The Elephant 6 Recording Company is a loosely defined musical collective from the United States. 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. Although bands in Elephant 6 explore many different genres, they have a shared interest in psychedelic pop of the 1960s, with particular influence from bands such as the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Zombies. Their music sometimes features intentionally low fidelity production and experimental recording techniques.
The Magnetic Fields are an American band founded and led by Stephin Merritt. Merritt is the group's primary songwriter, producer, and vocalist, as well as frequent multi-instrumentalist. Merritt's lyrics are often about love and feature atypical or neutral gender roles, and are by turns ironic, tongue-in-cheek, bitter, and humorous.
Young Marble Giants were a Welsh post-punk band formed in Cardiff, Wales, in 1978. Their music was based around the vocals of Alison Statton along with the minimalist instrumentation of brothers Philip and Stuart Moxham. Their early sound was a sharp contrast with the more aggressive punk rock that dominated the underground at the time. Young Marble Giants released just one studio album, Colossal Youth, in 1980. They also released two EPs and recorded a John Peel session.
Galaxie 500 was an American alternative rock band that formed in 1987 and split up in 1991 after releasing three albums: Today, On Fire and This Is Our Music. The band was made up of guitarist/vocalist Dean Wareham, drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist and vocalist Naomi Yang.
Neutral Milk Hotel was an American band formed in Ruston, Louisiana, by musician Jeff Mangum. They were active from 1989 to 1998, and then from 2013 to 2015. The band's music featured a deliberately low-quality sound, influenced by indie rock and psychedelic folk. Mangum wrote surreal and opaque lyrics that covered a wide range of topics, including love, spirituality, nostalgia, sex, and loneliness. He and the other band members played a variety of instruments, including non-traditional instruments like the singing saw and uilleann pipes.
Jeffrey Nye Mangum is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who gained prominence as the founder, songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of Neutral Milk Hotel, as well for his co-founding of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Mangum is characterized for his complex, lyrically dense songwriting, exemplified on the critically lauded album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, as well as for his public image as a recluse associated with his extended periods of musical inactivity and minimal press interaction. An article published in Slate described Mangum as the "Salinger of Indie Rock."
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is the second and final studio album by American band Neutral Milk Hotel, released on February 10, 1998, by Merge Records. The album is predominantly indie rock and psychedelic folk and is characterized by an intentionally low-quality sound. Traditional indie rock instruments like the guitar and drums are paired with less conventional instruments like the singing saw and uilleann pipes. The lyrics are surrealistic and opaque, exploring themes that range from nostalgia to love. An important influence for the album was The Diary of a Young Girl, a book of writings from the diary of Anne Frank.
Sebadoh is an American indie rock band formed in 1986 in Northampton, Massachusetts, by Eric Gaffney and Lou Barlow, with multi-instrumentalist Jason Loewenstein completing the line-up in 1989. Barlow co-created Sebadoh as an outlet for his songwriting when J. Mascis gradually took over creative control of Dinosaur Jr., in which Barlow plays bass guitar.
Half Japanese is an American art punk band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in 1974, after their family's relocation to Uniontown, Maryland. The brothers' original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playing; vocals; and an out-of-tune, distorted guitar. Both Fair brothers sang, although over time Jad held the frontman role. As of the band's last several releases since the 1990s, according to the album and CD credits, Half Japanese composes and plays the entirety of the music while Fair, eschewing his role as guitarist from earlier albums, plays almost no guitar but is responsible for the vocals and lyrics, which typically divide into either "love songs or monster songs." The band, still a vital art-punk unit, has released six albums since 2014 with the same personnel that recorded Hot in 1993. Three recent releases—Why Not?, Invincible and Crazy Hearts—received four-star reviews from the U.K. magazine Record Collector, while The New Yorker also praised the 2021 release Crazy Hearts. The band members are John Sluggett (guitar), Gilles-Vincent Rieder (drums), Jason Willett (bass), Mick Hobbs (guitar), and Jad Fair.
On Avery Island is the debut studio album by American rock band Neutral Milk Hotel, released on March 26, 1996, by Merge Records. At the time, Neutral Milk Hotel was a solo project of American musician Jeff Mangum, who recorded the album with producer Robert Schneider from February to May 1995. On Avery Island is an indie rock and psychedelic folk album, with a lo-fi sound.
The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Durham, North Carolina. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle, despite the plural moniker. Although he remains the core member of the band, he has worked with a variety of collaborators over time, including bassist and vocalist Peter Hughes, drummer Jon Wurster, multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas, singer-songwriter Franklin Bruno, bassist and vocalist Rachel Ware, singer-songwriter/producer John Vanderslice, guitarist Kaki King, and multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark.
Robert Peter Schneider is an American musician and mathematician. He is the lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer of rock/pop band the Apples in Stereo and has produced and performed on albums by Neutral Milk Hotel, the Olivia Tremor Control and a number of other psychedelic and indie rock bands. Schneider co-founded The Elephant 6 Recording Company in 1992. He received a PhD in mathematics from Emory University in 2018. As of September 2022, he is an Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Michigan Technological University.
Julian Koster is an American multidisciplinary artist. As a musician, he is a member of the Elephant 6 Collective, the leader of The Music Tapes, and a member of Neutral Milk Hotel. He is known for writing, directing, and acting in audio fiction The Orbiting Human Circus , and for performing with the theatrical troupe of the same name. He is also known for his heavy use of the musical saw in recordings, even releasing The Singing Saw at Christmastime, his only solo album released under his own name, in 2008.
The Music Tapes is an experimental pop music and performance art project of Elephant 6 member Julian Koster. The Music Tapes is characterized by unusual orchestrations, the use of musique concrète and narrative storytelling, vintage home-recording practices, and musical inventions. They are also known for their unique live performances, such as the Caroling and Lullaby tours that bring them into the homes of fans, and theatrical shows like The Traveling Imaginary, which takes place in a circus tent.
"Holland, 1945" is a song by American indie rock group Neutral Milk Hotel. It was released as the only single from the band's second and final studio album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea in October 1998. "Holland, 1945" is one of the album's louder, more upbeat songs, featuring overdriven and distorted guitars. The song also showcases fuzz noise on all of the instruments, a quality created by producer Robert Schneider.
"Everything Is" was the first recording mass-released by Neutral Milk Hotel, at that point still largely an outlet for the songwriting of Jeff Mangum instead of a fully formed band. The recording was originally the second release on the fledgling Seattle label Cher Doll Records in 1993, in the form of a 7", with "Everything Is" as the A side, and "Snow Song Pt. 1" as the B side. The first 50 7"s pressed also featured different artwork, with each sleeve being personally xeroxed by Mangum.
The discography of Neutral Milk Hotel, a Ruston, Louisiana-based indie rock group, consists of two studio albums, two singles, two extended plays, two compilation albums, and three demos.
Cher Doll Records is an American independent record label founded in Seattle, Washington, by Nancy Ostrander in 1993. The label released records for several indie-pop bands, including Neutral Milk Hotel's first single.
A Ferris wheel is a type of amusement ride.
You've Passed/Where You'll Find Me Now is the third single by American psychedelic folk band Neutral Milk Hotel, released as part of their Walking Wall of Words vinyl box set on December 12, 2011. The single contains alternative versions of the songs "You've Passed" and "Where You'll Find Me Now", from the band's 1996 album On Avery Island. Both songs were written and performed solely by Jeff Mangum. He recorded both tracks at his father's house in Ruston, Louisiana in December 1994 on cassette tape using a portable four-track recorder. Both tracks, in comparison to their On Avery Island counterparts, are longer and more distorted. The record was engineered by Craig Morris, mixing and mastering was done by friend and long-time collaborator Robert Schneider. The single was made available for sale as a digital download from the band's official website in 2019.
