Sound Bites

Elbow | Webster Hall | 4.26.2008

"That's something you don't hear very often," joked Guy Garvey early in his bands performance at Webster Hall. The phrase in question was a shouted "Elbow rocks!" from the audience.

It's true. Though Elbow do rock in a gentle, yet epic sort of way. This was the first night of their American tour for Elbow's great, just-released fourth album, The Seldom-Seen Kid which is full of the heartfelt mini-epics the band are so good at. Joined on this tour by two violist/backup singers, Elbow were grander than usual, but it was Garvey's charm, humor, and smokey voice that makes people lifetime fans.

Another phrase you don't hear that often is "pristine sound at Webster Hall." I bash the venue nearly every time I write about it but not this time. If it wasn't for the "thump thump" of Awesome '80s Prom coming from below I would call it perfect. We got most of The Seldom Seen Kid, a nice chunk of Leaders of the Free World (my favorite album of '05), plus older favorites "Newborn" and "Grace Under Pressure." This was the best Elbow show I've attended.

There were also two great sing-a-long-moments. Garvey orchestrated a crowd-assist for set-closer "On a Day Like This" which the Webster Hall audience were more than happy to help with. I have a feeling this is going to happen at all the shows on the tour, so if you want to start practicing now, here's a little help:

MP3: Elbow - One Day Like This (buy The Seldom-Seen Kid)

The second was a bit more special. "If you want us to come back for an encore, you're gonna have to sing," he dared us, and then asked the crowd for suggestions. "It's gotta be something everyone knows." Someone yelled "Killing Me Softly" and a broad smile grew across Garvey's face. "Brilliant choice." Everyone laughed but I think few thought it would really happen. But then, after the band went offstage, sure enough the song broke out in the middle of the crowd and filled the whole hall. Garvey came out almost immediately, grinning "You lovely fuckers!" Right back at you, Guy!

Also in attendance: Music Snobbery and Johnny Leather. Go see them if you can. Dates:

April 29 - Park West, Chicago, IL
April 30 - Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis, MN
May 2 - Bluebird Theatre, Denver, CO
May 3 - The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT
May 5 - Showbox at the Market, Seattle, WA
May 6 - St Andrew's Wesley Church, Vancouver, Canada
May 8 - Bimbo's 365 club, San Francisco, CA
May 9 - Avalon, Los Angeles, CA

The Fix is In

If I had read up on Elbow's new album, The Seldom Seen Kid, before listening to it, I probably wouldn't have been surprised to hear the unmistakable velvety croon of Richard Hawley coming out of my speakers. What a treat -- maybe we know too much about everything is this information age.

When we think of duets, it's usually of the girl-guy variety but on "The Fix" we've got singer Hawley trading lines with Elbow's singer Guy Garvey in a tale of two schemers plotting to fix a horse race and retire on the winnings. "We've loaded the saddles, the mickey's are slipped / We're swapping the turf for the sand and the surf and the sin." It's like something out of a Rat Pack movie, which seems to be pretty much how the song was conceived. Garvey told BBC 6 Music (where he's got a Sunday night radio show) that they came up with the idea when they shared a plane ride to America (Tennessee, specifically), adding "He plays the most amazing table top guitar solo at the end. It was so much fun making it with him. We recorded the vocal facing each other like Frank and Deano might have, years ago." They better make a video.

MP3: Elbow - The Fix (Pre-order The Seldom Seen Kid)

As for the rest of The Seldom Seen Kid, it's more typical Elbow-ian territory, making epics out of intimate moments like only they can. It shouldn't disappoint anyone who dug the incredible Leader's of the Free World -- my Album of 2005. (They also talked food on these pages too.) If anything, it finds the band taking more musical chances and Guy Garvey's pipes are in fine, world-weary form. There is talk that this may be the album that finally gives them a hit -- the truly gorgeous ballad "Weather to Fly." If Coldplay and Snow Patrol can do it, there is certainly room for Elbow.

The band have launched a hi-tech website for The Seldom Seen Kid, with a sort of Rubik's Cube you manipulate to "reveal instrumental layers of one album track per week." This is during the week -- Saturdays and Sundays it just seems to play the song in toto. With the dissolution of their former label, V2, Elbow are now signed to Fiction, which for years only seemed to exist to release Cure albumsr, which is now home to Kate Nash, Ian Brown and Delays. No word on U.S. distribution but as Fiction is owned by Universal, it seems likely to get a Stateside release.

Sound Bites Interview: Elbow

This is a continuing series of interviews in which musicians talk about food, and chefs talk about music. Elbow, a most excellent rock band from Manchester, England, are not named after the macaroni. The whole band probably would've talked for an hour about food but, sadly, there were other questions (not found here) on the agenda as well.  Singer Guy Garvey (left) and bassist Pete Turner (right) did most of the talking, as guitarist Mark Potter (middle) was too engrossed in his Eggs Benedict to contribute to this interview. Can't blame him. 

SoundBites: Are you all into food, beyond sustenance?

Guy Garvey: I would say I'm less into food than the rest of the band, even though I probably eat the most. We talk about it a hell of a lot, though. When we recorded Leaders of the Free World we got these guys, The Soup Collective to film us writing and recording it and Mark, the guy who was editing the outtake footage, said he could three hours out of us alone discussing food.

SB: Do you have special food requirements on your tour rider?

GG: We tend not to. I don’t eat meat and chicken, and Pete can't eat Brazil nuts or anything Brazil Nut-related, or he could die.

Pete Turner: The rider is mainly booze. We ask for snacks and stuff, but you want to spend the majority of it on booze. Our crew are greedy as fuck! They drink as much as we do, so we have to order lots of alcohol.

GG: As far as food goes, I could tell you what most of the band would order off a menu. After ten years as a band, we know each other's orders quite well.

SB: OK, let's hear it.

GG: Pete likes his food very simple and traditional. He likes meat and two vegetables. A good piece of meat and some good fresh vegetables. He likes prawns.

PT: Well, at the moment I'm very into scallops. It was mussels before that.

GG: Didn't you overdo it with lobster once?

PT: Well, lobster can be a bit sweet, a bit rich. It's easy to overdo.

GG: My favorite food is probably pasta. I eat far too much of it. Very good at cooking it, if I do say so.

PT: I used to live with Guy about five years ago and it wasn't that he couldn't do it, he just wouldn't try cooking anything. I knew that he could, because late at night he'd cook things up but if I was around he wouldn't do it. I think it's living by yourself, but he's become quite a good cook.

GG: I live in the city center, so it's very easy to eat out all the time. So I got into cooking to combat that.

SB: Do you actually go as far as to make your own pasta?

GG:  I'm not that adventurous. My friend Andy does, though, and he sometimes drops some off -- he's got a pasta maker. But maybe someday.

Elbow's third album, Leaders of the Free World, is in stores now. The import was my pick for Best Album of 2005.

Check out more food-related Q&As in the Soundbites Interview Archive.

SoundBites Best of 2005 | Albums

Don't let anyone say 2005 was a crummy year for music. I coulda done a Top 50. But that takes too much time. Here's my Top 20 Albums of 2005, which probably changed more than NME's lineup right down to posting.

Elbow – Leaders of the Free World (V2) | Elbow's third album is not only the best thing they've ever done, it was the best thing I heard anyone do in 2005. Gorgeous melodies, inventive arrangements and musicianship, and some of the most heartfelt (without treacle) lyrics around. And Guy Garvey's amazing voice on top of it all. Album of the Year by a mile. Best songs: "Station Approach," "The Stops," "Mexican Standoff," "The Everthere."

Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock and Roll (Fierce Panda) | The year's most flat-out enjoyable record. The humor in singer Eddie Argos' lyrics hits you first ("I've seen her naked...TWICE!") but these are songs that are funny, not novelty rock. (Some may disagree.) And, as Argos sings on their manifesto "Formed a Band," this is not irony. "We're just talking to the kids!" The hits keep coming through all 12 tracks, from "My Little Brother" through "18,000 Lira."

 

New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (Matador) | Not as immediate and crammed with hooks as either The Electric Version or Mass Romantic, album number three for this mostly-Canadian supergroup seemed like a bit of a dud on arrival. Weeks of play, however, and songs constantly coming up on shuffle on the iPod, have proven Twin Cinema to be another batch of winning songs with perhaps the most staying power of them all. Dig new New breed: "Sing Me Spanish Techno," "These Are the Fables," "The Jessica Numbers."

Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins (Polyvinyl) I remember seeing Of Montreal back in 1999, playing with Ladybug Transistor. There were props and slide-flutes and other twee type things. I didn't like them. But somewhere down the line they transformed from utter whimsy into a band capable of filtering poppy, '60s-inspired melodies through Eno-esque new wave. I was hooked. One of 2005's earlier releases (well, April), The Sunlandic Twins has stayed with me for most of the year. Get some Sun:"Requiem for O.M.M.2," "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)," "Forecast Fascist Future."

The Rakes - Capture/Release (V2) | These guys have, so far, been met mostly with shrugs in America (the record's not out yet here), dismissed as the latest post-punk whatever. There may be a little disco hi-hat in the drumming, but The Rakes are miles better than any of the others and actually remind me of Pink Flag-era Wire with a working-class attitude and an articulate grasp of late-20s ennui. "Might as well go out for a fifth night in a row" indeed. Capture/Release is genius from start-to-finish and has some of the year's best singles, too, including "Work Work Work (Pub, Club, Sleep)," "22 Grand Job," and "Strasbourg."

Field Music - Field Music (Memphis Industries) | Despite having ties to both the Futureheads (singer Andrew Moore used to be in them) and Maximo Park (they share a drummer), Sunderland, England's Field Music sound nothing like them. It's all delicate, sparse arrangements (not unlike Spoon), nods to '60s baroque pop, and a cut-the-fat approach to album making. Debut album of the year, rock division. Choice cuts: "If Only the Moon Were Up," "Shorter Shorter," "Got to Write a Letter"

LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem (DFA/Capitol) | When LCD Soundsystem's debut got two Grammy noms, I began to question my own taste for including this on my best-of list but no, dammit, this is a great album. It still sounds great after having it for nearly a year, and being played at every party, before every show, and on The O.C. It will be interesting to see what James Murphy does next. Killer jams: "Daft Punk is Playing in My House," "Tribulations," "Beat Connection"

My Morning Jacket - Z (ATO) | Like The Clientele, My Morning Jacket dare to drop one of their calling cards (the gallons of reverb), then drop a key band member and pull a 180 musically. The result being the best album they've ever done and the first one I've truly liked start-to-finish. And yet they still sound like My Morning Jacket, thanks in no small part to Jim James voice-of-heaven vocals. Prime cuts: "Wordless Chorus," "Into the Woods," "Anytime"

Richard Hawley - Coles Corner (Mute) | Third album's the charm for this former axeman for Longpigs and Pulp, who once again leaves indie stylings behind in favor of full-on crooner mode, a la Roy Orbison, Burt Bacharach, Marty Robbins, or even Morrissey. Even though it was written about Sheffield, England, Coles Corner makes a gorgeous soundtrack for NYC too, and sounds even better after midnight. Swoon: "The Ocean," "Hotel Room," "Born Under a Bad Sign," "Coles Corner"

Malcolm Middleton - Into the Woods (Chemikal Underground) | If you read the lyrics sheet, you may wonder about the state of mind of Arab Strap's Malcolm Middleton on his second solo album. For example, on "A Happy Medium" he sings, "Woke up again today/Realized I hate myself/My Brain is a disease." But Into the Woods is not a dreary exercise in woe-is-me-isms. Like so many before him, Middleton turns his pain, fear and doubts into something beautiful. Even those who have never had any time for Arab Strap should give this one a chance. Get into: "My Loneliness Shines," "You're Gonna Break My Heart," "A Happy Medium"

The other 10 after the jump...