SUAVE ELBOWS

This one’s for the record…Born out of the muck oozing out of the black-hole-black cultural vortex that is the Garden State, the Suave Elbows quickly achieved legendary status during the late 70s and early 80s through their insane live shows. Their irreverent and eclectic song repertoire included crowd favorites like Jim Has a Rare Disease, Be a Man Buy an I.U.D., Hey Stu Let's Dig Up Some Graves, CRS SS (inspired by Parisian student chants about the French anti-riot police, the Compagnie Republicaine de Securite), Letters from Nuremberg and Trotsky - an ode to the often unheralded role of the icepick and its significance in geopolitical developments.Fronted by a madman known to crack watermelons and eggs on his head (check the pics), or to cool off the front rows of packed clubs by blasting unsuspecting, sweaty audience members with a leaf blower from the stage, every Elbows show was like a typhoon ripping through the expectations and preconceptions of NJ’s staid musical scene.Contemporaries of more “normal” NJ bands like the Smithereens, the Elbows developed such notoriety during their heyday that they went on to open for touring U.K. heavyweights such as Rough Trade’s Delta 5. They released one 45 R.P.M. single - Are You Prepared? - on the Vintage Vinyl Records label.The ride was as extreme as it was short – a couple of years at most, with 20 or so live shows. Eventually, the Suave Elbows went on to dissolve like a ripe tomato in a bath of battery acid. All that remains is the destruction they left in their wake, the mayhem that will live on in the cerebral cortex of those who had the good fortune (or misfortune) to catch them live, and a bunch of intense recordings…some of which will be posted to this page as soon as they’re digitized and liberated from their original analog format.Following the untimely, painful euthanasia of the Suave Elbows, several of its members went on to form the bands Leopold, Fin+Feather, the Swingin' Capybaras, Lovey Dovey, and one Elbow joined renowned NYC punk/funk/art/metal/wave/experimental ensemble, the Audio Artists.