[03.03] New York City's Elefant is a quartet who reminds me of Interpol when it comes to the way in which their influences come out in their music. In their three-song EP (the full length is not due until April), their songs have a dark feel reminiscent of Joy Division and some Velvet Underground stuff, but there is an underlying pop sensibility to it all. Singer Diego Garcia's deep voice is not completely unlike a mix of Bowie and Peter Murphy with a hint of David Byrne.

The songs on Gallery Girl are all about relationships with girls. In order, they are "Gallery Girl", "Annie," and "Bokkie," all of which are pretty self-explanatory love songs. While nothing completely blows me away, I think that this music will win some fans as it has that ultra-cool retro feel a la Interpol and a few other NYC bands, which leads one to wonder, is anything new coming out of there? While I am certain that the answer is yes, I must admit that this sound is too cool to take a back seat to anything else just yet. —Matthew