Concentrating On The Tusk At Hand

“You hear that? You hear what’s comin’?/Oh, you better run for the hills/‘Cause we’re comin’ to your town/And we’re gonna burn that motherfucker down.”

So sang Matt Schultz on Cage the Elephant’s 2008 debut, which sold close to 500,000 copies and earned them three top ten hits in the US.
Before we speak, I watch the band soundcheck in The Garage, London, Matt crooning over their neo-grunge soundscape. Afterwards Matt takes a moment to kiss his girlfriend hello before joining his brother, guitarist Brad, and I backstage.
These days, as new LP Thank You, Happy Birthday is released, he appears a far happier boy. This follow-up evolved from songs written and discarded prior to what Matt describes as a “move away from fear-based writing”. So what made him brave? “We were writing all these songs and second-guessing ourselves. Once we decided to let go and move in a direction we were genuinely into, the confidence of the band lifted.”
Cage The Elephant moved to London for two years before returning to the States having “changed a lot, changed as people, as musicians, after growing up”. Matt recalls the scene that awaited them when they first arrived: “The only thing that was cool or considered artistic was new wave indie dance – angular guitar sounds and you had to have a super haircut”.
They’re a band determined to contemporise the ethos of outfits like Pixies, Sonic Youth, Mudhoney and Nirvana and build upon that tradition in their own way. Brad explains that the track ‘Indy Kidz’ encapsulates their rejection of “an attitude of pretentiousness in indie music that has become a style of music, a culture, that is just as fake as what they make fun of”.
And yet, despite Matt’s floppy blonde hair, screamadelic stage diving and flannel shirt, they do not see themselves as purveyors of born again grunge.
“Critics who say that are missing out on a lot of the diversity in our sound,” states the singer. It’s a fair self-assessment – the songs offer more light and shade that Matt will expose in his punch in the face of a rock ‘n roll show.
That night, Matt is a screaming. sweating monster who spends more time crowd-surfing than on stage. It would be easy to dismiss this band as a Nirvana parody and write off what could be considered sloppy lyrics such as “You’re so cool. I wanna be just like you.”. However, musically they have something substantial to offer and those same lyrics intoxicate the heaving mob.
Despite controversy in the past about drug addiction and debauchery, the brothers maintain the rock ‘n roll dream for them is quite simply “being able to play music. When you think of the stereotype, I can’t think of anything more unfulfilling, more fake, more insincere than that. When people say music is life, I think that’s ridiculous. It’s life that inspires great music. Trying to be a big rock star, that’s where you see some of your favourite bands totally lose it”.
Armed with this fine album, powerful show and an army of kids without ‘haircuts’, it’s hard to imagine these brothers ever losing themselves in such clichés. These days Matt sings: “Even on a cloudy day, I’ll keep my eyes fixed on the sun.”

Caged Elephant’s Thank You, Happy Birthday is out now. You can listen to 'In One Ear' on hotpress.com.