elastica

Elastica"You've had too much wine to stumble down my street" - Stutter

Who?Combining the work ethic of the Stone Roses and the tune writing skills of Suede, Elastica were the honorary bloke band of the Britpop era. Releasing one classic album, they shed memebers, invited some back and then lost them again, and somehow neglected the whole putting records out bit until The Menace, a flawed attempt to recast their sound as soemthing other than Wire/Stranglers tunes remashed up. Frontwoman Justine Frischmann is perhaps approaching some sort of perfection of personhood; Dave Bush's web-smuggled remixes of tracks suggest that there's still life in the musical dogs yet

Essential?'Stutter' and 'Car Song' from the first album are perhaps two of the best sex songs written - the first about not being able to get it up, the second about shagging in, on, by and probably under cars. The Menace would have been acceptable as a quick follow up, but sadly - depsite the presence of Fall frontmaniac Mark E Smith - it was precious little to show for five years work.

In a nutshell, then:Smarter-than-average Britpop with a pterodactyl's approach to eveolution so far.

Never mind the music, give us trivia:Lawyers for Wire and The Stranglers took a close interest in the band's, ahem, approach to recycling, and now each sold copy of Elastica goes towards helping Hugh Cornwell build a pile of pennies the size of a mountain in his back garden.
Justine has lived with Brett Anderson, Damon Albarn and erm, Loz Hardy of Kingmaker, and as such is the indie equivalent of Patsy Kensit. Except for having more talent than her boyfriends. And a career of her own. And not being blonde. And... oh, you get the point.
Justin the drummer was previously in excellent Brighton band Spitfire, other members of whom wound up involved with These Animal Men.
Justine has said she'd consider doing Playboy if the money was right.

In more depth: Google Listing

Justine gallery

Try these, too...Wire
The Stranglers
Anyone else who may have sued them
The Fall
Blur
Kinky Machine
Pulp
Suede
Sleeper
Echobelly
The Charlottes
Spitfire
Bobby Scarlett
Eves Plum