Elephant Six

The Elephant Six Recording Company is a musical collective founded in Denver, Colorado (but figuratively in Athens, Georgia) by childhood friends Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart, Jeff Mangum, and Robert Schneider. The four of grew up making music and sharing cassette tapes in Ruston, Louisiana. They all started their own bands and pet projects; Doss and Hart with Olivia Tremor Control, Mangum with Neutral Milk Hotel, and Schneider with the Apples in Stereo. Several Elephant Six projects began to find commercial success in the late 1990s, including Beulah, Elf Power, The Music Tapes, and Of Montreal, as well as the founding bands mentioned above.

Related Topics:
Denver, Colorado - Athens, Georgia - Bill Doss - Will Cullen Hart - Jeff Mangum - Robert Schneider - Music - Ruston, Louisiana - Olivia Tremor Control - Neutral Milk Hotel - The Apples in Stereo - 1990s - Beulah - Elf Power - The Music Tapes - Of Montreal

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Schneider was the one who actually created the record label when he moved to Denver, Colorado in late 1991 and attended University of Colorado at Boulder. He made friends and started up the Apples in Stereo. Their first EP was finished recording by April 1993, and it became the first release by the recording company.

Related Topics:
Record label - Denver, Colorado - 1991 - University of Colorado at Boulder - 1993

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Back home, Doss had moved to Athens, and joined Hart and Magnum in Synthetic Flying Machine. The band became Olivia Tremor Control, and they released California Demise as their first recording, and E6's second.

Related Topics:
Athens - Synthetic Flying Machine - Olivia Tremor Control - California Demise

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From there on in, most of the bands were signed to major record labels and the recording company as an entity slowly deteoriated until the collective called it quits, due to difficulties in recording and lack of organization, in 2002. The bands of the collective have since all moved on to various labels and projects of their own, though many are still friends and even tour together under various guises. Many even live together on the Orange Twin Conservation Community in Athens. The Elephant Six mantra became a symbol for the circle of friends sharing like ideas and goals.

Related Topics:
2002 - Orange Twin Conservation Community - Athens

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The most characteristic trait of an Elephant Six recording is the eclectic and exotic instrumentation: along with the guitars and drums you can hear, for example, the flugelhorn, singing saw, wandering genie, and one-note piano on Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane over the Sea; the euphonium, selemintan, and magnus organ on Olivia Tremor Control's Black Foliage; the sitar, "magic robot voice", and Nepalese copper shawm on Elf Power's When the Red King Comes; and everything from sarangi to clarinet played by eighteen backup musicians on Beulah's When Your Heartstrings Break. This was the ostensible nature of the Elephant Six collective: instruments, players, and space are divided among and shared among many projects.

Related Topics:
Flugelhorn - Singing saw - Wandering genie - Piano - In the Aeroplane over the Sea - Euphonium - Selemintan - Magnus organ - Black Foliage - Sitar - Robot - Nepal - Copper - Shawm - When the Red King Comes - Sarangi - Clarinet - Musician - When Your Heartstrings Break

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See also: Indie rock and Psych folk

Related Topics:
Indie rock - Psych folk

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