Japonize Elephants from Zorlock Land of the Lost
An acquaintance of mine, Daniel Gold of An Honest Tune, sent me a description of Japonize Elephants that I have to pass on. I know a few of my old Raindogs friends are readers, and might appreciate them.
Japonize Elephants -- pronounce Japonize like a verb, like legalize— consists of 12 to 14 musicians from California by way of Zorlock, playing instruments such as: flute, 2 sax, fiddle, stand-up bass, homemade percussion and drum kit with buckets and pots and pans, accordion, mandolin, acoustic guitar, and they all sing at the same time like a yelling clapping polka party, a klezmer dance, a gypsy caravan, or a 12-ring circus. The sounds and styles are a unique fusion of world music and roots music, I can’t pin them down to 1 style or genre, but it was a very ethnic mix. Their website logo mentions bluegrass, but I did not hear much bluegrass from them. I detected Eastern European music, Middle Eastern, and more.
There wasn’t a specific story-line or narrative to the show, but every song seemed to have conversations and role-playing, with each member doing different weird voices, almost like they were talking at the same time, but singing. Often they made a funny face or sang from the back of their throat to make strange voices (Like a funny voice you would use when trying to make your sister laugh.). They are extremely comical, comedy is a big element of this band, so is theatrics: not just a band, they were a show. Did they have costumes? Or was that their regular clothes? I don’t know. One of the (male) sax players was wearing a purple dress. The female fiddle player named Curley had on a see-through peachy tutu (ballet skirt). The center-lead-singer and guitarist had bed-head with his hair going every direction and all in his face, he looked insane (and he was). The drummer on his homemade drums, had on a striped vest and a handlebar mustache.
Oh, and Scott Rogers has kindly informed me that Stu Odum, the incredible bass player from the last incarnation of Thin White Rope, is in a new band called The Graves Brothers Deluxe. So much stuff to keep track of these days . . .
