I actually beat some guy up once in high school for listening to Marillion, such was the aversion to prog-rock in my filthy little sleaze rocker circle, so it's with much chewing of Holy Aspirin and gnashing of teeth that I carve out this recommendation for the massive groove that is Big Elf. First of all, there's the Beatles influence. Big Elf's song publishing company is called 'Evil Beatles', so there's no getting around it. The shadow of the latter day hairy, bearded version of the Fab Four looms as large on the music of Big Elf as it does with Oasis, only the surly brothers Gallagher use their Beatles influence to construct nearly perfect pop songs, while our Elfin friends here are staunchly Rock, and it seems like they channel some parallel universe Beatles that formed ten years after, with only a Bloodrock record and a few doses of that bad brown acid for a blueprint. They might also sound a little like Pink Floyd here and there as well, I'm not an expert in such things. But as much as they flirt with the 'progressive' concept- the flawless arrangements that twist and turn like a rubber race track, the ceaseless wash of organ, an occasional Vocoder effect- it always slinks back into a bedrock of thick, meaty slabbage and ego-driven rock star vocals, suggesting Black Sabbath with a head full of mid 70's AM radio. 7 minute songs with hippy freak out crescendos be damned, nobody's going to mistake Big Elf for Lucifer's Friend. Deep Purple or a biker Queen, maybe. Just buy the fuckin' record, man. It's the grooviest thing I've heard all year.