THE ELEPHANT 6 RECORDING COMPANY

'The Elephant 6 Recording Company' (or simply 'Elephant 6') is a collective of American musicians who spawned some of the most notable independent bands of the 1990s, including The Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Of Montreal.^[1]

Contents

History

Foundation

Success, disbandment and continuation

See also

References

External links

History

Foundation

The collective was officially founded in Denver, Colorado (but figuratively in Athens, Georgia) 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. 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 The Apples in Stereo.
It was Schneider who created the E6 record label when he moved to Denver, Colorado in late 1991 to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder. There, he 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.
Back home, 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.

Success, disbandment and continuation

Several Elephant 6 projects began to find commercial success in the late 1990s, including Beulah, 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 mantra 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.

See also

★ Indie rock

★ Psych folk

★ Post-rock

★ List of record labels

References

1. Dressy Bessy ''Tom Kielty'' Boston Globe, (March 22, 2002).
2. The Elephant Six Recording Company - Once Upon a Time...

External links

★ Elephant6.com – An unofficial site about the collective.

★ Optical Atlas – Another unofficial site with almost daily blog postings of current E6 happenings.

★ E6 Townhall – An official Elephant Six message board.