The Summer Hymns have announced a tracklisting for their new album Backward Masks, and have posted two new songs at their MySpace page. No release date yet, but you can expect it this fall from Misra Records.

Backward Masks, by the Summer Hymns

1. Way You Walk
2. Pity and Envy
3. Start Swimming
4. Darkness Comes
5. Fearanoia
6. Limousine
7. Bombay Brown India Ink
8. New Way
9. Ice Age World
10. 14 Inches of Snow
11. Pheromones Induced
12. When the Bombs Fall

Mike from Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records has announced that M Coast's Say It in Slang will be released on October 24. But if you'd like to listen to it a lot earlier, head over to the HHBTM Popfest (see banner to right) and watch M Coast perform on August 10 at the 40 Watt: copies will be on sale. In addition, if you preorder a copy, it's pretty much guaranteed you'll get an early copy shipped the week after Popfest in a "special printed felt sleeve with snap pocket and a bonus Slang book." For more information, head over to HHBTM's website.

Just to remind you that The Minders have a new album on the way within the next month (It's a Bright Guilty World, Future Farmer Records, July 18), here's a rarity from the band that they contributed to the 1999 Mr. Whiggs compilation Hydroponic Mascara Vol. 2, which also featured tracks by Elf Power, Tobin Sprout, Marbles, and others.

Calling the Evening - The Minders

You can find tour dates for The Minders, including their dates with Of Montreal, right here.

You Ain't No Picasso has snagged someone else's recording of the Apples in Stereo playing at the Desdemona Festival, and placed it in a zip file for you to download. You can find it here. Pretty nice of them I think.

Brian Heater, who wrote the article on Elephant 6 in SPIN Magazine earlier this year, as well as the amazing "I Have Been Floated: An Oral History of Elephant 6" on PopMatters.com, has just contributed to Optical Atlas an exclusive, never-before-published interview with Miles Kurosky on the eve of Beulah's very last performance (New York City, 8-5-2004) before splitting up. You can read the text by following the link below. Thanks very much to Brian for sending this along.

Since the breakup of Neutral Milk Hotel, Jeremy Barnes has collaborated with Bablicon, The Gerbils, and most recently Beirut, and he's even released a solo album under the moniker Marta Tennae (Excerpts from a Janitor's Almanac, 2000), but his most consistent project has been his band A Hawk and a Hacksaw, which has released two albums to date: the self-titled debut album on Cloud Recordings, and the follow-up Darkness at Noon on The Leaf Label. AHAAH's music might be thought of as sounding like the lost field recordings of a crazed band of Scandinavian gypsies. The live shows are spectacular.

This summer he's playing a number of music festivals throughout Europe, and according to The Leaf Label, Barnes and Heather Trost (the other half of AHAAH) are currently wrapping up production on a third album before embarking on a more extensive 2007 tour.

According to the label's website, "A Hawk And A Hacksaw are at home in Albuquerque putting the finishing touches to their third album, to be released in September. The record, yet to be named, was recorded in the tiny Moldovan village of Zece Prajini, Romania with the help of local Gypsy brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia (who were voted best European artist at the 2006 BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards)."

The tour dates for this summer:

A Hawk and a Hacksaw

07.01.06 Toulouse, France @ Les Seistes Electroniques
07.04.06 Cherbourg, France @ Festival Charivarue, Plage Verte
07.21.06 Copenhagen, Denmark @ The Jazz Juice Festival
08.04.06 Eastnor Castle Deer Park, UK @ Big Chill Festival
08.06.06 Norwich, UK @ Norwich Arts Centre (NPUC Festival)
08.09.06 London, UK @ London Luminaire
08.10.06 Cheltenham, UK @ Slak 08.11.06 Leicester, UK @ Summer Sundae
08.18.06 Brecon Beacons, Wales @ Green Man Festival
08.23.06 Reading, UK @ The Reading Fringe Festival
09.06.06 Bergen, Norway @ TBA
09.08.06 Stavanger, Norway @ Numusic Festival

Thanks to Chris Yetter for the SXSW photo!

Kelly Ruberto at Elephant6.com has updated the web page with a request for "video/film footage, posters, photos, and anything E6-related for several upcoming DVD projects."

She writes: "Yes, Yes, Yes. There are a few DVD projects being assembled regarding Elephant Six or particular E6 bands. So dig out those boxes from your closets and basements. We want it all! We've got some real gems already (including rare footage of the infamous Clay Bears!) but we'd like what else is out there. Please email me if you've got questions. Kelly (at) elephant6 (dot) com."

You know what? I'm excited. So, once again, if you have anything to contribute to the (I'd say "official") Elephant 6 DVD project, email Kelly.

Not only is "Desdemona" one of the greatest rock songs ever (by John's Children, featuring Marc Bolan vocals), but it's a music festival too, and yesterday in Cincinnati it was visited by The Apples in Stereo. For photos and coverage, check out Good Hodgkins and You Ain't No Picasso. YANP has also posted a great Apples song for download, "On Your Own."

Just a reminder that Athfest--not to be confused with Popfest, the Athens-based festival run by Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records--runs through this weekend in Athens.

Summer Hymns play the Athfest Outdoor Stage tonight at 8:40 PM. (Incidentally, they've announced at their MySpace page that they've completed work on their new album, Backward Masks, which will be released by Misra Records in the fall.)

Orange Twin recording artists Zumm Zumm play the Transmetropolitan at 1 AM tonight.

Casper and the Cookies, who have just released a new album on HHBTM (review forthcoming), play the 40 Watt Saturday night at 10:15 pm.

Cloud Recordings artists Dark Meat play Tasty World at 12:40 AM Saturday (night).

Information, tickets, CDs, and more can be found at Athfest.com.

Brian Heater, who wrote the recent SPIN Magazine article on Elephant 6, has just published the expanded version of the story--"I Have Been Floated: An Oral History of Elephant 6"--a lengthy piece featuring interviews with members of The Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal, Elf Power, and Beulah. You can read it at PopMatters.com. This is a really special piece, crammed full with new information and rare slices of history, and it's essential reading. (If you'd like to see the original SPIN article, it's found in our articles archive section, right here.) Thanks to Brian for letting us know!

Our friend Neil at Carnahan Films has dropped us a line to point out that The Minders have just updated their MySpace page with two new songs, "357" and "Crest of the Hill," from their forthcoming album, It's a Bright Guilty World (Future Farmer, July 18). They also put up some film clips from The Kinks, E.L.O., and Buddy Holly!

Polyvinyl has launched a page promoting the upcoming Of Montreal remix album, now given a title: Satanic Twins. A gatefold double-LP set, the first record will contain Satanic Panic in the Attic remixes, while the second will contain remixes from Sunlandic Twins. It's scheduled for release August 22. If you visit the page, you can download two of the tracks, "Disconnect the Dots (Mixel Pixel)" and "Forecast Fascist Future (IQU)". In addition to the limited edition (2000 copies) LP set, it will also be available in "digital format" directly from Polyvinyl, but not in CD, because that's sooooo 2006. You can see the typically gorgeous David Barnes artwork above. (On a side note, wasn't !!! supposed to be contributing to this album? Guess they got dropped.) UPDATE: MP3 versions of the freebie tracks are up at You Ain't No Picasso.

If that weren't enough, Pitchfork has announced that Kevin Barnes has begun a project called Ocelot Fang with Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT, for a record to be released in 2007, roundabout the time we should be seeing the all-new Of Montreal album, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (They also report that the Of Montreal video for "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games" will be airing on MTV2's Subterranean this week, and that later this year--"late October and early November"--the band plans to tour Europe and Japan.)

You can find Of Montreal tour dates here.

This month's issue of Magnet features an article on Elf Power, as they've announced at their MySpace page. It's the one with the Stuart Murdoch cover story (issue #72).

You Ain't No Picasso has a nice profile of The Late B.P. Helium today. The piece not only includes 2 MP3s, but an interview in which he discusses the name of his band, some of his songs (including "The Weeping Soul"), and why it's best to be in 3 bands at once. You can check it out here.

Tour dates for The Late B.P. Helium are posted over yonder; note that he's playing tonight in Athens at the Caledonia with Tilly and the Wall!

This week we celebrate the work of Marshmallow Coast with three tracks from the Kindercore years--that Athens label which has since gone under, putting many great albums out of print. Marshmallow Coast is Andy Gonzales, who has played with The Music Tapes and was a longtime member of Of Montreal (who, in turn, paid tribute to him by invoking the name of his band on "The Hopeless Opus" and by covering one of his songs, "In the Army Kid," on The Horse and Elephant Eatery).

After the long-delayed release of Andy's first album, Timesquare (which you can download in its entirety at the Marshmallow Coast website), he signed with Kindercore, which released two of his albums, Seniors and Juniors, sort of a concept album about childhood, and Marshmallow Coasting, in which his backing band was Of Montreal. Before the demise of Kindercore he crossed over to Misra Records, which released what might be his finest record, Ride the Lightning, as well as 2003's Antistar, which featured the addition of his wife, Sara Kirkpatrick, to the band. 2006 will see the launch of the second phase of his career, as Marshmallow Coast becomes M Coast, and this time the singing/songwriting duties are divided democratically among the new members of his band, Derek Almstead and Derek's wife Emily Growden. (A more appropriate name for the band might be Husbands & Wives.) M Coast's first release, Say it in Slang, will be released on Happy Happy Birthday to Me in the fall, with an instrumental-only album, Bizarre Classical, to follow shortly thereafter. Andy has also indicated that his out-of-print albums will be reprinted by HHBTM, possibly with bonus tracks.

For this Tuesday, we'd like to introduce you to Marshmallow Coast with three tracks from his period with Kindercore Records. "Shimmering in a Bulb of Glass" is from Marshmallow Coasting, and lets you hear his sound complemented by Of Montreal backing him up. "David and the Giant Crabs" is from the Of Montreal/Marshmallow Coast split single, Archibald of the Balding Sparrows, from 2000. Finally, "Dead Iguana" is a lovely little tune from Kindercore Fifty, a standout comp celebrating Kindercore's anniversary, and which also featured tracks by The Apples in Stereo, Dressy Bessy, The Sunshine Fix, Of Montreal, The Essex Green, and many more. If you like what you hear, be sure to check out the new M Coast tunes, up at their MySpace site. M Coast will be playing some shows in the summer, including the Athens Popfest, before heading out for a fall tour with Elf Power.

Shimmering in a Bulb of Glass

David and the Giant Crabs

Dead Iguana

Check out our interview with Andy Gonzales here.
Derek Almstead talks about M Coast in this Optical Atlas interview.
Tour dates for M Coast are posted here.

I've just added a number of pictures scanned from the first "official" Elephant 6 release, the Tidal Wave EP from the Apples in Stereo (then just the "Apples"). This includes a 12-page booklet featuring art by Will Cullen Hart and lyrics, a poster, and Apples stickers. It's an interesting piece of E6 history, and you can peruse the gallery here.

If you haven't look at our Album Art gallery yet, it might interest you that we also have scans of the first Olivia Tremor Control singles (including the giant posters of collage artwork), as well as many other Elephant 6 rarities.

The Essex Green, hot off their U.S. tour, are headed back to Europe for a short tour through Spain and Sweden in late June/early July. Here are the dates, from the band's MySpace page.

June 24 Pittsburgh PA
Three Rivers Arts Festival - WYEP Stage

June 29 Madrid, Spain
Club: Nasti

June 30
Valencia, Spain
Club: Sala Wah Wah

July 1
Barcelona, Spain
Festival Faraday

July 3
Malmö, Sweden
Accelerator The Big One
Folkets Park, Malmö

July 4
Varberg, Sweden
Majas vid havet, Varberg

July 5
Göteborg, Sweden
Accelerator The Big One
Münchenbryggeriet Torkel Knutssonsgatan 2 Stockholm

July 7
Borlänge, Sweden
Peace and Love Festival

The Optical Atlas Summer 2006 Crossword Puzzle has just been added to our website. You can download the files, in .pdf format, at this page. Enjoy.

Davey Wrathgabar of the Visitations sent along this link to his band performing "Television" (from their 2003 album, Propaganda) live at the Ultramod Compound in Athens on March 8, 2003. You can download a demo of the song, as well as the album version, in our recent interview with Davey, Liner Notes: Davey Wrathgabar, where he discusses this song and 5 others from his Visitations and Fablefactory discography. Oh, and have you heard his awesome new song "Fresh Dog" which is up at his MySpace page? Because you ought to.

When I posted the Neutral Milk Hotel cassette Hype City earlier this week, I accidentally left off the track "Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone." It's up there now. I'm surprised no one caught this. Anyway, if you downloaded it before, you'll want to go back and grab the extra track, which is located at this page.

In 2000, when the Powerpuff Girls were at the height of their popularity, creator Craig McCracken asked some Elephant 6 bands to participate in what he hoped would be a hipper-than-your-average kid's cash-in album. In addition to Frank Black of The Pixies, Shonen Knife, and Komeda, McCracken recruited E6 notables Apples in Stereo, Dressy Bessy, and The Sunshine Fix, here credited as The Bill Doss, since the Cartoon Network thought "sunshine fix" was a drug reference. (Reportedly, McCracken has asked The Olivia Tremor Control to participate, but they had recently broken up, so Doss took the lead.) The standout track was undoubtedly "Signal in the Sky," by the Apples in Stereo, the video of which was produced by Will Vinton Studios in Portland (Will Vinton was responsible for The California Raisins and other 80's Claymation specials). Here's the video.



(Incidentally, if you want to own this video, it's on the Powerpuff Girls: Meet the Beat-Alls, a DVD compilation that features a great Beatles-reference episode. But there's also the Powerpuff Girls episode "Superfriends," which features numerous references to the Apples, and includes this song!)

First up, You Ain't No Picasso has posted a live recording of the recent Apples in Stereo show in Lexington (their hometown) on May 18. They play three new songs from their upcoming album, New Magnetic Wonder (2007...sigh). It's all in a zipped file. In addition, the proprietor there mentions it was filmed for a DVD, and he will try to get it uploaded at the site when he receives it.

If you're a Music Tapes fan but short on rarities, lou2ser at the Town Hall has zipped the Music Tapes singles as well as the 2nd Imaginary Symphony for Cloudmaking, and you get the former here and the latter here. If you miss this chance, don't worry...I'm sure they'll turn up as "Hooray for Tuesday" MP3s at this site in the future (in fact, came very close to posting the singles last Tues., till someone requested NMH; glad I didn't). Thanks very much to lou2ser for doing that.

Southern Shelter continues to show some love for the Elephant 6 Recording Company by putting up, this evening, an entire set of The New Sound of Numbers--the new band of Hannah Jones of Circulatory System--performing at Flicker in Athens on June 10. Which brings me round to noticing that TNSON has just updated their embryonic web page with some live photos, extensive lyrics, and tour dates.

And speaking of tour dates, I've just updated the tour date section of Optical Atlas. To those in Norway and Sweden, note that Gary Olson has sent along some revisions to the Ladybug Transistor touring calendar for July, and he's also clarified that his "solo" sets will actually feature Wyatt Cusick on bass, Ben Crum (Great Lakes) on guitar, Kyle Forester (Great Lakes) on keyboard, San Fadyl (Ladybug) on drums. So it's not like he's going unplugged on you.

This week we have another Liner Notes feature for you--that running series where we ask an Elephant 6 artist to tell the story behind writing 6 different songs. Davey Wrathgabar, once of Fablefactory, now of The Visitations, talks about three songs from each of his bands, and even provides demos of "Television" and the immortal "Navajo Peyote Song." (With his consent, I've provided MP3s for the finished versions of all 6 of the songs.) Click on the link below to enter.

John Fernandes has posted some new tour dates for three Cloud Recordings artists: A Hawk and a Hacksaw, The New Sound of Numbers, and Dark Meat. They are as follows:

A Hawk and A Hacksaw

Saturday, July 1st - Toulouse, France
Tuesday, July 4th - Cherbourg
Friday, July 21st - The Juice Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
Friday, August 4th - The Big Chill, England
Sunday, August 6th - Norwich
Wednesday, August 9th - London Luminaire
Friday, August 11th, Summer Sundae, Leicester


The New Sound of Numbers

Friday, June 16th - 40 Watt, Athens, GA
Wednesday, July 19th - Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC
Friday, July 21st - Cake Shop, New York, NY
Saturday, July 22nd - Sound Fix, Brooklyn, NY
Wednesday, August 9th - Little Kings, Athens, GA


Dark Meat

Thursday, June 22nd - Morton Theater, Athens, GA
Saturday, June 24th - Tasty World, Athens, GA
Wednesday, July 14th - 40 Watt, Athens, GA

I will add these to the main OA tour page later today.

G at the Townhall has mentioned that if you go to fabchannel.com you can watch a video of Elf Power performing at the Paradiso's Main Hall in Amsterdam, as part of their recent tour. Pretty high-quality footage and worth checking out.

Today at Optical Atlas we've added the MP3s of Neutral Milk Hotel's early cassette-only release Hype City Soundtrack (1993). As rare as the actual cassette is, it's one of the most heavily-bootlegged and file-shared releases out there, so if you're reading Optical Atlas, there's a damn good chance you already have a copy. And the cassette is incredible. The first Neutral Milk Hotel work to approach the form of an album (the first cassettes were a hodgepodge of experimental collages, dialogue, and snatches of songs, and give the impression that Jeff Mangum was only making them for his close friends, rather than a wider audience), Hype City gives a fine suggestion of the brilliance to come rocketing forth in On Avery Island and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. You could see it as a transitional recording--there's still the prank-addled playfulness of the early pieces, which is easier to take when bookended by the beautiful melodies of "Wood Guitar," "Engine," and the like. I haven't shared much in the way of NMH MP3s on this site simply because I figure fans are die-hard enough to have everything, but in this case I think it would be nice to make the most accessible NMH cassette more widely available, at least for a little while.

As usual with all MP3s I host, if I've stepped on any toes in Elephant 6, I will take it down ASAP. For now, you can download the tracks here.

Someone over at the Carrot-Flower Kingdom (which is--I'll say it again--the very best Neutral Milk Hotel fansite out there) has remixed the entirety of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea using some software program or another. It's their "Secret Mix," and it's kind of an interesting idea for those of us who've worn the album out (...guilty).

Of course, they're also selling a DVD-R of some Neutral Milk Hotel live performances, which you can purchase to sustain their site.

UPDATE: Oops, sorry for having the wrong link to Carrot-Flower Kingdom for half the day...I've fixed it now.

The Apples in Stereo have just been added to the Desdemona Music Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. The festival is held in Sawyer Point Park, and this year will also feature Mates of State, Saturday Looks Good to Me, The Fiery Furnaces, and many more. You can see the complete list here. The Apples go onstage Friday, June 23, at 8pm. That means they're doing a festival a month all summer long, being booked for the Forecastle Festival in Louisville, KY on July 28 and, of course, the Athens Popfest on August 12. You can see all Apples tour dates here.

BUT...this summer you will be grabbing the reissue of On Avery Island that features bonus tracks, won't you? Fire Records in the U.K. announced (a while back) that they'll "be re-issuing the classic Neutral Milk Hotel record On Avery Island at the band's request. They're planning a whole new package including some live bonus tracks. More to follow…" Nothing has followed, except a release date: August 10. That's not so far away.

In the meantime, if you need a fix and you haven't seen every NMH bootlegged video on the planet already, just go to you YouTube and type in the band's name. Here's a sample. You can see Jeff Mangum singing, Julian Koster pacing around him, John D'Azzo nearby, and Scott Spillane trumpeting.

Oh, and no, the band is not getting back together anytime soon, I just felt that I needed to re-inject their presence in this blog.

A couple of items related to Of Montreal, which has been on vacation for a couple months and unusually quiet.

On August 22 Suicide Squeeze will be releasing a 2-disc compilation celebrating its 10th anniversary, featuring artists like The Unicorns, Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse, Elliot Smith, Minus the Bear, The Aislers Set, and much more, including Of Montreal's Suicide Squeeze single "Voltaic Crusher/Undrum to Muted Da." With crystal-clear CD clarity, you'll now be able to turn "Undrum to Muted Da" all the way up to make that distant piano sound a little bit closer.

In addition, mxdwn.com has posted a review of the last batch of Of Montreal reissues from Polyvinyl: The Bird Who Continues to Eat the Rabbit's Flower, The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy, and The Early Four Track Recordings, plus, as a bonus, the superb EP Deflated Chime, Foals Slightly Flower Sibylline Responses (I just pasted that title, because every time a blogger laboriously types the entire title out, somewhere Kevin Barnes laughs maniacally). You can read it here. Thanks to doomsayer at the Townhall.

Check out Of Montreal's tour dates here.

I didn't notice this, I was asleep at the wheel, but Dressy Bessy has added some June tour dates in Missouri and Iowa and puffed up their July touring schedule. Go out and shake your shimmy (man). Thanks to acrobat at the Townhall for waking me up before I veered into the trees. Oh, and I see that they've redesigned their website a little as well!

Dressy Bessy - Upcoming Shows

Jun 14 2006 The Duck Room w/ Chuck Berry!! St. Louis, MO
Jun 15 2006 Practice Space Ames, IA
Jun 16 2006 The Mill Iowa City
Jun 17 2006 Oleavers Pub Omaha, NE
Jul 7 2006 Vaudeville Mews Des Moines, IA
Jul 8 2006 7th Street Entry Minneapolis, MN
Jul 9 2006 Abbey Pub Chicago, IL
Jul 10 2006 The Belmont Hamtramck, MI
Jul 11 2006 Beachland Tavern Cleveland, OH
Jul 13 2006 The Fire Philadelphia, PA
Jul 14 2006 Sin-e NYC, NY
Jul 15 2006 The Plan @ Great Scott Allston, MA
Jul 16 2006 DC9 Washington DC, VA
Jul 17 2006 Star Hill (Upstairs) Charlottesville, VA
Jul 18 2006 The Dame Lexington, KY
Jul 19 2006 INSTORE ~ Grimeys Nashville, TN
Jul 19 2006 The Basement Nashville, TN
Jul 20 2006 Ciceros St. Louis, MO
Jul 21 2006 Black Sheep Cafe Springfield, MO
Jul 21 2006 Replay Lounge Lawrence, KS

I meant to mention this yesterday, but Blogger kept going down and I kept forgetting about it, but The Late B.P. Helium will very shortly be embarking on a summer tour through Canada and the East Coast. He could use your help in filling out some gaps in his schedule. On his MySpace blog, he writes: "We're headed to the great white north! We'll be playing shows with the likes of The American Revolution (Robert Schneider), jackandginger (Colleen from By Divine Right), The Impossible Shapes & Doug Gillard (ex-GBV guitarist). Of course, not all at the same time! We've got a few holes to fill so if ya can help, we'd certainly appreciate it! We need shows in Quebec, New Brunswick, New England and Maryland/Virginia. It's going to be awesome!!!"

So there you have it.

If you can help, contact B.P. at thelatebphelium@yahoo.com. For a list of all the current tour dates, click hither.

Urban Pollution today has posted a nice in-depth interview with Carolyn Berk of Lovers, a band on the Orange Twin label. I admit I need to get one of their records one of these days. Heather McIntosh, of The Instruments and Circulatory System, plays with them, and they have a new album coming out in the near future entitled Sleep with Heat. You can read about it here.

Heads-up to you New York readers: Gary Olson of The Ladybug Transistor will be among those backing up Amy Linton of The Aislers Set for an acoustic performance of Aislers Set songs this Saturday night in Brooklyn at the North Six. Kevin Barker of Currituck County will be joining them. It's a benefit show for the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a collective non-profit organisation that provides legal services to low-income transgender people of color. According to Amy Linton's website, "This show is an after-party for the screening of 'Cruel and Unusual.' Linton wrote the music for this important new movie about the struggles trans people face in the criminal injustice system." Thanks to Gary for letting us know.

Aislers Set w/Gary Olson and Kevin Barker, The Ballet, Hank, DJ Lambchop, DJ Ramdasha
Saturday, June 10
Williamsburg, Brooklyn @ North Six
66 North 6, Brooklyn, NY
Doors at 8pm, $10-20 sliding scale donation at the door, $12 in advance

In other news coming from the Brooklyn vicinity, Ben Crum of Great Lakes has informed us of some date/venue changes for their upcoming Euro-tour with The Ladybug Transistor. I see they're playing together on my birthday, July 4! What a great gift. If only I lived in Norway...

Great Lakes - Upcoming Shows

Jul 4 2006 Bergen, Norway @ Kamelon w/Labybug Transistor
Jul 5 2006 Egersund, Norway @ Visefestival
Jul 6 2006 Kristiansand, Norway @ Quart Festival
Jul 9 2006 Oslo, Norway @ Mono w/Ladybug Transistor
Jul 10 2006 Gothenburg, Sweden @ Cosy Den w/Gary Olson
Jul 11 2006 Varberg, Sweden @ Majas w/Gary Olson
Jul 12 2006 Stockholm, Sweden @ Debaser w/Gary Olson
Jul 13 2006 London, UK @ Water Rats Theatre w/Ladybug Transistor

B.P. Helium has shot some behind-the-scenes video of the Great Lakes at work on their new album, Diamond Times (to be released on Empyrean Records next month or so). You can download it using the link below, courtesy the Great Lakes MySpace blog. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but I assume the link works!

http://thelatebphelium.com/video/bp_greatlakes_2-3-2004_2f.mpg

Happy Happy Birthday to Me has now formally announced they'll be releasing M Coast's first album (well, as M Coast, anyway--they used to be Marshmallow Coast), Say it in Slang, this fall. Mike Turner from HHBTM writes, "We hope to have news of a special packaging pre-order soon." Marshmallow Coast used to be the solo project of Andy Gonzales, although he would occasionally collaborate with members of Of Montreal, as he did very prominently on Marshmallow Coasting. Now he's teamed up with fellow singer/songwriter Derek Almstead (Elf Power, and another former member of Of Montreal), as well as Emily Growden and Sara Kirkpatrick, to form a very altered configuration of the band. The songs, as heard on their MySpace website, are gorgeous. Andy writes in his MySpace blog, "I have discussed the release date with one individual, and he feels that the album could be ready for sale by the Athens Pop Festival (which they [HHBTM] host too!) which is early August, then it will be available online, and in stores in September or October." He's also indicated that HHBTM may be re-releasing early Marshmallow Coast material; those Coast albums released on the defunct Kindercore label are now all out of print. We'll give you more information as it comes.

Jim McIntyre, of Von Hemmling and The Apples in Stereo, recently agreed to an interview with Optical Atlas about the early history of Elephant 6, the reasons for leaving the Apples, and the tangled history of his solo project, Von Hemmling. This makes a nice compliment to the "Liner Notes: Marbles" feature we ran last week, and provides further insight into the early Elephant 6 days at Robert and Jim's Pet Sounds Studio in Denver. Essential reading; hope you enjoy it (there are also some Von Hemmling MP3s included in there, as well). You can read it here.

Sloan at Southern Shelter, having recently posted a Late BP Helium performance, now has encoded for your pleasure a Scott Spillane live set from August 11, 2005. Scott is best known as one of the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalists of the Gerbils; he's also in a little band called Neutral Milk Hotel. You can download the tracks as MP3s or lossless FLAC files at Southern Shelter.com.

In honor of today's date, 06-06-06, which of course immediately makes one's mind go to Elephant 6, we bring you today's Hooray for Tuesday MP3, actually a trio of songs celebrating Great Lakes, which will soon be releasing their third album, Diamond Times, on Empyrean Records. Fronted by Ben Crum (singer/guitarist) and Dan Donahue (lyricist), their band--either on record or in live settings--has often ballooned to encompass much of Elephant 6 Athens, including most of Of Montreal (Jamey Huggins was once a member of the band, and Kevin Barnes, Derek Almstead, and Dottie Alexander all appeared on their first album); they've also worked with Robert Schneider, Bill Doss, Andrew Reiger, and Scott Spillane. At the moment they're busy being absorbed into the Marlborough Farms set in Brooklyn (Jeff Baron, of Essex Green, will be prominently featured on Diamond Times, and they're about to tour Europe with Gary Olson and The Ladybug Transistor). Their music ranges from lushly arranged pop calling to mind Brian Wilson and The Zombies, as on their first record, to blistering rock, as on The Distance Between's "Sister City" and "Conquistadors."

With Ben Crum's permission, here are three selections from the band's discography so far. "A Little Touched" is one of the catchier numbers from their first album, on the now-decaying Kindercore label. "Sister City" is their memorable single from A Distance Between. Finally, a rarity: the single version of "Conquistadors," here called "No More Conquistadors," and quite a bit shorter, from the Happy Happy Birthday to Me singles club. These should whet your appetite for some new Great Lakes tunes. (Although if you can't wait, go to their MySpace page and listen to them now.)

A Little Touched
Sister City
No More Conquistadors

The Distance Between is for sale at Orange Twin Records.
Great Lakes, the self-titled first album, is out of print, but easily obtainable online.
Check out tour dates at Optical Atlas, and read our recent interview with Ben Crum.

A new section has been added to Optical Atlas today, thanks largely to the contributions of reader Chris Yetter. In our Print Articles section you can now read scanned pages of three of the more interesting pieces written about the Elephant 6 collective: the 1998 Puncture Magazine article on Neutral Milk Hotel (the text of which is at Elephant6.com, though we've included scans of the pages as well as the magazine's review of ITAOTS, from the same feature), an in-depth interview with Robert Schneider about E6 and the making of the Apples album The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone from a 2000 issue of Amplifier, and the recent two-page spread on Elephant 6 from SPIN, which acts as both an E6 primer and a where-are-they-now. And I'm still plugging away at updating the album art section--expect more artwork in the next week, thanks (again) largely to Chris, who's submitted a bucketload of scans (and I've got plenty more of my own to throw in the pot as well...it's a lot of work).

The Summer Hymns just about have their new album wrapped up, and it's to be released on Misra Records in the fall. What didn't make the album cut is being scattered across several releases: an upcoming second installment of their Value Series EPs, a one-sided vinyl EP (etching on the reverse), and appearances on three compilations. One, Athfest 10, appeared a couple months ago and got some coverage at this blog; I can tell you that "What Kind of Bird," the Summer Hymns tune, is one of the best songs on the two-CD set. WUOG Live in the Lobby is another, released in a nonproft manner by the University of Georgia's student radio station. Finally, just out is Appetizers and Leftovers from I Eat Records, which features not just the Hymns (with "Stick and Leaf"), but also some other bands you might have heard of, like Okkervil River, Phosphorescent, and Shearwater. The band is also hoping to release a live acoustic EP for the near future. It's a good time to be a Summer Hymns fan, or to become one. For now, head on over to their recently redesigned web page, or go to MySpace to hear their rough cut of "14 Inches of Snow," which you can download as an MP3 for now, but will soon be replaced by more rough mixes of new tracks.

Heather McIntosh has posted on The Instruments' MySpace blog that they'll be announcing tour dates soon for July on the east coast, and they'll be touring with The New Sound of Numbers. She also writes, "If you know of a good place to have a show along the east coast (gallery, house with p.a., work at a coffee shop that is ok with live music, record shop, college radio station, warehouse, anything) give us a shout. we will gladly play." So if you do have a venue out east that would be perfect for these two bands, contact Heather through the band's MySpace page.

Also...

Urban Pollution has a nice write-up on the recent Elf Power/Instruments show in Austin, Texas.