Cage The Elephant holds the key to one of the most anticipated albums of this brand new year, well, Thank You, Happy Birthday is highly anticipated by SIMGE anyway, and last week the band allowed the public to take a peak through the proverbial crack in the door by providing a free download of “Around My Head.” Obviously, I can’t speak for the rest of the band’s sophomore release, however, I can say this new track is far from the Bluesified Punk-Runk tunes these Kentucky wildcats are prone to pumping out.
In fact, with it’s repetitive jangly surf-rock guitar riff, a chorus coated with light, cavernous, almost feminine backing vocals, and front-man Matthew Schultz continually losing his shit, Cage’s new track bears striking resemblance to a Pixies song of old. It’s truly staggering. I’d go as far as to say “Around My Head” is a Doolittle ripp-off, a decent rip-off, but a rip-off nonetheless. It’ll be interesting to hear the direction this band has decided to take its music.
Listen and judge for yourself. Leave a comment and let the interwebs hear your take.
Definitely a Pixies rip off. Glad I’m not the only one who thinks so. Ain’t no rest for the wicked sounded like a Jack White rip off to me as well (without White’s musical talent). Are these guys capable of originality?
I agree. Cage the Elephant makes me feel ill. It’s embarrassing how much they sound like the Pixies. It seems like they think the only way to sound original is to sound like the Pixies, who were very original. It kind of makes me pity them.
Cage opened for a band I went to see, not to long ago. As soon as I could hear them(when I walked into the building) thats all I could hear, is a rip off band!
Saw them live @ Pinkpop. Liked them a lot, thought they sounded like the Pixies. Googled ‘Cage the Elephant Pixies’ and found this page. Read your comments, but don’t get it: you all seem to love the Pixies, but hate CtE because they sound too much like P… How can it be bad when a band sounds like a band you love???
I don’t hate Cage The Elephant…in fact, I’m a big fan. I fell in love the band’s debut, and seeing live was refreshing, it was raw, intense, a sonic syringe of adrenaline to the ticker. However, this follow up was a blatant rip off of the Pixies, Nirvana, Butthole Surfers, Mudhoney, and a number of other influential ’90s acts. And that’s not artistry. Cage The Elephant is to classic ’90s music what Deadpool is to the X-Men universe…you can figure that one out for yourself if you don’t already get it.
In closing, I don’t hate Cage The Elephant, I’m jus disappointed in this latest work.
its always funny to see the difference in opinion. Caged did nothing for me until this song. So no worries, the real fans can evolve and they can attract new ones because the previous stuff just didn’t interest me, and I have an extremely broad taste of music. Don’t take me wrong, they are great musicians. All in all, good job… before and now, just now I specifically like them more lol
Am I the only one that hears tints of Titus Andronicus too? Specifically in songs like 2024.
I saw more of a Ramones resemblance in that song.
I haven’t really followed these guys up til now but when I heard that new song my reaction was ‘hold on did I just search for the Pixies by mistake’. It’s not bad thing imo, at least they’re keeping a good style of music alive. I wonder how many of you guys write your own music, and if you did how original it would be.. I’m sure you would be influenced by your favourite artists as well.
What’s the big deal? So what if they sound similar to another band? It’s called having influences and making musing within the same genre. Love the Pixies, love Cage, and love anything that sounds like them.
There’s nothing wrong with having influences…but if you want to rip off someone else’s sound and patented vocal style, I think it’s fair to be called out on it. And I like the new record, mostly because Im a fan both the Pixies and Cage The Elephant. I just think the debut was more them, more real and original, and I liked it a lot more…that’s all I’m saying. It’s music, it’s good music, but I just think it’s something that should be pointed out, and I decided to shed light upon the subject.
This is funny because “Aberdeen” and “Shake me Down” sounded so Pixies-like to me that I started searching around for reviews that commented on it. I found this site…..you’re talking about “Around my Head”! And I agree. And I miss the Pixies so much, that I’m OK with it. If these 3 tracks turned up as unreleased Pixies songs I would be ecstatic. The fact that they are actually by a different band isn’t so bad.