“I think of the guitar as a punctuation to the vocal. It's about, ‘How can I be an exclamation point?’” Cage The Elephant guitarist Nick Bokrath explains his unique guitar grammar –and the innocence of pedal steel

Nick Bockrath of Cage the Elephant plays a red sparkle semi-hollow onstage at Bonnaroo.

The latest album from Cage The Elephant was a long time coming. As lead guitarist Nick Bockrath says, “We started recording it three years ago!” But Neon Pill, the band’s first new record since 2019’s Social Cues, was worth waiting for.

Led by the Shultz brothers, singer Matt and rhythm guitarist Brad, Cage The Elephant have perpetrated some seriously radical indie-meets-garage-meets-psych-rock over the years. An expansive sound and boundary-pushing mindset has been evident from their self-titled debut from 2008, featuring the slinky blues-rocker Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked, and continued across albums such as 2013’s Melophobia, with its dreamy acoustic hit Cigarette Daydreams, and 2015’s Tell Me I’m Pretty, produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach.