Cage The Elephant - In One Ear

Part beer-guzzling, AD-DC-style scuzz-rockers, part idealistic hippies who sing about “free love”, Kentucky’s Cage The Elephant recently relocated to the unlikely environs of Leytonstone, East London (birthplace of Damon Albarn and, er, June Sarpong) in the hope of finding a more receptive audience for their thrusting, alpha-male gonzo-rock.

As with similarly unreconstructed acts such as Wolfmother, the best place to experience Cage is in the live arena, where vocalist Matt Schultz has a habit of charging into the audience, vaulting on to table-tops and the like. Still, In One Ear does a convincing job of translating the band’s swivel-eyed live potency onto record. It’s out as a single on 17 March, and you can hear it on Myspace. An album follows in the summer.