Just a few quick footnotes to our Andrew Rieger interview this week.

In the interview, we asked him about his live improv performance at the AUX festival with Will Hart and John Fernandes of Circulatory System; it's called Vortex of Withering, and they seldom perform together. Sloan Simpson at Southern Shelter taped some of the performances at the festival, and is now sharing the Vortex of Withering improv at his site.

Rieger also dropped details of a Major Organ and the Adding Machine film that's in the works, based upon the seminal (well, I think it's seminal) 2001 album of the same name. Mike Turner, posting a comment on the article, confirmed its existence, and I want to repeat the comments here for those who might have missed them: "The movie is real, it's been in the making for some time. My roommate Eric has helped on many days of the taping, and from what I hear it's a rather big production, lots of people, costumes, and sets, and loads of green screen action." If anyone has any further details they'd like to share, please pass them along!

The Visitations have updated their MySpace page with a photo gallery, a video directed by Dickie Cox (who directed Elf Power's "Walking with the Beggar Boys" video), and a new song, "There Was Sunshine," from their next album, tentatively slated for a 2007 release. Another exclusive song, "Fresh Dog," has been up at the site for a while, but is definitely worth a listen if you haven't heard it already. Both can be downloaded.

You can check out our "Liner Notes" feature with the Visitations' Davey Wrathgabar, in which he discusses past Visitations and Fablefactory songs and shares rare demos, right here.

Andrew Rieger. Elf Power. 6 questions. Read it here.

As you will no doubt be reminded dozens of times today, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans exactly one year ago. In memory of the event, today's MP3 is "New Orleans," from The Essex Green's self-titled EP, and brought to you with the blessing of the band. When the EP was released in 1999, The Essex Green was a slightly larger group: joining Christopher Ziter, Jeffrey Baron, and Sasha Bell were Michael Barrett and Timothy Barnes. The lineup was almost interchangeable with the countrified sister band The Sixth Great Lake (which featured Zachary Ward), and "New Orleans" would fit right in on a Sixth Great Lake album, sounding very Nashville. In fact, the song had appeared on the album released by the Green's previous incarnation, Guppyboy, in rougher form, and that version is included today as a bonus. (Thanks to Chris Y. for providing that MP3.)

New Orleans (The Essex Green)
New Orleans (Guppyboy)

Scott at Candied Pop has pulled our attention toward this wonderful post about Elf Power's recent appearance on Pancake Mountain. It seems like they shot a video for "Peel Back the Moon, Beware" (from their latest album, released last spring, Back to the Web), and the sight of Andrew Rieger dressed as "Captain Perfect" (with red cape) surrounded by dancing children in a heavily-forested swamp locale is priceless. I've never seen Pancake Mountain, but the kids' show has featured bands such as Arcade Fire, Vic Chesnutt, Deerhoof, Fiery Furnaces, Shonen Knife, Tilly and the Wall, and Nellie McKay, all hanging out with small people. Click on the link for the story and the full set of pictures.

Candied Pop: Elf Power on Pancake Mountain

Chris Parfitt is one of the founding members of the Apples (with Robert Schneider, Hilarie Sidney, and Jim McIntyre), and was key in establishing the noise-rock sound of their early recordings, before they were The Apples in Stereo. He left the group to form Vince Mole and His Calcium Orchestra, which released a cassette on Elephant 6 and some scattered vinyl singles. In the Optical Atlas interview, Parfitt discusses his reasons for leaving the Apples, the creation of Vince Mole, and the future of the band. For those who have never heard Vince Mole before, some MP3s have been included at the end of the interview.

Also be sure to check out last week's interview with Rich Chodes, a member of Vince Mole and His Calcium Orchestra, and lead singer/songwriter of the band's side-project, Kingsauce.

I've learned from Team Clermont that members of the Elephant 6 collective will be involved in some way with the Athens tribute concert to R.E.M. on September 12. The occasion is the release of two R.E.M. anthologies--CD and DVD--covering the band's years spent on I.R.S. Records (1982-1987). The concert on September 12 will be held at the 40 Watt, and will feature artists covering R.E.M. songs. The performers are scheduled to include Modern Skirts, Five Eight, Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers), Claire Campbell (Hope For Agoldensummer), Bain Mattox, Tin Cup Prophette, Liz Durrett and The Observatory (according to the press release, "an assortment of players from the Elephant 6 collective"). It's The Observatory that has piqued the interest of Optical Atlas, naturally, and not just because we both sound so astronomical. Can anyone out there shed some light as to which E6'ers will be involved?

At any rate, doors open at 7:30, and tickets are $12/advance (via Athens Music), $15/door, 18+ only.

This week's concert in the Captain23 series of Lossless and Live Elephant 6 shows is a May 2002 performance by Elf Power in Chicago's Abbey Pub (the same venue where Great Lakes are playing this Wednesday, incidentally). Although the set consists mainly of tracks of their then-current release, Creatures, there's also a good selection of earlier material, and an early version of "Evil Eye."

This concert is in Shorten (.shn) format. For information on how to handle this lossless format, visit our updated FAQ page.

Captain23's Lossless & Live: Elf Power in Chicago 5-24-2002

Southern Shelter has just posted the recent Great Lakes set at the Earl in Atlanta, GA. The band is currently finishing up its tour with the Clientele, and have a new album, Diamond Times, on Empyrean Records. (The official release date is September 12.) Be sure to check out the band's tour dates here.

Great Lakes at the Earl: Southern Shelter

Today we have an article tracing the history of Kingsauce, the recording project of Rich Chodes, and a spinoff band of Vince Mole and His Calcium Orchestra. We also talk to Chodes about the most recent--and, perhaps, the very last--Kingsauce recordings, while a sampling of his older material is included in MP3 format, as well.

A Second Helping of Kingsauce

Sloan Simpson's Southern Shelter music blog has been gradually releasing live recordings from this year's Athens PopFest, and this week they've put up a set by 63 Crayons (which features Derek Almstead of M Coast, Circulatory System, Elf Power, etc.). You can download the MP3s and FLAC files here. Hopefully we'll see more in this series!

And speaking of PopFest, the Optical Atlas PopFest Scrapbook is coming together slowly, but I need more contributions...if you attended, I'll love ya forever if you email me with your memories and opinions of PopFest 2006. Thanks very much to those who've contributed so far, it's greatly appreciated.

In our interview with Gary Olson earlier this year, he announced that his band The Ladybug Transistor was working simultaneously on two albums: a brand new full-length and an EP, with the latter to be released first. Now Olson--currently in Malmo, Sweden, touring with Still Flyin', the "Hammjamm" band fronted by Sean Rawls that we covered last week--has sent along details of the EP, which is to be released in October on Green UFOs (the distributor for LT's discography in Spain). The track listing consists entirely of covers, and the personnel involved reflect the recent changes to the lineup: Sasha Bell has left to concentrate her talents on The Essex Green, and Ben Crum and Kyle Forester of Great Lakes lend assistance. Jens Lekman and members of Aislers Set, Lambchop, Currituck Co, and Architecture in Helsinki all contribute as well.

The Ladybug Transistor - Here Comes The Rain EP

1. Here Comes the Rain (Jackie McCauley)
2. Girl on a Swing (Kevin Ayers)
3. Empty Bottles (John Cale)
4. Everybody's Missing The Sun (Nils Lofgren)

Gary Olson - Singing, Trumpet
Ben Crum - Guitar
San Fadyl - Drums
Kyle Forester - Organ, Piano
Julia Rydholm - Bass

with

Alicia Vanden Huevel (Aislers Set) - singing on Here comes the Rain
Jens Lekman - additional singing on Here Comes the Rain
Kevin Barker (Currituck Co) - acoustic guitar on Girl on a Swing
Isobel Knowles, Gus Franklin and Kellie Sutherland (Architecture in
Helsinki) - horns and singing on Everybody's Missing the Sun
Paul Niehaus (Lambchop) - pedal steel on Girl on a Swing

Recorded by Gary Olson at Marlborough Farms, Brooklyn NY

For years Julian Koster fronted the art-rock band Chocolate U.S.A. in New York City, but by its second full-length release, Smoke Machine, he was already becoming absorbed into the Elephant 6 scene (prompting him to give a shout-out to the collective during one of the tracks' fuzz-jam outros). His carefully considered contribution to Elephant 6 was an experiment in shedding the bonds of rock and roll and retreating into a more innocent and deliberately childlike point of view. As The Music Tapes, Julian was emulating the sort of personal radio programs he had made in the past--first as teenage symphonies on cassette, then for a community radio station. (In fact, the band's second full-length would be a storybook with no songs whatsoever.) With Phantom Tollbooth-style storytelling as his new artistic focus, he began a series of tours as the Orbiting Human Circus, with an elaborate stage show involving flickering television sets and unusual instruments such as his infamous singing saw. Robbie Cucchario became his primary collaborator, although Andy Gonzales of Marshmallow Coast was invited to tour with him, and featured players on the Music Tapes' first album, The 1st Imaginary Symphony for Nomad, include Olivia Tremor Control members Will Cullen Hart and Eric Harris, and fellow Neutral Milk Hotel members Jeff Mangum and Scott Spillane.

The first precursor to the 1st Imaginary Symphony is a single released on Elephant 6, "'Please Hear Mr. Flight Control' b/w 'Smoke is a Fireman's Friend.'" While Side A is a Chocolate U.S.A.-styled rock song, Side B really establishes the universe of The Music Tapes by evoking the scratchy broadcast of a spooky radio program from the 1930's. (A follow-up single, "'The Television Tells Us' b/w 'Freeing Song for Reigndeer,'" directly set the stage for the events of The 1st Imaginary Symphony.) Today's featured MP3s are both sides of the first single. You can view artwork from the single here, and custom wallpaper taken from the single's posters can be found here.

Please Hear Mr. Flight Control
Smoke is a Fireman's Friend

This Saturday, August 26, Heather McIntosh of The Instruments and Circulatory System is hosting a night of Athens experimental music and collaboration, named after the CD compilation on the same theme, AUX. The line-up could be considered a "popfest" of experimental music: it begins at 4pm and features artists such as the Black Swan Network, Lorkakar, Noisettes, Paul Thomas, and many more.

Yes, you read that right: the Black Swan Network will be performing. For years BSN was considered the experimental, tape-looped alter-ego of Olivia Tremor Control, since it frequently featured the same members, although the project continued, off and on, after the Olivias broke up. Black Swan Network released a CD, The Late Music, in the late 90's, and a collaboration between both identities, Olivia Tremor Control Vs. Black Swan Network, appeared as an OTC tour CD. The most recent output from BSN was a single in the Happy Happy Birthday to Me singles club, which featured songs and instrumentals that seemed to work as a precursor to the first Circulatory System album. I'm not sure that BSN has ever performed live, so this may be a first (I hope that Sloan of the Southern Shelter blog tapes this). [Correction: per B.P. Helium, they have performed live before--see the comments on this post.] Meanwhile, Lorkakar is the experimental side of Hannah Jones of The New Sound of Numbers, and the moniker through which she released two CD-Rs distributed by Cloud Recordings.

The event's website proclaims: "Come join the fascination and get a sampling of what's happening in dance, video, performance, and audio. Take part in the great tape loop. Walk away with your very own memento during the yard sale (small affordable works by Kristen Bach, Bridget Mullen, Matt Blanks, Hannah Jones and handmade CDs from Cloud Recordings)." That great tape loop sounds fascinating; it begins the event at 4pm and concludes it at 10.

And it's all held at Athica & Floorspace. For directions and more details, visit the official webpage. Copies of the AUX CD are still for sale, and you can buy it here. (My review of the disc is here.)

Urban Pollution has posted a well-composed review of a recent Austin, TX performance by The Minders (as well as The Channel, Spain Colored Orange, and The Kingdom). A nice read. Harmonium Music also has a live review of the recent Minders/Of Montreal show in Louisville.

Here's a hastily thrown-together review roundup of the band's latest album, It's a Bright Guilty World. (UPDATE 8/23: Just added Pitchfork's belated review.)

Bullz-Eye (scroll down a bit)
Candied Pop
Cut the Chord
Dusted
Harmonium Music
Invisible Limb (with MP3s)
LMNOP (again, scroll down)
More Goat Than Goose
Pitchfork
Post-Rockist
Spacelab Music
Tiny Mix Tapes

This week's edition of Captain23's Lossless and Live Elephant 6 Archive is a 1998 set by Neutral Milk Hotel, taped at the Lounge Ax in Chicago, all in pristine, high-quality FLAC format.

If you didn't catch it last week, you still have one week more to download Olivia Tremor Control Live at Wicker Park in Chicago 07-30-2005. The files will remain on the server until next week's concert is uploaded, and the page for downloading is here.

Neutral Milk Hotel, live at the Lounge Ax in Chicago, 04-25-1998

You've probably heard a lot of critical raves about Dark Meat by now (aka Dark Meat/Vomit Lasers Family Band/Galaxy); they're the multi-headed, slobbering chimaera that's been haunting Athens alleys, swallowing up passers-by and recruiting them into the band, and every couple weeks or so putting on a spectacular show: a stage crammed with horn-players (the Vomit Lasers), female backup singers (in the Motown tradition), and other costumed rocking ephemera. Led by Jim McHugh (vocals/guitar) and Ben Clack (bass), the premise of the band seems to be to take the Wall of Sound concept and transform it into something a bit more aggressive. Now they're about to have their first record, Universal Indians, released on Cloud Recordings, and I thought the skeptical might want to sample their sound. Here are two tracks from the record (I like "Angel of Meth" in particular):

Angel of Meth
Deadman

Expect a review of Universal Indians closer to the album's release date: October 24.

Dark Meat tour dates
Dark Meat on MySpace

You Ain't No Picasso got an advanced copy of the upcoming Summer Hymns album, Backward Masks, and has posted an MP3 of their new song "Way You Walk." This is a big deal. You know why? Because the Summer Hymns is one of my favorite bands, and I want you to care. Backward Masks is scheduled for a November release on Misra Records.

You Ain't No Picasso: Summer Hymns - Way You Walk

So what happens when a band that's only released two albums has inspired twice as many fan-produced tribute albums? You end up with The Giant Egg Leaks Over the Masses: Fanfare for Neutral Milk Hotel, Vol. 4, which covers not NMH songs, but spoken or written words by Jeff Mangum, taking them out of context, and setting them to music. The end product is purported to be "new" Neutral Milk Hotel songs. (Well, yes, the words are composed by Jeff Mangum, that's true.) Creepy? I think so. Although I had to laugh that the first track on the compilation is "Not My Writing," inspired by the recent Mangum hoax.

The morbidly curious can download the compilation at The Carrot-Flower Kingdom. I should say that I haven't listened to it yet and cannot vouch for either its satirical brilliance or slavish stalkerishness.

Apparently Of Montreal's "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games" is available on a new iTunes Facebook alternative sampler.

Speaking of Of Montreal, You Ain't No Picasso has some nice pictures of their set in Kentucky. There are some Minders photos in there, as well. You can see them here.

Lou2ser has posted the first of his Popfest videos, this for The New Sound of Numbers, and you can see it in DivX format here. Oh, and New Sound of Numbers tee-shirts are now available in the Cloud Records store, where you can also buy Elephant 6 and Olivia Tremor Control shirts (not to mention some of the best CDs on the planet).

Keep those Popfest anecdotes coming for the Popfest scrapbook, guys! I have a nice collection so far, but I need more. Once they begin to accumulate and a form starts to take shape, I'll set a deadline, but for now I just need more material with which to work. Thanks to those who have contributed so far.

M Coast, who have a new album out pretty soon on Happy Happy Birthday to Me called Say it in Slang, have announced their first tour. As expected, it'll be with Elf Power, a band with whom they share a member (Derek Almstead, also of Circulatory System). You can see the dates here.

Sloan at Southern Shelter taped a lot of the performances at last week's Athens Popfest, and now he's started posting them at his music blog, beginning with last Saturday night's set by the reclusive Circulatory System. You can download it in both MP3 or FLAC format here.

For this week's MP3 feature, a curve ball. The Masters of the Hemisphere broke up a few years ago after putting out their best record, Protest a Dark Anniversary. Sean Rawls, one of the singer/songwriters in the band, moved over to Je Suis France, while the other Masters went their separate ways. For Je Suis France, Rawls had written "Never Gonna Touch the Ground," a reggae number that seemed to suggest a new direction in his songwriting. The outlet became Still Flyin', a Rawls-led San Francisco-based supergroup that blends reggae with psychedelia. Members include Gary Olson of The Ladybug Transistor and Jens Lekman, plus members of The Aislers Set, Maserati, Red Pony Clock, Track Star, and Love is All. As they proclaim on their website, "We are a HammJamm band based in San Francisco but we have members as far reaching as such extreme foreign places as Sweden, Australia, New York City, Atlanta, and Massachusetts. San Diego too. If you find yourself in any form of peril while in any of these places, trying yelling either 'never gonna touch the ground,' or just 'still flyin'.' If that doesn't work, just quietly chant to yourself 'fuck the stress.' That's really all you need to do anyway."

Still Flyin' has just released an EP, Time Wrinkle EJ, on Antenna Farm Records. Here are two sample MP3s from the band, a video, and tour dates below.

Coupla Smokies
Broken Rake Burn



Still Flyin': Upcoming Shows

08/22/06 Malmo, Sweden @ Malmo Festival
08/23/06 Stockholm, Sweden @ Debaser
08/24/06 Varsberg, Sweden @ Majas
09/03/06 San Francisco, CA @ The Hemlock Tavern

My review of the new Of Montreal remix record, Satanic Twins, is now up at Optical Atlas. You can read it here.

If you want to win a vinyl copy of the new Of Montreal remix album, Satanic Twins, there are two contests running. One is by Stereogum, which is offering the chance to win an autographed copy, the other is at You Ain't No Picasso. Or, if you're like me and you never win anything, you could just order it directly from Polyvinyl, either as a download for your iPod or the very handsome double-LP set. My review should be up later today. The band is also selling copies on their current tour.

You Ain't No Picasso has posted an MP3 from the New Sound of Numbers album, Liberty Seeds. You can grab it here. (If you want to hear another track from the album, we still have our sneak peak up for download at our MP3s page.) Finally, YANP reviewed an Of Montreal Lexington concert, with some nice photos, here.

There's a concert tomorrow night with The Instruments, Folklore, and 1986 at the Caledonia in Athens. Folklore features Jimmy Hughes of Elf Power, and is worth checking out...here's their MySpace page.

I added some wallpaper of Neutral Milk Hotel and Beulah to our wallpaper section.

Finally, the Neutral Milk Hotel On Avery Island reissue from Fire Records has been pushed back to October. I'll give more details as they come. It is still scheduled to feature a second disc of bonus tracks.

An attendee of PopFest has written in mentioning that during the Apples in Stereo set last night, Robert Schneider announced that it was the last time Hilarie Sidney would be playing with the band. Instead, naturally she'll be pouring her time and effort into High Water Marks, whose new album, Polar, is due out in early 2007. She does appear on the new Apples album, New Magnetic Wonder, which should be released around the same time. Still, it's sad news. We ran an interview with Hilarie a few weeks ago, and you can read it here.

The third album by Great Lakes, Diamond Times, is finally up for pre-order at Empyrean Records' website. The album was originally scheduled for release in July, although when I spoke to lead singer Ben Crum a few weeks back, he said it was looking like September for U.S. and early 2007 for Europe. Now the label says it will ship copies on Friday, August 18.

If you're planning on seeing the band during its current tour with the Clientele, they should also have copies for sale. You can see the remaining dates here.

Listen to tracks from the new album at the Great Lakes MySpace page.

Read the Optical Atlas interview with Ben Crum.

Well, you email me your memories of PopFest so I can assemble a scrapbook of the event for Optical Atlas.

Minimum: A sentence or two describing a notable moment from PopFest that you'd like to have entered into the scrapbook. Did Robert Schneider say something particularly witty between songs? Did Circulatory System launch into a Syd Barrett cover? Did M Coast spontaneously combust at the end of their set? (Seriously, I don't know, I wasn't there.) Knowing that others will be contributing, if you could just preserve one small moment from the Fest, what would it be?

Greater Effort: OK, so you have ten small moments to mention, not just one? That's okay too. You have pictures, video, MP3? That's wonderful. Depending on the contributions received, this may be a multimedia scrapbook.

So basically, if you went to PopFest, send me something. It doesn't have to be longer than a sentence; on the other hand, it can be whatever you want it to be. The key is that I receive enough contributions to put something special together.

Important: if you're going to be sending me something, but it's going to take you a while to put it together, please contact me anyway so I know it's coming. I'd hate to put the scrapbook out prematurely, if something great's coming down the pipeline.

I hope you all had fun.

Contact Optical Atlas

A few weeks ago, when we premiered Captain23's Lossless & Live Elephant 6 Archive, the first concert we shared was Olivia Tremor Control's July 29, 2005 reunion concert at the Subterranean in Chicago. This week might be considered "part two": the following night's concert at Wicker Park Fest in Chicago, at which the Olivias played some rarities that don't make it into their setlist very often. It's all in lossless FLAC format at the link below.

Olivia Tremor Control at Wicker Park, Chicago 7-30-05

Be sure you catch last week's concert, Circulatory System at Schuba's, before we take it down in a week's time!

A Hawk and a Hacksaw, having just scheduled U.K. dates with Calexico and Beirut, have now added a handful of dates in California and New Mexico in October (with just Beirut, no Calexico, despite the latter's name). So this will give west-coasters a chance to see Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost play with both bands. (As these dates coincide with the release of the band's third album, here's hoping they add more shows.) AHAAH has also added some last-minute festival dates in Europe, including one tomorrow in Berlin, Germany.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw Tour Dates

If you read my Of Montreal Lollapalooza concert review, this picture might ring a bell: this is the moment when Kevin Barnes snuck up behind Bryan Poole and groped his chest (tweaked his nipple/stroked his breast/however you like). It turned up, of all places, on the official Lollapalooza website, which has posted a couple other photos of the band. It also features photos of every other band that played Lolla, and some choice setlists. The Of Montreal setlist isn't included, so here it is, in case you're wondering:

Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)
I Was Never Young
Suffer for Fashion
Old People in the Cemetery
My British Tour Diary
Requiem for O.M.M.2
Rapture Rapes the Muses
Oslo in the Summertime
Cato Play with My Head
Eva (Lover with Soul Power)
Disconnect the Dots
The Party's Crashing Us
So Begins Our Alabee

Okay, so apparently there's an Outback Steakhouse radio commercial featuring Of Montreal's "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)," but with altered lyrics to reflect how great the Outback Steakhouse is. I haven't seen the commercial, but there's enough testimonials in this Townhall thread to confirm it. (Unless it's a massively orchestrated hoax, in which case, hats off to those responsible.)

It's not unprecedented for an Elephant 6 band to turn up in commercials. A few years back, JC Penney featured a commercial with "Shine a Light" by The Apples in Stereo, who also contributed some short, commissioned songs for the Kohl's department store. One of their songs also turned up in one of those HP photo-printer TV ads ("The Rainbow," I think). And wasn't "Strawberryfire" used in a commercial, or am I misremembering?

The Ladybug Transistor also had one of their Albemarle Sound songs turn up in an insurance company commercial. That worked quite well, actually.

But this is something altogether different, given that the lyrics were changed, and opinions are bound to be more passionately negative than before. At the moment I find it too goofy to be offended.

Hopefully this will turn up as an MP3.

CODA:

Give a listen to this MP3 kartoonz has produced.

CODA PART TWO:

Pitchfork picks up on the story and gets a quote and explanation from Kevin Barnes.

A concert review and an extensive photo gallery of Of Montreal's appearance at Lollapalooza last Sunday is now up at Optical Atlas. You click on the link below to find it all. Note that if you're going to see the band performing on their current tour (which is extensive...dates here), this article contains "spoilers," though not a complete setlist.


I wasn't the only person snapping pictures from the front row. Here's a wealth of other photos on Flickr from Townhaller i.mosquito.

Last week, at Schuba's in Chicago, Of Montreal played a Lollapalooza after-party (also featuring "DJ Kevin Barnes"); here's a clip submitted by an attendee, as the band performs a song from the new album. After following the link, look to the right side for more clips.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5139287865939610807&hl=en

As for Lollapalooza itself, I spent most of last night working on the feature, trimming down the 70 or so pics I took to just over 30 of the best. They'll be up at Optical Atlas tonight along with a review of the concert.

The Onion AV Club has exposed another celebrity Elephant 6 fan with their "Random Rules" feature (which, to bring you up to speed, asks celebrities to comment on the first handful of songs that turn up on their iPod when they hit "shuffle"). Just two weeks after The Daily Show's Rob Corrdry explained why he liked the Gerbils, comic actor Paul Rudd (from "The 40-Year-Old Virgin") is found to have Jeff Mangum on his iPod. The version of "I Will Bury You in Time" from Live at Jittery Joe's pops up, and Rudd says, "They are a great band." And that's it. Still, if you want to read the whole feature, you can find it below.

Random Rules: Paul Rudd

The Minders have a new album, It's a Bright Guilty World, which may very well be their very best work; but track back seven years ago and the band was still making some striking and infectious pop sounds. "Right as Rain," before it appeared on the album Golden Street, first debuted as a single on U.K.'s Earworm label in 1999 in a different take and a slightly different approach. The flip-side, "Up and Away," hasn't been reissued in any version, and is represented in today's MP3 installment as well.

Right as Rain (single version)
Up and Away

Just yesterday The Minders kicked off a tour with Of Montreal, and they may be coming to a town near you (if it's not already sold out). You can check out the dates here.

Tiny Mix Tapes just gave It's a Bright Guilty World a glowing review.
The Optical Atlas review is glowing bright and not-guilty as well.

...or, more officially, tomorrow the 9th. But the Happy Happy Birthday to Me Athens PopFest (or HHBTMAPF for short) gets to an early start tonight anyway, with a free show at Little Kings. Here's the schedule.

8:00pm Gordon Lamb
8:45pm Fabulous Bird
9:30pm Vietnam
10:15pm Russian Spy Camera
11:00pm Sleepy Horses
11:45pm The Visitations
12:30am Summer Hymns
1:15am Col. Knowledge & The Lickety Splits

The full PopFest schedule is at the official PopFest site.

Remember that I'm hoping to get enough of your recollections, photos, and so forth to put together a scrapbook of the event at Optical Atlas, so keep that in mind as you folks enjoy the festival. (Thanks to those so far who've volunteered.) I wish I could be there with you, but then, Of Montreal was in town with The Minders last night, and that was a blast too. It was nice to meet Nick, the merch desk guy who's keeping up this fabulous tour blog for the band.

Elf Power has just lined up a healthy set of U.S. tour dates for the fall, and there's a good chance they're headed your way. Click here to see the full list.

UPDATE: Andrew Rieger confirms that they'll be touring with M Coast and Orange Twin artist Geoff Reacher, alternately--specific dates for either will be announced soon.

All I can say is: hooray for Southern Shelter! The live music blog, a few days after posting a Late B.P. Helium set, now has scored the full Elf Power performance from the 40 Watt on August 5. What makes this Elf Power performance so special is that they take "prom band" duties for the Team Clermont 9th Annual Blue Ribbon Ball. Accordingly, the second half of the set is almost exclusively covers, particularly the kind of covers you'd expect from an 80's prom. So here's Elf Power performing "Ghostbusters," the theme song to "The Greatest American Hero," Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and of course T.Rex (Elf Power loves Bolan), plus many more. Thanks, Sloan!

Elf Power at the 40 Watt 8/5/06

This week's installment of Captain23's Lossless & Live Elephant 6 Archive is a 2002 concert from Circulatory System. Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't and The Instruments opened for the band, which then launched into a thirteen-song set, including many new songs. Grab these FLAC files while you can, as they'll only be up for 2 weeks! (And you still catch last week's Neutral Milk Hotel concert here.)

Captain23's Lossless and Live E6 Archive: Circulatory System

The Late B.P. Helium's recent set at Secret Squirrel has now been archived and made ready for download at SouthernShelter.com. (In both FLAC and MP3 formats, as per custom!) He performs "Lucifer Sam" by the Syd Barrett-fronted Pink Floyd, too.

Late BP Helium at Southern Shelter

This is a quick post to let you all know that the weekly installment of Captain23's Lossless and Live Elephant 6 Archive will be delayed by a couple days while I'm away from my home computer. But you can look forward to an amazing lossless Circulatory System concert at Optical Atlas, to be posted either Tuesday or Wednesday, courtesy the Captain. Also expect some coverage of your favorite Kevin Barnes band at Lollapalooza 2006. More to come!

Reader Arnaud has written in noting that The Essex Green have updated their webpage, including a link to the Guardian UK's first podcast, which features a live performance from the band. The direct link to the podcast is here.

You can also see some photos from the band's tour, as well as the announcement that they'll be returning to Europe for a tour in September and October; it's all at their official website.

First Syd Barrett, and now another great and influential legend of 60's psychedelic rock, Arthur Lee, the lead singer/songwriter of Love, has died. He was only 61 years old, but had recently announced that he was suffering from leukemia. In recent years Lee had begun taking Love on the road again to sold out concerts; Love's albums, particularly the 1967 classic Forever Changes, had grown in reputation over the decades, and I'm glad he was able to witness and benefit from the renewed interest and acclaim. It goes without saying that his music was very influential on many Elephant 6 bands, as well.

Pitchfork's news item on Lee's death

Reader Kelly has submitted to OA this Of Montreal (or of Montreal, if you like to emulate the logo) video shot by her friend Jen, from the recent Falls Church, VA show at the State Theater on July 29. Here you can see the band covering Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." The sound doesn't seem to sync up very well, unfortunately...but it's still some pretty awesome footage.

Kelly writes, "They played mostly Sunlandic Twins stuff(with a few Satanic Panic songs and even an Aldhils song tossed in there). They also played 'Suffer For Fashion,' 'Cato Play with My Head,' and two new ones - 'She's a Rejector' and a song about a girl named Eva who doesn't have soul power (sorry, that's all I can remember, haha)."

Thanks Kelly...and if anyone else has any videos, pics, or mini-reviews, please send them along!

Sloan of Southernshelter.com (whom we link to at least once a week) spotted a release date for Of Montreal's new album in the latest issue of Flagpole. Apparently, Polyvinyl has Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? slated for January of 2007. Not that far away, really. Expect to hear some new songs from the album on their current tour, which takes them to Lollapalooza this weekend.

As previously mentioned, their latest release, the 2-LP remix record Satanic Twins, is up for pre-order now, although I expect copies will be selling at the shows.

Early 2007 should also see the release of new albums by The Apples in Stereo, High Water Marks, and (hopefully) Circulatory System; not a bad start for the new year.

The merch desk guy from Of Montreal is keeping a tour diary, profusely illustrated with photos, that you can find at his MySpace page. My favorite? The surreal but strangely comforting sight of Kevin Barnes chatting in glittery stage uniform backstage with Jason Hammel of Mates of State.

Here's something you don't see that often--photos from a radio show. The Essex Green recently appeared at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, for a taping for NPR's World Cafe program. Hughshows, a website devoted to archiving photos and memorabilia from live performances in the Pittsburgh area, has put up a very nice page commemorating the performance, including photos and various signed goodies. While giving it a look, be sure to also listen to the performance at World Cafe's site.

Also, I apologize that it slipped my notice that The Essex Green was recently on XM Radio's Build Your Own Show program for a live performance (taped in May). It may or may not be encoring this week--I tried to figure out the XM schedule and got lost, so you'll have to figure it out if you have XM. Thanks to Sarah for pointing it out!

A Hawk and a Hacksaw, the project of Jeremy Barnes of Neutral Milk Hotel, Bablicon, and the Gerbils, will be opening for Calexico during most of that band's November tour through the UK and Ireland. Jeremy and fellow Hawk/Hacksaw Heather Trost will also be accompanying Pitchfork favorite Beirut for these shows.

The Leaf Label has also announced that the band's third album, The Way the Wind Blows, will be released on October 9th, and that a larger UK tour is planned for spring.

You can see all the dates, including the band's current tour through Europe, here.