Elephant 6
The Elephant 6 Recording Company is a loosely defined musical collective from the United States. Notable bands associated with the collective include the Apples in Stereo, Beulah, Circulatory System, Elf Power, the Minders, Neutral Milk Hotel, of Montreal, and the Olivia Tremor Control. Although bands in Elephant 6 explore many different genres, they have a shared interest in psychedelic pop of the 1960s, with particular influence from bands such as the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Zombies. Their music sometimes features intentionally low fidelity production and experimental recording techniques.
The collective started in Ruston, Louisiana in the late 1980s. The name was occasionally used to denote the home recordings made by four high school friends: Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart, Jeff Mangum, and Robert Schneider. After high school, Schneider formed the Apples in Stereo; Doss, Hart, and Mangum formed the Olivia Tremor Control; and Mangum independently formed Neutral Milk Hotel. These three bands would serve as the basis for Elephant 6, and soon, many other bands joined. Athens, Georgia, and Denver, Colorado, became major hub cities, and the mid-to-late 1990s represented the peak years of activity for the collective.
Due to the confluence of new bands and the dissolution of Neutral Milk Hotel and the Olivia Tremor Control, the collective stagnated in activity in the early 2000s. A brief resurgence in the late 2000s ended with the death of Doss, and in recent years the collective has remained relatively dormant. Journalists have described Elephant 6 as an important underground music movement, and a key contributor to the emergence of alternative rock and indie rock in the 1990s.
History[edit]
Background and formation[edit]
Noel Murray and Marcus Gilmer of The A.V. Club note the difficulty in defining the exact parameters of the collective due to the multitude of associated acts.[1] Each act has their own unique sound, and musicians are often members of multiple bands.[1] This problem is compounded by the fact that members will sometimes obfuscate the truth, such as misleading a Rolling Stone reporter into believing they lived in a communal compound in Athens.[1] In 2012, the official Elephant 6 website read: "A collective, a label ... a cult? Elephant 6 may be all of these things or none of these depending on your point of view. And we're certainly not going to try to define what it is now!"[1]
Elephant 6 originated in Ruston, Louisiana, in the late 1980s.[2] The name was occasionally used to denote home recordings made by four high school friends: Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart, Jeff Mangum, and Robert Schneider.[3] These recordings were circulated between the four of them, and they did not seek approval from record labels or fanzines.[4] Musician Laura Carter said: "They were just 13-year-old boys yelling, 'Fuck your mama,' and bashing on the drums as hard as they can. It was just kids having fun, and they would fill up a whole cassette tape with this."[5] When the group decided to create an imaginary label for their music, Hart came up with the name Elephant 6.[5]
When the four friends graduated high school, they dispersed to different cities in the United States, but continued to mail tapes to each other.[4] Schneider moved to Denver, Colorado and formed a band called the Apples in 1992 with Jim McIntyre, Hilarie Sidney and Chris Parfitt.[5] Doss, Hart, and Mangum moved to Athens, Georgia.[6] The three were drawn to the city's burgeoning music scene, and played in a band called the Synthetic Flying Machine.[6] While in Athens, the group began collaborating with New York musician Julian Koster. In 1993, the Synthetic Flying Machine evolved into a band called the Olivia Tremor Control, and the band gained local attention for their psychedelic sound, which was in contrast to the prevalent grunge sound of the 1990s.[7]
In the 1990s, bands joined Elephant 6 through invitation.[5] Inspired by the Surrealist Manifestos, members of the collective issued their own manifesto in small hand-drawn catalogs, found within early releases.[8] According to Schneider: "We wanted [to find] these little pockets of people in different cities who listened to Pavement and the Beach Boys and were recording on 4-tracks."[8] Schneider notes that another way a band may join is by simply having a similar sound. He uses Beulah as an example, and in reference to the band's sound, he said: "This is a kindred spirit. This is Elephant 6."[5]
Schneider created a record label called the Elephant 6 Recording Company as a vehicle for the Apples music, and in 1993, the first recording released on the label was an extended play titled Tidal Wave.[8] Around this time, Mangum left the Olivia Tremor Control, and became a vagabond.[9] While living in Seattle, Mangum released the song "Everything Is" on Cher Doll Records in 1994, and was the first member of the collective to have their music released on a mainstream label, although the release was not directly affiliated with the Elephant 6 collective and did not feature the Elephant 6 logo.[10] Mangum released the song under the name Neutral Milk Hotel.[10] The Apples were later known as the Apples in Stereo.
Impact[edit]
Several journalists regard Elephant 6 as an important underground music movement, and a key contributor to the alternative rock and indie rock explosion in the 1990s.[26] Lee M. Shook Jr. of Paste wrote: "The Elephant 6 Recording Company would raise the bar for wide-scale countercultural activity and underground pop art—both musical, visual and otherwise—well into the 21st century."[8] Tom Murphy of Westword expanded on this statement, by writing: "It became a movement of sorts because the music was so accessible and inclusive of a wide range of musical expression, allowing for immediate and enduring growth, however loose the association."[27]
The collective has influenced many indie rock bands, including Arcade Fire, Franz Ferdinand, and Tame Impala. Chris Chu of the Canadian band the Morning Benders said: "Elephant 6 was the gateway for me. They seemed to be bridging that tradition from the 60s to a more modern, more indie approach. It was exactly what I was looking for, a new take on that stuff."[25]
Documentary[edit]
In 2022 a documentary was released called A Future History Of: The Elephant 6 Recording Co. On RottenTomatoes the film currently has a 100% positive review rate.[28]