| The Elephant 6 Recording Company | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1991 |
| Founder | Robert Schneider, Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart, Jeff Mangum |
| Genre | Indie rock, psych folk, experimental rock, Psychedelic pop revival, lo-fi |
| Country of origin | United States |
The Elephant 6 Recording Company (or simply Elephant 6) is a collective of American musicians who spawned many notable independent bands of the 1990s, including The Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, Beulah, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and Circulatory System.[1]
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The collective was officially founded in Denver, Colorado by childhood friends Robert Schneider, Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart, and Jeff Mangum.[2] The four grew up making music and sharing cassette tapes in Ruston, Louisiana while attending high school together.[2] They started several bands and pet projects; Doss and Hart with The Olivia Tremor Control (then called Synthetic Flying Machine), Mangum with Neutral Milk Hotel, and Schneider with The Apples in Stereo.
It was Schneider who created the Elephant 6 record label when he moved to Denver, Colorado in late 1991 to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder. According to Schneider, Hart coined the name "Elephant 6" and Schneider added "Recording Company." [2] In Denver, Schneider and new friends founded The Apples (which eventually became The Apples in Stereo). Recorded by April 1993, The Apples' Tidal Wave 7" EP was the first E6 release. Hart designed the Art Nouveau-inspired Elephant 6 logo for the label of The Apples EP. That logo was destined to be featured on a number of classic psychedelic albums from the 1990s to the present.
Doss had moved to Athens where he joined Hart and Mangum in Synthetic Flying Machine, which became The Olivia Tremor Control. They released California Demise as their first recording, and E6's second.[2]
Several Elephant 6 projects began to find commercial success in the late 1990s, including Beulah, Dressy Bessy, Elf Power, The Music Tapes, and Of Montreal, as well as the founding bands. Most of the bands subsequently signed with major record labels; E6 as an entity slowly deteriorated until the collective called it quits — due to recording difficulties and lack of organization — in 2002. The collective's bands all moved on to various labels and projects of their own.
However, many band members are still friends and even tour together under various guises. Though most of the collective's members span the country, many live together on the Orange Twin Conservation Community in Athens. The term "Elephant 6" has since come to refer to a broad range of bands and spin-off projects that the record label has spawned. The Elephant 6 logo has become a symbol for the circle of friends sharing similar ideas and goals.
In 2007 The Apples in Stereo featured the Elephant 6 logo on their album New Magnetic Wonder, announcing "The Elephant 6 Recording Company re-opens our doors and windows, and invites the world: join together with your friends and make something special, something meaningful, something to remember when you are old." This marked the first major release in five years to bear the Elephant 6 logo.
In 2008, the Elephant 6 logo was also used when Julian Koster released his long awaited Music Tapes For Clouds and Tornadoes under the name The Music Tapes. He also assembled The Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour which featured contributions from Will Cullen Hart and Bill Doss of Olivia Tremor Control, Scott Spillane of the Gerbils, Andrew Reiger and Laura Carter of Elf Power, Theo Hilton of Nana Grizol, John Fernandes and Eric Harris of OTC, The Music Tapes and Circulatory System, Robbie Cucchiaro of The Music Tapes, Charlie Johnston and Suzanne Allison of The 63 Crayons, Nesey Gallons, Jeff Mangum, and Peter Erchick. This ensemble tour was widely seen as a resurgence of Elephant 6 as a productive, cohesive entity. The show will soon take place in the UK chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he will curate in March 2012 in Minehead, England.[3]
On March 4, 2010 Robert Schneider along with The Apples in Stereo launched stepthroughtheportal.com, an interactive website where the user can explore the past, present and future of The Apples in Stereo. The site includes a short film featuring Elijah Wood, free song, time machine streaming songs from their past albums and more.
In recent years, Schneider has explored a number of experimental music projects, such as the Teletron mind-controlled synthesizer and Non-Pythagorean scale of his own invention. Since the inception of Elephant 6, members of the collective showed a strong interest and participation in experimental music, particularly The Olivia Tremor Control and Von Hemmling.