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"Diplodocus" 1/7/2010 @ The Crocodile
Ned Lannamann of The Portland Mercury - Show preview for 7/18/09 at Slabtown
Elba won't celebrate the release of their second album Don't Be Discouraged, Little Sparrow until their homecoming Seattle show at the beginning of August, but you'll be able to hear tunes from the new record as they swing through Portland on their current West Coast jaunt. Elba makes a stubbornly unclassifiable brand of indie rock that encompasses a huge array of styles, from angular post-punk to pillow-soft folk to jittery laptop pop. "Red" is equal parts Elvis Costello and the Beach Boys without really sounding like either, while "What You Need Is a Light" pairs the taut riffing of Pinback with the innocent melodicism of early Kinks. In many ways, Elba is an encapsulation of the current indie scene at large, a symptom of sprawling record collections condensed onto a single hard drive, where no influence—baroque, DIY, what have you—is avoidable during shuffle play.
Paul Constant of The Stranger - Show preview for 8/1/09 at the High Dive
Elba's got a kind of nervous energy that makes you want to dance, or at least pogo in place, when you first hear them. Even their chill-out songs, like "At Your Feet," with its relatively calm trumpet laid over the dithering guitar lines, feels frantic, like the band members have had way too many super-large gas-station coffees in way too short a time. Ordinarily this isn't the kind of feeling I'd enjoy in a band, but their jangly-nerve assault works because Elba don't seem to be working the audience up to a destructive lather; the journey to excitability is its own reward. Hyperactivity has never felt so cool.
Dave Segal of The Stranger - Show preview for 5/9/09 at The Comet
Seattle quartet Elba play artful, melodic rock with surprising dynamics that may trigger some knee-jerk prog disdain. We like a lot of prog, so Elba are cool with us. But don't get it twisted: This ain't no Mars Volta-ic display of grandiose virtuosity. Elba write tight, tuneful songs that don't require music-school degrees or knowledge of esoteric myths to enjoy.
Jack Rabid - Big-Takeover Magazine
Elba, as remembered from Modern European History class, is the Italian island in the Corsica Channel ‘twixt Tuscany and Corsica, where the Brits exiled Napoleon for 300 days—before escape, restoration, and Waterloo. But the musical trio Elba is hardly so banished, hailing from perennial musical hotbed Seattle. Furthermore, they sound like a nearby Portland staple on their warm, debut, brisk-pop LP. It’s in a zip code with the early Shins, Decemberists, Dimes, Modest Mouse, and departed patron saint Elliott Smith, only lighter—like New Zealand pop. They’re at their best, as on the onrushing “Wide Awake†and “An Avalanche,†or the superb 6/8 time “Ghosts†and accurately-titled “Waltz,†when they mix resonant piano or dour organ with unreserved jangling guitars and leader Nick Cappelletti’s James Mercer-esque enthusiastic, high-voiced, yelping (and often, funereal trumpet). But all 11 songs are worthwhile. Dig in! (myspace.com/elba)