The Elvis Brothers are a new to me experience. I'm trying to remember how this came to be on my radar. I suspect it was the result of hearing the name mentioned by my friend Jeff (who has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things pop that kind of irritates me to be honest - because I'm older than he is, and it gets up my crack that he's more than my equal when it comes to the accumulation of useless trivia regarding music)
AND then looking them up on the internet and seeing Adrian Belew's name associated.
Rambling Tangent Alert:
Adrian Belew first came to my attention back in 1983 when a wonderful young lady said my homemade DIY "albums" reminded her of Adrian Belew in their quirkiness. To me this was incredibly intriguing, so I rushed out and purchased Twang Bar King, and Lone Rhino and quickly discovered that my friend was being overly generous as those two albums were life changing and expanded my musical palate beyond anything else I'd ever heard to that point.
End of Tanget - but not the Rambling
It's always a weird and strangely wonderful thing to discover new old things. When they suck or are just a giant sack of "meh" it's no big deal. You can understand why you never heard of it. When you discovered a quirky gem that you know was fitted perfectly into the time from whence it came you have to wonder why things never clicked. I'm just happy to have found a copy.
The album cover is pure cheese, the best kind. Back in the mid 80s this seemed to be the stock and trade of pop acts around the world, from Katrina and Waves to Bananarama and a year later the Stone's Dirty Work would use the same colourful motif. Ah, the 80s - they were the best of times.
The band was tight AF* too, brothers Brad, Rob and Graham Elvis seemed to share a performers psychic bond not seen since the
Dionne quintuplets performed Twelve Angry Men as a one woman show at Massey Hall in the mid 1950s. I'm kidding, Brad, Rob and Graham aren't really brothers they just play them on record the same way Pernell Roberts wasn't really a doctor ... Regardless, the album is a fine example of wondrous power pop, and deftly produced by Adrian Belew. The band seemed to effortlessly meld the pop sensibilities of Split Enz era Neil Finn and rock chops of fellow Illinois rockers Cheap Trick and tie it together with a healthy dose of sparkling guitars, rockabilly swing and a driving beat. Adventure Time indeed.
* audio frequency, what else would it stand for?
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