Bowling Green, Kentucky’s finest, Cage The Elephant stopped by the Altsounds HQ during their recent UK tour. They performed two brand new, exclusive and unheard acoustic tracks and chatted to Altsounds.com about life and music.

The 8 minute feature was Produced and Directed by Chris Maguire (Ben’s Brother, Fiction Plane, Fightstar) and was filmed after spending a complete day with the wild and crazy Cage The Elephant boys and showcases the real personalities that make up the band!

Discover all the glorious grit and grime and find out exactly what happens backstage at a Cage The Elephant show after they have successfully torn the venue apart with their unique and raucous stage show.

Watch Cage The Elephant “A Day In The Life Of” video feature

There is a completely exclusive Altsounds.com acoustic track which underlies the feature, showcasing a completely different and more intimate side to what people have come to expect from this Kentucky quintet. The track “Cover Me Again” was written and arranged one day prior to it being recorded and produced at Screamadelica Studios in Cardiff and subtly demonstrates one of Matt’s biggest influences, Bob Dylan. For critics that have, or are looking to pigeon hole Cage The Elephant as “just another dumb rock band” this 8 minute insight shatters all of these pre-conceived opinions and proves there is a lot more to Cage The Elephant than meets the eye.

With a slew of UK dates ahead of them and many more audiences to scintillate, Cage The Elephant prove that “There Ain’t no Rest for The Wicked”!

Cage The Elephant will also be hitting up the Camden Crawl over the weekend (April 18 & 19, 2008). Chris Maguire was asked to direct and animate a 45 second looping video only art installation that will be shown in it’s full glory across 8 TV’s all weekend at the Camden Crawl. We have also included this video to give all you Cage The Elephant fans a quick sneak peek into what you can expect to see from this Art Installation this weekend:

Watch Camden Crawl Art Installation video

Cage The Elephant bring their incendiary live show back to the UK in May and June as main support on The Pigeon Detectives‘ upcoming tour as well as their own headline dates.

May/June UK tour dates:

Dates could be added or changed! Go to Cage The Elephant’s Official Website for the latest tour dates and information.

May 2008:

Thursday 15th Brighton, The Great Escape @ King & Queen
Friday 16th Brighton, The Great Escape @ Audio
Saturday 17th Glasgow, Academy w/ The Pigeon Detectives
Sunday 18th Newcastle, Academy w/ The Pigeon Detectives
Monday 19th Lincoln, Engine Shed w/ The Pigeon Detectives
Wednesday 21st Sheffield, Academy w/ The Pigeon Detectives
Thursday 22nd Glasgow, King Tuts
Friday 23rd Manchester, Apollo w/ The Pigeon Detectives
Saturday 24th Cambridge, Corn Exchange w/ The Pigeon Detectives
Sunday 25th Nottingham, Dot To Dot Festival
Tuesday 27th Liverpool, Sound City @ Korova
Wednesday 28th Bristol, Academy w/ The Pigeon Detectives
Thursday 29th Plymouth , Pavillions w/ The Pigeon Detectives
Saturday 31st Bridlington, Spa Theatre w/ The Pigeon Detectives

June 2008

Sunday 1st Birmingham, Academy w/ The Pigeon Detectives
Tuesday 3rd London, Monto Water Rats
Wednesday 4th Southampton, Joiners
Thursday 5th Brighton, Freebutt
Friday 6th London, Brixton Academy w/ The Pigeon Detectives
Saturday 7th Inverness, Rockness
Tuesday 10th Leeds, The Cockpit
Wednesday 11th Manchester, The Roadhouse
Thursday 12th Sheffield, The Boardwalk
Saturday 14th Aberdeen, Cafe Drummonds
Tuesday 17th Birmingham, Bar Academy
Wednesday 18th Northampton, Roadmender
Friday 20th Cambridge, Barfly

Cage the Elephant are:

Matt Shultz – Vocals
Brad Shultz – Guitar
Jared Champion – Drums & Percussion
Daniel Tichenor – Bass/Vocals
Lincoln Parish – Lead Guitar

The debut album ‘Cage the Elephant’ is out in the UK June 16th, 2008 proceeded by new single “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” on June 9th.

Cage the Elephant on amazon.co.uk

Cage The Elephant Myspace
Altsounds profile
Cage The Elephant

‘XFM Debut Sessions’ is a 2CD collection direct from XFM’s archives of session recordings and live performances, including Jack Penate, Jamie T, Kate Nash, Bloc Party and many others.

Focusing on debut albums, this album features some of the hottest UK acts to release their first longplayers in 2007, alongside classic British artists of the last 10 years. Each of the 36 tracks will be a version of a cut from the artist’s debut album recorded exclusively for XFM. These recordings have never been available before and is a must have album for fans of cutting edge new artists and of some of the biggest acts to come out of the UK in the last decade.

The album coincides with the inaugural XFM New Music Awards, which rivals the Mercury Awards for championing great British music.

Here’s a message about the album from our friends at XFM:

“Since XFM first hit the airwaves in 1997, we have lived and breathed new music – breaking bands, putting on gigs, recording some amazing sessions and being at the heart of the alternative music scene. During this time, hundreds of bands have performed for us, and everytime we hit the record button to capture these moments. Now it’s 2008 and we thought it was about time to pull together a compilation of the best tracks that have been recorded exclusively for XFM.

Listening to these recordings has brought back some incredible memories – whether it be an early session from an artist who has gone on to be a big name, or jaw-dropping performances at an intimate money-can’t-buy XFM gig from one of the world’s biggest bands – and we’ve captured as many as we could on this album.

It’s taken us ages to decide the tracklisting as there have been so many stunning songs to choose from but after listening to hundreds of tracks and arguing for ages, we managed to whittle it down…

As 2007 was such a strong year for new music, we decided to devote the first CD to bands that emerged last year, and the second CD contains classic tracks from the last ten years.

On The Class of 2007, you’ll hear exclusive songs from some of2007’s hottest new bands including Jack Penate, Calvin Harris and Jamie T.

This year we also launch the XFM New Music Award which recognises the best UK debut album of 2007. Enjoy tracks from award nominees The Pigeon Detectives, The View, The Enemy, Kate Nash, The Twang, The Maccabees, and The Wombats.”

XFM The Debut Sessions on amazon.co.uk

XFM Online

When I had first heard about The Pigeon Detectives I couldn’t help but be a little bit curious about who was behind such a fun and yet bizarre name. It’s great to hear that their music is just as fun as their name and “Romantic Type” is sure be a hit.

The Pigeon Detectives have been around since 2002, but seemed to have hit the mainstream circuit last year when they began receiving radio airplay on BBC Radio One and also played at the Reading and Leeds festivals. I’ll be looking forward to hearing more from them in the future.

Following are The Pigeon Detectives 2007 tour dates:

Dates could change! Please go to The Pigeon Detectives Official Website for the latest tour dates and information!

February
2 Shrewsbury Butter Market
15 Liverpool Zanzibar – You Racket club night
16 Newcastle Digital – Juke Box club night
18 Stoke Sugarmill
19 Glasgow ABC 2
20 Edinburgh Cabaret Voltaire
21 Manchester Apollo – with Kaiser Chiefs, The Long Blondes
23 Wolverhampton Civic Hall – with Kaiser Chiefs, The Long Blondes
24 Sheffield Leadmill
25 Leeds Met Uni
26 Newcastle Academy – with Kaiser Chiefs, The Long Blondes
27 Manchester Roadhouse
28 Oxford Zodiac
March
3 London Shepherds Bush Empire
4 Brighton Audio
5 London Kings College
6 Glasgow Academy – with Kaiser Chiefs, The Long Blondes
8 Birmingham Academy 2
9 Cardiff University Great Hall – with Kaiser Chiefs
10 Bristol The KLA
11 Norwich Waterfront

The Pigeon Detectives Official Website
The Pigeon Detectives on Myspace

By: Jenny May