Dubbed "Chew It Up, Spit It Out, Rock and Roll," Cheers Elephant is a raw, rootsy, psychedelic pop rock quartet from Philadelphia, PA. Digging deep into three-part harmonies and arranging songs that'll make your dad's toe tap, your mom's hip shake, and your sister's heart throb. A style reminiscent of The Kinks, and combined with a sensibility of the modern age, the group's signature sound bleeds with British flare, American gusto, and all under the umbrella of catchy pop rock.

Nominated as the best indie act in the tri state area of 2011 by Tri State Indie, Cheers is about to one-up themselves with their next LP Like Wind Blows Fire. An album already receiving critical acclaim from the likes of, former Talking Heads, David Bowie, and King Crimson member, Adrian Belew as "fucking brilliant". Sharing the stage with such greats as Chubby Checker, DMC, The Go! Team, The Spinto Band, and Devo, Cheers Elephant impresses with a live show that feels like a cross between David Bryne, Animal of the Muppets, and far-out impulses equivalent to evangelicals speaking in tongue. Cheers Elephant is channeling something close to the devil, god, or cocaine.

Having toured the North East and Mid West exclusively, Cheers is now expanding everywhere East of the Continental Divide, including SXSW this spring and setting their sights on the West Coast and Europe shortly after.

With a friendship dating back to kindergarten and including two cousins, the group possesses chemistry akin to a well-oiled machine running at break-neck speed. So why not take a sip of Cheers Elephant? The buzz is good...

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Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love, and Brooklyn, the former home of Walt Whitman, provide the cornerstones of Backwords, a collection of socially aware misfits that hail from the various mileposts of what was once Penn's Woods, and once Iroquois tribal hunting grounds long before that. Our Backwords story, though, starts somewhere in the year 2006 of our Lord G.W., on a southbound road trip where Brian Russ and Ryan Belski birthed the band vocally amidst a smoggy gridlock.

Thus came Backwords, a band driven by the many layers of our reality to write songs that represent all the forces at play. American in its mishmash of what was and what will be, of who speaks and who can't, the songs are a translation of the common history we all, inexplicably, are forced to be a part of. Keeping with the melange, each band member has a distinct influence. John Sheldon, drums, is a metal head/spazmaniac; Jared DesRuisseaux, keys, a noise and soundscape economist-pianist with a natural ear for music; Ostyn, bass, is a garage rocking neo-political urbanian; Ryan, guitar, is a jazz wanderer; and Brian Russ, guitar and songwriting, is a miniature subdued cowboy who once wooed South Dakota and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with his folk and roots sounds.

But the soul of Backwords is more than what it was and what it is. Let's just say, it's hard to put into words the magic of how persons come together and make music. But, since I'm writing, I'll say this: Backwords explores the elimination/culmination of genre in its quest towards the jagged coast of psychedelia, where the water is every color, and all songs swim in a wild ocean.

-Lauren Belski


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