#The Elephant 6 Recording Co.

[mymelodic-chapel]

The Sunshine Fix- Age of the Sun (Psychedelic Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Indie Rock) Released: January 22, 2002 [Emperor Norton Records]

[1day1movie]

The Elephant 6 Recording Co. (2022) Chad Stockfleth.

[balleralbumcovers]

EPIC ALBUM COVER #40

of Montreal - Cherry Peel

Released: 1997 (Bar/None)

Indie pop, twee pop, psychedelic pop

Bonus:

[reasonsforhope]

Article

"2023 was a banner year for the Galapagos Islands: that wondrous archipelago so famous for its giant tortoises and other endemic species.

The long-serving conservation organization the Galapagos Conservancy, also endemic to the islands, recently published its annual report featuring standout figures like over 500 giant tortoises of 5 different species reintroduced to their natural habitat.

Additionally, a critically endangered species of albatross was identified to use giant tortoise feeding sites as take-off and landing areas. This key insight into co-dependency has given the Conservancy confidence that they can restore the populations of both animals to stable, flourishing numbers.

It underscores how far a donation to these endemic wildlife organizations really does go, and these two highlights of a successful year were only possible by the over $6 million in charitable contributions from supporters.

30 Chelonoidis chatamensis tortoises endemic to the smaller island of San Cristobal were repatriated to their natural habitat from the stock of a captive breeding program, while 97 native tortoises were returned to the second-largest island of Santa Cruz.

On the largest island of Isabella, 350 tortoises (214 C. guntheri and 136 C. vicina) were successfully reintroduced to their natural habitat after a survey found their numbers were not rising substantially on their own.

In March, the repatriation of 86 juvenile Chelonoidis hoodensis tortoises significantly contributed to enhancing the species’ distribution across their native habitat. They currently number 3,000 today on Española or Hood Island, a miraculous recovery from the 14 found there in the 1960s.

Also on Española, the endemic waved albatross was found to be taking off and landing on 50 additional parts of the island. These large birds, boasting an 8-foot wingspan, need ample space to get a running start before taking off, and this same principle applies when applying the brakes coming down from the sky.

In the survey, the biologists observed that concentrations of giant tortoises were linked with the usage of areas as runways for the albatross. Because the tortoises are the largest herbivores in the ecosystem, they perform the same acts as bison do in North America and Europe, and elephants in Africa—clear space.

With their herbivorous diet and large bulk, the tortoise’s feeding habits produce cleared areas ideal for albatross use.

“This discovery underscores the interconnectedness of the Galápagos ecosystem,” the authors of the report write. “This newly acquired knowledge allows us to strengthen the synergies between our conservation strategies.”

Of the $6.1 million received from donations and through other activities, the Conservancy was able to spend 77% of that on conservation programs, and that included some ambitious plans for this year—now already half done—which included drafting plans for restoration of the Pinta tortoise to the island of the same name, preparing tortoises for imminent reintroduction to the smaller Floreana island, and completely restoring the habitat for the Galapagos petrels on Santa Cruz.

Operating since 1985, the Galapagos Conservancy has a long track record of restoring these islands to their pre-Colombian glory. Let’s hope 2024 is as successful."

-via Good News Network, July 19, 2024

[artfilmfan]

A Future History Of: The Elephant 6 Recording Co. (Chad Stockfleth, 2022)

[arcticfoxfacts]

The Elephant 6 Lost Release: E6-013 - The Clay Bears

Below the cut for more info!

Okay, well it was never released, only catalogued!

“The Clay Bears” was, per the Elephant 6 Instagram, an experimental noise band from Ruston, Louisiana featuring a rotating lineup of Elephant 6 musicians. They were “known for their unpredictable performances and room-clearing live shows.”

One of the more well known quotes about the band came from the Elephant 6 website, which used to read “Clay Bears - One of the big mysteries of the E6. Apparently a super-group of some sort from the Ruston-era. The band had a revolving door line-up which at some points included such people as Scott Spillane, Jeff Mangum & Will Westbrook. They are thanked in the liner notes of Neutral Milk Hotel's album On Avery Island.”

And they are thanked on the On Avery Island linear notes! Taken from my personal copy:

That quote is no longer on the website, but it is archived on NMH fansite neutralmilkhotel.org. That website also contains this snippet of information: "In a BBC interview in August 1998, Jeff mentioned the Clay Bears had a double album which was poised to be released. This never transpired, however. Ross Beach, a member of the band for a while, told me the following: 'As far as I know, the Clay Bears never had any official releases, though there were probably some 4-track cassette one-offs floating around Ruston in the early 90's. That was also a Jeff solo project, only noisier and more chaotic. The live version that I was in was purely an experimental noise improv band.'"

So based off this, we can assume that The Clay Bears was a project possibly spearheaded by Jeff Mangum and there may be demo tapes floating around the Elephant 6 sphere. The double LP Jeff mentioned is catalogued (but not listed in the database) as E6-013 on Discogs.

There is supposedly a clip of a Clay Bears concert on YouTube, but the video's since been privated. A Reddit post on r/Elephant6 asked about this clip (but got no replies). This redditor also did some digging, supposedly uncovering news from the 2006 Elephant 6 website about a DVD release with a Clay Bears snippet. Whether or not the supposed clip would be the one from the YouTube video is not known. The redditor further opines that the DVD was never released. Another redditor on a different post asked Jeff (because this was back when NMH were on their reunion tour) if Clay Bears would ever see the light of day, saying "it’s up to the people to decipher." The post itself speculates that the Clay Bears would appear on the Elephant 6 documentary. Admittedly, I haven't seen the doc, but I would assume it didn't end up appearing because there's seldom any discussion about the band or any resurfaced clip.

In another Reddit post, a user shows the University of Georgia media archive, which featured several Neutral Milk Hotel stuff in the Robert Schneider Collection of Elephant 6 Recording Co. Records. There is a Wayback link, but it's broken and while I can see the first recording is NMH instrumentals, I don't know what the second recording is. Apparently, the Clay Bears is somewhere in the archives, but the University of Georgia seems to have removed the collection and the Wayback Machine only archived the two aforementioned files. Although according to a commenter in the Reddit post, most of the links (including the Clay Bears) didn't work and would require going out to Georgia to listen to the physical tapes.

So that's about where the whole Clay Bears mystery stands. It's interesting how there's been multiple possible Clay Bears leaks, yet none of them seemed to survive. The Clay Bears is still listed as an Elephant 6 band under "The Collective + Extended Family" section of the website and there was an (aforementioned) Instagram post by the official Elephant 6 account last year.

Last thing, the image up at the top was posted by the Elephant 6 Instagram, but I don't really know what it is. They don't explain it and reverse image searching turns up nothing. It could be one of Jeff's demo tapes, but that's pure speculation on my part. I might try to contact them in the future for clarity, but I'm lazy and shy so I dunno.

Anyway, here's a few posters also posted by the Elephant 6 Instagram:

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Yaryu / 野流 - For Damage

With its swirling spiritual jazz textures, playful instrumentation and child-like vocals, Yaryu's For Damage comes across kind of like an Elephant 6 Collective band attempting to beam themselves into Pharoah Sanders' Karma. And it works! The LP, a co-release by Ramble Records, Cardinal Fuzz and Centripetal Force, is a spellbinder from start to finish, culminating in a sidelong, almost 20-minute epic that mixes autoharp, field recordings, flute, synth and more into a transcendental brew.

[mappingthemoon]

Movies/TV Watched 2023

The Postman Always Rings Twice / Bob Rafelson (1981)

Secretary* / Steven Shainberg (2002)

Spirited Away* / Hayao Miyazaki (2001)

Watcher / Chloe Okuno (2022)

The Talented Mr. Ripley / Anthony Minghella (1999)

Pride & Prejudice / Joe Wright (2005)

Moonage Daydream / Brett Morgan (2022)

Volver / Pedro Almodóvar (2006)

Belfast / Kenneth Branagh (2021)

The Last Picture Show / Peter Bogdanovich (1971)

I, Tonya / Craig Gillespie (2017)

The Postman Always Rings Twice / Tay Garnett (1946)

Rocketman / Dexter Fletcher (2019)

The Unholy / Evan Spiliotopoulos (2021)

Mara / Clive Tonge (2018)

Frogs / George McCowan (1972)

Prometheus / Ridley Scott (2012)

Men / Alex Garland (2022)

All the Right Moves / Michael Chapman (1983)

Poseidon / Wolfgang Petersen (2006)

Saint Maud / Rose Glass (2019)

Monstrous / Chris Sivertson (2022)

Wander Darkly / Tara Miele (2020)

Howl’s Moving Castle / Hayao Miyazaki (2004)

Iris / Albert Maysles (2014)

Lamb / Valdimar Jóhannsson (2021)

In Fabric / Peter Strickland (2018)

The Elephant 6 Recording Co. / C.B. Stockfleth (2022)

The Visitor / Justin P. Lange (2022)

Smile / Parker Finn (2022)

Yellowjackets [szn 1-2] (2021-2022)

It Comes at Night / Trey Edward Shults (2017)

Everything Everywhere All at Once / Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (2022)

Black Bear / Lawrence Michael Levine (2020)

mother! / Darren Aronofsky (2017)

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story / Eric Appel (2022)

X / Ti West (2022)

I Heart Huckabees* / David O. Russell (2004)

The Right Stuff / Philip Kaufman (1983)

Goliath Awaits / Kevin Connor (1981)

Poltergeist* / Tobe Hooper (1982)

Doctor Who [TV Movie]* / Geoffrey Sax (1996)

Earthstorm / Terry Cunningham (2006)

Lake Eerie / Chris Majors (2016)

Fantastic Planet* / René Laloux (1973)

Synecdoche, New York* / Charlie Kaufman (2008)

Flight of the Navigator* / Randal Kleiser (1986)

NOPE / Jordan Peele (2022)

Women Talking / Sarah Polley (2022)

Striking Distance / Rowdy Herrington (1993)

Vivarium / Lorcan Finnegan (2019)

Saw* / James Wan (2004)

A Peculiar Noise / Jorge Torres-Torres (2016)

In the Earth / Ben Wheatley (2021)

Cats 2 / Jake Jones (2023)

Bringing Out the Dead* / Martin Scorsese (1999)

The Last Blockbuster / Taylor Morden (2020)

The Dance of Reality / Alejandro Jodorowsky (2013)

In the Mouth of Madness / John Carpenter (1994)

The Chamber / Ben Parker (2016)

Tenet / Christopher Nolan (2020)

Synchronic / Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead (2019)

Paprika / Satoshi Kon (2006)

The Menu / Mark Mylod (2022)

Sunshine / Danny Boyle (2007)

Devil’s Island / Sean King, Taylor King (2021)

Benedetta / Paul Verhoeven (2021)

Scotland, PA* / Billy Morrissette (2001)

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover / Peter Greenaway (1989)

The Color of Pomegranates* / Sergei Parajanov (1969)

Face/Off* / John Woo (1997)

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial / Steven Spielberg (1982)

The Gilded Age (PBS American Experience) / Sarah Colt (2018)

Aniara / Pella Kågerman, Hugo Lilja (2018)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas* / Chuck Jones, Ben Washam (1966)

The Quake / John Andreas Andersen (2018)

The Guilty / Gustav Möller (2018)

The Muppet Christmas Carol* [VHS] / Brian Henson (1992)

M3GAN / Gerard Johnstone (2022)

Caught / Jamie Patterson (2017)

Shot / Jeremy Kagan (2017)

A Charlie Brown Christmas* / Bill Melendez (1965)

Body at Brighton Rock / Roxanne Benjamin (2019)

Trancers / Charles Band (1984)

Higher Power / Matthew Charles Santoro (2018)

*Asterisk = rewatch

Favorites first watched in 2023: Men, In Fabric, Yellowjackets, Everything Everywhere All at Once, mother!, NOPE, The Dance of Reality. (ETA: Vivarium and Aniara, which I wouldn't necessarily call "favorites" but they've stuck with me.)

Favorite rewatches: Secretary, I Heart Huckabees, Poltergeist, Bringing Out the Dead

[ohc-and-the-music-tapes-archive]

The Elephant 6 Recording Co. | New Official Trailer

The Elephant 6 collective documentary is coming to US theaters August 25th and on VOD September 1st (Amazon & Apple TV)

[sm-selenographer]

Elf Power at Cine, Athens, Georgia, April 7, 2023 | SM Piotrowski

Our first actual “post”-pandemic big social event was attending the premiere of the Elephant 6 Recording Co. documentary last month. I didn’t bring my good camera because I was fully expecting us to bolt after the movie -- we are both introverts, knew it was going to be an ~emotional~ experience, and Everyone Was Going to Be There! But then (probably thx in part to liquid courage) we ended up staying for a couple Elf Power songs afterward, and once the music started it only took a few seconds for me to feel absolutely overwhelmed by the need to be photographing! I LOVE THAT FEELING. It’s been a while!!! Here are a couple smartphone pictures to preserve the moment (featuring my local concert photographer archnemesis (/s) who gets to be up front and all up in my composition with the nice camera)

[mymelodic-chapel]

The Apples in stereo- Her Wallpaper Reverie (Psychedelic Pop, Indie Pop, Neo-Psychedelia) Released: June 8, 1999 [The Elephant 6 Recording Co./ spinART Records] Producer(s): Robert Schneider

[aquariumdrunkard]

The Strange South :: The Elephant 6 Recording Co. and This Is Sparklehorse

Two new documentary films, The Elephant 6 Recording Co. and This Is Sparklehorse, cover two very different Southern artistic expressions in the ‘90s, subtly pushing against the idea that Southern music is exclusively traditional or conservative, remapping the sound of a new South for a new generation.

[balleralbumcovers]

EPIC ALBUM COVER #100

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Released: 1998 (Merge)

Indie folk, indie rock, psychedelic folk

[goldenfiddle]

[jacobwren]

The Elephant 6 Recording Co. | Official Trailer