The music of Elkhart is like listening to your friends tell tales about what their friends were like growing up. Funny, maybe sad, but very endearing to listen to. In the world of alt-country/indie bands it seems that the stories are created to fill a certain tone of the music, however, with Elkhart their music seems very much real, not made up or faked and very much from the heart.
While the band wears their influences on their sleeve, it's interesting to see they don't alternate between more rocked up songs with country/singer-songwriter tunes. They seem to have a very specific approach to creating their sound--a sound that can be very off-putting to the casual music listener. Their debut album The Moon has a very, very low key vibe to it--more in line with drinking a glass of wine by the fire with friends than providing the soundtrack to a kegger--it's the definition of mood music... or a great driving album. (Think REM's "Night Swimming" with an Americana twist) And that's fine, because being a party band isn't what Elkart is trying to be. The guitar work on The Moon is somewhere between perfection and OMG THAT'S F--KIN' BRILLIANT! The lead guitar work on here is what really sets the mood for the album and the band. It's twang is sprinkled throughout without saturating the steely sound in every song.
With all of that being said Elkhart is a great band coming out of your speakers or playing in a bar. And, if you ever see them live they do a killer version of Radiohead's "House of Cards," which you should check out before they stop playing it.
3 comments:
Love this record. It's been in rotation at mi casa for sometime now...
Yeah, I've been listening to it quite a bit the last couple of weeks. Great stuff.
Amen Bro-man...I cranked this gently whilst smoking a cigar and knocking back some alcohol on a beatuiful night at the lake recently...
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