Olivia Tremor Control (Update July 2012 -- Bill Doss RIP)

OTOH, reddit

Yeah I was skeptical as well, but who knows.

just ban reddit, imho, its the only safe response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuyTE8HijgU&feature=player_embedded

Thanks, this was touching.

Okay, The OTC's second album has this song called 'California Demise' on it which has received glowing reports on most of the album's reviews. Trouble is...
...oh, just have a listen to Dukes Of Stratosphear's 'Shiny Cage' and you'll see.

Shameless or completely accidental?

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Sunday, January 7, 2007 11:27 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this comparison occurred to me just now when I decided 'A Peculiar Noise Called Train Director' might be better than any Dukes Of Stratosphear song

those 2 songs aren't the same any more so than 'shiny cage' is the same as the beatles 'i'm only sleeping'

so discovering Dusk At Cubist Castle has been one of the biggest musical moments of 2014 for me; for whatever reason I'd never listened to it until a few months ago (probably because I just can't find a way to like Neutral Milk Hotel and kept seeing their name come up in conversations about the OTC for obvious reasons), but it absolutely flattened me from beginning to end (ESPECIALLY the very end - "NYC-25" is just one of the best songs ever). Black Foliage is good too, but it didn't kick my ass nearly as hard; Dusk makes me smile just thinking about it. it's like the precise midpoint between Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle and Todd Rundgren's A Wizard/A True Star.

my question, obviously, is what should I check out next if I'm looking for something like Dusk? the most satisfying records I've uncovered while chasing this particular dragon so far have been the Soft Bulletin, Funtrick Noisemaker, Screamadelica, Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna and Satanic Panic, Arnold's Hillside (this album is SO good), and the Cleaners from Venus' Living With Victoria Grey, if that's helpful. a bunch of old favorites like Since I Left You and Mellon Collie and ESPECIALLY Beulah's The Coast Is Never Clear took on new resonance in the wake/context of Dusk, too.

The Music Tapes "First Imaginary Symphony for Nomad"

Model portrait heads of Gertrude Stein

i hate to say it - because their name is so stupid - but salvia plath's "the bardo story" scratches this itch for me

Obvious suggestion but the s/t Circulatory System is pretty great—like a bad-trip version of OTC. I can't speak to the quality of their newer material, which I've yet to hear.

legit LOL at "Salvia Plath," that may be the worst band name I've heard since Cerebral Ballzy

Also was going to suggest Dukes of Stratosphear, & maybe some Soft Boys or Robyn Hitchcock solo... not sure how widely you're casting the psychedelic-revival net here.

Xpost Omg how did I miss that pun

salvia plath used to be called run dmt, no joke

I'm casting the net pretty wide - basically anything that just nails Beach Boys revivalism to within, like, seventeen decimal places

well salvia plath sound exactly like OTC to my ears

i guess for different people that's a plus or a minus

I'm actually listening to Pour Pauwels by Guy Skornik for the first time - had some extra store credit at Amoeba a few weeks ago and the reissue had an intriguing employee-picks card so I bought it on faith - as I write this, and it's a pretty great example of the general steez I'm looking for here (and which I think Dusk captures so exquisitely):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLkWgNfsUSw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBcT92xlfqc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cambb-euIC4

maybe Screen Prints? not as far out as OTC but they did great big hook filled lofi 60s inspired stuff
http://youtu.be/Me7SsSb1dcw

this is a great one: http://youtu.be/naoG-ZEdVYw

Bring on the sunshine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MO01zKDvHg

strapping fieldhands hit on the same ramshackle psych vibe

http://www.last.fm/music/Strapping+Fieldhands/Gobs+on+the+Midway:+Singles+1991-1995

"looking into the sun" is

perfect

the new circulatory system is really lovely in spots

I've only listened to it once but I agree, there are some really awesome moments. I was a little sad when I loaded the cd into my computer and played it through VLC media player and thought "man, these song titles all look like what you would name the files on your computer the day you wrote the song, how lazy and sad!" then I looked in the cd booklet and saw that every one of the titles that fit this description had been changed to "Mosaic #1", "Mosaic #2", etc. Weird.

Pour Pauwels is awesome! Thanks for posting that.

Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't never get enough love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vP9knmux8I

Dusk at Cubist Castle is a personal fave, will definitely check out the recs here

someone ripped the entirity of Pour Pauwels to Soundcloud, here it is: https://soundcloud.com/guy-skornik-albums/sets/pour-pauwels

The Steppes. They made a ton of albums in the late 80s through mid 90s. The best is the debut, Drop Of The Creature. This song is from the 2nd album, Stewdio (get it?) Awful album title, even worse cover, but great song which fits the bill 100%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvQ1Kuf3z8w

Nice one! Sounds quite a bit like it could be a well produced Guided By Voices outtake from '94 or so, with a better drummer and an organ, complete with English accent and harmonies.

The Steppes were an Irish/US combo, so like GBV, I'm not sure where an English accent would've come from. There's been a 2CD compendium of stuff just recently that should be easy to find (probably need to go through my Steppes stuff to see if I need to pick that up myself).

Just bought the 2cd comp. I have all the albums but I feel like I owe them. They were fantastic.

the secret square album is my favorite lost e6 gem - it's hilarie from the apples and a friend of hers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKErAZFJHtI

for whatever reason I'd never listened to it until a few months ago (probably because I just can't find a way to like Neutral Milk Hotel and kept seeing their name come up in conversations about the OTC for obvious reasons)

Agreed on the vox. Can't stand Jeff's voice (or john's either)

Secret Square really is terrific. Way more lo-fi than a lot of the other Elephant Six stuff.

The Essex Green and Ladybug Transistor rate highly among my E6 lush throwback pop favorites. High Llamas (Hawaii in particular) are an obvious go-to for Beach Boys-esque stuff, specifically.

Essex Green definitely have some really awesome stuff

The Moles Untune the Sky hits some similar spots.
I haven't listened to Secret Square in forever, I am pretty sure I don't have that cd anymore. Amazing cover of Candy Says.

I've had 2.5 Circulatory System albums laying around for a while but never listened to them; thank you to the thread for giving me the impetus to finally check them out. Signal Morning is quite good - it's like seven-tenths of a Cubist Castle.

The first NMH is great and gnarly and very much "this guy is a weirdo". The second album is some of the worst music i've ever heard. Hifi indie is the worst shit.

I wish the Circulatory System albums were a bit more pop

I need to spend more time listening to the new Circulatory System, but so far it sounds like scraps from the Signal Morning. I don't know how much new recording Will Cullen Hart does anymore (he has MS) so they just might be raiding his tape archive at this point. There's supposedly a new Olivia album in the can, but Will found it too difficult to work on after Bill's death.

that Salvia Plath album is fucking GREAT, excellent recommendation

glad you think so, i like it a lot too

damn I'm gonna hafta check out Salvia Plath now... video for "House of Leaves" was strangely compelling

damn that Steppes track is pretty groovy too... bingeing on youtube embeds at the cafe since I don't have internet at home currently

Forgot to mention, purely on the poppy side, I'm a huge fan of those first three Dressy Bessy albums (another E6 labelmate).