Elastica Call It Quits

British pop group Elastica have split. Frontwoman Justine Frischmann issued an official statement last night saying: "Believe it or not Elastica have been together for almost ten years which is probably as long as any band should be together. I know it's hard to believe but then we did spend quite a while in the middle dithering and being perfectionists. The band has broken up on extremely good terms with each other."

Formed in London in the early Nineties, the original line up of bassist Annie Holland, drummer Justin Welch, and guitarist Donna Matthews, was put together via a series of advertisements in British newspapers by Frischmann who had recently parted company with her former outfit Suede. Subject to a bidding war, the group eventually signed with Geffen's DGC label where they released their self-titled debut in 1995. The band was one of the first of a British pop wave to score a hit stateside, when they landed on MTV with the power punk anthem "Connection." The band filled a slot left vacant by Sinead O'Connor on a Lollapalooza jaunt but the tour left cracks in the band resulting in the departure of Holland.

In the years following, Holland was coaxed into rejoining the ranks alongside keyboardists Mew and Dave Bush and guitarist Paul Jones, but Matthews a major songwriting force outside of Frischmann left the band. Elastica released sophomore effort, The Menace on Atlantic in 2000 but were dropped in mind 2001 after poor sales.

The group plan to bow out by issuing a disc in the UK of twenty-one tracks recorded at the BBC's Radio 1 studios and a farewell single on imprint Wichita called "The Bitch Don't Work." Frischmann has also begun working on material for the soundtrack to the U.K. film, The Mike Bassett England Manager, with an outfit called British Meat Scene. The track will be called "Too Old to Die Young."

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Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

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