Day After Day #107: Stutter

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

Stutter (1993)

Music history is littered with bands that burned brightly on their first album and then were never able to replicate it. Case in point: Elastica.  

The London band was formed in 1992 by former Suede members Justine Frischmann (vocals/guitar) and Justin Welch (drums), who were later joined by bassist Annie Holland and guitarist Donna Matthews. Their first single, "Stutter," came out in November 1993 in the U.K. but wasn't released in the U.S. until September 1994; it was included on the band's self-titled album in 1995.

"Stutter" revs up with jagged guitars and roars for just over two minutes, with Frischmann eviscerating a male lover for his lack of "get up and go."

"No need to while, boy/Like a wind-up toy, you stutter at my feet/And it's never the time, boy/You've had too much wine to stumble up my street/Well, it isn't a problem/Nothing we can't keep between the sheets/Tell me you're mine, love/And I will not wait for other bedtime treats."

Frischmann pulls no punches in the chorus.

"Is there something you lack/When I'm flat on my back?/Is there something that I can do for you?/It's always something you hate/Or it's something you ate/Tell me, is it the way that I touch you?/Have you found a new mate/And is she really great? Is it just that I'm much too much for you?"

The song was an immediate hit when it came out in the U.K. and Elastica was voted Best New Band in the Melody Maker Readers Poll based on it. It wasn't presented to North American radio until 1995 to avoid overexposure. It peaked at #80 in 1993 in the U.K., and went to #67 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995. It also went to #10 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and #4 on the Canadian Alternative chart.

In 1994, the band released "Line Up" and "Connection" as singles and they both went top 20 in the U.K. before the album came out in March 1995 and became the fastest-selling U.K. debut album since Oasis' Definitely Maybe. Frischmann was also dating Blur's Damon Albarn at the time and was all over the Brit tabloids.

The album was excellent, full of short and speedy post-punk rippers and plenty of attitude. It did well in the U.S., getting to #66 on the Billboard 200. But the band ran into some trouble when it was sued by music publishers claiming some of their songs plagiarized the bands Wire and the Stranglers; specifically, the intro to "Connection" is almost identical to Wire's "Three Girl Rhumba" and "Waking Up" was very similar to the Stranglers' "No More Heroes." Elastica ended up settling the claims out of court.

Elastica toured relentlessly, coming to North America four times in a year, including the Lollapalooza tour. Holland left the band, citing exhaustion, and then Matthews left in 1998 after battling a heroin addiction. The band had multiple recording sessions that didn't prove fruitful, eventually releasing a six-song EP in 1999. 

Finally, Elastica released its second album The Menace in April 2000. It featured a new band lineup and contribution from Albarn and Mark E. Smith of the Fall, and it had a cover photograph taken by Maya Arulpragasam, who would become famous a few years later as M.I.A. It reached #24 on the U.K. Album Chart but it was a virtual non-entity in the U.S. I remember downloading a few songs from it from Napster, but I have zero memory of what they sounded like. The album included a cover of Trio's "Da Da Da" and a song called "Your Arse My Place," but it came and went. The band was dropped by Atlantic Records because of poor sales. Sessions for a third album didn't pan out and the band split up in October 2001. 

Eventually, Frischmann moved to Colorado and studied art at Naropa University; she began working as an artist in 2008 and later moved to San Francisco. Matthews started a band called Klang before finding religion and becoming a pastor. Welch played drums for Lush's reunion tour in 2015-16 and now plays in Piroshka. Life goes on, but we'll always have that first Elastica album to remind us of how great they once were.