‘Top 9’ is the latest single from Devils Elbow, and comes from the bands latest EP ‘Riverlands’.
The track references music and radio itself, as well as the idea of a long-established artist the 'best-kept secret' hitting the mainstream and becoming a ‘Sensation Overnight’.
"We are not hitting the mainstream, ha, the song isn't about us. I'm a music fan first so it comes from the artists I've followed over the years". A lot of the NZ music industry have kept our backwater band on the fringes ‘cause we’re not ‘city’ and they don’t identify with it or don’t see any return from backing us, but hey we’ve seen them all get turned over again and again, replaced by the next generation of university kids & interns, so fuck ‘em and their whole office”. - Alec Withers (Vocals, Guitar)
“Round here (Hastings) growing up there was a long-running radio countdown segment ‘Top 9 at 9” everyone would listen in to hear the latest hits and you’de record ‘em to a blank cassette, sometimes it was a ‘call the station to vote’ type of thing, people would get into it, trying to get through".
“There ‘aint any bands like DE around right now, and we have seen a lot come and go in our time. When this band began Myspace was the ‘be all, end all’, YouTube was only a couple years in, there were still at least 3 record stores in every small town, now fkn look at it, the masses staring into the device for everything, unreal, looking forward to playing shows again for sure, unwind some of the past couple years”.
“We also have another single and EP in the works right now, some other stuff we started in the time of the mask & the lockdown, that’ll will be released early 2023. Top 9 is a little nostalgic, stylistically pretty classic DE, the next EP is something else, something a bit more heavy”.
Top 9 is the second single in the lead-up to the bands third full length album.
RIiverlands EP Out Now.
Listen at: https://devilselbowofficial.bandcamp.com/
‘Top 9’ lyric video: https://youtu.be/LdngxBl4SNo
‘Riverland’s video https://youtu.be/paFEhDp6XUE