For the record, the Elephants never broke up.

“Per se.”

Call it a hiatus. Call it a break. Call it an all-expenses-paid trip to the couch, complete with inactivity and boredom.

Call it whatever you want, but after speaking with Cody Jones and Trevor Dickinson, the two remaining original members of the Elephants set to hit Hell’s Kitchen this Friday, one thing is certain.

Though it feels like years since we heard from them, and Jason Freet — who along with Jones and Dickinson founded the original three Elephants in 2004 — has left and gone on to the Drug Purse, the Elephants never really broke up. They were just doing other things.

“We didn’t really break up per say [sic] ... Our friend and band mate Jason left, and it just took us awhile to form a new group due to laziness,” explains Jones through the wonders of Myspace (and strangely enough via fellow Weekly Volcano scribe Angela Jossy).

“We were pretty inactive for about nine months — just kind of looking for some new members and writing a few songs-etc, figuring out if we wanted to continue it or not.

“But we didn’t break up really, per say [sic].”

“We were a rotating song and dance-man team. When one sang, the other two would back him up. When Jason left to start his own project, it became impossible to play a lot of our songs the way they were meant to be played,” writes Dickinson.

“We took over a year off. Cody shot bows and arrows. I drew pictures of cats and perverts.”

The Elephants, as always (with or without Freet), are charmingly tongue-and-cheek — whether they officially broke up, or not. They’re witty as usual and strange as ever. Whether you had realized the Elephants dropped off the radar or not, having one of the best bands Tacoma has produced in some time back in action makes our scene feel whole again. While T-town has effectively debunked the notion that all we’re good for is metal and methamphetamine, and well conceived indie bands can’t come from here; the Elephants were one of the pioneering bands of that fight. I remember the pride I felt the first time I heard the Elephants on KEXP. I remember the first time I heard “Oh Tina.” I remember the first time I saw all the hipsters come out in droves for an Elephants show.

Whether they’d cop to it or not, the Elephants have a place in the history of Tacoma music. I’m not saying they’re Seaweed, dude. I’m just saying they were part of an important footnote in the annals of T-town’s musical progression.

Then they left.

Now they’re back.

Call it what you will.

“Um, I’m not sure,” says Jones when asked about any fallout over the band’s “breakup.”

“I’m not sure that anybody noticed. But we didn’t break up per se.”

The Elephants you will see on stage at the Kitchen on Friday, while similar, will be noticeably different than the Elephants you’re accustomed to. Of course, Freet is gone, but there’s more. The Elephants have gone from three to five, adding two new members to fill the shoes of Senor Freet.

“The new guys are Kyle Brunette, who is our good friend and is also the singer of the excellent Tacoma group ‘Friskey,’ and BJ Robinson, the Elephants’ new drummer, is our extra special buddy and former drummer of the band ‘Most,’” says Jones.

“Cody is originally from the depths of dark Fife Heights. I grew up out in Bonney Lake when it was still a big forest. BJ and Kyle are Tacomans,” adds Dickinson.

Together, they’re the new (if not improved), Elephants. There may be a couple of strange faces, and more skinny, under-fed bodies on stage, but some things will never change. The Elephants will still mix psychedelic tendencies with Beach Boy sensibilities and intellectual possibilities — offering to the masses shaggy, ego-less indie rock that Tacoma can claim proudly.     

“It’s like trying to compare Centaurs with Minotaurs,” says Dickinson of the new and old Elephants.

“They are very different, but have similar mystical hearts. I think people will appreciate the differences.”

I think he’s right. If Tacoma has any sense he is.



[Hell’s Kitchen, with Mono In VCF, Friskey, and The Shadow People, Friday, June 29, 9 p.m., $5,  3829 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.759.6003]

Special bonus interview

More with Trevor Dickinson of the Elephants:



TREVOR DICKINSON: I’m pretty much waking up from a wild night in the woods, drinkin’ and huntin’ pheasant. I’ll answer these the best I can.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: What differences can folks expect? How has the chemistry changed minus Senor Freet?

DICKSON: People can expect the same wild and ridiculous pop music we used to play, but less swapping and running around. Jason wanted to start something more psychedelic and focused. Cody and I are still writing shitty drum-machine ballads and Abba rip-offs. It’s awesome.

VOLCANO: What’s the chemistry with the new group like? Is it Trevor and Cody driving and BJ and Kyle riding along? Or is it a complete democracy?

DICKINSON: Have you ever seen “Ladyhawke”? Well, it’s kind of like that. Cody is Ladyhawke; I am Navarre (half man and half wolf); Kyle and B.J. are like a two-headed Mathew Broderick (Phillipe) ... Navarre and Ladyhawke could never have broken the Bishop’s evil curse without the genius help of Phillipe ... well in this case, a two-headed Phillipe.

VOLCANO: Does more people equal more fun?

DICKSON: More people equal more sound.

VOLCANO: Does it still feel like the Elephants?

DICKISON: Yes. Same good spirit. The same good time.