Le Fete Du Cloune-Pirate

String the banjo. Lick the reeds. Pack the bowl… The lives of the Japonize Elephants are the type an outsider can never comprehend. Brought together by an unnatural obsession with pirate culture, robots, Bill Monroe and fried bacon, the nine people of the tribe are steered by the Emperqq of Zorlock through a catacomb of musical styles at hyper speeds only a Zorlockian could function at.

BOB’S BACON BARN is the first release by the Japonize Elephants and gives a glimpse of what this band is capable of. Their musical goulash smells of bluegrass sauteed with a Spanish Middle-Eastern spice and smattered with hardcore Irish pepper, yet is not so easy to pin down. Recorded live to one microphone on Thanksgiving Day, 1996, the violin sounds as crisp as the hubcap percussion.

After the world-wide success of BOB’S BACON BARN, the Elephants honed their bowing arms and picking fingers to deliver their second call to sea, LE FETE DU CLOUNE-PIRATE. The Elephants have successfully stapled together the fringe of bluegrass and jazz with Middle-Eastern melody and late night absurdity. At times it seems if the living spirit of jazz legend Moondog has gotten a leg up on the Elephants as two alto-saxophones carry out each jam.

Still sticking to the bluegrass framework, the banjo, upright bass and guitar carry the heavy riffs of twang as the fiddle and flute intertwine into thick strands of fusion. Rollicking and kicking up dust the junk percussion set up keeps time as the chimes, vibes and glockenspiel add the accents and country tingles.