My Top 2000 Songs #1180: Walking With The Beggar Boys
Elf Power have been one of the longest-running acts of the Elephant 6 indie pop scene, but also one of the most under-appreciated and at time challenging. Partly that's due to the difficulty of pigeonholing their music--shades of psychedelia and glam, post-punk experimental music and slightly-skewed pop. (Their 2002 covers LP included songs by the Flaming Lips, Robyn Hitchcock, Sonic Youth, T.Rex, and Roky Erickson, giving some sense of the breadth of their influences.) 2004's Walking With The Beggar Boys was the closest they came to a straight rock album, adding in bits of Americana and jangle pop alongside the glam weirdness, like some mutant offspring of Bowie and R.E.M. It's my favorite Elf Power release, and the title track captures what I love about the record. It's a catchy little tune, a solid slithery guitar riff and earworm hook, yet there's still something just slightly off about the song, in a good way. Live 2013:
