Elastica were a British rock band formed in London in 1992. The band were influenced by punk rock,
post-punk and new wave music. Their 1995 album Elastica produced singles that charted in the United Kingdom and the United States, including their highest-charting US Hot 100 hit "Connection." They split in 2001, roughly a year after releasing their second LP. Several changes in line-up occurred during their existence, with Frischmann and Welch being the only consistent members from beginning until their split.
With its pithy, searing songs about sex, groupies, and ennui, the self-titled 1995 debut from Elastica captured the whirlwind of the early-’90s Britpop explosion.
Elastica hid from the media over a year before the release of their self-titled debut album. In early 1994, after putting out just two singles, they took six months off from performing and giving interviews.
When the sabbatical ended, the band’s frontwoman and primary songwriter, Justine Frischmann, explained to Melody Maker’s Everett True “it’s imperative that you should be written about for your music, which is why we decided, after January, we needed to go away and prove ourselves. I’d seen the pressures close at hand before Elastica started—‘Oh my God, are we going to be A-listed? Are we going to get that cover?’ It seemed to be missing the point.”
Elastica's first LP, Elastica, was released in 13 March 1995, and entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 1.
It became the fastest-selling debut album since Oasis' Definitely Maybe. This record was held for over ten years, until it was surpassed by the Arctic Monkeys' debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not in 2006. The album was preceded by their fourth single "Waking Up" which went to No. 13 on the UK Singles Chart, their highest placing therein.
The album is a product of libido, bravado, and enthusiasm for the music of Gen Xers’ childhoods—all things that start to fade with age. That exhilaration can’t be recaptured, but it can be preserved for future generations of kids wired on sex, cheap wine, and punk rock.
The mid-90s witnessed another "British Invasion" in America. "Stutter" and "Connection" received airplay on modern rock radio and both charted on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at nos 67 and 53
respectively; their debut album also charted and was later certified gold). After performing at the 1995 Glastonbury Festival, the band joined the Lollapalooza tour continuing an almost solid year of constant gigs where they toured North America four times. Citing exhaustion, Annie Holland quit the band in early August 1995 and was replaced for the remainder of the tour by session bassist Abby Travis. Holland was not permanently replaced until the arrival of Sheila Chipperfield in the spring of 1996. Around this time, keyboardist David Bush (ex-the Fall) was added to the line-up.
After playing more shows and demoing new material in the first half of 1996, Elastica entered the studio in the later part of the year to begin work on their second album. Their second proper album, The Menace, was released in April 2000. After the release of the farewell single "The Bitch Don't Work" in 2001, the band announced their amicable break-up.
[Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Elastica's debut album may cop a riff here and there from Wire or the Stranglers, yet no more than Led
Zeppelin did with Willie Dixon or the Beach Boys with Chuck Berry. The key is context. Elastica can make the rigid artiness of Wire into a rocking, sexy single with more hooks than anything on Pink Flag ("Connection") or rework the Stranglers' "No More Heroes" into a more universal anthem that loses none of its punkiness ("Waking Up"). But what makes Elastica such an intoxicating record is not only the way the 16 songs speed by in 40 minutes, but that they're nearly all classics.
The riffs are angular like early Adam & the Ants, the melodies tease like Blondie, and the entire band is
as tough as the Clash, yet they never seem anything less than contemporary. Justine Frischmann's detached sexuality adds an extra edge to her brief, spiky songs -- "Stutter" roars about a boyfriend's impotence, "Car Song" makes sex in a car actually sound sexy, "Line Up" slags off groupies, and "Vaseline" speaks for itself. Even if the occasional riff sounds like an old wave group, the simple fact is that hardly any new wave band made records this consistently rocking and melodic.]
ELASTICA - ELASTICA 1995
Label: DGC – DGCD-A-24728
Format: CD, Album, Promo
Country: US
Released: 1995
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Brit Pop
MEMBERS
Bass – Annie Holland
Drums – Justin Welch
Engineer – Marc Waterman
Mixed By – Alan Moulder (tracks: 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 16), Bruce Lampcov (tracks: 6, 15), John Leckie (tracks: 8, 13), Marc Waterman (tracks: 1), Mitti (tracks: 11), Paul Tipler (tracks: 5, 10), Phil Vinall (tracks: 14)
Photography By [Cover] – Juergen Teller
Producer – Elastica , Marc Waterman
Vocals, Guitar – Donna Matthews, Justine Frischmann
Written-By – Anderson (tracks: 13), Matthews (tracks: 2, 5, 6, 9, 12), Elastica, Frischmann (tracks: 1, 3 to 8, 10, 11, 13 to 16)
TRAXS
01. Line Up 3:15
02. Annie (Songwriter – Matthews, Elastica - Words By – Jane Oliver) 1:13
03. Connection 2:20
04. Car Song (Keyboards [Extra Keyboard] – Dan Abnormal) 2:24
05. Smile (Songwriter – Matthews, Elastica, Frischmann) 1:40
06. Hold Me Now (Songwriter – Matthews, Elastica, Frischmann) 2:32
07. S.O.F.T. 3:58
08. Indian Song (Keyboards [Extra Keyboard] – Dan Abnormal) 2:46
09. Blue (Songwriter – Matthews, Elastica) 2:21
10. All-Nighter 1:33
11. Waking Up (Keyboards [Extra Keyboard] – Dan Abnormal) 3:15
12. 2:1 (Songwriter – Matthews, Elastica) 2:31
13. See That Animal (Songwriter – Anderson, Elastica, Frischmann) 2:21
14. Stutter 2:22
15. Never Here 4:26
16. Vaseline 1:23
MP3 @ 320 Size: 97 MB
Flac Size: 280 MB
ELASTICA - 6 TRACK EP 1999
When released in 1999, Elastica's 6 Track EP was the first new material issued by the band since their self-titled debut four years earlier. According to bandleader Justine Frischmann the EP represented
more of a document of what the band was up to during the interim rather than a return to form: "The material has been chosen to allow people to hear rarities and demos which reflect all stages of the bands recording between 1996 and 1999. The EP is certainly not intended to be some big comeback record." Indeed, several of the songs would later find themselves on their second album The Menace (2000) although in more polished form.
Label: Deceptive – bluff071cd
Format: CD, EP
Country: UK
Released: 23 Aug 1999
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Brit Pop
MEMBERS
Justine Frischmann - vocals, guitar
Donna Matthews - guitar, vocals
Annie Holland - bass
Justin Welch - drums
Paul Jones - lead guitar
Mew - keys, vocals
Dave Bush - keys, loops
TRAXS
01. How He Wrote Elastica Man (Nagle/Smith) - 2:02
02. Nothing Stays the Same (Donna's Home Demo) (Matthews) - 2:37
03. Miami Nice (Home Recording) (Elastica/Hardy) - 3:22
04. KB (Elastica) - 3:12
05. Operate (Live) (Matthews) - 3:25
06. Generator (Elastica) - 1:51
MP3 @ 320 Size: 42 MB
Flac Size: 125 MB
LEd Zeppelin never ripped off Willie Dixon, etc, they NEVER wrote their own songs either. Like The Beatles, Small Faces, Pistols, Oasis, Michael Jackson, etc, they were given the songs and took the credit, the royalties went elsewhere, Tavistock and Langley.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot!!!
ReplyDeleteCheers
A Must, a real keeper of an album.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this one of many of your awesome posts!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Your old friend "Agent Brown" says hey!