ACL Artist Spotlight: Cage The Elephant

With the opening of celebrated Austin City Limits festival just around the corner, music lovers everywhere are scouring the internet to find their passes for a weekend filled with music, love and good vibrations. If you’re like me however, it can be hard to decide which artists & bands to see. Read the rest of this article and find out why you’re definitely going to want to see alternative-garage rock band, Cage the Elephant, before the weekend ends. 

Having formed in 2006, the group relocated to London in 2008 where they recorded and released their debut self-titled LP. In the week of its release, Cage the Elephant placed #38 among UK Albums Chart and #171 in Billboard 200. Although the album itself received moderately positive reviews overall, it was their third single of the album, “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” that instantly made them as a force to reckon with.

By 2011, already well established in the alternative-rock scene, Cage the Elephant made yet another splash with their second album, Thank you, Happy Birthday. With songs like “Shake Me Down” and “Around My Head” getting several radio-plays, the group refused to let their stardom and popularity to influence their music and initial vision.

By their third album, Melophobia (2013), the band had refined their sound into a “washed out”, “sunshine” post-rock, stemming from several influences such as Nirvana and the Pixies.

Cage The Elephant- Cigarette Daydreams

[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opeETnB8m8w” width=”260″ height=”160″] [/youtube]

Their most recent album, Tell Me I’m Pretty (2015), features hit-singles like “Mess Around” and “Trouble”, which derived from the “eclectic and ever-changing” styles of David Bowie, Shultz once said.

Combined with rambunctious “Stooges-like” personality and garage-rock tonalities, Cage the Elephant is definitely a band you want to catch this weekend at Austin City Limits Music Festival, so don’t miss out!

By Franco Rosa