ELK CITY

When I first heard the ELK CITY song "Cherries in the Snow" in April of '05, I didn't know a thing about the band, and I didn't know where the song came from. At the time, I didn't really care. I just knew that I liked the hell out of the tune, and that was good enough.

Turns out, that track I was so smitten with was merely a demo. I only learned this last week, after stumbling into Elk City's new LP, NEW BELIEVERS. Yes, there it was -- "Cherries in the Snow" -- right up top in the lead-off position. I was almost afraid to listen to the thing. What if they'd changed it? What if they'd screwed it up?

But no, it remained pretty much intact. The beginning bells. The skittering, tubthumping drums. The oooh-la-las. All were there. The only changes that I could make out were some minor, textural background instrumentation and the addition of a purposefully (one hopes) wanky guitar solo.

As for "Los Cruzados," it rides a somewhat sinister, two-tone bassline to its chorus, where the sky opens wide, the synths stream in, and singer RENEE LoBUE starts letting loose with the "Hallelujahs." It's a simple yet effective dichotomy, and I'm willing to bet it worked pretty damn well in demo form as well.

ELK CITY on MySPACE.

ELK CITY visiting various cities >>>

Apr 24 2007 9:00P/La Carène/Brest, France
Apr 25 2007 8:00P/Le Cabaret Electrique/Le Havre, France
Apr 26 2007 8:00P/La Lune des Pirates/Amiens, France
Apr 27 2007 8:00P/Le Ciel/Grenoble, France
Apr 28 2007 8:00P/Le Café Charbon/Nevers, France
Apr 30 2007 8:00P/Le Mediator/Perpignan, France
May 11 2007 9:00P/UNION HALL/Brooklyn, New York

From the LP NEW BELIEVERS, 2007 >>>
[MP3] [VID] "Cherries in the Snow"
[MP3] "Los Cruzados"

From the LP STATUS, 2000 >>>
[MP3] "Dreams of Steam"

[MP3] "California Dreamin'"