News

Release Date: October 29th, 2012

Numbered and Limited Edition: LP [500 copies, Transparent Vinyl] CD Digipak [2000 copies] **The vinyl format includes a free digital MP3 download [320 kbps]

New BMX BANDITS album on Elefant, with the help of : Jim McCulloch (SNOWGOOSE, THE SOUP DRAGONS), Norman Blake (TEENAGE FANCLUB), Sebastian Litmanovich (CINEPLEXX)

BMX BANDITS are putting out a new album on Elefant Records, this time a full-length with totally new material. The sixteenth release from Duglas T Stewart’s group comes surrounded by lots of big news. The first big news is that this new album includes the return of two of BMX BANDITS’ original members, neither of whom have worked with the group since its beginnings, sometime around 1985. Jim McCulloch (SNOWGOOSE, THE SOUP DRAGONS) is not only back in the line-up but also participated intensely in the song-writing process for many of the tracks, and Sean Dickson (THE SOUP DRAGONS) wrote the album’s opening and closing tracks. Second, another regular collaborator who has returned to the fold is the grandiose and ubiquitous Norman Blake (TEENAGE FANCLUB), who plays several instruments and coproduces the captivating “Still”. Finally, what we have here is a kind of space-pop-opera – one of the most magnificent works of art from one of the most charismatic characters in the history of indie pop.

“BMX Bandits in Space” [ Read more ]

New release on Elefant’s “Recuerdos que olvidé” (Memories I Forgot) Collection

One of the collections we are treating like our favorite child at Elefant, and the one that has been most well-received by our followers, is “Recuerdos que olvidé” (Memories I Forgot), which collects demos and previously unreleased recordings from some of our favorite and our most representative groups. We inaugurated the collection with AEROLINEAS FEDERALES, continued with NOSOTRÄSH, and now our third release is going to be nothing less than a limited-edition copy of MILKYWAY’s first demos, which were mostly recorded before the start of LA CASA AZUL.

The demo concept has always been associated with an early stage of a song, sometimes even rougher, but always with a special charm, and in which you can trace the essence of the songwriter.  “Up, Up And Away (Home Demos 1993-2002)” is full of great songs and huge hits that are so typical of our songwriter. What’s amazing here is how, in 1993, in a room, with an analog 4-track (for the songs from before 1996) and a digital 8-track (the songs after 1996), there are already songs as incredible as “Over” – the final track on this album – almost 10 years before LA CASA AZUL’s first full-length was released. 14 songs that highlight all the things we now know about Guille: his versatility, his wide range of styles, his unlimited im [ Read more ]

Elefant Club – Fiesta 010 "Panic [At The Elefant Club]": 

THE PRIMITIVES + PAPA TOPO  + WILD BALBINA 

+ Guille Milkyway Dj + Luis Elefant Dj + Adrià Papa Topo Dj + The Primitives Dj Set

Ocho y Medio Club / Elefant Club [Sala But] Barceló 11 Madrid 

ADVANCE: 10€

Venta en Ticketea

DOOR: 14€

Hora: 20:00 (Door) Shows: 20:30 

[ Read more ]

Documentary "The Nightmare Of J.B. Stanislas [40th Anniversary] A film by Ally Kerr

Ally Kerr is releasing a documentary about Nick Garrie.

The Scottish musician Ally Kerr has made a documentary in which she recovers the origins of “The Nightmare of JB Stanislas”, with commentary from Nick Garrie himself, and follows the strange set of circumstances that led to the album’s decades-long curse, up to the album’s revival in this past year’s Primavera Sound Festival with a live, in-full performance accompanied by a string section, including the rehearsal process and parts of the concert.

This documentary doesn’t just bring together the incredible lengths gone to and initiatives taken in order to pay homage to such a great and wonderful album; it also shares Garrie’s special vision as a song-writer, close and pleasant, careful and hard-working, and as the person behind this story, with his peculiar and unique perception of it from inside, beyond the legends and dark passages that always find their way into these kinds of narratives.

A small piece, sweet and affectionate, respectful and accessible, that in a few short minutes summarizes the transition from obscurity to recognition that has lasted more than forty years, with magical and incredible moments. It’s worth watching, and much more. 

[ Read more ]

Once again showing our passion for all the imaginable ways of understanding pop and also for Brazilian music, Elefant Records is releasing the debut album of one of Brazil’s most promising artists, Flávia Muniz. She is one of those characters who breathes life into everything around her; when you know about her life and you know her, it confirms the beauty that her songs transmit even more, if that’s even possible. Her first album, “Descalços Sobre A Terra”, is a marvelous and clear example of Música Popular Brasileña, rich in rhythms, harmonies, and arrangements, which pays its debt to the great classics of Rio.

Born in 1976, she got her degree in Unirio in Música Popular Brasileña, where she developed her music under teachers like Luis Otávio Braga, Roberto Gnattali, Rick Ventura, Avelino Romero, Maria Haro and Mirna Rubin. In 2007, she was in a coma from which she emerged unharmed, but which forced her to “relearn how to breathe, to speak, to walk, to eat, and to sing”, as she herself says. A nature lover and always inspired by nature, she got her strength back by writing books (“Quero ver verdejar”, “Vilarejo”, “Bárbara e a baleia”, “A história da menina que chorava letras”, “Joana e Altamira”, “Menino, grande menino” and “Verde Maduro”) which garner a c [ Read more ]

A new period is beginning for PAPA TOPO, and there are some important changes. A few weeks ago we at Elefant received the sad news that Paulita was leaving the group.

After the success of “Rotación y Traslación” and the amazing video that Llaüt Digital did for “En Un Momento”, these last few weeks have been really crazy. Adrià has been preparing new songs, but above all he’s been working on the group’s new line up. PAPA TOPO are now a sextet, and we’ll find out really soon how they hold up live – that and so much more – since this coming October 27th in Madrid in the Sala Siroco, as a part of our Elefant Club series, the new line up will makes its debut and we’ll even get a glimpse of some of their new songs. The hyper-energetic WILD BALBINA, who recently debuted an incredible blue vinyl single as a part of the “New Adventures in Pop” collection will join PAPA TOPO, who also debuted their now legendary “Oso Panda” as a part of precisely the same collection. 

PAPA TOPO’s new line up is: Adrià Arbona Orero (keyboards and lead vocals), Oscar Huerta Plaza (guitar, organ and backing vocals), Julia Fandos (concert flute and vocals) , Sònia Montoya Barberà (bass and backing vocals), Omar Ballester (drums) y Ferran Puig Bosch (Trombone, backing vocals, second guitar) 

[ Read more ]

Here at Elefant, we have always believed in the importance of supporting new bands so that the independent scene grows from a strong, solid foundation, which in turn allows it to have a healthy future. That’s why, against all odds, we are still releasing new singles on our New Adventures in Pop collection, which opened the way for PAPA TOPO and GUATAFÁN a couple of years ago. This new release brings us the amazing Brazilian group YOUDOMETOO, with their playful melodies, the pop energy of EL PALACIO DE LINARES (somewhere between THE FEELIES and PATRULLERO MANCUSO), and the pop-punk effervescence of the Galician band WILD BALBINA.

YOUDOMETOO 

Nat De Abreuand Luna May met on a social network in 2011, and decided that a country as big as Brazil shouldn’t be an obstacle for them to meet and begin making music. In that first meeting, they made “Heart Skips a Beat”, the song that opens their Elefant Records debut, and which they recorded a video for themselves. The video lets us in on all of the duo’s peculiarities: an imaginary world, taken from a Todd Solondz movie, spontaneity and unpredictability, playful pop, recycled and hand-made instruments, unusual clothes that seem to be taken out of a fable, and infinite smiles. “Love Holds My Hands” is like Pascal Comelade was pushed back toward childhood by Regina Spektor or Kimya Dawson, as if COCO ROSIE had finally discovered that toys are for playing a [ Read more ]

If, this past July, we wrapped up the year and welcomed the summer with the inauguration party of “Operación Bikini”, now we’re throwing a party this coming Saturday, September 1st, as a part of the Elefant Club series in the Sala Siroco, to bid farewell to the summer season. This means we‘ll have Paco Clavel as master of ceremonies and DJ in the lounge area, where we’ll be able to enjoy sessions of ye-ye music and summer-themed decoration. Also, for this occasion, the first 50 guests will get a copy of the “Operación Bikini” CD, with songs selected by Paco Clavel himself and Juan de Pablos, and designed by Mario Feal.

EL PALACIO DE LINARES, who are releasing their debut single in September on our New Adventures in Pop collection, will start the night off. Their debut shows off their electric, agile, fun, robust pop full of great melodies.

For this occasion we’ll have one of the most surprising and enjoyable returns (albeit a temporary one) to the music scene as our main act. The group from Murcia, VACACIONES, has released a double compilation CD in Japan this year of all of their recordings on Elefant, from 1992 to 2003, as well as a ton of previously unreleased material; they’ve performed in the most recent Indietracks Festival (the most important indie pop festival in England); and now they’re going to play in our country too, and they’ll remind us of their youthful, effervescent and spo [ Read more ]

SINGLE “Anexo”: Recorded live, 300 copy limited-edition vinyl, with the cover art by the always infallible Javier Aramburu

Ready for pre-order! 

When we talked about “Monólogo Interior”, we said it was a more intimate and compact album than its predecessor, “Pio Pio”, though the overflowing imagination of Ibon Errazkin’s production work and the amazing synthesizers of Genís Segarra still mark SINGLE as a group with tremendous personality and overwhelming creativity. For the release of said album, which reinforced their legions of fans and the admiration of critics, the did a series of concerts in minimalist format, in harmony with the base on which they built the album, and which have ultimately given way to what is the third album from the group from San Sebastian, “Anexo”. Ibon and Teresa themselves explain it like this:

“In this past year we have played a lot of SINGLE concerts playing the songs from our repertoire with just vocals and an electric guitar.

As we continued playing these songs, we saw how they were getting farther and farther away from the versions we had recorded for the album, and were becoming something quite distinct.

So we decided to record the songs in the right conditions to leave a record of our concerts February 2011 (the date of our first “acoustic” show in the Cerralbo Museum in Madrid) and February 2012 (the date of our [ Read more ]

The summer festival season is almost upon us and we’re closing out the spring with one last party before summer vacations. It has been a year of huge concerts for Elefant Club, with the series at Sala Siroco, and we wanted to finish things up with a bang, this coming July 7th. To begin with, the performances will be run, on the one hand, by Laetitia Sadier, the singer of STEREOLAB and MONADE, who, after her marvelous and highly-regarded solo debut, has a new album, “Silencio”, which will be released at the end of July and will have its opening concert in our Club. On this new album she has worked once again with Tim Gane, her inseparable and fundamental partner from their seminal band. On the other hand, SINGLE will also be debuting a new release – the album “Anexo”. It will be an exclusive, limited edition that shows Ibon and Teresa doing precisely very special and intimate versions of their songs. This is a double-headliner that we are tremendously proud of. After the concerts, Laetitia Sadier will handle the DJ session, and she’ll be spinning and showing us her good taste and her elegance when it comes to choosing pop melodies. And to really top things off, another appealing DJ, Luis Elefant, will fill us up with another one of his delicious sessions.

There’s something else to add to such a special night, considering that we’re going to make the most of the moment and celebrate this year’s Operaci&oa [ Read more ]

The trajectory of Alex Díez as the front man of LOS FLECHAZOS and COOPER is not the only artistic activity for which he has received international renown. Mod icon, music lover and expert with a wild and irresistible knowledge of pop culture, his figure transgresses his facet as composer, turning mod music and the sixties esthetic into a life philosophy, a way of understanding the world.

All of this has achieved collaborations and participation in events, books, exhibits, etc. for him, and he was just invited to participate in an ode to mod music, which will take place on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of July on the Le Mans tour circuit where, for three days, and over the course of 24 hours, this music will be honored and homaged with 8 DJs from all over the world, among whom will be our beloved man from Leon. “Le Mans Classic Goes Mod” will be an imperative event for all lovers of sixties culture, which will include performances by PONY TAYLOR and THE BLUES FLAME, and sessions from other connoisseurs from France, Belgium, and the UK, among other countries. It is a new stroke of luck for us to be able to enjoy one of the greatest references and experts of mod culture of our times.

For more information:https://www.facebook.com/LeMansClassic

[ Read more ]

IN A BALLON WITH COOPER

Go up in a hot-air balloon with Cooper and discover their Universe from the sky.

To celebrate the end of their “Mi Universo” tour and the beginning of the summer festival season, ELEFANT RECORDS and COOPER have joined forces to organize a really special concert for all of the group’s fans.

TO PARTICIPATE:Go to the group’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/cooper.mi.universo), click the “I like” button and leave a message that includes the word BALLOON on their wall, and tell us what your all-time favorite Cooper concert has been. You have until midnight on June 19th to participate. 

THE PRIZE:Cooper performs on June 29th at the Fiestas de San Juan and San Pedro de León (11:00 p.m., Plaza Mayor). The winner of the drawing will travel to León and accompany the group to the concert; the winner will also have backstage access and will be able to watch the concert from onstage. The next day, the winner will go up in a hot air balloon with Alex Cooper. The balloon will take off from San Marcos Square and will travel around León´s sky, flying in silence among the white clouds. The balloon, “Esperanza” (Hope), will be piloted by Julio González of Aerostatos León, and Juan Cobos of Globastur, both of whom are professional pilots with plenty of experience (they have recently been flying around the Arctic Circle).

The prize includes transport to [ Read more ]

We were already spreading the word with that Christmas gift THE PRIMITIVES gave us – PJ Court’s band has a new album! This is great news! The reunion that came about as a result of the death of their bassist, Steve Dullaghan, and that put them back on stage after 17 years away, has culminated in a surprising album that is full of energy and that shows that the authors of “Crash” are still in enviably good shape.

What’s more, “Echoes and Rhymes” really grabs the attention. All of the songs selected for the album are versions of songs by obscure, female-fronted groups from the sixties. Curiously, the album is a long way from suffering from disparateness; these Brits knew how to make each and every one of the songs on this marvellous album reflect and mesh with their electric personality. They took over these songs with surprising urgency and energy while still managing to salvage the marvellous essence of melodies that were born in the decade that most-cared for such things. The result is a tremendously addictive album, seasoned with a sixties-halo that functions as a vindication and takes us directly to research every one of the (in some cases) little-known names that make up the details of its track-list. Who doesn’t wonder what incredible songs can be included in the repertoire of someone who wrote songs like “Turn off the Moon”, “Sunshine In My Rainy Mind” and “I’m Not Sayin&rsqu [ Read more ]

NOSOTRASH “La Primera Maqueta” (1995)

A few months ago we started the collection “Recuerdos Que Olvidé” (Memories I Forgot), which is set up to recover the lost songs and recordings of some of our favorite groups. The first release on the collection was a double 10” that gathered various demos and previously unreleased songs by AEROLINEAS FEDERALES.  We’re moving the collection forward with a magenta-colored, limited-edition vinyl single that recovers the very first demo of our beloved NOSOTRÄSH, who are undoubtedly one of the most representative bands of Elefant Records.

Recorded in 1995, with a line-up that, at the time, included Natalia, Bea, Montse, Eugenia and Cova, before the release of their first EP, this demo includes two original takes of their legendary “Voy a Aterrizar” and its unforgettable parapapapas. The second of these two takes is the “Vojtyla Mix” version, like a terrorist attack, opening with a sample of THE JACKSONS’ “Can You Feel It”. The previously unreleased song on this release is “Marie Lu”, sung in English, which would never make it onto any albums. The song notably takes pleasure in the noise echoes of that era, with a bridge full of dissonances but a verse that already points to the pop abilities of these Asturians. “La Felicidad Es Un Alegre Ritmo Moderno”, which was also included on their “Aterrizar EP” for RC [ Read more ]

The current music scene continues to show us that, despite the crisis that is affecting the industry, there is still so much good music being made. There are new and interesting bands coming up all over the place and we at Elefant Records continue to support and promote them through our New Adventures in Pop collection, which bands like THE SILVER FACTORY, BAND Á PART, PAPA TOPO and CAPITÁN SUNRISE, among many others, have already released singles on. This time it’s three new bands turns: in this case, the urgent and electric pop of KNICKERS, the paused and bucolic folk of the Catalan group RENALDO & CLARA and the sixties sound of the American group THE RUSKETTES. It’s a limited-edition singles collection that keeps increasing its roster of names at the speed of light.

Limited Editions [500 copies]  •  All of them include a free digital MP3 download [320 kbps]

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••& [ Read more ]