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Underground > Radio & Music >

Electrelane

07:58 / 19.04.02

I saw Electrelane at the Studio Club in London last night, and am in no state to offer any kind of critical opinion as they were amazing. Played some new material out next week, which was even better than most on Rock It To The Moon. You all should love this band. Tell me you do!

08:02 / 19.04.02

I surely do!

What's with the new material? I knew they had an EP out soon, but I thought it was just remixes..

11:14 / 19.04.02

i saw electralane in the not too distant past and they failed to light a spark with me. i don't know why. had a hassley evening, perhaps that didn't help. maybe i should try again.

12:56 / 19.04.02

They played two new songs, not remixes, which were imo as good as their current singles. I guess these will be on the EP, but I don't know.
Where did you see them b4 shortfatdyke? I don't know how well they'd work in a big venue, but Studio club is tiny and the energy of the crowd and the music was well focused ( on me, yay! :P ). Give them another chance on a non-hassley evening maybe.

13:20 / 19.04.02

i'm always underwhelmed when i see them. i've seen them live a bunch of times, supporting trail of dead and sleater-kinney. one of them deejays at a super-cool indie rock club in brighton and she's ace. but i don't like the band as much.

13:53 / 19.04.02

they played at the arts cafe in shoreditch. teeny tiny venue. flyboy was there, i think he enjoyed them. i had problems with ligger types pushing in front of me - not condusive to a good evening. and the venue was horribly packed.

suds - sleater kinney YEAH!

Matthew Fluxington

14:22 / 19.04.02

My best Electralene listening experience thus far has been listening to Rock It To The Moon while halfasleep. Any other way, they don't do too much for me. "Long Dark" is quite good, though.

I think I read that Electralene were opening for Sleater-Kinney when I see them at the Warsaw in May...

autopilot disengaged

15:29 / 19.04.02

i saw them last week here in brighton, which is after all their home town - they were like a fucking wall of brushed chrome (note: this is a good thing). discussed their performance in toilets with one half of the electric soft parade, wanted to say 'they are soooo much better than you...' didn't. also demanded introduction to careless talk's everett true, but in doing so freaked out photographer. he can wait.

and those EP trax would be... 'i want to be the president', 'i only always think' and 'i've been your fan since yesterday'.

electrelane rock me all the way up to 11, baby.

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:07 / 23.04.02

I'm 'mildly' fond.

Translation: I stalk them. I am their groupie. Yes.

Albini is supposed to be producing their next album, for those of you who care about these kind of things.

Is the EP out this week? Where can I find it?

16:13 / 23.04.02

Albini is supposed to be producing their next album, for those of you who care about these kind of things.

I think i just came.

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:46 / 24.04.02

Holy fuck, but that new EP is good. It's always so exciting to hear a band at this stage of their career, when they're learning and growing and just getting better with everything they put out...

'I Want To Be The President' is the most poppy thing they've yet done, with lyrics and singing and everything. Quite Stereolab-y but somehow much better... Is it an anti-war/American imperialism anthem, or a metaphor for sex and relationships, or both? Anyway it bounces along quite gently and then suddenly there's a robotic burble and a 'CRACK!' and it all goes post-rock on yr asses, but in a good way. Very sing-along-y.

'I Only Always Think' is much more like classic Electrelane, that sort of planing drifting thing with lots of "aaah-aaah"s, and then some jazzy piano near the end.

Best of all though is 'I've Been Your Fan Since Yesterday', which at first is all dreamy vocals and bass drum in a way that reminds me of side two of 'Abbey Road', then picks up the pace and turns into a kind of 'Girl From Ipanema' thing, and then it all gets drowned in lovely crunchy guitar fuzz.

I'm a bit worried that it really does look as if they're no longer supporting Le Tigre on the 31st May, though...

Matthew Fluxington

16:27 / 24.04.02

I just downloaded "I Want To Be President" (the other songs aren't online yet...), and I really like it a lot. Electrelane benefit GREATLY from having vocals and lyrics, it's a much more dynamic thing. Very nice - I'm looking foward to hearing the rest of that EP.

08:27 / 25.04.02

I'm a bit worried that it really does look as if they're no longer supporting Le Tigre on the 31st May, though...

OH NOO!! I was so looking forward to that..

14:51 / 29.04.02

I Want To Be President RULES.

Not sure 'bout the other two tracks, a bit ...hmmm... like boring Stereolab instead of good Stereolab..

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:55 / 15.10.03

New Electrelane single, 'On Parade', is out on October 20th apparently. Has anyone heard it? Apparently the b-side will be their cover of Springsteen's 'I'm On Fire', which was amazing when I saw them do it live - I for one am very pleased that they're (finally) putting a studio version out.

The new album is called The Power Out and is scheduled for January... and yes, it's Albini at the controls.

14:38 / 15.10.03

John Peel played 'On Parade' last night.

Surprisingly, it didn't immediately strike me as being mindblowingly amazing. It all sounded a bit sort of.. merely quite good.. and the singing sounded a bit rough..

Hopefully subsequent listens will change my mind - that's what usually happens..

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:54 / 21.10.03

Bought this yesterday. It's funny, the cover made me think "I didn't think they made singles like this anymore" - it looks so indie, although not necessarily in a bad way - and the single itself kind of lives up to that. I found it kinda not-all-there on a first listen, but it's growing on me. The highlight has to be the little "doo-doo!" bits which sound like yelps that have then been sampled and treated and are being played on a keyboard (but I could be wrong). It's definitely a song that gets better as it goes along as well as the more often you hear it... The euphoria contained therein is something you can miss the first time.

I dunno, as singles go it's nowhere near as impressive as 'I Want To Be The President' but then I don't really think of Electrelane as a band who *do* singles. Maybe it'll click 1005 for me when I hear the album. I'm a bit worried about this Albini bloke though, his thing seems to be to make it sound like the track was recorded in a shed. Oh wait, I mean garage, don't I, that's where the whole "garage rock" thing comes from, right? Only half-kidding and yes, I am a philistine.

As I pretty much expected, 'I'm On Fire' is the superior track - I don't know if it's the fact that I was blown away by them doing it live that turns Albini's production values into a strength - it's very raw but in the sense of seeming right up there in your face, in the room with you, rather than in a shit indie venue in Camden with a crap PA (okay, that's a bit harsh, but I needed to clarify). It's like this dark, roating river of Farfisa and bass and crashing cymbals with a girl being spirited away on top of it and shouting about how she's going to steal a girl from a guy (maybe). Okay, that's the poetic bit over with...

Matthew Fluxington

15:05 / 21.10.03

I like the single a lot. I'm glad that they are pushing vocals now, because it makes them sound a lot less ordinary - there are just want too many film-music-y indie bands out there now, and it is best to not be associated with them, because almost all of them are borecore and horrible. The single isn't as brilliant as "I Want To Be President," but I don't mind, because not that many things are.

If you want to get an mp3 of "On Parade," I put it on my blog today.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:34 / 20.02.04

The album is a strange beast - can't quite decide if it's patchy or just patchwork... Y'know, they're trying quite a few different things, which is a big contrast from the first album which was almost entirely one very distinct 'thing'. I haven't yet decided how much of it works, but you have to acknowledge their audacity (choirs, war poets, lines from Nietzsche, not to mention simultaneously going more garage rock, more electro and more delicately indie...).

There's definitely some really nice stuff on here though, and 'Only One Thing Is Needed' is up there with the best stuff they've done (by which I guess we pretty much all agree I mean 'I Want To Be The President', right?). It's one of the first Electrelane tracks I can really imagine being played in a club and really getting people dancing - everything about it just says "exciting evening out!" to me (I think there are even lyrics about "gonna meet my girl tonight"). When the saxophone comes in, first time, it's really jarring, but then you learn to love it. As my loverr said last night, "This song makes me want to wave my hands in the air like this" - I couldn't have put it better myself.

14:46 / 20.02.04

I'm still not really feelin' the new Electrelane material. I've heard quite a lot of it on the radio and, well, I don't remember a single thing about any of it to be honest except that it had singing in it and sounded rather like the soundtrack to making a cup of tea or painting window cills - not good.

I have it on good authority that they're still an amazing live experience though..

15:22 / 13.03.04

i love this album. it is amazing...i think you just need to give it a chance. i like the different styles that are explored. it's much more interesting than just making a really 'samey' record. at least the girls are trying to do something different.

04:09 / 14.03.04

they sound too much like stereolab, who have sounded really boring for their last, what, five records?

That song the valley is really amazing tho.

The Ghost of Tom Winter

00:48 / 13.11.07

So I was cruising the Myspace, went on to Electrelane's mysapce and found this piece of horrible news:

"We have decided that the upcoming gigs will be our last for the foreseeable future. After ten years of much fun and hard work, we have realised that we all need a break and time to do other things. This was a tough decision for us to make, but ultimately a positive one. A big thank you to everyone who has come to our shows, put on our shows, and bought our records over the years. It means a lot to us. We're really grateful to have had the opportunity to play gigs all over the world and to meet so many lovely people. This last year has been especially enjoyable and we feel happy about moving on with all these good memories to look back on. At the moment we haven’t made any band plans for the future but we’re going to have a break and see what happens. Love, Electrelane"

Since you guys are how I found out about this wonderful band I've been obsessing over for the past year I figured I'd give you all the heads up. I'm almost tempted to shell out one thousand dollars for a ticket to London to see them on their final days. So sad. So sad.

13:08 / 30.11.07

It is sad, yes. I can assure you that they very much rocked last night (assuming you weren't there...). Got to chat to most of them in the pub afterwards, they all seemed very happy. I learnt that they've been dropped by Too Pure, though that was after they'd decided to take a break (but presumably before they told anyone). I was also disappointed to hear that they would have played I Want To Be The President (which I've only seen them do once before) if anyone had shouted out for it. Bah, why am I so reserved...?

If anyone's going to see them in Brighton tomorrow, I'm quite jealous, it's sure to be emotional.