mod has things to find himself: namely a plate of beans and rice as well as more pending interviews and appointments. He heads off to them by brushing a handful of hair aside and some pointed parting words. We want to just keep making records, doing this, he says, and being a living, breathing band. Right, bum feet and sore throats be damned. On the web: www.theblackmagicshow.com |
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Copyright © 2002 Mean Street Magazine, LLC |
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