In 1999 I really wanted to have my own Elephant 6 band. Listening to The Olivia Tremor Control’s Dusk at Cubist Castle, The Apples in Stereo’s Her Wallpaper Reverie, and of course Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, I thought–this is what I would love to do. I want to make albums like this. If only I had, you know, a trace of musical talent. Instead I would just make mix CD-Rs for friends. I could satisfy my creative energies in other outlets. But eventually, in 2006, Optical Atlas started. Somehow–I’m still not exactly sure how. It was not entirely a conscious decision. I can trace the origins to my playing around, one Saturday morning, with creating a MySpace account, and then linking it to all the E6 bands I could find on MySpace, and then somehow–why, I cannot say–I decided I ought to interview Robert Schneider. For a MySpace page? Of course not. Thus a website was born, which quickly focused itself upon providing news updates on E6 bands. The rest was pretty easy. Those E6 bands with whom I was in contact (which was, eventually, a great number of them) seemed eager enough to help out. Kelly Ruberto, who runs Elephant6.com, told me shortly after I started that such a website was always needed–which was a very nice thing to say, and encouraging, as I didn’t want to step on the toes of the official E6 site. (Nor, being a fan, did I want to discourage Kelly from updating hers. When that website debuted, years before mine, I eagerly downloaded all of its rare MP3s.)
Originally I wanted Optical Atlas to be less of a website and more of a place, in the same way that many of the E6 albums seem to summon a space that one can visit or occupy. I wanted it to BE Cubist Castle. I wanted you to see the paintings that hung on the walls there, and click on them and listen to them. But that was just one of the many aborted ideas for Optical Atlas; I always had a bit more ambition than website-design talent, or the time to do all of it. For example, my idea of creating a gallery that would feature the artwork of every single E6-related release was hurt by the reality that, you know, the ongoing output of these folks is so high that it’s a challenge just to keep up. But for a long while Optical Atlas was a fun hobby that I found endlessly rewarding: new friends, new experiences, and a celebration, shared with other fans, of great and often overlooked music. I don’t know how much I thought about the website’s inevitable end, but at a certain point the idea weighed upon me more and more. There are so many bands related to the E6 collective that it’s always been easy to find something to post about; what became more difficult was finding the time and inclination to work on the site when there are so many other duties and obligations in my non-hobby-oriented life. Last December, finding that my work on Optical Atlas was becoming–less than 100%? Somewhat listless?–I thought I’d refocus myself in putting together a decade-end E6 retrospective. It took almost a month to create, and the reaction was wonderful. (I’m surprised so many of you read through it all. It was big!) But I’d been thinking about that being the last post on the website ever, and that didn’t exactly happen. How could I end it when there was a new Apples in Stereo album coming out, and Miles Kurosky was returning to the music scene, and Jeff Mangum seemed to be steadily resurfacing? Late winter and spring were a pretty exciting time to be an Elephant 6 fan. Still, by sticking around I’d missed my chance to go out with a bang, and as you may have noticed, since then each gap between an Optical Atlas update seems to have been longer than the last. So I am here to tell you that this is it. The End.
I still greatly love the music produced by the E6 collective and their friends. The glowing review I just posted of Folklore’s upcoming Home Church Road comes from the bottom of my heart. I get excited listening to this music. At the same time, my creative energies have been focused elsewhere for the last year-and-a-half, which means, on a practical level, that when I get free time–often on a Saturday morning, with a cup of coffee and two dogs competing for my lap–I spend my time working on something else. Optical Atlas does not get considered. So it’s probably time to set it loose as a–whatever it is. As this nebulous entity that never quite was in the first place.
That means absolutely nothing for Elephant 6. This hasn’t a thing to do with the state of the collective or what they’re going to do next. I don’t have a red phone on my desk that connects me immediately to Robert or Jeff or Will (although, now that I’ve imagined that, it’s a shame that such a thing doesn’t exist, don’t you think?). This means a fansite ended, that’s all.
What it means for you–if you managed to stick around with me this long, you diehard–is you will need to check in directly with Elephant6.com, the E6 Townhall, and the bands’ various websites and Facebook and MySpace pages, rather than expecting me to link to it. If you send me a CD, I won’t review it. (Although, hey, presents are nice!) If you ask me to post this or that, I won’t, but it’s no hard feelings.
It’s just that I can kind of see where I need to go next, and it’s in that next room over, and I have to go in there now. That’s the best way I can explain it. At a certain point, a voice in your head will say, “Get moving.” So I am.
But I can only give universal love and heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped out with this enterprise called Optical Atlas, and to everyone who checked in to read it.
Thanks, guys.
What was, remains the same…
