As a last-minute reminder, the AUX Festival is being held this weekend in Athens.  Events include:

Tonight – October 9th: The Orange Twin Fall Festival at the Orange Twin Conservation Community
8:00 pm – Scott E. Spillane EXP
8:45 pm – Nana Grizol
9:30 pm – Elf Power
10:15 pm – Vic Chesnutt and Elf Power
11:00 pm Neil Hamburger

Saturday – October 10th: Krautrock legends Faust and Circulatory System perform at the 40 Watt

Sunday – October 11th: Faust master class workshop at the Cine Lab

Friday, October 9th, head out to the Orange Twin Conservation Community in Athens, Georgia, for an all-day Fall Festival including performances by Neil Hamburger, Elf Power, Vic Chesnutt, Nana Grizol, and the Scott E. Spillane Explosion.  Camping is available at Orange Twin for the entire weekend (which will also feature the AUX Festival, as we just mentioned).  Tickets are available at Athens’ Wuxtry Records, Schoolkids Records, and the Orange Twin website.

The Elephant 6 Townhall has assembled an album of covers of E6 songs, from of Montreal through Major Organ and the Adding Machine, Elf Power, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and more.  You can download Elephant 6 Fanfare through this thread.  Thanks to lenn9o9n for assembling the project, and everyone who contributed.

Wow, I’ve been stingy with the updates lately.  You’d think being down with the swine flu (or something similar) would mean lots of time to update your website, but instead, for me at least, it seems to mean indulging in reading 80’s New Mutants comics and having Russ Meyer movie marathons (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls soundtrack…ordered).  BUT there is lots of great Elephant 6 news in the pipeline, some of which I’m not allowed to blab about yet, so keep checking back.  In the meantime, You Ain’t No Picasso has posted a zipped bootleg of last year’s Lexington stop on the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour.  Good memories.

And in case you’re wondering what happened to that Major Organ and the Adding Machine Expanded CD+DVD, I’m happy to inform you that Orange Twin has confirmed it’s OFFICIAL and is still on track for a fall release. Just a few more months.

 

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is included in the Onion AV Club’s “Turn Off the Shuffle” list, described as “25 great albums that work best when listened to from start to finish.”  You can read the article here.  I’m a fan of the site, but it must be said that with their obsession with creating unnecessary pop culture lists, the AV Club is quickly becoming the late-90’s-era VH1 of the internet.  Still, it’s a good read.  Note that most Elephant 6 albums probably work best following the same “turn off the shuffle” rule, in particular those by Olivia Tremor Control and of Montreal; it’s merely a keen awareness of making the album work as a whole (although there are certainly an abundance of E6 “concept albums” too, and the collective is at least partially responsible for the resurrection of the once-loathed genre).

Note that I updated last week’s post about Marc Maron giving a shout-out to the Gerbils on Break Room Live, the Air America podcast.  On Friday’s show (the one featuring Sarah Vowell), he made a correction during the post-show chat indicating he meant to say The Thermals.  Such is life.

And apropos of nothing, a big thanks to anyone reading this blog who turned out for The Ladybug Transistor’s appearance in my city of Madison, Wisconsin, on Saturday night.  Despite the rather startling manifestation of a SPRINGTIME BLIZZARD, there was a large, appreciative, enthusiastic crowd (dancing!).  The band responded in kind with a sprawling but tightly-played setlist, including an unplanned performance of “Choking on Air” which was simply phenomenal.  This band has matured splendidly over the last decade; when they come to your town, don’t turn down a chance to see them.   

Okay, granted, I’m linking to a half-hour-long show with literally 1 second referencing the Gerbils.  But you know, it came completely out of nowhere, and it was a nice surprise; plus it gives me a chance to promote my current obsession, which is Break Room Live, a daily podcast hosted by Marc Maron and Sam Seder.  (Their official “Break Room Live Coffee,” from Just Coffee, also comes from my hometown of Madison.)  So anyway, about four minutes into this show, Maron says that one of the best bands he saw at SXSW was The Gerbils.  And then that’s it. Check it out here under “3.23.09 Monday’s Full Show.” I’ll embed it when their site stops acting goofy.

Update 3/30/09: On Friday’s post-show chat he corrected himself by stating he meant to say The Thermals, not The Gerbils.  Well, hopefully some accidental publicity was a good thing.