elephant 6 nokt ermee

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Elephant 6 Is Dead-- Long Live Elephant 6
Schneider jersey retired; Mangum bong shipped to Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame
Will Bryant reports:
Well, it's finally official. After nearly two year's worth of rumors and speculation, a recent piece in Toronto newsweekly The Eye has confirmed that the Elephant 6 collective started by Ruston, LA chums Robert Schneider, Jeff Mangum, Bill Doss, and Will Cullen Hart in the early 90's is "effectively defunct". The article, which refers to Elephant 6 in the past tense, notes that the purpose of the collective (to elevate awareness of underground bands affiliated with the then-fledgling Apples In Stereo) has more or less run its course, peaking with Warner imprint Sire's major-label distribution of the Apples' Toul Soul Evolution in 1998.

Two of the collective's founding bands-- The Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel-- are unlikely to be resurrected soon, at least not in the glorious full-band touring incarnations of four years ago. Other Elephant 6 flagship bands have since found berths at indies such as SpinART, Kindercore, Emperor Norton, and Velocette, or started their own ventures (most notably Orange Twin and Cloud Recordings). None of the current releases from Elephant 6-affiliated bands (the Apples' Velocity of Sound, Elf Power's Nothing's Going To Happen, or Of Montreal's Aldhils Arboretum) bear the collective's distinctive handdrawn logo.

The competing Happy Happy Birthday To Me and Kindercore singles clubs, which cranked out limited-edition seven-inchers with handmade covers from Elephant 6-affiliated bands, folded in December 2000 and December 2001, respectively. The last two Kindercore singles club efforts, including a much-ballyhooed Essex Green/Sunshine Fix split single, were plagued by pointless, months-long delays (and are still listed as "forthcoming" on Kindercore's official website). Some Kindercore subscribers, who had paid in full for the singles in advance, were lured by a promised Olivia Tremor Control single that never materialized.

Last year, the bloated collective was forced to make a formal distinction between which bands are actually part of the collective and which bands are actually part of the "extended family" of Elephant 6, which lead to some pretty baffling exclusions (obscure side projects like Dixie Blood Moustache and Von Hemmling are full-blown Elephant 6'ers, while better-known acts including Of Montreal are considered family). "Everybody's still friends, but it got really confusing," Apples drummer Hilarie Sidney told The Eye. "Robert and I were sick of dealing with the record-label end of it and, honestly, we were just ready to move on, and I think everybody else was too."

"Extended family" member Derek Almstead of Of Montreal is quick to point out, however, that the members of the Elephant 6 members remain friends and are continuing their creative endeavors under different guises (see Circulatory System tour story below). "Nothing's really changed actually, just re-cast and reformed," Almstead writes in a post to the official Elephant 6 webboard. "We're all still here churning it out, and we all still help each other." But as for the logo that for many signified Elephant 6's entire purpose of affiliation and endorsement, Almstead was more blunt: "Oh yeah, the stamp is totally dead. Free your mind! It's not about a stamp!"

Elephant 6, originally conceived as sort of a fantasy label for those involved, did in fact become an actual label in 1993 with the self-release of the Apples In Stereo's debut seven-inch. The label hit its zenith around 1997, when Elephant 6 were actively recruiting new members of the collective and released the debut singles from Beulah and the Minders. The label also distributed releases by Marbles (Schneider's solo project), Secret Square (Sidney's side project), and The Music Tapes. The whole shebang is lovingly detailed on Green Typewriter's excellent unofficial Elephant 6 website linked below.

The decade-long reign of Elephant 6 is set to be documented in a final label compilation, according to Sidney, though it's been on the back burner for more than two years: "That's how organized we are."