walking upstream…
Cage the Elephant
photo: michael barera · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Cage the Elephant
sourcesWikipedia
Cage the Elephant formed in 2006 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, around brothers Matt and Brad Shultz, and decamped to London before releasing their 2008 self-titled debut. That first record ran on scrappy, blues-inflected garage rock — the storytelling shuffle 'Ain't No Rest for the Wicked' and the funk-strutting 'In One Ear' — while Matt Shultz's convulsive stage presence became the band's calling card. Restless by design, they shifted with each album: the punk-leaning 'Thank You, Happy Birthday' (2011), the more textured 'Melophobia' (2013) with 'Cigarette Daydreams,' and the psych-tinged 'Tell Me I'm Pretty' (2015). Both that album and 2019's 'Social Cues,' which features Beck on 'Night Running,' won the Grammy for Best Rock Album; 'Neon Pill' followed in 2024.
the sound in question
2013
Cigarette DaydreamsCage the Elephant
walk the tributaries ↓
Pixies1980s · Alternative rock / Indie rock
Matt Shultz has named the Pixies as an influence on his vocal style, and the band's second album, 'Thank You, Happy Birthday' (2011), was widely described as drawing on the Pixies and punk. The debt is the loud-quiet-loud architecture the Pixies made canonical: a verse that stays hushed and spare so a chorus can detonate, with a vocal that flips from a mutter to a fraying shout in the same breath.
listen: upstream & here
1988
Where Is My Mind?Pixies
2011
AberdeenCage the Elephant
listen forPut 'Where Is My Mind?' next to 'Aberdeen' — both hang a clean, almost fragile guitar line over near-silence, then slam without warning into distortion and a strained, shredded vocal, using the drop between quiet and loud as the hook itself.
The Rolling Stones1960s-70s · Rock / Blues rock / Hard rock
The Shultz brothers grew up in Bowling Green on a classic-rock radio diet the band has described as feeling 'pure' — the Rolling Stones, Dylan, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin. That grounding surfaces on their debut as swaggering, riff-driven blues rock: a loping groove, a repeating guitar figure, and a narrator spinning a hard-luck morality tale rather than a straight love song.
listen: upstream & here
1969
Gimme ShelterThe Rolling Stones
2008
Ain't No Rest for the WickedCage the Elephant
listen forLine up 'Gimme Shelter' with 'Ain't No Rest for the Wicked' — both ride a menacing, mid-tempo blues-rock churn built on an insistent guitar hook, letting an ominous, storytelling vocal roll over the top instead of soaring above it.
Beck1990s · Alternative rock / Folk / Hip hop / Funk
Matt Shultz has spoken about his admiration for Beck, whose genre-splicing — funk, hip-hop cadence and folk folded into rock — maps onto Cage the Elephant's habit of shifting styles from album to album; the two acts co-headlined a 2019 tour and Beck features on 'Night Running.' On the debut, 'In One Ear' pairs a fuzzed funk-rock strut with a clipped, half-rapped sneer that recalls Beck's 'Odelay'-era delivery.
listen: upstream & heresource: Forbes ↗
1996
Devils HaircutBeck
2008
In One EarCage the Elephant
listen forSet 'Devils Haircut' beside 'In One Ear' — both lock a grimy, funk-inflected guitar riff to a stiff backbeat and let a talk-sung, attitude-heavy vocal ride the groove rather than trace a melody.