Elephant 6
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.
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.
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.
[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.
[4] Schneider moved to Denver, Colorado and formed a band called the Apples in 1992 with Jim McIntyre, Hilarie Sidney and Chris Parfitt.
[8] The three main bands associated with Elephant 6 at the time–the Apples in Stereo, the Olivia Tremor Control, and Neutral Milk Hotel–grew in popularity, and each respectively released a notable album: Fun Trick Noisemaker, Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle, and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
Club wrote highly of In the Aereoplane Over the Sea, saying it "is the culmination of everything the [Elephant 6] collective was about in the mid-'90s: distinctive, ragged, catchy records ripped straight from their makers' veins.
[1] In addition to the Apples in Stereo, the major bands from Denver were the Minders, Dressy Bessy, and McIntyre's solo project Von Hemmling.
[13] Neutral Milk Hotel member and the Gerbils frontman Scott Spillane identifies the sudden uptick of bands across the country as an important factor to this period.
[8] Mangum became reclusive as he struggled to cope with his newfound stardom, while the members of the Olivia Tremor Control wanted to record their own solo music.
[14] The collective slowly dissipated, although bands like the Apples in Stereo, Elf Power, and of Montreal continued making music throughout the 2000s.
[8] Elephant 6 bands explore a variety of music genres, including indie rock, synth-pop, and twee pop.
[21] Bands such as the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Zombies are important influences for Elephant 6 groups like the Apples in Stereo, Beulah, and the Olivia Tremor Control.
[22] Elephant 6's de facto leader Robert Schneider notes the particular influence of the Beach Boys' unfinished album Smile, calling it the "Holy Grail" for many members of the collective.
He notes how he and other members were obsessed with Beach Boys albums, and attempted to create the type of music they felt would have been included in Smile.
[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.
"[27] The collective has influenced many indie rock bands, including Arcade Fire, Franz Ferdinand, and Tame Impala.
"[25] In 2022 a documentary was released called A Future History Of: The Elephant 6 Recording Co. On Rotten Tomatoes the film currently has a 100% positive review rate.
