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Deadboy and the Elephantmen

We Are NIght Sky (2006)
Fat Possum Records

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Anchors
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on May 30th 2006

Deadboy & the Elephantmen would have you seem they are staunch advocates of the band by committee approach. Besides the main songwriting duo of Dax Riggs and Tessie Brunet, seven other different musicians in the liner notes are said to contribute at some point on the record. Be that through guitar, piano, bass, tuba, or euphonium, the backing musicians are there.

The real problem is that with that abundance of people, not only does the record suffer in the way of cohesion, but it really lacks the heart needed for an effort like this. It’s nothing that hasn’t been heard a hundred times over in the past few years, a bit of old style rock’n’roll grounded by some real strong blues roots, but this record doesn’t have those intangibles that make you gravitate to either the vocals or the instrumentation.

Singer Dax Riggs sounds mostly uninspired, a musician that fails to be captivated by the very music he’s helping to make. The slow moving, acoustic driven “Walking Stick” illustrates this all too unfortunate point. A duet of sorts between Riggs and drummer Tessie Brunet fails to lure in charm, both singers as devoid of charisma as could possibly be; even the simple strum pattern is a grating, rather than pleasurable listen.

The more upbeat, aggressive tracks do offer hope, but even some of those offer more forgettable moments than not. “Kissed by Lightning” contrasts some stuttering dissonance with Riggs’ hollow sounding vocals, until the chorus comes thundering in, and both the singing and rhythm pick up a considerable amount, leaving a jarring echo behind as the cymbals crash over and over again. The deep tones of the vocals are able to stay afloat above the quick and heavy riffing, and the rhythm is an extremely tight one, but any momentum is quickly lost by the mundane followup, “Misadventures of Dope.” The entire record is marred by that inconsistency, and it simply isn’t able to recover.

For all of the guest musicians that supposedly appear on the record, they’re barely heard a peep from. The brass instruments are used just as sparsely as the piano and organ, and the lack of diversity becomes more than noticeable. A lackluster display of what could have been.

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Anonymous (July 5, 2006)

i really like the sound of deadboy. dax and tessie make a good combination. i think that "stop, im already dead" has a good chance of being their #1 single IF we can get more coverage on the band... so call up local radio stations, tell your friends about them, and get the word out on DEADBOY AND THE ELEPHANTMEN!
i would love to see them touring the country and have a chance to see them live

Anchors (June 1, 2006)

I love Songs: Ohia, I love Red House Painters, Woven Hand is pretty damn cool, never heard the other one you mentioned, and I still do not like this album at all. It's boring and uninspired, that's all there is to it. I've reviewed and liked records like this quite a few times, this is not one of them.

rkl (June 1, 2006)

Anonymous (June 1, 2006)

Anchors, man!

u have just two sides...
or u do a great review for great record or u do one really bad for, again, great release...
this time, u did the other one...

this record is very much the thing that i missed for a long time...
Songs Ohia, Red House Painters, Grand Lee Buffalo, Woven Hand...
if u adore those bands u should luv this one easy...
great great album...

Anonymous (June 1, 2006)

Anchors (May 31, 2006)

Here's what you can do;

Go through my review archive, and count how many I've done. Now, of those, count how many are screamo records. And I don't mind faux-screamo Senses Fail-esque garbage, I mean actual screamo. Figure out a percentage, and get back to me.

Unless, you know, you're pulling a Chinatown and talking out of your asshole.

rkl (May 31, 2006)

you dont know shit, anchors.

then again i shouldnt have expected you to give this a good review. why do you even bother to review anything aside from tepid screamo?

Anonymous (May 31, 2006)

Singer Dax Riggs sounds mostly uninspired, a musician that fails to be captivated by the very music he’s helping to make.

This is so incorrect.

Anonymous (May 31, 2006)

Bought this last night. Excellent.

I don't agree with the review at all.

chokingvictim (May 31, 2006)

I always saw this at the record store I used to work at, was meaning to give it a listen sometime.

I forgot about it till now.

Anonymous (May 30, 2006)

I thought it was a pretty cool record.

Anonymous (May 30, 2006)

I haven't heard this yet.

Score is for ACID BATH.

Anonymous (May 30, 2006)

oh that first sentence of the review is probably grammatically correct. good job on that one.