Elastica: Car Song... A car, & uncomplicated sex. What more can anyone ask for?

Matthews, Welch, Frischmann, & Holland
Elastica 1994

       By 1992 Punk and New Wave were old genre's that were part of the mainstream.  That's not necessarily a bad thing if the new artists coming up are creative and honest.  Elastica came together and fit that description perfectly.  Their songs were mostly short in length, driven by a friendly punky guitar crunch and featured playful sexually frank, slightly sneering, lyrics.  Their first album, self titled Elastica,  featured a bunch of hit songs that found radio airplay all around the world in a wide variety of formats.  I first heard them on a pure grunge station but then a few days later on an alt station, soon followed by a mixed format rock station.  Their somewhat unusual music fit in well when formatted around bands like Juliana Hatfield, Nirvana, Blondie, & The Cars.


Annie Holland

       The band members, at that time, were Annie Holland on bass, Justin Welch on drums, lead guitar and back-up vocals were provided by Donna Matthews, and Justine Frischmann sang, played rhythm guitar, and wrote or co-wrote almost all of their songs.  It's her voice and attitude that give Elastica's music it's playful, sexual overtones. 


Justin Welch

       The music itself is comprised of generally simple pop/rock chord changes and includes interesting runs. Car Song's intro is a perfect example.  Each chord is held for a single beat and it's the kind of thing the early Kinks or Booker T. & The MG's might have done.  But that is where the simplicity ends.  Matthews adds guitar accents that off set the simple chord changes. The background vocals have a sort of  horror movie wind in the curtains vibe, the drums are timely and powerful, and Frischmann's voice has a kind of disinterested, yet sexually charged quality.  This can be heard most effectively in the Car Song lyric "In every little Honda, there may lurk a Peter Fonda" followed by an understated orgasmic "ooh".  She's saying 'been there, done that, love it'.


Donna Matthews

       Over a two year period the band released a number of singles from their first album including Stutter, Line Up, Connection, , & finally Car Song (also known as Four Wheeling).  Their chart performance was impressive with the album debuting at #1 on the British charts quickly outselling (then) mega-group Oasis.  They toured near continuously which led to some of the band members, notably Annie Holland, dropping out due to exhaustion.  Eventually the demands of constant touring & pressure for new material led to the band breaking up.  The rumors at that time pointed to drug use, internal sexual politics, and the inability to create interesting new material.  It's usually difficult to pin point exactly why bands break up, but it usually looks something like family dysfunction.
       They eventually got back together in the late 90's but the moment had passed and in 2001 they split permanently.  The band members may have gone their separate ways but their music, especially their debut album lives on.  If you haven't heard of Elastica or listened to any of their music the links in this post are a good place to start.  If you like punk/pop I think you'll be pleased.  In the meantime please enjoy today's feature:

Car Song by Elastica          

Car Song live (very cool)

                                                                       Justine Frischmann