Deadboy frontman Dax Riggs comes from a metal background, having spent much of the '90s playing with the Louisiana-based Acid Bath. The band's bassist died in 1997, however, and an effort to continue the band without him was short-lived. Dax Riggs continued to play solo shows, eventually forming an early version of deadboy & the Elephantmen with a full lineup.

In 2004, percussionist Tessie Brunet was visiting her adopted parents when, on a lark, she played a gig with Riggs. Things went well, and Tessie ultimately decided to turn her back on the life she was leading in NYC to move back home to New Orleans. Brunet joined the band, Riggs scaled back the lineup, and deadboy became a duo.

Deadboy & the Elephantmen are currently signed to Fat Possum Records and released We Are Night Sky, their "debut" album as a duo, in February 2006.

We Are Night Sky
Fat Possum
1.1.2006

Deadboy's similarities to the White Stripes are numerous – a female drummer, a raw minimalist style, and a modernized bluesman up front. They play three-chorded rock songs with visceral energy, funneling the group's Louisiana heritage into a swampy mix of headbanging percussion and heavily distorted guitar. But Deadboy and the Elephantmen like folk music, too, and singer Dax Riggs often ditches his Epiphone electric in favor of a simple, broad-bodied acoustic guitar. He's had a healthy dose of metal in his past, having headbanged his way through the '90s with sludge-rockers Acid Bath, yet there's something undeniably authentic to these simple, quieter songs. The vocals hang heavy, even when Diggs leaps into his falsetto, and Tessie Brunet isn't afraid to give the drums a rest by allowing touring bassist Alex Bergeron to pluck a simple beat. Loud blues and soft folk aren't always compatible, the Deadboy and the Elephantmen are seriously qualified matchmakers.

-Andrew Leahey

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