Elephant 6 is a loosely defined musical collective in 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 there are many different genres explored by bands in the collective, there is a shared interest in psychedelic pop of the 1960s, with particular influence from bands such as the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Zombies. Recorded music will sometimes feature intentionally low fidelity production and experimental recording techniques.
Elf Power is an American indie rock band that originated in Athens, Georgia, United States. Currently, the line-up consists of guitarist/vocalist Andrew Rieger, keyboardist Laura Carter, guitarist Dave Wrathgabar, bassist Matthew Garrison, and drummer Peter Alvanos. They are part of the Elephant Six Collective.
Neutral Milk Hotel was an American rock band formed in Ruston, Louisiana, by musician Jeff Mangum. The band's music featured a deliberately low-quality sound, influenced by indie rock and psychedelic folk. Mangum was the band's lyricist, and wrote surreal and opaque songs 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 nontraditional rock instruments like the singing saw, zanzithophone, and uilleann pipes.
Jeffery Ney Mangum is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the lyricist, vocalist and guitarist of the band Neutral Milk Hotel, as well as being one of the cofounders of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. He is best known for his complex, lyrically dense songwriting, apparent on the critically lauded album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
The Apples in Stereo, styled as The Apples in stereo, are an American rock band associated with Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and Circulatory System. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist/producer Robert Schneider, who writes the majority of the band's music and lyrics. Currently, The Apples in Stereo also includes longstanding members John Hill and Eric Allen (bass), as well as more recent members John Dufilho (drums), John Ferguson (keyboards), and Ben Phelan (keyboards/guitar/trumpet).
Beulah was an American indie rock band from San Francisco, California, often associated with The Elephant 6 Recording Company.
The Olivia Tremor Control is an American rock band that was prominent in the mid-to-late 1990s. It was, along with The Apples in Stereo and Neutral Milk Hotel, one of the three original projects of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. The band was founded by the remnants of the group Synthetic Flying Machine in 1994. The band went on hiatus in early 2000, and later reformed in 2009.
On Avery Island is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel. It was released on March 26, 1996 by Merge Records.
Robert Peter Schneider, Ph.D is an American pop musician, music producer, and mathematician. He is the lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer of The Apples in Stereo and has produced 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 1991. He received a PhD in mathematics from Emory University in 2018. As of January 2021, Schneider is a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Georgia.
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.
Bill Doss was an American rock musician. He co-founded The Elephant 6 Recording Company in Athens, Georgia and was a key member of The Olivia Tremor Control. Following the band's break-up, he led The Sunshine Fix and later became a member of The Apples in Stereo. Doss was married to freelance photographer Amy Hairston Doss, whom he met while both were attending Louisiana Tech University.
"Stupid Girl" is a song by American rock band Garbage from their self-titled debut studio album (1995). The song was written and produced by band members Duke Erikson, Shirley Manson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig. "Stupid Girl" features lyrics about a young woman's ambivalence and is a musical arrangement centered on a repetitive bassline and a drum sample from the Clash's 1980 song "Train in Vain".
Circulatory System is a psychedelic rock musical ensemble formed by musician/painter Will Cullen Hart, and featuring Derek Almstead, Suzanne Allison, Peter Erchick, John Fernandes, Charlie Johnston, and Heather McIntosh.
The Bus Station Loonies are a British cabaret punk band from Plymouth, England. They have been described as a cross between Splodgenessabounds and Crass. Original Loonies Tony Popkids (drums) and Chris "Felcher" Wheelchair, sharing a mutual love of such U.S. punk outfits such as The Dickies, still continue with the band today, having recruited approximately 30 other band members over 18 years.
Major Organ and the Adding Machine is an Elephant 6 supergroup led by the elusive and possibly fictional Major Organ. The liner notes of the band's debut album, Major Organ and the Adding Machine, leave it a mystery as to who is officially featured. When performing live on the Holiday Surprise Tour, the members of the band wore paper masks to maintain their anonymity. It is believed that the main contributors are Jeff Mangum, Julian Koster, Robert Schneider, and Kevin Barnes, whose vocals are most obviously present on the album, but a number of other Elephant 6 musicians are believed to have contributed too, including members of The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, and Of Montreal.
Marshmallow Coast is an indie pop band associated with the Elephant Six Collective.
"My Girlfriend" is the debut single by the Christian rock band Relient K, released on their self-titled first album. The song originally appeared as "Marilyn Manson Ate My Girlfriend" on the band's demo album, All Work and No Play. The song is about Marilyn Manson eating Matt Thiessen's girlfriend. Thiessen wrote this song when he was 15 years old. Thiessen has said that he wrote it because of a female friend, who lived eight hours away in Pennsylvania, who he would talk to about many things including spiritual matters such as where God was taking them in the future. His friend would later turn from Christian music to Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. In an interview with CCM Magazine Thiessen stated "through this she changed her lifestyle [and] what she believed in." His friend would later be expelled from school and would be kicked out of her house and sent to a youth detention center. Thiessen would later state "She felt that Christianity was stupid and just this big hypocrisy. Being young and impressionable, I just wrote this little, stupid song, but that was the way I dealt with it—writing this song about how she got so consumed by Marilyn Manson."
Jack Yarber, also known by his stage name Jack Oblivian, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist based in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a founding member of the garage bands The Compulsive Gamblers, and The Oblivians and currently fronts Jack O & the Tennessee Tearjerkers.
The discography of Neutral Milk Hotel, a Ruston, Louisiana-based indie rock group, consists of two studio albums, two singles, two extended plays, one compilation album, and three demos.
Gerald DeLoach Jr., better known by his stage name Drastik, is an American Hip-Hop artist from Austin, Texas.
