It’s the collaboration that launched one of this summer’s biggest tours. Finally, we can hear Cage The Elephant and Beck together on “Night Running.”
The collaboration comes off of Cage The Elephant’s new studio album, Social Cues, which comes out April 19 and is available for pre-order at the band’s official website..
Matt Shultz and Cage The Elephant make the most of the opportunity to work with Beck’s amorphous brand of musical genius. From the first verse, Beck delivers his trademark speak-singing over Cage’s dancehall-inflected beat. Shultz handles the chorus and second verse. Add some dirty, psychedelic guitar for texture and a killer collab is born.
Shultz told NME how the collaboration came about:
“We’d found a really great direction for the chorus but it was one of those songs where I was just stumped on the directions for the verses… We were talking about how to finish the song and Brad [Shultz, guitarist] was like, ‘For some reason, I feel like Beck would know.’
“Brad had the song sent to Beck and it was insane – maybe within 24 to 48 hours he’d already sent back two verses and said he had four other options. We were like, ‘Oh wow, this is pretty nice. You’re an amazing talent.’ Of course he is!”
But they didn’t pick Beck out of thin air. Prior to enlisting him, they worked with arranger and composer David Campbell, Beck’s dad.
Cage The Elephant and Beck hit the road beginning July 11 in Ridgefield, Wa. A full list of tour dates can be found at CageTheElephant.com.
-Joel Weiss
