Elefant

Unless you're a barfly or an Enzyte stockholder, "stiff" isn't a very fetching adjective. At best, it connotes cold reserve and efficiency; at worst, it means corpse. And yet stiff will go down as the prevalent rock descriptor of the early '00s, when the Strokes and Interpol appropriated plenty of...

By Jason Heller

February 2, 2006

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Unless you're a barfly or an Enzyte stockholder, "stiff" isn't a very fetching adjective. At best, it connotes cold reserve and efficiency; at worst, it means corpse. And yet stiff will go down as the prevalent rock descriptor of the early '00s, when the Strokes and Interpol appropriated plenty of rigid riffs -- but few of the fluid underpinnings -- of vintage post-punk. Elefant's 2003 debut, Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid, had an adding-machine beat that ticked precisely between the pop wind-up of the Strokes and Interpol's sourpuss pulse. But "Lolita," the first glimpse of The Black Magic Show, Elefant's imminent sophomore effort, almost sounds like the product of a living, shitting band. Leader Diego Garcia has whipped his group into a semblance of organic life, crafting a single with both breadth and breath -- curiously mirroring the recent evolutionary leap of the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, with whom Elefant will kick off a two-month tour at the Gothic. They still look like hipster ball sacs decked out in all black and last year's long hair, but at least they've learned to loosen up a little.

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