Mar 302015
This may seem kind of odd, but man, I’ve been listening to a bunch of what seems to me to be Elastica-inspired new music lately. Speedy Oritz, Wolf Alice, and Torres. I remember getting that Elastica album thinking — are they going to blow up into then next Pretenders? Connection (above) and Stutter — I loved it. Are they a one-(well, two-)album band that needs a bit more respect? They fizzled out quickly partly because of lawsuits, but a new bunch bands seem to working the same territory. What do you think?
Here’s Wolf Alice:
Post-punk and krautrock are prominent influences among today’s baby bands. As these styles go in and out of fashion, it’s hard to know whether any individual or band has heard the originals or just later iterations of a particular style. Judging by the clip, Wolf Alice adds a little shoegaze to the mix as well, but it’s very possible that they’ve never heard Swervedriver, which I thought I heard in the louder sections of the song. Does the drummer know where that ‘motorik’ beat comes from?
There’s only so much that can be done with guitars, basses, and drumkits.
I admit that I listen to this new stuff through my own references, and I hear Elastica. Elastica got sued by Wire, but I don’t think it went anywhere.
Elastica reached an out of court settlement with Wire. Songwriting credits on the offending songs now list Wire members as well as Elastica members, and presumably they got a share of the royalties as well. The Stranglers got a similar deal on another song.
Whatever happened to Elastica, more specifically the main woman, who was the bee’s knees for a solid 3 months? Considering that their one and only well-known song was a blatant cop from a Wire song and that the band quickly went the route of so many UK sensations and bombed out in short order, I don’t think they qualify for a Critical Upgrade.
The mod beat me to it: the Wire “quotation” is pretty damaging.
I liked their albums, especially the 2nd one, though I haven’t heard it in a while. I think they wasted too much time before releasing the second one, and by the time it came out ‘Britpop’ was trending down, and it didn’t get a fair shake.
Elastica will be forever known for copying Wire, for Justine being the main squeeze of Damon Albarn for a number of years, for their get together and breakup influencing the creation of some great Blur songs, and for being helping get M.I.A. notice.
Critical upgrade, probably not, although I like them, too. And that Wolf Alice song is pretty cool. As I big fan of post-punk and krautrock, I’m happy that the sound is popular again.
I’d also say that Elastica owes a lot to Romeo Void.
OK — I’ll call uncle on this one! I didn’t realize the extent of the Wire ripoff at the time — I was more focused on Veruca Salt’s Kinks fixation.
Funny you mentioned Speedy Ortiz. I’ve been listening to a lot of female fronted, low-fi bands lately. I’m loving Hop Along, Chastity Belt and Tuff Love. And that first Swearin’ album is on non-stop repeat at the office. So good.
In light of all this coolness, I think Elastica would be more right at home if they came out now. When they did, they felt to me more gimmicky, but I only know them from a few songs. Totally agree with the Romeo Void debt vocal wise. Not sure they deserve a CU, sorry.
I am totally into female fronted rock bands right now! They’ve (temporarily) replaced my Americana ladies on my personal pedestal. Courtney Barnett or Waxahatchee anyone?
If The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin can directly lift Chuck Berry, Elvis and Howlin’ Wolf ….and get in the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame then Elastica can lift Wire and get a friggin’ Critical Upgrade.
That first album is fucking great front to back….. “Annie”, “Blue” are so awesome and it was such a nice jolt of sharp, fun to sing pop songs at that time. What killed them was the five years between the first and second album.