Recently I have been listening to the "
Recommendations" of
my Last.FM account. It's their compiled list of bands that are similar to the majority of your library, but not artists that you've listened to alot. I use this station to find new bands in the same genres of the artists I already love. That's how I originally discovered power metal, three years ago, and how there were more doom bands than
Type O Negative. Now, I use it to expand my knowledge of power, thrash, folk, and stoner bands (the stoner is the most recent, expect a
Current Trend to appear).
Every now and then an artist pops up that I had heard of before, but I haven't seen much of their stuff over the years. Just the occasional song, or cover song, nothing to sink your teeth into, just a teaser. That's how it was with
Elf.
First let me star off by saying, Elf is a fantastic band! While they only released 3 albums in their short tenure, every disc is chock-full of great songs, and catchy rhythms.
History
The act was founded by singer and bassist
Ronnie James Dio (of future solo and
Black Sabbath fame), keyboardist Doug Thaler, drummer Gary Driscoll, and guitarists Nick Pantas and David Feingstein, both of who were Dio's cousins. Originally called The Electric Elves, then shortened to The Elves, then just to Elf in the beginning of the 70's.
Elf's self-titled debut album was produced by the members of
Deep Purple, who saw the group auditioning in 1972, and for the next few years, Elf had a steady gig opening for Deep Purple's world tour. It was during this time that Elf released their next two albums, Carolina Country Ball in 1974, and Trying To Burn The Sun in 1975. Also in 1975, guitarist
Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple with the intent to release solo works. He liked Dio's soulful voice, and thought he would be perfect for his latest project,
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Following their band leader, the rest of Elf helped record Blackmore's then-solo project, taking time from touring and recording their own music. After the album was recorded, Blackmore decided to scrap his solo effort, and instead created
Rainbow into a full-fledged band, replacing all of the Elf members except for Dio. Without a singer, and without the support of Deep Purple, the members of Elf parted ways, and the band was no more.
Discography
Elf (1972)
The band's first album, and truly their only true album. After this release the band began being influenced by Deep Purple, and because of this, their other releases sounded more like a bluesy-Deep Purple and less like the boogie-rock Elf that was founded.
This is the album that I heard when I was younger, so when I began my trek through the track list, I recognized a few of the songs off the bat. "Hoochie Koochie Lady" is my favorite off the album with "First Avenue" a close second. It's work like this that make me wish that the group had released more albums, at least one more before being discovered by Deep Purple.
- "Hoochie Koochie Lady" – 5:32
- "First Avenue" – 4:23
- "Never More" – 3:50
- "I'm Coming Back For You" – 3:27
- "Sit Down Honey (Everything Will Be Alright)" – 3:48
- "Dixie Lee Junction" – 5:09
- "Love Me Like A Woman" – 3:47
- "Gambler, Gambler" – 4:26
Carolina Country Ball (1974) - Released as L.A./59
in the US and Japan
This is the album where the sound starts changing, not that it's a bad thing, it's just different. Elf's sound started becoming more complex and layered (the Deep Purple influence), and was more rock-oriented then their debut album, for better or worse.
The best song is the title track, I really liked the groove of the entire song, I was pleasantly surprised at the sudden change of styles from the previous album - at least for this song. After the first track, the other songs I enjoyed were the more original-sounding material, "Ain't It All Amusing" and "Rocking Chair Rock 'n' Roll Blues," both classics.
- "Carolina County Ball" - 4:46
- "L.A. 59" - 4:21
- "Ain't It All Amusing" - 5:01
- "Happy" - 5:28
- "Annie New Orleans" - 3:01
- "Rocking Chair Rock 'n' Roll Blues" - 5:36
- "Rainbow" - 4:00
- "Do the Same Thing" - 3:10
- "Blanche" - 2:31
Trying To Burn The Sun (1975)
Elf's final release, this album made the full jump to rock with blues undertones, very little straight blues in the entire album. Again, this doesn't make it a bad album, just not the sound of the original Elf. Make your own decision whether it's good or bad.
This album had a lot more songs that I enjoyed overall, the only two I didn't really like were the somber, slower melodies of "When She Smiles" and "Wonderworld." They were just too slow and teary-eyed for me. Again, the first track was the best ("Black Swampy Water"), followed by "Shotgun Boogie."
- "Black Swampy Water" - 3:43
- "Prentice Wood" - 4:37
- "When She Smiles" - 4:54
- "Good Time Music" - 4:30
- "Liberty Road" - 3:22
- "Shotgun Boogie" - 3:07
- "Wonderworld" - 5:03
- "Streetwalker" - 7:07
So there you have it, the history and works of one of the best unknown bands of all time. While they didn't have the impact of Deep Purple, or even their follow-up act, Rainbow, Elf was still an amazing band. One I plan on listening to until I am 60, by that point the music will be over 70 years old. It'll the the "oldies of the oldies" and I'll embarrass my grandkids every day. Good times...
Before forming Flogging Molly, Dave King, the singer, was the vocalist for the heavy metal band Fastway (featuring guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke from Motörhead) in the 80's, later fronting the hard rock band Katmandu in the early 90's. After Katmandu disbanded, King retained his contract with Epic Records and began work on a solo album, but when the record company opposed his idea to add traditional Irish instruments to the music, he was able to negotiate out of his deal, and began creating a solo band soon after.
undertones, oh and did I mention that it's an all-black punk band? I had never heard of them before this nigh, and I only knew that they existed because my old roommate had one of their albums. But these guys kicked ass. All of their songs had a nice groove, I didn't know most of the words (some songs had a chant or a sing-a-long) but I still enjoyed it - a big difference between rap and rock. They played originals and covers, and their live show sounded just like their albums, just a little heavier, something I enjoyed quite a bit. During the middle of their set, they took a break and sang two or three rap covers, just the lead singer/guitarist and the drummer (who sang) and a looping-track. After that it was back to the rock. During the second half of the show a pit formed, and my friends and I couldn't let that go. I like going to punk and ska shows and going into the pit, because often times the people at these shows are not aggressive. Alot of metal shows have really militant people slamming into each other, but at this show it was skinny kids with Mohawks and tight jeans - not a scary crowd. One thing I found funny was that some of the people in the crowd started shouting the Wu Tang Clan chant, except tuned for Whole Wheat Bread: "Whole Wheat Bread ain't nothin' to fuck with! Whole Wheat Bread ain't nothin' to fuck with!" I laughed pretty hard and chanted with the rest.
Before he got on stage, he opened with some mixed track of weird sounds and songs, something I see at alot of shows. It never makes sense to me, this soft open, often times the music/sounds have nothing to do with the show, and this show was no exception. But the music played and MC came out... and then the music cut quickly, to the surprise of MC Chris, and he left the stage and tried again. He was attempting to film a DVD, so I assume he wanted a solid opening, but I found it very annoying, and unnecessary.
This is the album where the sound starts changing, not that it's a bad thing, it's just different. Elf's sound started becoming more complex and layered (the Deep Purple influence), and was more rock-oriented then their debut album, for better or worse.
I am currently finishing up the new album by Heaven & Hell, The Devil You Know, and I must say it is a really good album. For those who don't know, Heaven & Hell is basically the Ronnie James Dio-era of Black Sabbath, under a new name. They do this, because Black Sabbath is still officially headed up by The Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne (again). But after the Heaven & Hell reunion tour in 2007, the guys decided that they wanted to create some new material. The project started just to write two or three new songs for a compilation album Black Sabbath: The Dio Years, but during their tour they decided to add to these songs and release an album of completely new material. So they got together over the next year and put together some of the best music from a classic metal band that I have heard in a while, not to mention the bitchin' artwork.