ELWOOD is North Carolina-born Prince Elwood Strickland III, third in a long line of southern gentlemen so named, starting with his grandfather, whose wartime buddies originally tagged him with the ELWOOD moniker. The Parlance Of Our Time, ELWOOD’s Palm debut album, has a very lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer feel to it, an idyllic stew of edgy prog-rap, lushly melodic pop, smoky jazz, sinewy funk, loose-limbed country-blues and confessional folk that is the product of Prince and co-producer/co-writer Brian Boland. Think Everlast and the roots-oriented Beck crossed with the Beastie Boys of Paul’s Boutique, Steely Dan and British groups like the Chemical Brothers, Portishead, Propellerheads and A3.
The first single, a millenium style remake of Gordon Lightfoot’s 1974 smash, “Sundown,” which comes complete with a pull-out-the-stops video directed by rap auteur Steve Carr (director of Ice Cube’s #1 box office smash, “Next Friday”), typifies the band’s approachtake a memorable melody and put it through their “hip-pop” bag of tricks. Says New Jersey native Brian, who came up with the idea of doing the song: “I was driving in my car and heard the original version on the radio. As soon as the chorus hit, I heard Prince’s voice.”
Elwood insists the song’s no novelty, either. “Most of the people who hear it don’t even know it’s a cover.” Palm will also release a DVD single for this track, which will include a 5.1 surround sound mix of the song, the video and a special behind the scenes “making of the video” segment.
The rest of The Parlance Of Our Time lives up to the instantly memorable “Sundown,” couching the most seductive riffs in a variety of lush pop settings offset by intricate production touches that stick in the brainthe languid acoustic guitar and techno-Delta of “Slow,” the smooth Latin jazz horn and flute flourishes which turn “Red Wagon” into a combination of Hugh Masakela’s “Grazing In the Grass” and Chicago’s “Saturday In The Park”; the calliope-like carnival organ and mocking sax in “Picture of You”; the syncopated bass-and-drums underlining “Dive”; the Jamaican dance-hall dub and Looney Tunes synths of “Love Hook.”
Three of the songs, “Sundown,” “Red Wagon,” and “Picture of You” were produced by U.K. legend Steve Lillywhite, who has worked with U2, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Matthews Band, XTC, Simple Minds, The Pogues, Morrissey and Talking Heads, among others, and Steve also plays bass on “Sundown” and “Red Wagon.” Palm has also just made a deal with Lillywhite and his GOBSTOPPER label, and ELWOOD will be the first release on Palm Pictures to bear the Gobstopper logo.
Lyrically, ELWOOD proves similarly complex. The album sees the past through a gauzy screen, as the songs speak of the tug of time, the persistence of memories, and the inability to overcome the past. “Picture of You” is an autobiographical meditation on the loss of innocence, while “Bush” is about a naive girl betrayed by someone who takes advantage of her, and then is too insecure to accept the responsibility. “Peaches” oozes with the sexuality of a brief encounter and “Dive” deals with taking your chances, making that leap of faith.
ELWOOD’s studio expertise comes from a decade-long stint as an engineer at the Greene Street Recording facility in New York’s Soho. The place had become the home for many of the area’s hip-hop elite. At Greene Street ELWOOD worked on records by Tricky, Mos Def, Pete Rock, De La Soul, Prince Paul, DJ Muggs, the The, Adam Yauch, Jungle Bros. and Black-Eyed Peas. Raised on his grandfather’s country records and his own roots in East Coast prog-rap, Elwood gradually developed a musical sensibility of his own, further enhanced by hooking up with his eventual partner Brian Boland. The seven-track demo they recorded in Elwood’s own studio attracted a horde of A&R interest, leading to a deal with Palm Pictures, the company formed by legendary Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who scouted the band personally. Now that the album is finished, ELWOOD has turned his attentions to honing his live outfit since he has basically emerged directly from the studio.
ELWOOD is already causing a buzz on the Internet with a rather explicit, X-rated animated video created for the song “Bush” by Chris Prynoski, creator of MTV’s acclaimed “Downtown” series. “It’s a challenge to market ourselves,” says Elwood. “It’s a hard thing to pull off. I don’t want people to look at us and think, ‘These guys don’t know who the f**k they are.’ I don’t think we’re too eclectic. We have any number of different ways we can go musically. We have the freedom to go wherever we want.”
What ELWOOD is, is twang-hop or maybe rap & roll… a culmination of the history of pop music that speaks to who we are right now in a universal language, a syntax and style that is completely modern and up-to-date, yet touches on everlasting truths as ancient as a primitive beat. In short, ELWOOD’s music is The Parlance of Our Time, a phrase snatched from the Coen Brothers’ “The Big Lebowski.” “The more I said it to myself, the more perfect it sounded,” says Elwood. “It fits the whole record. It encompasses everything… language, communication, a hook in a song. It’s just the greatest thing to work on music that you’re excited about. And then to have the right lyrics to go with it that makes you feel something emotionally. And then when people tell me it makes them feel something, too, it’s just the icing on the cake.”
On the songs he calls “ear candy” which comprise his Palm debut album, The Parlance of Our Time, ELWOOD has his cake, while lucky listeners get to eat it, too.
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