Bowling Green, Kentucky, is missing one plumber, a sandwich maker, a building supply clerk and a pet store guy. They all got together and formed a band: Cage The Elephant. In fact, lead singer Matthew Shultz says an enthusiastic fan came up to him after a show and kept repeating “you have to cage the elephant” over and over.
The South by Southwest annual music festival in Austin, Texas, is the showplace where young bands get noticed. In the 2007 SXSW event, CTE was signed by Relentless Records and supported Queens of the Stone Age on their Canadian tour and subsequently moved to London. Chalk it up to their “Madchester sound” or just raw talent, the quartet’s first self-named record was released in the UK and it’s hit single “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” began to climb the charts.
The group supported their early albums with relentless live performances. The second album, Thank You, Happy Birthday contained the hit song “Shake Me Down” and was nominated for a MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video in 2011. Cage The Elephant also earned the top spot in Rolling Stone’s “Reader’s Poll: The Best New Artist of 2011.
The third album, Melophobia (fear of creating music under false pretenses, catering to cool) followed two years later. This time the band collaborated with Alison Mosshart (the Kills, the Dead Weather) and featured the modern rock radio hit “Come a Little Closer.” The disc was supported by constant touring with bands such as Muse, the Black Keys, Foals and earlier tours, supporting earlier records, included billing with the Foo Fighters, Silversun Pickups and Manchester Orchestra. During this time, Lincoln Parrish, lead guitar, left the band to become a producer in Nashville.
Dan Auerbach, of the Black Keys, produced the band’s fourth album, Tell Me I’m Pretty. Matt Schultz may have purposely made sure all of the lyrics were both more meaningful and more thought provokingly honest than ever before as some critics hear it.
The new Jan. 2024 single, ” Neon Pill” is their first music in five years. Critics and fans speculate it refers to drug addiction/abuse.
Discography:
Cage the Elephant (2008, UK; 2009, US)
Thank You, Happy Birthday (2011)
Melophobia (2013)
Tell Me I’m Pretty (2015)
Social Cues(2019)
Sacramento’s K-ZAP 93.3 FM plays Cage The Elephant. All part of 50 years of Rock, Blues and More, 24-7 on our station’s stream at https://k-zap.org/listen/
Check out Cage The Elephant: