Elephant Gun – A Tutorial on Gypsy Rock

Aww man, it's been a lil' smokey of a summer so far. We've got some shattering news for your noggins. Shocker!

First off we would like to pay all the respect we have in us to our buddies OHTIS who broke up. It would be honest to say that one of the best bands I know personally breaking up is a BAD IDEA. As salty as some of us are due to this, there is still a sweet center called "If This Country Had a Heart, That's Where I was Born." It's one of the craftiest, catchiest records I've heard in a long time. Completely timeless. Buy it from them, feed Sam's cute puppy. Ok, enough of that, we're sad, let's move on.

So "Beartime Stories" is set for a fall release right after the much-anticipated drmanhattan Cassette Deck release next month. Joe Gac and the band spent many days in a dirty bedroom mixing the shit out of this monster. We are very excited for everyone to hear it (if you haven't already). Ryan claims that the drumming “takes less skill” and Amy keeps going on and on about how some of the violin lines sound “too classical,” but we are all proud of it.

We we're also very lucky to have Kyle Stembaugh screaming and Justin Past milking a mean WWII tenor saxophone. Overall, we are pumped. Keep bugging Jim Miller to put it out. Ring his doorbell, leave him gifts on the stoop.

Our past tour was nothing but fantastic. We all got along really well and met lots of amazing people who accommodated us along the way. A couple bands we played with that we think you should check out are: Zombie Bazooka Patrol (Tenn.) (thematic cow punk with lots of doo-wop influence, very happy songs about zombies and death), and Couch Forts (incredibly freaky/complicated bluegrass, real dark, excellent fiddle and banjo player (Columbus, OH.)

Both those groups had us hoopin’ and hollerin’! I put up some pictures from the trip in our albums and if you’re on Facebook there are about 300 pictures that k.p. took. (ADD US! J)

We have a couple Chicago shows coming up. We’re excited to be back and would love to get rowdy with our homies! It’s time for a good old-fashioned Chicago slam down.

July 30^th
RONNY’S (2101 n. cali)
with our buddies Brother George, House of Normandie, and Clint Niosi (Tex.)
9:00 $5 21+

August 23^rd
GLENWOOD AVE. ARTS FEST
Morseland stage (Morse Ave. and Greenview Ave, Roger’s park)
5:00 PM! FREE!! ALL AGES
Come check out some diverse music, visual and performing arts!

We will be playing everywhere and anywhere this fall after Beartime comes out, so Midwest college towns keep your eyes peeled and pinned. We just might be sleeping on your floor, eating you out of house and home, or breaking your beds (in).

-Love, Jared.

"Yep, as is usually the case in Chicago, October's Equalizer fell on a pretty busy night. Between the Cubs playoff game and the season premier of Joe Rogan's Fear Factor — Oops! I mean the VP debates (sorry, I get confused with all the barfing) it looked like Equalizer had the makings of a perfect storm of a suckey night in indie-town. But nay, my friends, t'was not so! As doors opened at darkroom, its murky gloom was off-set by the flicker of a giant projection screen centered over the stage displaying the arguments of two inert talking balloon animals who may one day over-see special task forces for low priority government agencies which do things that no one knows or cares about. Yet, like a hipster magnet the large sparkling surface drew them threw the door one by one and two by two and ever closer the evening's destiny of rock!

But no sooner had the giant screen snapped back up inside its hanging receptacle and the stage lights flashed on then Elephant Gun leapt into action with all 100 of their members (or so it seemed) and shook the stillness loudly to pieces. With an instant cacophony of horns, strings, and gadgety percussion devices along side traditional rock instruments — guitars, drums bass, keys, Elephant Gun played a frenzied 35 minute set that smacked any of the residual bad taste from the debate right out of everyone's mouth and reminded us all what we came here to do.

A collection of musicians from Elgin, IL, and Chicago, Elephant Gun sound like what I might imagine to hear in a bar brawl between the Minute Men, the Polyphonic Spree and John Philip Sousa. I happen to be a fan of all three of those artists so that is a complement. Anyone familiar with their new album "KP" which they recently self released might be a little shocked to see how much they step up the intensity level in their live performance but in my experience that is almost always preferable to the other way around."

 http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2008/10/09/equalizer-chicago-102-recap-takka-takka-grammar-and-elephant-gun/