Word: elastica
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...Saturday, the Push Stars turn up, while Elastica (led by the inimitably cool Justine Frischmann, left), perhaps the best of the groups of the so-called Britpop invasion of the mid-'90s, will perform at Avalon. (Incidentally, the version of Trio's '80s hit "Da Da Da" that closes The Menace, Elastica's latest album, is pure genius...
...just after keyboardist Dave Bush joined the group, Elastica stopped playing together. "It just felt more graceful to bow out of the competition," says Frischmann, now 30. She refuses to speak about the impact of drugs on this period of her life. When Frischmann and Albarn separated in 1998, Albarn made their breakup the theme of Blur's 1999 album, 13, and Frischmann became known more as her ex-lover's troubled muse than as an artist in her own right...
...with The Menace due to hit U.S. stores this week, Elastica and its leader are trying to stage a comeback, complete with a tour of America in September. Last year Frischmann and Welch coaxed Holland back into the band ("She was itching to get back in," says Welch), drafted two new members (guitarist Paul Jones and a second keyboardist, who goes by the single name of Mew) and pounded out the new album in six weeks in the fall...
...Elastica took a less-is-more approach to its music, making every bass and guitar line distinct. Now the band frequently sounds like six musicians crammed into a small apartment and competing to be heard. The result is a more insolent, perhaps an even more youthful sound. The Menace is the work of people who have gone a little stir crazy. In rock 'n' roll, that's a good thing...
...first album, she sang, "In every little Honda/ There may lurk a Peter Fonda." Now when she sings, "Baby put your arms around me/ Aren't you glad that you have found me?" on the cacophonous Generator, she sounds like she knows what it is to feel undesirable. Elastica 2000 may not be as witty as Elastica 1995, but Frischmann's new vulnerability is winning enough to fend off VH1 has-been status for at least another five years...