Jeff Elbel + Ping - No Outlet

I knew of Jeff before I ever heard Jeff, and over the decades (yes, DECADES) I’ve heard a lot of music he’s been involved in creating. Somewhere along the way, I grew quite fond of Jeff, and I even like his music. I consider him a friend - one I almost met in person once.

If I have the date right, I missed my chance to rub shoulders with near greatness on November 16, 2002, when The Lost Dogs performed at Regent College in Vancouver. It was a wonderful little theatre. Theo Obrastoff was there that night - along with a cheap blue guitar he has since wisely hung on a wall after getting it signed by the guys (the best part is it can no longer be played) - promoting Come As A Child or Not At All, a tribute to his late son Andy. Jeff was there as well, opening the concert with a few solo acoustic songs I really enjoyed. Later, I’m pretty sure Derri played Jeff’s Gibson acoustic during The Lost Dogs’ closing set.

The memory I have of Jeff, and the time we almost met, goes something like this: after the show, I spotted him standing alone across the room, while people milled about looking at merch and waiting for Terry, Derri, and Mike to come out and sign things. Jeff was doing that purposeful shuffle and wringing his hands while pretending to be occupied with something of great importance. At one point, I distinctly recall locking eyes with him across the room. I wanted to walk over and talk guitars. “Why a Gibson?” seemed like as good a place to start as any. I don’t know if he nodded or if I smirked at him, but I suspect I broke eye contact first and chickened out, leaving the question unanswered.

In my defence, it was pretty crowded. I did, however, get a chance to chat with Theo, which was nice. I think I talked to the Dogs and got a couple of things signed, though memory gets fuzzy. I vaguely remember Mike making a comment about my name sounding a bit like his daughters’.

So, what does all this have to do with Jeff?

Quite a lot. Give me a little more wool and I'll knit all of this in a nice little hat for you.

Chances are you don’t know his name, but you should. Among the plethora of things Jeff spends his time on, he runs a small independent record label, Marathon Records - a label that has released albums by artists as varied as Aunt Bettys and Andrewesley, along with the various bands he’s been involved with: Sunny Day Roses, Farewell to Juliet, and of course, Ping. The calibre of the releases is top-notch and lovingly put together.

As to Jeff’s voice (you saw this coming, didn’t you Jeff?), he has something most cookie-cutter pop vocalists wish they had: style. Admittedly, he’s no Robin Zander or Fee Waybill, but I’d stack him up against unconventional vocalists like Adrian Belew or the two Johns - John Linnell and John Flansburgh. Jeff has a quirky but endearing vocal style. He’s pretty self-deprecating and calls it “croaking.”

What does Ping music sound like? That's a little harder to pin down. It's a bit of a cop out to say, "Jeff sounds like Jeff," but it's true. He's managed to do something many artists never quite figure out how to do - create a sound.

How about this: if you like acoustic rock (it is rock) and enjoy Days of the New and love the musical quirkiness of They Might Be Giants, Jeff's songs sort of occupy that undefined area between the two. I’d bet you a quarter you’ll like it.

No Outlet was the band's first full-length release, and came out in 2001. It took me a few years to catch up. I'm guessing it was 2003 (I'm quite sure), and back when my old site was up and running I wrote about quite a few of Jeff's releases (all of them). Most of what I wrote about No Outlet didn't make any sense ... but this bit (published in 2004) nicely sums it up:

"Lucky for me I'm not given much to work with here in terms of scathing ribs or caustic rants. No Outlet is a better than average acoustic flavoured prog rock album. Which is pretty cool. For a guy who records on a shoestring budget, there's nothing cheap about the textures and feel of No Outlet. The performances are crisp, and tight without sounding sterile and lifeless. It makes me wonder what the guy could pull off given a real budget."

I could stop there, but I won't. It's been two decades since I first wrote about No Outlet ... So let's sit back and get comfortable. I suspect I may get a little wordy.*

I'm going to drop the needle and see where this goes. Right from the opening acoustic riff on "Back to the Cage" there's an intimacy to the music that pulls you in. What quite literally anchors everything in place is bassist Clint Davidson. I'm not sure how much of that foundation is in how the songs are mixed, but boy howdy, the guy is literally playing around the songs, weaving in and out of the melody, and somehow managing to be where you least expect him to be, and it.is.perfect.

"Radio Flyer" is probably one of my favourites here. The counter vocals by Carolyn Kay are particularly effective. It's not like Jeff needs the safety net, but the blending of the two voices does create its own sound, and throughout the album the two voices are interwoven.

One of the quirkier pieces is the instrumental "The Crawl," which is honestly the best James Bond theme that never was. When I hear this I imagine Jeff sitting in a reclining Lazy Boy chair rather aggressively petting a cat. I always figured Jeff hated cats, and although he was murmuring about getting Gadget next time, I just assumed he meant Bond ... James Bond. Anyway, "The Crawl" was cool.

I am not sleeping on the rest of the supporting cast, but with a firm foundation in place you can pretty much build whatever you want and it won't fall over. I want to draw attention (so I will) to Eric Sanford's absolutely stellar harmonic playing. The way he supports the songs he appears on is really well thought out. A lot of players can suck and blow, but not everyone can actually play.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't toss John Bretzlaff a tip of the hat. Dude can play.

Jeff loves vinyl, and I remember he was determined to have a vinyl release for his new record The Three Finger Opera. The two of us were trading notes on the subject and I was being a dick, saying I could hardly wait for a digital recording to get an analog release ... Jeff, being the gentleman he is, simply replied that he had mixed the album specifically to take advantage of a vinyl release.

I conceded the point, mainly because I didn't care - however, knowing me, I probably tossed in a "Whatever." Then, out of the blue, Jeff said that he was also going to give No Outlet a deluxe vinyl edition, as a way of saying thanks to those who helped back The Three Finger Opera.

True to his word, in 2022 when I got my copy of The Three Finger Opera, there was a beautiful and I mean it, beautifully packaged reissue of his debut album No Outlet that had just celebrated its 20th birthday. It sounded great. I may be a Luddite and a first-class dick at times, but credit where credit is due.

For an album that came out twenty-five years ago, it got a second life on vinyl. I've been listening to the record off and on over the last four years, and there's always something that pops out or catches my attention.

Oh well, I hope you weren't expecting an actual review of No Outlet, as I have learned over the years that I do not have the ability to write a review. What comes out is a mangled mess of thoughts and wordy bric-a-brac wrapped in mental bacon. I'm fine with that.

Still, I’m generally a little nervous when I write about Jeff and his work, mainly because he’s also a very good writer, frequently contributing to the Chicago Sun-Times, and he has critiqued my reviews in the past. (I’ve even sent him stuff on purpose just to have him tell me where the typos are.) He’s not a man to lightly exchange witticisms with. He’s a fart smella - and a real gentleman. A rare breed, to be sure. When he's sitting in his puffy Lazy Boy, I often imagine him wearing a monocle and smoking a pipe.

No Outlet is an album I've had for a long time, first on CD, and later on vinyl - and I am grateful Jeff decided to release it as a record. Thank you Jeff.

Here’s hoping that one day you get to play Budokan - I want them to want you.

 

* Hopefully you noticed the footnote and looked for it. If you did, congratulations. If you want to, you can stop reading now. The rest of the post is just a lot more words (over 1,000. Man, that's awesome) to say the same thing I originally said in under 100 - that's literally ten times the fun. I suspect, though, you didn't stop and are now reading this at the end. I tried to tell you.