Subject: Lolita & The Elephant
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 19:34:08 -0800

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                  Link To Article   Print Article   Email Article 
                        Article Launched: 02/03/2006 6:40 AM MST 

                  music
                  Russian literature rears its head in Elefant's music
                        By Ricardo Baca
                        Denver Post Music Critic 

                       
                         
                       Elefant s forthcoming The Black Magic Show spans temperatures from dance-floor-hot to creepy-ballad-cool. Frontman Diego Garcia, second from right, cites Mikhail Bulgakov s The Master and Margarita as an inspiration.  

                       
                       AUDIO  
                                 Click here to download "Lolita" from Elefant.  

                        
                       
                  From the window of Elefant frontman Diego Garcia's New York apartment, which borders the exotically thin line between Chinatown and SoHo, life is as complex and bustling as his reading roster.
                  Garcia got his first break in 2003, an indie darling on New York's much adored Kemado Records. An EP and the fulllength “Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid” revealed his elegant, lush glam-rock-inspired pop compositions and solidified his reputation as an expert songwriter who had nailed his aesthetic. 

                  The kids heard it and loved it. So did Hollywood Records, which will release (with Kemado) “The Black Magic Show” on April 18. 

                  While writing “The Black Magic Show,” an intense electronic album spanning temperatures from dance-floor-hot to creepy-ballad-cool, Garcia was reading his way through an impressive primer of Russian literature. The experience left an indelible mark on the record. 

                  “I would consider myself an expressionist, and at the end of the day, whatever I'm reading and breathing hopefully comes out in my music,” Garcia said last week while prepping for an outing with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, a tour that opens in Colorado with a Gothic Theatre gig on Sunday. 

                  “I was always daunted by these big Russian authors, these scary and intimidating books, and so one day I just picked up (Mikhail) Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita,' which is a fun story about the devil visiting Moscow and (messing) with everybody's heads.” 

                  It's a vivid movie of the mind Satan let loose in the Russian capital, merrily spreading mayhem, destruction and lunacy and the title track of Elefant's new record is exactly that. A threatening story told through postpunk guitars and staccato synths, the overarching mood combines the early Cure and the magic of musical theater only done right, for hipster music snobs and indie rock elitists. 

                  It's obviously a special relationship, Garcia and the Russian literature that has long taunted him from afar. 

                  “After reading ( The Master and Margarita'), I couldn't help but get into (Vladimir Nabokov's) Lolita,' the book, which I recommend to everybody,” he said. “It's hilarious, and it's really scary. I had to close the book a few times.” 

                  Garcia was born in the late '70s in Detroit to Argentinean parents. He started writing songs as a teenager in Tampa, Fla., where his family had migrated to find work, and he left Brown University to pursue music in New York City. “Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid” made it evident he was an artist with a keen ear for melody tracks such as “Make Up” and “Bokkie” are dance-floor killers with their addictive dreamscapes and outrageous angularity. 

                  “The Black 

                       
                       
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                  Magic Show” shows some of the depths he's unafraid to plumb, plus the inspirations he's willing to mine. Beyond Garcia's passion for literature, he also loves the autobiographical, the clash of his real life and his music. 
                  “When I was writing this record, I found myself going through this constant struggle: Can I give myself 100 percent over to this girl, the love of my life, and still be true to my art?” Garcia said. “And you're constantly being tempted, so in a way, The Black Magic Show' is an introduction to the world I was living in, and this record helped me capture all the different characters you come across and the different temptations you encounter. “I gave in to music and to this world. I can't look back now. It's time to hit the road, to escape even further.” 

                  Garcia gave in to music. But that meant saying goodbye to his greatest romantic triumph to date, the woman who was the inspiration for “Why,” “My Apology” and “my muse for the first record and, ultimately, for this one, too,” he said. 

                  He left her last February and packed his bags for a nearly year-long stay in Los Angeles. 

                  “I couldn't fathom running into her,” he said. “I know there are certain artists who make beautiful music that have families, but that's just not me, not now.” 

                  Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-820-1394 or [email-masked].

--------------------------------------------------------------

                  Elefant
                  DREAMY POST-PUNK | Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood; 8 p.m. Sunday with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Morning After Girls | $15 | TicketWeb, ticketweb.com, 866-468-7621 

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