The Elevator Division Returns with “Words and Pictures”

Last year, Kansas City’s Elevator Division reunited to play a benefit show just before the pandemic shut everything down. As often happens with such things, the reunion turned into something more, and the band is now set to release their first two songs in nearly two decades.

The first song — “Words and Pictures” — is available today on your favorite streaming service. It taps in the band’s love for ’80s post-punk and art-rock, with echoing guitars and airy synths that evoke Roxy Music. Lyrically, the song casts a critical eye on our social media-obsessed age, with James Hoskins singing “When it’s all just pictures there’s no logic to deny what you’re being fed.”

The Elevator Division’s second song will be released later in September, and both songs are a prelude to a show on October 1 with Namelessnumberheadman (another band that I’m glad to see is still alive and kicking).