Optical Atlas

After World War Three, and a great geological upheaval on the Earth, mankind becomes extinct, and the animals take over once more: the birds, the deer, the cows, the ants, and a creature named Loki, who rises among them, and proceeds to manipulate them with his “magic.” It’s not the stuff of a lost 1970’s Ralph Bakshi animated film, but the tale which supports the third album by Folklore, the psych/folk/rock band fronted by Elf Power guitarist Jimmy Hughes. An exceptionally gifted songwriter, Hughes writes concept albums that are reminiscent of the approach taken by the Kinks (think Arthur and Lola Versus Powerman), which shouldn’t be too big of a surprise since Folklore once performed the entirety of The Village Green Preservation Society live. The band’s latest album, in both its story and pop inclinations, also recalls Masters of the Hemisphere’s cult hit I Am Not a Freemdoom (Hughes released a MOTH live album, Last Show Ever, on his homegrown label BumbleBEAR Records many years back). This one’s quite a bit darker, though: Home Church Road follows the cyclical nature of civilizations; animals replace the human race, but quickly start upon their own path to destruction.

To discuss only the album’s story, however, would be doing a disservice to what really distinguishes Folklore’s music: killer hooks buffeted by a plethora of talented musicians (the lineup here includes 12 band members, as well as additional guest musicians), corralled into the Folklore fold – in this case, drawing from Athens and Philadelphia – and delivering upon a variety of styles, from the laid-back country of “Empty Houses,” to the mesmerizing, sitar-driven psychedelia of “The Ants,” to the raucous rock-and-roll of “The Party.”  The culmination is an album which lives up to the band’s very strong debut The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman; that one drew heavily from Hughes’ friends in the Elephant 6 collective, but the latest finds him setting upon his own path and defining Folklore’s voice with greater confidence.  Home Church Road is distinctive, but for me it’s also something of a nostalgic listen: in the late 90’s and early years of the last decade, it wouldn’t be quite so unusual to get an indie album this effortlessly ambitious from Athens, but recently these kind of records seem a little more rare and valuable. 

Have a listen to “The Party” below.  The album is completed but release details will follow, hopefully soon.

Folklore – The Party

Over the last couple of years, perhaps the only E6 parlor game more popular than “when will that second Circulatory System album come out?” (followed rapidly by “when will that Circulatory System bonus LP come out?”) is “when will the Major Organ and the Adding Machine DVD/Expanded CD come out?”  But, honestly, the great thing about Elephant 6 is that they usually make it worth the long wait (and those gaps are filled with so many of Montreal and Robert Schneider-related releases that the wait doesn’t really matter all that much).  Anyway, at long last the Major Organ and the Adding Machine re-release has been announced, but first a history: the 2001 album was one of the flagship releases of the Athens-based Orange Twin Records label, draped in the E6 logo and featuring an all-star cast from the E6-East universe, though none of them were named on the album.  (Nonetheless, it was pretty easy to recognize that prominent members of Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, The Music Tapes, of Montreal, and Elf Power were contributing.)  The CD drifted out of print, though the LP remained generally available.  Although initial reviews of the concept album – a harrowing mix of avant-garde sound collages and psych-rock – were mixed, with some being very harsh, over the past nine years it has deservedly developed wider admiration and the requisite cult following.  For the 2008 Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise tour, Eric Harris  (OTC, Elf Power)  would begin each evening’s program with a screening of the Major Organ and the Adding Machine short film, which he co-directed with Joey Foreman: a years-in-the-works cross between music video and experimental children’s fantasy, telling the story of Madam Truffle, a bunch of people with beards, a giant lobster, and, um, other things that happen.  (It’s all great fun.)  A DVD was announced and then postponed, and postponed, and postponed again.

Now Pitchfork has announced the real deal: on September 14, Orange Twin Records will release the deluxe Major Organ and the Adding Machine reissue, which will feature the complete album plus seven bonus tracks, bundled with a DVD of the film and bonus features such as music videos, live footage, and other E6-related projects, perhaps some of which were featured in the Eric Harris-curated E6 film program which screened last year in Athens.

Conclusion: Viva Francisco! (Thanks to Kathy with a K for the head’s-up.)

Elf Power has been one of the most prolific members of the Elephant 6 collective, but after sixteen years of existence and umpteen releases, they are about to complete a new rite of passage: their first eponymous album.  Elf Power, by Elf Power, will be released September 14, 2010, on Orange Twin Records, with contributions from band members Andrew Rieger, Jimmy Hughes, Derek Almstead, Eric Harris, and Laura Carter, along with guests Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, and John Fernandes  (The Olivia Tremor Control), as well as Heather McIntosh (Circulatory System).  The album will be dedicated to the memory of the late and great Vic Chesnutt, with whom Elf Power toured and completed a collaborative album called Dark Developments.  You can read the full press release here.

Elf Power’s guitarist Jimmy Hughes fronts Folklore, and the band is hitting the road beginning this Saturday.  Their third album, Home Church Road, is due out soon after a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds.  If you live in one of these towns, come out and support them!

Folklore Tour Dates

6/12/10 – Cleveland, OH @ Cranky’s w/ The Bears Of Blue River, Afternoon Naps
6/13/10 – Chicago, IL @ Schuba’s w/ The Bears Of Blue River, Poison Control Center
6/14/10 – Madison, WI @ The Project Lodge w/ The Bears Of Blue River
6/15/10 – Kalamazoo, MI @ No Fun House w/ The Bears Of Blue River
6/16/10 – Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop w/ The Bears Of Blue River, The Calumet Reel
6/17/10 – State College, PA @ Chronic Town
6/18/10 – New York, NY @ Pianos w/ Poison Control Center, Great Lakes
6/19/10 – Philadelphia, PA @ The M Room w/ Poison Control Center, Music For Headphones

Mike McGonigal, editor of YETI Magazine (which, a few years back, had an issue co-curated by Jeff Mangum), has initiated a new Portland, OR-based record label entitled Social Music Records and Tapes. To kick off the label, McGonigal has announced a new LP record club (details of which can be found here), and has dropped info on other upcoming LP and tape releases including a vinyl issue of Jeff Mangum’s Orange Twin Field Works Vol. 1, in a new “expanded” edition.  The LP, a co-release with Mississippi Records, does not yet have a firm release date.  The original CD, which features field recordings taken by Jeff Mangum at the Koprivshtitsa Festival in Bulgaria in 2000,  is still available from Orange Twin Records.  More info on Social Records can be found at their website.

Today Orange Twin artist Madeline kicks off a tour which will guide her throughout the South and Southwest, in conjunction with the vinyl and digital release of the Madeline Tour EP, to be released by Orange Twin Records on March 4th. The EP, previously a tour-only release (as you probably figured out for yourself), features appearances by members of Architecture in Helsinki and Mt. Eerie. A sampling, as well as tour dates, follow:

Madeline – I Waited All Day

Madeline Tour Dates

2/26 – Gainesville, Fl. @ The Atlantic
2/27 – Tallahassee, Fl. @ Fresh Face Fest
3/4 – Athens, Ga. @ Little Kings
3/5 – Birmingham, Al. @ Spring Street Fire House (7 p.m. All ages)
3/7 – Pensacola, Fl. @ Sluggo’s
3/8 – Baton Rouge, La. @ All Ages outdoor Party
(email andytgibbs@gmail.com for more info)
3/9 – Denton, Texas @ Rubber Gloves
3/10 – Dallas, Texas @ The Amsterdam Bar w/ Little Birds
3/11 – Austin, Texas @ Momo’s w/ Geoff Reacher (All Ages)
3/12 – Lafayette, La. @ Artmosphere
3/13 – New Orleans, La. @ AllWays Lounge

A few years back Fred Schneider of Athens legends The B-52’s launched The Superions with Noah Brodie and Dan Marshall. Following the release of digital singles in 2008 and in 2009, the band will be releasing their first EP on Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records on February 23rd in CD and 12″ formats. The Superions EP will feature the hit dance-inducing tracks “Totally Nude Island,” “Those Sexy Saucer Gals,” and “Who Threw That Ham at Me,” including remixes by Casper & the Cookies, Marshmallow Coast, The Lolligags, and Ursula 1000. Pre-order now at HHBTM’s website and you can elect to get the LP, CD, a keychain, button, autographed sleeve, and answering machine message (for those who still have answering machines), in various combinations – but hurry as the pre-order is only good until Monday at midnight. Here’s the video for “Who Threw That Ham at Me”:

Check out The Superions on MySpace for more videos and streaming music!

The Apples in Stereo’s latest album, Travellers Through Space and Time, will be released by Yep Roc/Simian/Elephant 6 on April 20th.  In April & May, the band will be hitting the road in support of the album, accompanied by friends The Generationals (from New Orleans) and Laminated Cat (from Athens, and the young psych masters who recently released Umbrella Weather on Garden Gate Records). Below are the dates, along with the complete press release for the album.

04.16.10 Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlie’s
04.17.10 Morgantown, WV @ 123 Pleasant Street
04.18.10 Washington, DC @ The Rock and Roll Hotel
04.20.10 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
04.21.10 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
04.23.10 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Underground
04.24.10 Ithaca, NY @ Castaways
04.25.10 Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar
04.27.10 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
04.28.10 Pontiac, MI @ The Pike Room
04.30.10 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
05.01.10 St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
05.03.10 Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
05.04.10 St. Louis, MO @ Billiken Club

Travellers in Space and Time,
by The Apples in Stereo

1. The Code
2. Dream About the Future
3. Hey Elevator
4. Strange Solar System
5. Dance Floor
6. C.P.U.
7. No One in the World
8. Dignified Dignitary
9. No Vacation
10. Told You Once
11. It’s All Right
12. Next Year at About the Same Time
13. Floating in Space
14. Nobody But You
15. Wings Away
16. Time Pilot

Studio-obsessed indie rockers The Apples in stereo are celebrating the start of a new decade with the release of their seventh studio album, Travellers in Space and Time, their most hi-fi and hook-laden production to date. Described by frontman Robert Schneider as “retro-futuristic super-pop,” the album is the official follow-up to 2007’s New Magnetic Wonder, and the band’s second studio release for Elijah Wood’s Simian Records. The album will be released on April 20 via Yep Roc/Simian/Elephant 6.

Travellers contains sixteen piano-driven tracks, bubbling over with vocoder harmonies and sci-fi sound effects, like 70’s AM radio filtered through a UFO; including the robotic first single “Dance Floor”, the four-on-the-floor dream-scape “Hey Elevator”, the Hall and Oates-tinged “Told You Once”, and the epic, yearning “Dream About The Future,” among many instant hits. The musical theme heard in these songs is strung throughout Travellers: intense pop hooks and electronic sounds, mixed with a pumping, get-up-and-moonwalk beat.

“I wanted to make a futuristic pop record, to reach out to the kids of the future,” Schneider relates. “It is what I imagine their more highly-evolved pop might sound like: shiny soul music with robots and humans singing together, yet informed by the music of our time. So we are sending a pop music message through time, hoping they will decode it and be into it.”

It is the first studio album from The Apples in stereo to feature new drummer John Dufilho, lead singer of Dallas indie rockers The Deathray Davies; and sees Bill Doss (Olivia Tremor Control, Elephant 6) and John Ferguson (Ulysses, Big Fresh), longtime Schneider collaborators, as full-time keyboardists in the band, alongside veteran members John Hill (guitar) and Eric Allen (bass). Original drummer Hilarie Sidney left the band in 2006.

Anyone familiar with The Apples in stereo’s career will know Schneider’s ever-evolving production process is as intricate as the recordings he generates. Engaging the same primary engineering team used to record New Magnetic Wonder, most notably Bryce Goggin (Trout Recording’s vintage recording wizard), as well as many studio-savvy friends and cohorts, the band spent well over a year in the studio recasting their signature pop sounds in chrome-plated futurism, all while adding a dance-driven vibe channeling ELO, Barry Gibb, Wild Honey-era Beach Boys and Off The Wall-era Michael Jackson.

With Travellers in Space and Time, Schneider continues experimenting with his recent invention, the Non-Pythagorean musical scale based on the logarithm, a mathematical function. Schneider is a passionate student of mathematics, and recently composed music based on prime numbers for a play written by world-class mathematician Andrew Granville, performed at the hallowed Institute for Advanced Study (home of Albert Einstein) in Princeton, New Jersey. Travellers includes “C.P.U.,” the first pop song ever to incorporate this novel scale.

In addition, the album features songwriting contributions from all of the other Apples, including “Wings Away” (Bill Doss/John Ferguson), “Next Year At About The Same Time” (Eric Allen), “No Vacation” (John Ferguson/Robert Schneider), “Floating Away” (John Dufilho), and “Dignified Dignitary” (Robert Schneider/Bill Doss/John Hill).

The 2007 hit album, New Magnetic Wonder, spawned late night performances on Conan and Colbert, commercial placements for The Apples‘ music (Pepsi, New Balance, Samsung, and numerous others), invitations to perform at many prestigious festivals and venues (All Tomorrows Parties, Pitchfork, Primavera Sound, R.E.M. Charity Tribute Concert at Carnegie Hall), and a world tour that took the band as far away as Taiwan – not to mention a polished performance of their hit song “Energy” by the contestants on American Idol.

Since then, the band has been increasingly busy, gaining ownership of their spinART Records back catalog and readying the albums for re-release, compiling the best-of #1 Hits Explosion, and releasing Electronic Projects for Musicians, an album of rarities. Schneider also made his children’s music debut with 2009’s Robbert Bobbert and the Bubble Machine (Little Monster Records), which made it to many Year-End Best Of lists; made numerous mathematics convention appearances; released Buddha Electrostorm (Garden Gate Records), an album of lo-fi garage-psych recorded with his brother-in-law Craig Morris (who played and engineered on Travellers) under the name Thee American Revolution; and topped it all off with his featured keynote talk and Australian debut performance at the Big Sound Music Conference, where he was featured alongside many musical luminaries, including noted Brian Wilson collaborator (and one of Schneider’s heroes), Van Dyke Parks… and all of this while hard at work on The Apples‘ most ambitious studio production yet.

First of all, if you haven’t done so already, head over to Merge Records and preorder the Chris Knox tribute album Stroke (due out in physical form on Feb. 23).  But somewhat overlooked in all the (deserved) hullabaloo over Jeff Mangum’s contribution to the album is the fact that it also marks the debut of a new project by he of The Olivia Tremor Control and The Sunshine Fix, Bill Doss.  Note that it’s been five years (almost six) since Bill released a record, although he has been recording steadily in the interim, and assisting friends like The Apples in Stereo (of which he’s a member), Circulatory System, Thee American Revolution, and Fabulous Bird, as well as participating in last year’s Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour.  Now he’s back with Red&Zeke, first with the Tall Dwarfs cover “Bodies” on the Stroke album, and soon with a full-length.

Bill writes Optical Atlas, “I have teamed up with my old friend Neil Cleary, a musician currently residing in Boston, who has not only done some damn fine solo work but also played drums in The Essex Green as well as having been in The Sunshine Fix from time to time, to form Red&Zeke.  Neil and I share an affinity for Appalachian music and have been long-jawing for quite some time about making such a record. So, earlier this year, he came to Athens where we recorded a batch of cover tunes, exploring a mix of the modern and traditional, all in the Appalachian style. The bones of the songs were played and sung live and tracked at Bel-Air Studios a la Jason NeSmith, of Casper and the Cookies fame, with minimal overdubs added afterward. By chance, we happened to cover the song ‘Bodies’ by the aforementioned Mr. Knox. We finished with the mixing and mastering, fortunately just in time to make the Stroke LP, and hope to have our record, tentatively titled Old Man From Indie Rock Mountain, released in the Spring of 2010.”

One can assume Bill is “Red.”  (’Burns would have been a good nickname too.)  I’ll give more details as they arrive, but here’s one to look forward to in the new year.