Elephant 6 (mostly just talking about how amazing Dusk at Cubist Castle is)

[alan nagsworth]

Isn't Dusk at Cubist Castle just the most fucking incredible thing? I must have half-arsedly listened to it some years back, but this week I've been listening to some old of Montreal and Gerbils and stuff, and figured I would give DaCC another go. Must have listened to it about seven or eight times on my commutes over the last few days. Sensational. Like the Beatles but better. Just everything that is pure and brilliant about psychedelic pop and sound collage stuff all condensed into this one album, which is total perfection. Marking Time is a beautiful tune, probably my favourite right now.

Anyway yeah, I listened to Black Foliage, and Singles and Beyond, and sure enough they're also very good. BF is excellent for the most part.

I'm also a big fan of the Gerbils album Battle for Electricity (Are You Underwater? is such a great song), and today I got into Elf Power's The Winter is Coming, which I liked a lot (although some of the rhyming in the lyrics is kind of crappy).

What other Elephant 6/similar sounding stuff is out there that you enjoy? Because I'l well in the mood for it right now.

[jobotic]

It's all Apples in Stereo and early Of Montreal for me. Can't stand newer OM. All the charm has gone.

I saw The Ladybug Transistor by chance when I was on holiday in Barcelona years ago and bought the one album, The Albemarle Sound. It's great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIGAMPlaui4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBETYH1BJvg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owHxWEhkN54

The Minders were good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOf1uWbLV0k

I liked the song California by Dressy Bessy but that's about it.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3pIcjVaxSrVdK0TfWP2WLC

since I got a record player again my son won't stop listening to this

[alan nagsworth]

It's all Apples in Stereo and early Of Montreal for me. Can't stand newer OM. All the charm has gone.

Heh, you know, I've been thinking about this a lot myself recently. I don't completely dislike the newer of Montreal stuff (I'd say I enjoy around 50% of the songs on each of the post-Hissing Fauna albums, although I pretty much hate Skeletal Lamping) but I think the early-to-mid career stuff is my favourite. I adore Hissing Fauna and I think it's a fucking 10/10 masterpiece, but it's the high water mark for sure. I am far more enamoured by the - as you say - more charming work that preceded it, like Aldhils Arboretum and Satanic Panic, both of which I think are utterly magnificent. I really should spend more time listening to the stuff before that. There's a sort of manic, unhinged tone to the way Barnes used to sing which is lost now, and that's a shame.

[itsfredtitmus]

try most everything on the Rainbow Quartz label for 60s pop thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDTy3cGs0sU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-MSuyVUTuA

for stuff that sounds like early Barnes:
Elekibass - Welcome Wonderful World Japanese early Barnes clone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYzPg5KzuKs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNX3Q8z5w4Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmK98XdeG0w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAcoPYCou_s
https://bccamplight.bandcamp.com/track/parapaleejo

Like the Beatles but better.

[CaledonianGonzo]

of Montreal put out a new song just last week.  It's pretty good too.

[itsfredtitmus]

i got obsessed with it's different for girls a while back which makes me feel like i'm being silly for skipping the last few albums

[The Always Red Society]

of Montreal put out a new song just last week.  It's pretty good too.

Yeah the new single sounds great I think. The lyrics are total self parody but who cares, this is Kevin Barnes who is clearly ridiculous.

Going back to Olivia Tremor Control - I would genuinely say they are one of my favourite bands fullstop. Dusk at Cubist Castle and Black Foliage are both absolutely perfect 10/10 albums for me. The combination of their psychedelic experimental spirit with their ability to write just beautiful pop songs. Bill Doss had such a great voice as well.

One of the fascinating things about OTC is the way the albums were constructed. Doss being the primary pop song writer and Will Cullen Hart being someone who throws several kitchen sinks at everything. However the albums were then actually formed from hours of material by Robert Schneider who produced them and mixed and edited everything into coherent records.

Robert Schneider incidentally, as well as being genuinely one of the nicest people I've ever met, is phenomally underrated. The Apples in Stereo (his own band) are great but without him there is simply no E6 scene at all. As well as putting together Dusk and Black Foliage, he also produced Neutral Milk Hotel and wrote all the horn parts and additional instrumentation on In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. He produced Beulah and The Minders as well.


There is a third OTC album, Bill Doss recorded tonnes for it before his death with the rest of the band. They have hours of material and plan at some point for Robert and Will to edit it and release.

[The Always Red Society]

There's a sort of manic, unhinged tone to the way Barnes used to sing which is lost now, and that's a shame.

I do think his vocals are not as good as they used to be, he does those half-taking verses on almost every song thesedays, which used to be one style in his arsenal and now seems to be the only one he uses.

I don't think he's made a bad record to be honest, but he's made a few that don't inspire revisiting as much.

Paralytic Stalks is hugely underrated though and is great.

[The Always Red Society]

What other Elephant 6/similar sounding stuff is out there that you enjoy? Because I'l well in the mood for it right now.

Have you listened to Circulatory System's albums? It's one half of OTC, it lacks the poppiness of Bill but they're great records. On a different tack, Bill Doss's solo project The Sunshine Fix has some lovely songs.

Do you like Beulah? Ladybug Transistor? Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't (solo project by Pete the OTC member who wrote I Have Been Floated)? Casper & The Cookies?

[CaledonianGonzo]

Paralytic Stalks is hugely underrated though and is great.

Dour Percentage is maybe my favourite song he's ever written.

[alan nagsworth]

loadsa stuff

I mainly made this thread because I knew you'd come in with a bunch of great info and links. Thank you! I'm gonna blast through a bunch of this music today as I'm still feeling hella bummed, my house is empty, it's Sunday and I have zero plans.

Regarding oM (because they're the one band here I follow almost everything they/Barnes do/does), I stand by the fact that around half of every album they've done since Hissing Fauna is brilliant material. The experimental meandering shite on Paralytic Stalks can do one, but some of the more cohesive and catchy numbers on that album are indeed truly brilliant. I also gave Aureate Gloom a right hammering recently because I think there is a hell of a lot to be enjoyed on there. Barnes has a great knack for opening each of his albums with an absolute fucking barnstormer of a tune, doesn't he?

[Brundle-Fly]

All Night Radio from L.A. are worth checking out if you like this old Nu Psyche fayre?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GItftOPWxAs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YbL_pAH2g4