Elephant 6 Recording Company

created by discofever
(thing) by discofever (2.9 y) (print)   (I like it!) Sat Nov 13 1999 at 14:18:14
A collection of musicians that are heavily influenced by the great minds of 60s pop, like Brian Wilson, John Lennon, or Paul McCartney. Members include the bands The Apples (in stereo), Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and Secret Square.
(thing) by holliman (4.3 y) (print)   (I like it!) 4 C!s Tue Dec 19 2000 at 10:37:12
Ruston, LA! That's where this whole thing started.

Jeff Mangum, Robert Schneider, William Cullen Hart, and Bill Doss went to high school together, practiced their musicianship with each other, traded home recordings, and started a pattern of bands with incestuous membership that would follow them all throughout their careers. Influenced not only by the Beatles and the Beach Boys, but by Sonic Youth, Pink Floyd, the Kinks, the Flaming Lips, the Creation, the Velvet Underground, and My Bloody Valentine.

After a lot of relocating, first with Hart, Doss, and Mangum going to Athens, GA, then with Schneider (and a couple of years later Mangum) moving to Denver around 1991, and finally with Mangum making his home in both Denver and New York City, everything really started up in earnest. Around 1994, Hart and Doss had already started up (with John Fernandez) Olivia Tremor Control which evolved from a trio they previously had with Mangum called Neutral Milk Hotel. Mangum took the name with him and used it as his solo billing, recording most of his material during his numerous visits back to Denver at Schneider's home studio, which he named Pet Sounds after the Beach Boys album.

In 1992 started up the Apples (in Stereo) with Hilarie Sidney, Jim Mcintyre, and Chris Parfitt. Parfitt left soon after the first EP was recorded to start up Vince Mole & His Calcium Orchestra. John Hill, who played with Sidney and Mcintyre in Von Hemmling, joined the band in early 1994. A few months later Mcintyre left and after a rotating bass player for live shows and during the recording of Fun Trick Noisemaker, including Mangum, Kurt Heasley from the Lilys, and Kyle Jones (who currently plays host the Pet Sounds studio) and they secured a bass player in Eric Allen. Chris McDuffie joined the band in 1998. And everybody plays in another band...or two...or three.

I guess I should try to chronicle them all here. I'm sure to miss a couple. And there's always another one to be added...I guess I'll start with the main bands and add the related bands/groups/orchestras/artists under them.

And that's just the directly connected bands, there's about 20 other bands that could somehow lay claim to being under the E6 collective banner. But I won't bother just yet.
(thing) by yesno (2 mon) (print)   (I like it!) Mon Apr 02 2001 at 2:11:02

The Elephant 6 Recording Company is not a recording company, though it would no doubt like to be. It is many things. To it members, it is a network which helps them maintain their creativity and energy, and a pool of collaborators and players. The above writeups say it all quite well. Here is the most complete list of E6 and related bands I could muster.

The Apples (In Stereo)
Beulah
Breezy Porticos
Calvin, Don't Jump!
Chocolate U.S.A
Crum
Dressy Bessy
Elf Power
The Essex Green
fablefactory
The Frosted Ambassador
The Gerbils
The Great Lakes
King Sauce
Marshmallow Coast
The Minders
The Music Tapes
Neutral Milk Hotel
Of Montreal
The Olivia Tremor Control
Paragon Ragtime Orchestra
The Perry Weissman Three
Ross Beach
Secret Square
St. Cin
The Sunshine Fix
Vince Mole And His Calcium Orchestra

If any of this is wrong, or you have any additions, /msg someone who cares. Which is to say, me. I care.

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