Cage The Elephant Bring Their Kentucky Swagger To The Kevin & Bean Show

Cage The Elephant in KROQ's Studio R

Kentucky-quintet, Cage The Elephant, have been blowing up our stereo with their infectious, rollicking blues-rock hit, “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” for a while now. Seemingly out of nowhere, these indie-grunge lads signed to a British label called Reckless Records directly after playing at the 2007 SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas. They then shipped off over the pond to woo the UK audiences.

Playing last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and spending time with Kevin & Bean in the studio this morning, Cage the Elephant is back in the states promoting their recently released sophomore album, Thank You Happy Birthday. Hopefully they’ve also made time to finally get a handle on their SAD, or seasonal affective disorder, and satisfy their intense Taco Bell cravings.

They performed two songs live from KROQ’s Studio R, their new single “Shake Me Down” and the hit “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked.”

The main question on everyone’s minds was why these good old Southern rock stars would take their freewheeling, indie post-punk sound to the United Kingdom and not stay in the United States. The simple answer: Creative freedom. Lead singer and pianist, Matt Schultz, explained the grueling decision to Kevin & Bean:

“Actually the UK label that we signed with was the only label at the time that was offering 100% creative control. So, we figured we’d try to go over there first and build it up there and come back with some kind of leverage…It was tour, tour, tour…We’d been there for about a year and eight months before we started to get some radio traction.”

Kevin with Cage The Elephant

Brother and Cage The Elephant rhythm guitarist, Brad Schultz, didn’t think the band would amount to much in the United States after the experience they had in the United Kingdom.

“We actually never really expected things to take off in the States at all because in the UK it was such a grind for so long…I think in England we played one time–I won’t name the band–we played a show that’s not really our audience and a fan actually flipped us of the entire show…Then they played our song and we just took off. We soared like eagles.”

The brothers quipped that not only did the United Kingdom not offer them immediate musical success, it also made them depressed and hungry victims of their own deprived, yet hilarious imaginations. Brad said:

“I have like major SAD. Seasonal Depression or whatever. We got really depressed about the food too.”

Matt agreed, adding, “We used to sit around in our splitter van and fake order Taco Bell…We literally had a game where we would go around in the van and we were like,’We’re pulling up to KFC now.’”

“We were like fake ordering…Why are their no Taco Bells? And why does their ketchup taste so different?…But if anyone from the UK is listening right now, I love your food.”

Another round of fantasies Cage the Elephant indulged were what Kevin & Bean would describe as their musical fantasies, saying: “Do we wanna indulge every musical fantasy that we’ve ever had? And I suspect that’s what you guys did on album number two because it is everywhere, this record.”

Brad elaborated on the new material for their sophomore effort, Thank You Happy Birthday.

“We just went through a big growing phase. We had actually written probably fifty songs. Scrapped them all.”

Matt continued: “…There were like two or three that made it through that bunch, but for the most part, I think we were trying to write to a particular sound. We started writing all these other songs that were like for so-called side projects. All the songs we liked were for side projects…All the side project songs became the album.”

“After we got a couple songs into it, we really started to get away from that kind of fear-based writing. We’ve been asked quite often lately if we felt any pressure coming from outside forces, but mostly it came from inside the band really.

“Just to not repeat ourselves. After we decided to go in the direction that we were going, just let things naturally flow, whenever we were writing something that kind of sounded similar to something that we had written before we’d just scratch it right away.”

Releasing their musical fears, actually giving themselves the full creative freedom they originally desired, and maybe even depriving themselves of a Chalupa or two has given Cage the Elephant both a coveted slot at sold-out Coachella and an amazing new record.

And we are pretty sure there will be plenty of Taco Bell in the Coachella Valley.

Cage The Elephant – “Shake Me Down”

Cage The Elephant – “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked”