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Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery
An inspiring, revelatory exploration of the genesis and impact of the fabled Elephant 6 collective and the baffling exodus of its larger-than-life luminary, Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum
Years after its release, Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea remains one of the most beloved and best-selling albums in all of indie music, hailed as a classic so influential as to be almost synonymous with the ongoing vinyl revival. But despite its outsized impact, a question looms even larger: why did frontman Jeff Mangum, just as the record propelled him to the brink of music superstardom, choose instead to disappear entirely? The mystery has perplexed listeners for decades—until now.
In barely two years, Neutral Milk Hotel rose from house show obscurity in Athens, Georgia, to widespread hype and critical acclaim, selling out rock clubs across the country and gracing the tops of numerous year-end best-of lists. But just as his band was reaching the escape velocity necessary to ascend from indie rock success to mainstream superstar, Mangum hit the eject button. After the 1998 release of Aeroplane and a worldwide tour to support it, Mangum stopped playing shows, releasing new music, or even doing interviews. He never explained why, not even to his friends or colleagues, but thanks to both the strength of Aeroplane and his vexing decision to walk away from rock stardom, Neutral Milk Hotel’s impact only grew from there. In Endless Endless, Adam Clair finds the answer to indie rock’s biggest mystery, which turns out to be much more complicated and fascinating than the myths or popular speculation would have you believe.
To understand Mangum and Neutral Milk Hotel and Aeroplane requires a deep dive into the unconventional inner workings of the mercurial collective from which they emerged, the legendary Elephant 6 Recording Company. Endless Endless details the rise and fall of this radical music scene, the lives and relationships of the artists involved and the colossal influence that still radiates from it, centered around the collective’s accidental figurehead, one of the most idolized and misunderstood artists in the world, presenting Mangum and his collaborators in vividly human detail and shining a light into the secret world of these extraordinary and aggressively bizarre artists.
In this deeply researched account, Endless Endless examines not just how the Elephant 6 came to be so much more than the sum of its parts, but how community can foster art—and how art can build community.
Years after its release, Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea remains one of the most beloved and best-selling albums in all of indie music, hailed as a classic so influential as to be almost synonymous with the ongoing vinyl revival. But despite its outsized impact, a question looms even larger: why did frontman Jeff Mangum, just as the record propelled him to the brink of music superstardom, choose instead to disappear entirely? The mystery has perplexed listeners for decades—until now.
In barely two years, Neutral Milk Hotel rose from house show obscurity in Athens, Georgia, to widespread hype and critical acclaim, selling out rock clubs across the country and gracing the tops of numerous year-end best-of lists. But just as his band was reaching the escape velocity necessary to ascend from indie rock success to mainstream superstar, Mangum hit the eject button. After the 1998 release of Aeroplane and a worldwide tour to support it, Mangum stopped playing shows, releasing new music, or even doing interviews. He never explained why, not even to his friends or colleagues, but thanks to both the strength of Aeroplane and his vexing decision to walk away from rock stardom, Neutral Milk Hotel’s impact only grew from there. In Endless Endless, Adam Clair finds the answer to indie rock’s biggest mystery, which turns out to be much more complicated and fascinating than the myths or popular speculation would have you believe.
To understand Mangum and Neutral Milk Hotel and Aeroplane requires a deep dive into the unconventional inner workings of the mercurial collective from which they emerged, the legendary Elephant 6 Recording Company. Endless Endless details the rise and fall of this radical music scene, the lives and relationships of the artists involved and the colossal influence that still radiates from it, centered around the collective’s accidental figurehead, one of the most idolized and misunderstood artists in the world, presenting Mangum and his collaborators in vividly human detail and shining a light into the secret world of these extraordinary and aggressively bizarre artists.
In this deeply researched account, Endless Endless examines not just how the Elephant 6 came to be so much more than the sum of its parts, but how community can foster art—and how art can build community.
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First published January 18, 2022
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August 10, 2025
Download my Elephant 6 Mix
In a way this tracks the story of my life (or, what I cared about) from when I first heard Neutral Milk Hotel, in 2001 off a burned CD in Grand Rapids, MI, through when I finally saw them live in 2014 in Jersey City - and not just because my Jeff Mangum hoax from 2006 is reprinted here in full (and which succeeded in part because I was a big enough fan to pick up on what was really happening and communicate it accurately). Julian Koster sang Christmas carols at my house, I saw the Holiday Surprise tour, I followed Of Montreal on tour, all the Midwest dates between 2005-2008. In New York I saw the Olivia Tremor Control at Le Poisson Rouge, I saw Jeff at Town Hall, etc. etc.
To me, they were the meaning of art, a mix of deep knowledge and pure instinct that is harder to find in new music, now that Spotify has professionalized the essence of recording and removed the necessity of research, and along with social media has flattened the concept of listening into a drab utility (albeit one where any person has access to great obscure tunes - if against all odds they decide to care). At best Elephant 6 modeled a way of life that had nothing to do with money or careers, that had to do with solidarity and tunes. In an era when songs are made to slip into playlists and have universal play counts, when everything exists simultaneously and hype precedes and negates new creation, I'm not sure if it could happen anymore. Much of E6 may come across as amateur or unbearably twee now (or even at the time), but the fuck-all sincerity of it just gets rarer.
In any case, Elephant 6 was the perfect avatar for that era - absent yet spreading in a time between the fall of physical media and the emergence of streaming - an era of message boards, blogs, zines, mp3s, and the final stand of pure house shows and DIY before smartphones and Internet-aided hyper-gentrification smoothed that out too. I lived in the back end of nowhere physically and psychologically. E6 modeled a way to relate to peers - a way to relate to society. The story of the psychedelic music collective, based in Athens, Georgia (but with critical waypoints in Denver and Louisiana) is told evenly and well, with some oral history and plenty of new stories. Most of the bands get a mention here, and there are many great anecdotes, including that Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal once played in a band with Mark Tremonti of Creed, that the founder of Dead Oceans ran the crashpad/venue - Landfill - that everyone played at in Athens, and that everyone hates Beulah.
Not much (or any) fan perspective, though, which is especially important for a music scene without chart success and really not much press about it beyond articles about the fandom. Existing as it did in that blog era, there's very little professional material about it beyond this and Kim Cooper's 33 1/3 book, unlike now when the mainstream music media (as it were) is a bit more agile and "underground" phenomenons are more standardized and unlikely to miss sound checks or skip out on interviews, or earlier when the path from the underground to the top was clear. Clair is relatively tight with the crew, even renting a room in Will Cullen Hart's house (the former Landfill), and while it's clearly great for access, it's not the whole story. More than with most artists, the fans made E6, especially in the early '00s, that moment where a minor phase in Athens music history became cultural mythology. We made tribute albums, did research, evangelized, imitated, and generally filled the void where the musicians used to be, and it was from our primordial stew that whole next generation of indie rock bands came to be (for better or worse).
But just wait for the paperback, there may be an interview with me in it yet. If there is, I promise to mention Fo Montreal (the parody CD passed out at shows featuring a Bloomin' Onion made out of Kevin Barnes' dick), to talk bootleg trading and fan E6 albums, to give the inside story behind the hoax, running into Jeff in NYC, Julian caroling, and to tell a little bit of how their unprofessional creativity molded how I have chosen to live my life, and how that particular kind of parasocial relationship was common, unrepeatable and at the same time deeply influential in how people now relate and perform fandom online.
In a way this tracks the story of my life (or, what I cared about) from when I first heard Neutral Milk Hotel, in 2001 off a burned CD in Grand Rapids, MI, through when I finally saw them live in 2014 in Jersey City - and not just because my Jeff Mangum hoax from 2006 is reprinted here in full (and which succeeded in part because I was a big enough fan to pick up on what was really happening and communicate it accurately). Julian Koster sang Christmas carols at my house, I saw the Holiday Surprise tour, I followed Of Montreal on tour, all the Midwest dates between 2005-2008. In New York I saw the Olivia Tremor Control at Le Poisson Rouge, I saw Jeff at Town Hall, etc. etc.
To me, they were the meaning of art, a mix of deep knowledge and pure instinct that is harder to find in new music, now that Spotify has professionalized the essence of recording and removed the necessity of research, and along with social media has flattened the concept of listening into a drab utility (albeit one where any person has access to great obscure tunes - if against all odds they decide to care). At best Elephant 6 modeled a way of life that had nothing to do with money or careers, that had to do with solidarity and tunes. In an era when songs are made to slip into playlists and have universal play counts, when everything exists simultaneously and hype precedes and negates new creation, I'm not sure if it could happen anymore. Much of E6 may come across as amateur or unbearably twee now (or even at the time), but the fuck-all sincerity of it just gets rarer.
In any case, Elephant 6 was the perfect avatar for that era - absent yet spreading in a time between the fall of physical media and the emergence of streaming - an era of message boards, blogs, zines, mp3s, and the final stand of pure house shows and DIY before smartphones and Internet-aided hyper-gentrification smoothed that out too. I lived in the back end of nowhere physically and psychologically. E6 modeled a way to relate to peers - a way to relate to society. The story of the psychedelic music collective, based in Athens, Georgia (but with critical waypoints in Denver and Louisiana) is told evenly and well, with some oral history and plenty of new stories. Most of the bands get a mention here, and there are many great anecdotes, including that Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal once played in a band with Mark Tremonti of Creed, that the founder of Dead Oceans ran the crashpad/venue - Landfill - that everyone played at in Athens, and that everyone hates Beulah.
Not much (or any) fan perspective, though, which is especially important for a music scene without chart success and really not much press about it beyond articles about the fandom. Existing as it did in that blog era, there's very little professional material about it beyond this and Kim Cooper's 33 1/3 book, unlike now when the mainstream music media (as it were) is a bit more agile and "underground" phenomenons are more standardized and unlikely to miss sound checks or skip out on interviews, or earlier when the path from the underground to the top was clear. Clair is relatively tight with the crew, even renting a room in Will Cullen Hart's house (the former Landfill), and while it's clearly great for access, it's not the whole story. More than with most artists, the fans made E6, especially in the early '00s, that moment where a minor phase in Athens music history became cultural mythology. We made tribute albums, did research, evangelized, imitated, and generally filled the void where the musicians used to be, and it was from our primordial stew that whole next generation of indie rock bands came to be (for better or worse).
But just wait for the paperback, there may be an interview with me in it yet. If there is, I promise to mention Fo Montreal (the parody CD passed out at shows featuring a Bloomin' Onion made out of Kevin Barnes' dick), to talk bootleg trading and fan E6 albums, to give the inside story behind the hoax, running into Jeff in NYC, Julian caroling, and to tell a little bit of how their unprofessional creativity molded how I have chosen to live my life, and how that particular kind of parasocial relationship was common, unrepeatable and at the same time deeply influential in how people now relate and perform fandom online.
March 6, 2022
I'm glad this book was made. It's also shocking that it was made. Clair deserves a lot of credit for the research and love he put into this book. It's there on every page. The oral history format didn't always work though. I think some of the bands that received decent coverage weren't as interesting as some that did. That's an author's prerogative though, I suppose. I was shocked at how little acknowledgement Bill Doss's death received. It seemed like it was addressed for a page or so and then it was back to Neutral Milk Hotel. Obviously, and it's hard not to comment on this, not having Jeff Mangum as a primary source for the book hurt a bit. By no means is this the author's fault, but that would have been the crown jewel of sources to have. All in all, Clair did a great job of making sense of the sprawling concept of Elephant 6. The Olivia Tremor Control, Beulah (although their fit into all of this was a lot weirder than I would've imagined), and Neutral Milk Hotel (of course) are still bands I go back to frequently. Some of this music is absolutely timeless and will remain that way, without a doubt.
November 26, 2022
(4.5)
I was very happy with this. In Robert Schneider’s own words in one of the interviews, this is the book on Elephant 6. This is clearly a huge labor of love with well over a decade of work and interviews behind it, including with now long-departed folks like Bill Doss. It’s structured as part oral history and part biography. Lots of stories were new to me and I found them all interesting. I also loved reconnecting with my own emotional memories of the music. The only thing working against it, which is perhaps less a problem of the book and more the nature of its subjects, is that this book would have little instructive content for people who aren’t already fans of the music or familiar with most of the players.
I was very happy with this. In Robert Schneider’s own words in one of the interviews, this is the book on Elephant 6. This is clearly a huge labor of love with well over a decade of work and interviews behind it, including with now long-departed folks like Bill Doss. It’s structured as part oral history and part biography. Lots of stories were new to me and I found them all interesting. I also loved reconnecting with my own emotional memories of the music. The only thing working against it, which is perhaps less a problem of the book and more the nature of its subjects, is that this book would have little instructive content for people who aren’t already fans of the music or familiar with most of the players.
July 23, 2025
Ever since I started obsessing over modern music - by which I mean things that weren’t my strict pre-17 years old diet of novelty songs, fifties and early sixties pop songs, early jazz and classical music - I’ve sort of been constructing little never to be written books about the music I’ve been fascinated by. So when I first discovered folk rock through Nick Drake and Fairport Convention, I started linking and connecting things and making a sort of history of the genre that worked for me (allowing for a fair bit of crossover with orchestral sixties pop and pastoral Canterbury music for example). I definitely was doing that with Scottish music and Welsh music and especially New Zealand music. And for almost all these examples, the book eventually turned up and was - mostly - just as good if not better than I imagined (except for Electric Eden, which is a pile of old arse)
And the best thing about Endless Endless is that it feels like one of those unwritten books that only ever existed in my brain but there on the page. And it is perfect. Partly because Clair is a really good writer, able to throw together quite complex ideas in a really simple way and writing with enthusiasm and joy throughout. And partly because he recognises part of the appeal of Elephant 6 is community and he lets that community speak at length, and just nudges it all together in the most presentable form imaginable
I first became aware of Elephant 6 around the release of Dusk At Cubist Castle, partly because the reviews sounded amazing and partly because the Olivia Tremor Control was - and is, and forever will be - one of the most perfect band names ever thought of. I thought “how can this fail to be anything less than amazing?” and picked it up in summer of 1997 (when the Blue Rose edition was released) and listened to it to death. Through it I discovered lo-fi music, which nicely laid the trail for my imminent Flying Nun obsession (who cameo here a few times, especially Chris Knox), and also field recordings. The second disc of Cubist Castle is essentially just a recording from their porch and is no idea things like this could even exist let alone be as absolutely wonderful as Explanation II is
I’m still minded to think the best records Elephant 6 put out are Dusk at Cubist Castle and Black Foliage. But I completely understand why In The Aeroplane Over The Sea has become the one artefact that seems to be the thing that seems to have resonated the most. It feels like the most complete statement of any album from that stable, and where the Olivias always sound exploratory and eager to find new and strange things, Neutral Milk Hotel have a statement they’re making with Aeroplane that, while a little opaque, feels like it’s a completely crafted classic record. It has its own world and you keep getting closer to the meanings of it, but never fully get there, something it shares with many albums considered classics. I also had zero idea of its cultural capital until about 2012, when on a bus coming from Burnley I heard two teenagers - a schoolgirl and her college friend - discussing Aeroplane with heated enthusiasm. Partly because I was so startled, I forgot that I was a man in his thirties interrupting two teenage girls just to say “but Olivia Tremor Control are better!” and that this inherently looks a little weird, but I was delighted to hear it spoke to these kids
So I can understand why the enigma of Jeff Mangum and Neutral Milk Hotel feature so highly in this, and it’s as good a focus as any to pin your book around, but Clair is such an enthusiast he doesn’t skimp on any of the other records and bands. It’s as much a loveletter to music and creativity as it is to friendship and camaraderie. As someone who’s been starved a little of creativity post his accident, I found it deeply and profoundly moving many times. But it’s also a story that Clair always tells with great humour and passion (it’s an incredibly funny book - I laughed out loud several times, especially at some of the more waspish asides including one at “professional Theater kid Amanda Palmer” which is about the kindest thing you can say about that awful person)
It also feels like the perfect book for Elephant 6 as a collective. It sprawls, it goes into weird asides like detailing the regular potlucks the bands would enjoy, it sometimes gets giddy with enthusiasm and loses where it’s going, but that’s one of the things I love about the collective and the records. It was a big sprawling mess of like minded people who all brought new and strange and wonderful things to each other’s work (or even just highlighted how great they would be by giving them membership of the group). It’s a big joyous book about a big joyous music scene and I adored every page. Especially as someone stuck out in the U.K. with tremendous anxiety of seeing bands live, and who has not seen any of these musicians perform, it made me feel several times like I was there. And that’s the highest compliment I can give
And the best thing about Endless Endless is that it feels like one of those unwritten books that only ever existed in my brain but there on the page. And it is perfect. Partly because Clair is a really good writer, able to throw together quite complex ideas in a really simple way and writing with enthusiasm and joy throughout. And partly because he recognises part of the appeal of Elephant 6 is community and he lets that community speak at length, and just nudges it all together in the most presentable form imaginable
I first became aware of Elephant 6 around the release of Dusk At Cubist Castle, partly because the reviews sounded amazing and partly because the Olivia Tremor Control was - and is, and forever will be - one of the most perfect band names ever thought of. I thought “how can this fail to be anything less than amazing?” and picked it up in summer of 1997 (when the Blue Rose edition was released) and listened to it to death. Through it I discovered lo-fi music, which nicely laid the trail for my imminent Flying Nun obsession (who cameo here a few times, especially Chris Knox), and also field recordings. The second disc of Cubist Castle is essentially just a recording from their porch and is no idea things like this could even exist let alone be as absolutely wonderful as Explanation II is
I’m still minded to think the best records Elephant 6 put out are Dusk at Cubist Castle and Black Foliage. But I completely understand why In The Aeroplane Over The Sea has become the one artefact that seems to be the thing that seems to have resonated the most. It feels like the most complete statement of any album from that stable, and where the Olivias always sound exploratory and eager to find new and strange things, Neutral Milk Hotel have a statement they’re making with Aeroplane that, while a little opaque, feels like it’s a completely crafted classic record. It has its own world and you keep getting closer to the meanings of it, but never fully get there, something it shares with many albums considered classics. I also had zero idea of its cultural capital until about 2012, when on a bus coming from Burnley I heard two teenagers - a schoolgirl and her college friend - discussing Aeroplane with heated enthusiasm. Partly because I was so startled, I forgot that I was a man in his thirties interrupting two teenage girls just to say “but Olivia Tremor Control are better!” and that this inherently looks a little weird, but I was delighted to hear it spoke to these kids
So I can understand why the enigma of Jeff Mangum and Neutral Milk Hotel feature so highly in this, and it’s as good a focus as any to pin your book around, but Clair is such an enthusiast he doesn’t skimp on any of the other records and bands. It’s as much a loveletter to music and creativity as it is to friendship and camaraderie. As someone who’s been starved a little of creativity post his accident, I found it deeply and profoundly moving many times. But it’s also a story that Clair always tells with great humour and passion (it’s an incredibly funny book - I laughed out loud several times, especially at some of the more waspish asides including one at “professional Theater kid Amanda Palmer” which is about the kindest thing you can say about that awful person)
It also feels like the perfect book for Elephant 6 as a collective. It sprawls, it goes into weird asides like detailing the regular potlucks the bands would enjoy, it sometimes gets giddy with enthusiasm and loses where it’s going, but that’s one of the things I love about the collective and the records. It was a big sprawling mess of like minded people who all brought new and strange and wonderful things to each other’s work (or even just highlighted how great they would be by giving them membership of the group). It’s a big joyous book about a big joyous music scene and I adored every page. Especially as someone stuck out in the U.K. with tremendous anxiety of seeing bands live, and who has not seen any of these musicians perform, it made me feel several times like I was there. And that’s the highest compliment I can give
January 9, 2025
About as comprehensive and authoritative as a book about a web of artists this large and this elusive can be. Clair wisely focuses on the essence of the Elephant 6 phenomenon without listing every album mechanically or getting bogged down with interpretation; instead he makes his reverence for the material clear by telling the story as thoroughly as possible in the personal voices of the interviewees. He also maps under-recognized elements of the label-collective from its core (Dixie Blood Mustache) to its fringes (The Essex Green). Essential Essential.
August 7, 2024
Beautiful amazing enigmatic book about the infinite mystery & meaning of music & friendship & community <333
I love music !!!!!
I love music !!!!!
October 28, 2022
I loved it and I love knowing more about a bunch of bands I’ve listened to over the years and how they’re all connected. A little too much Jeff Mangum worship and focus for a book about the entire collective of people, but I guess that does represent the way things were culturally in the 2000s (e.g. I remember the excitement & intrigue about his secret return show in Brooklyn that I was not cool enough to be at).
February 12, 2022
A phenomenal overview of the Elephant 6 collective (or, at least, the bands most often identified as such), that makes up for in access what it occasionally lacks in narrative focus. I would occasionally find myself unmoored chronologically, but that's ultimately all part of the fun.
September 28, 2025
Like many others, the bands in the Elephant 6 collective left a big impact on me, some more than others—The Apples in Stereo with their pop melodies and The Olivia Tremor Control with their psychedelic abstraction probably the two biggest for me. So having this thoughtfully researched book on their community was a must-read.
Part music journalism and part oratory history, I’m not sure that I walk away from this read with any more understanding of these musicians than I had going in to it. Which is fine, because that’s also not exactly what I wanted from the book. But their different personalities, a sense of their friendship and communal ideals, and some interesting stories do come out. The author’s love mirrors my own, and for such a niche, esoteric part of music history, to find that common bond is huge.
It’s not exactly the type of music biography I love, all things said. Much like the ramshackle collective (was E6 a community? A record label? A spirit?), the book is (purposefully) disjointed in a kaleidoscopic way, not being told in a chronological order and chapters not necessary following any one theme. For the most part, that was fine if it left me wanting more. At other times, it was infuriating; the penultimate chapter starts off with Bill Doss’ death and within a page and a half, clunkily transitions into the reunion tour of Neutral Milk Hotel.
For its faults though, it’s still an enjoyable read. I’m certain we’ll never get a more lovingly told history on these bands.
Part music journalism and part oratory history, I’m not sure that I walk away from this read with any more understanding of these musicians than I had going in to it. Which is fine, because that’s also not exactly what I wanted from the book. But their different personalities, a sense of their friendship and communal ideals, and some interesting stories do come out. The author’s love mirrors my own, and for such a niche, esoteric part of music history, to find that common bond is huge.
It’s not exactly the type of music biography I love, all things said. Much like the ramshackle collective (was E6 a community? A record label? A spirit?), the book is (purposefully) disjointed in a kaleidoscopic way, not being told in a chronological order and chapters not necessary following any one theme. For the most part, that was fine if it left me wanting more. At other times, it was infuriating; the penultimate chapter starts off with Bill Doss’ death and within a page and a half, clunkily transitions into the reunion tour of Neutral Milk Hotel.
For its faults though, it’s still an enjoyable read. I’m certain we’ll never get a more lovingly told history on these bands.
September 28, 2023
I have a lot of feelings about this book! Overall I think it’s good, and very well researched and written with care. It’s basically set up as excerpts of quotes from Clair’s interviews with different people involved in Elephant 6 with some other paragraphs, context and footnotes written by Clair. His magic was being able to arrange all of these quotes from 13 years of research into the order for this book. If you’re really REALLY into Elephant 6 and the ins and outs, nooks and crannies of making, recording, and producing music, you’ll LOVE this book. In my opinion, some of the quotes could have been left out as a lot of them were saying the same thing, but I guess that also kind of corroborates everyone’s memories and drills in their points even more? It just felt a little repetitive at times. Still, this is an amazing in-depth look into one of the most talented, revolutionary, oddball, group of musicians that influenced popular and indie music today.
February 16, 2024
“In the present day; we all have lots of reasons not to make art. The lesson of the Elephant 6 is to make it anyway.” (p. 327)
This was great, though definitely structured unconventionally. Sometimes, the structure and pacing are a little odd, but the content makes up for that. I have long been an E6 superfan and lay scholar, but this contained loads of information I never knew.
I strongly recommend this book to other E6 nerds, fans of DIY art/music, or just fans of music writing in general.
This was great, though definitely structured unconventionally. Sometimes, the structure and pacing are a little odd, but the content makes up for that. I have long been an E6 superfan and lay scholar, but this contained loads of information I never knew.
I strongly recommend this book to other E6 nerds, fans of DIY art/music, or just fans of music writing in general.
June 28, 2023
Absolutely wonderful. Extensively researched to the point that it's almost more of an oral history (with one notable voice missing). I'm glad that Clair was able to construct a complete picture of the collective and explore Mangum's disappearance without prying too much into his private life, which Jeff obviously wants to keep to himself.
Really inspiring on a personal and artistic level.
Really inspiring on a personal and artistic level.
July 3, 2023
Five stars for the impossible task of wrangling together some semblance of story from what was undoubtedly an infinite holy mess of interviews. Lots of new information even for those who could be considered major or minor obsessives of any/all/some of these bands. Well done, a book that plays to the choir of the already committed but I can't imagine anybody reading this who isn't.
October 4, 2024
Might come back to this someday but, as much as I love Neutral Milk Hotel to the point where my favorite NMH track is Trilogy (specifically Through My Tears), I don't actually think this collective is that interesting beyond NMH.
Sort of gives me flashbacks to that time I told a guy on the Internet my top three favorite albums and put In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as third and then he proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes talking at me and sending YT links of different Elephant Six band songs and the entire time I was wishing I said Pink Moon instead of Aeroplane but also Closer-Carrie and Lowell-Pink Moon makes me look suicidal.
Anyway.
Sort of gives me flashbacks to that time I told a guy on the Internet my top three favorite albums and put In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as third and then he proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes talking at me and sending YT links of different Elephant Six band songs and the entire time I was wishing I said Pink Moon instead of Aeroplane but also Closer-Carrie and Lowell-Pink Moon makes me look suicidal.
Anyway.
December 4, 2021
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Hachette Books for an advanced copy of this musical study.
Everyone has dreams of success. Especially the success of being a rock star, or why not Rock God. Fans, fame, fortune and everything that goes with it. People literally kill themselves trying to get that kind of success. Some achieve success and live a life in the limelight, and do fine. Some are crushed by success, that feeling of is that all there is weighs too much on them. And others just back away, no excuse given, no need to share, just thank you good night, maybe I'll see you again. Sometimes success is sitting in your own room, with a guitar that has two strings playing songs into a 4-track recorder, not worring about how the guy in the last place at Coachella is going to see you with 80,000 other fans.
Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery by Adam Clair tells the story of Elephant 6, a music collective featuring bands like the Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, Elf Power and the best known Neutral Milk Hotel, with lead singer Jeff Mangum. At the peak of Neutral Milk Hotel's success, following a tour for their album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Mr. Mangum stepped away from the band and the world of music leaving a hole in fans and bandmates lives. Mr. Clair in this book seeks to find an answer to this question, and also what is Elephant 6 Recording Company, and how could it go on.
Mr. Clair has done hundreds of interviews, many quite personal, far more than I expected for a rock profile book. Bands and member come and go, instruments are shared, traded, and members hop from project to project depending on need. Mr. Clair has a very firm hand on the narrative, and works hard at making everything clear. As with any music bio, time, pharmaceuticals, illness, grudges, and deaths make this difficult. No one likes to look the bad guy, and people have a hard time remembering who did what in a studio, or bedroom recording after 7 hours of trying to get the perfect sound. Again though, Mr. Clair has done an exceptional job starting at the small town of Rustan, Louisiana, to Denver, Athens, and all over the globe in telling this story, and keeping things together.
Perfect for fans of any of these bands, or of the Lo-fi movement in general. Also of interest for people looking to find others who think, and feel and like that same things that they like. It's nice to think that a shared liking for a band, could lead to making a band of your own. Creativity is fantastic and this book is a real tribute to it.
Everyone has dreams of success. Especially the success of being a rock star, or why not Rock God. Fans, fame, fortune and everything that goes with it. People literally kill themselves trying to get that kind of success. Some achieve success and live a life in the limelight, and do fine. Some are crushed by success, that feeling of is that all there is weighs too much on them. And others just back away, no excuse given, no need to share, just thank you good night, maybe I'll see you again. Sometimes success is sitting in your own room, with a guitar that has two strings playing songs into a 4-track recorder, not worring about how the guy in the last place at Coachella is going to see you with 80,000 other fans.
Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery by Adam Clair tells the story of Elephant 6, a music collective featuring bands like the Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, Elf Power and the best known Neutral Milk Hotel, with lead singer Jeff Mangum. At the peak of Neutral Milk Hotel's success, following a tour for their album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Mr. Mangum stepped away from the band and the world of music leaving a hole in fans and bandmates lives. Mr. Clair in this book seeks to find an answer to this question, and also what is Elephant 6 Recording Company, and how could it go on.
Mr. Clair has done hundreds of interviews, many quite personal, far more than I expected for a rock profile book. Bands and member come and go, instruments are shared, traded, and members hop from project to project depending on need. Mr. Clair has a very firm hand on the narrative, and works hard at making everything clear. As with any music bio, time, pharmaceuticals, illness, grudges, and deaths make this difficult. No one likes to look the bad guy, and people have a hard time remembering who did what in a studio, or bedroom recording after 7 hours of trying to get the perfect sound. Again though, Mr. Clair has done an exceptional job starting at the small town of Rustan, Louisiana, to Denver, Athens, and all over the globe in telling this story, and keeping things together.
Perfect for fans of any of these bands, or of the Lo-fi movement in general. Also of interest for people looking to find others who think, and feel and like that same things that they like. It's nice to think that a shared liking for a band, could lead to making a band of your own. Creativity is fantastic and this book is a real tribute to it.
July 14, 2022
After years of scrounging for scraps of information about the Elephant 6 Collective, diving into 300 pages of interviews and history was a dizzying feast. It was a pleasure to get the secondhand experience of a decade of coffee shop conversations, phone calls, and home and farm tours with what seems like the one of loveliest extended families of people in music history. I understand why it took the form it did, but I wonder if it would be more successful as an 'LP' than the chosen metaphorical format of the mixtape. There's a certain absence of authorial intent that leaves me wondering what possibly the best informed Elephant 6 historian alive makes of his decade long investigation of one of the closest guarded enigmas in music. Again, I understand the reason for this, and it may be the right choice, but it makes the book feel more like a pure oral history than a book with a perspective on its subject. My one other gripe is that for a book with some variation on the word 'psychedelic' on every other page, the role of psychedelic drugs in the collective is not explored at all. I imagine this was a choice on the part of the interview subjects more than anything, but for such a comprehensive history, it does feel like an omission. All the same I can't recommend this book enough to anyone interested in Elephant 6, or the workings of DIY music collectives in general. An absolute delight.
March 24, 2022
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is not just one of the most incredible albums ever made, it's also completely baffling.
How did a psychedelic folk album, filled with accordions and singing saws, by an unknown oddball from rural Louisiana, manage to become an iconic record that still resonates with millions of people around the world? And why did the band behind that album disappear for fifteen years after it was released?
This oral history manages to explain the weird, wild, ultra-creative atmosphere that gave birth to Neutral Milk Hotel and several other memorable indie bands. The mid-nineties were a time when bizarre subcultures could exist and thrive, completely removed from the national narrative. Within the Elephant 6 subculture, Jeff Mangum lived an irrational life and wrote unusually sincere songs that flew right out of his brain. But his massive, unexpected success forced him to encounter the real world for the first time, causing him to lose the innocence and separation that drove his artistic creativity.
And so he stopped making music. But we should be grateful that he left us with two masterpieces - albums that 25 years later still sound like nothing else in existence.
How did a psychedelic folk album, filled with accordions and singing saws, by an unknown oddball from rural Louisiana, manage to become an iconic record that still resonates with millions of people around the world? And why did the band behind that album disappear for fifteen years after it was released?
This oral history manages to explain the weird, wild, ultra-creative atmosphere that gave birth to Neutral Milk Hotel and several other memorable indie bands. The mid-nineties were a time when bizarre subcultures could exist and thrive, completely removed from the national narrative. Within the Elephant 6 subculture, Jeff Mangum lived an irrational life and wrote unusually sincere songs that flew right out of his brain. But his massive, unexpected success forced him to encounter the real world for the first time, causing him to lose the innocence and separation that drove his artistic creativity.
And so he stopped making music. But we should be grateful that he left us with two masterpieces - albums that 25 years later still sound like nothing else in existence.
January 29, 2022
A well-researched book about the Elephant 6 Collective. Clair conducted hundreds of interviews over more than a decade to paint this portrait of a creative movement.
It includes the genesis of the music in the friendships of a small group of experimenting music geeks in high school in Ruston, Louisiana.
They played, recorded and re-recorded, inventing techniques using the basic technology they had at hand in the late 1980s. They encouraged and helped each other with their music through high school and beyond. As their skills and musical styles matured, they met more like-minded people who valued the aesthetic they were cultivating - both musicians and fans.
In the '90s this group of friends were in the middle of a cozy hive of creativity in Athens, GA (and some in Denver). Their astonishing outpouring of original, influential music reminds me of that quote from Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Only in this case it's "thoughtful, committed artists."
Any fan of Elephant 6 bands, who wants a peek at the scene and people behind the music, will enjoy this account.
It includes the genesis of the music in the friendships of a small group of experimenting music geeks in high school in Ruston, Louisiana.
They played, recorded and re-recorded, inventing techniques using the basic technology they had at hand in the late 1980s. They encouraged and helped each other with their music through high school and beyond. As their skills and musical styles matured, they met more like-minded people who valued the aesthetic they were cultivating - both musicians and fans.
In the '90s this group of friends were in the middle of a cozy hive of creativity in Athens, GA (and some in Denver). Their astonishing outpouring of original, influential music reminds me of that quote from Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Only in this case it's "thoughtful, committed artists."
Any fan of Elephant 6 bands, who wants a peek at the scene and people behind the music, will enjoy this account.
January 29, 2023
A super frustrating book. Sentence by sentence Clair is a strong writer and has some brutally witty asides buried in the footnotes, and there's no question he's done the legwork. But editingwise this isn't just repetitive and disorganised, but lurches into incomprehensibility. If you don't know what Marbles are or Kindercore is, to give two examples you'll be baffled when they're first introduced (Kindercore is subsequently explained almost identically twice, Marbles is never clarified) and I often struggled to maintain the chronological thread. Chapters will often take hard right turns, as if there's been six paragraphs from somewhere else just pasted in. There's too much love and detail in this book to dismiss it, but definitely consider it more like an E6 deepcut album with lots of noise collages than IN THE AEROPLANE in terms of accessibility.
December 1, 2024
RIP Elephant 6’s Will Cullen Hart plus my 23 favorite Olivia Tremor Control songs
https://popculturelunchbox.substack.c...
Will Cullen Hart is not a name a lot of people will recognize, but he played an influential role in my life. He co-founded Olivia Tremor Control, a key band in the Athens, Georgia 1990s indie-music and art collective called Elephant 6.
Hart (pictured with the hat in front and with the rest of OTC) has passed away at 53 of natural causes possibly related to his multiple sclerosis. Many of the collective’s somewhat mysterious and definitely psychedelic-pop-infused bands—including Elf Power, Apples in Stereo, Of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel, and others—greatly inspired the ways I listen to and make music.
I took this moment in time to finally start reading Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery, published in 2022 by Adam Clair.
“They spurned major labels who showed interest, recorded exclusively in their own group houses and hovels, built treasured stage props from other people’s trash, toured the country in jury-rigged junkers, and played shows with instruments that couldn’t even be sold for scrap. The tight-knit nature of the collective was evident on every incestuous project they attempted. Bands went out of their way to play together and name-drop one another in interviews. They shared members onstage or lent their talents to one another’s recording sessions. Hardly a set went by without folks swapping instruments between songs (or sometimes during).”
Clair writes that the whole scene started in the fall of 1978 when little Robert Schneider (future leader of Apples in Stereo and also a player on Neutral Milk Hotel albums) moved from South Africa to Ruston, Louisiana, where his dad took a job at Louisiana Tech. He was literally called “a South African freak” on his first day of school. The adjustment was not easy but he was at least a naturally happy kid.
Jeff Mangum (future leader of Neutral Milk Hotel) asked him in second grade if he wanted to play Wiffle ball. By fifth grade the two were bonding over heavy metal and their new guitars.
Hart—who always included his middle name since “Will Hart” sounded boring to him—came into the picture in middle school when Schneider met him at algebra camp. They too bonded over their mutual love of playing guitar. In May 1982, the three—now friends—went to a Cheap Trick concert. Only Mangum had seen concerts before (Rick Springfield and Styx). Schneider ended up with a pick thrown by guitarist Rick Nielsen and claimed it was magic.
Hart’s parents had met in art school and instilled their qualities upon him, always encouraging him to draw, which he did a lot. He moved around with his mom and stepdad but often returned to his dad’s place in Ruston. At least partly because of the strength of his friendship with Schneider and Mangum, he ended up staying there through his high-school years. By this time, he had acquired a new-wave Robert Smith look from what he learned about the world during his time living in big-city Dallas.
Some of the gang’s earliest punk-rock “clangorous” bands were called Maggot, Death and Fish, and Fat Planet. Soon to join them was Bill Doss, who grew up just outside of Ruston, would later be part of Olivia Tremor Control, and passed away back in 2012. But they all found each other because Doss had posted a notice in a record store that he was a bassist looking to start a band that would sound like Van Halen.
“Ruston was a challenging place to grow up for a lot of these folks. Their artistic leanings often put them at odds with their peers, and though no one got beat up for spiking their hair or wearing the wrong shoes, it created enough distance to foster feelings of estrangement among the nascent Elephant 6 crowd.”
There is supposedly some good unreleased music still floating around out there from OTC and hopefully we’ll all hear it soon.
Meanwhile, there can be a lot of very psychedelic meanderings on the band’s releases, but there is also plenty of classic pop tunes mixed in. Here are my favorite Olivia Tremor Control songs. (Note: if Dusk at Cubist Castle included just the nine songs on this list rather than all 27 tracks the band included, that album would be as close to perfection as it gets to the Beatles’ last few albums, which remain by far the greatest releases in the psych-pop canon):
Jumping Fences (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
Memories of Jacqueline 1906 (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
Hideaway (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
NYC-25 (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
Define a Transparent Dream (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
The Opera House (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
No Growing (Exegesis) (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
Holiday Surprise 1, 2, 3 (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
A Place We Have Been To (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
Courtyard (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
I Can Smell the Leaves (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
The Sylvan Screen (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
Mystery (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gained) (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
Beneath the Climb (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
Gypsum Oil Field Fire (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
Love Athena (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
A Peculiar Noise Called “Train Director” (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
California Demise (3) (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
A Sunshine Fix (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
I Have Been Floated (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
King of the Claws (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
Today I Lost a Tooth (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
https://popculturelunchbox.substack.c...
Will Cullen Hart is not a name a lot of people will recognize, but he played an influential role in my life. He co-founded Olivia Tremor Control, a key band in the Athens, Georgia 1990s indie-music and art collective called Elephant 6.
Hart (pictured with the hat in front and with the rest of OTC) has passed away at 53 of natural causes possibly related to his multiple sclerosis. Many of the collective’s somewhat mysterious and definitely psychedelic-pop-infused bands—including Elf Power, Apples in Stereo, Of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel, and others—greatly inspired the ways I listen to and make music.
I took this moment in time to finally start reading Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery, published in 2022 by Adam Clair.
“They spurned major labels who showed interest, recorded exclusively in their own group houses and hovels, built treasured stage props from other people’s trash, toured the country in jury-rigged junkers, and played shows with instruments that couldn’t even be sold for scrap. The tight-knit nature of the collective was evident on every incestuous project they attempted. Bands went out of their way to play together and name-drop one another in interviews. They shared members onstage or lent their talents to one another’s recording sessions. Hardly a set went by without folks swapping instruments between songs (or sometimes during).”
Clair writes that the whole scene started in the fall of 1978 when little Robert Schneider (future leader of Apples in Stereo and also a player on Neutral Milk Hotel albums) moved from South Africa to Ruston, Louisiana, where his dad took a job at Louisiana Tech. He was literally called “a South African freak” on his first day of school. The adjustment was not easy but he was at least a naturally happy kid.
Jeff Mangum (future leader of Neutral Milk Hotel) asked him in second grade if he wanted to play Wiffle ball. By fifth grade the two were bonding over heavy metal and their new guitars.
Hart—who always included his middle name since “Will Hart” sounded boring to him—came into the picture in middle school when Schneider met him at algebra camp. They too bonded over their mutual love of playing guitar. In May 1982, the three—now friends—went to a Cheap Trick concert. Only Mangum had seen concerts before (Rick Springfield and Styx). Schneider ended up with a pick thrown by guitarist Rick Nielsen and claimed it was magic.
Hart’s parents had met in art school and instilled their qualities upon him, always encouraging him to draw, which he did a lot. He moved around with his mom and stepdad but often returned to his dad’s place in Ruston. At least partly because of the strength of his friendship with Schneider and Mangum, he ended up staying there through his high-school years. By this time, he had acquired a new-wave Robert Smith look from what he learned about the world during his time living in big-city Dallas.
Some of the gang’s earliest punk-rock “clangorous” bands were called Maggot, Death and Fish, and Fat Planet. Soon to join them was Bill Doss, who grew up just outside of Ruston, would later be part of Olivia Tremor Control, and passed away back in 2012. But they all found each other because Doss had posted a notice in a record store that he was a bassist looking to start a band that would sound like Van Halen.
“Ruston was a challenging place to grow up for a lot of these folks. Their artistic leanings often put them at odds with their peers, and though no one got beat up for spiking their hair or wearing the wrong shoes, it created enough distance to foster feelings of estrangement among the nascent Elephant 6 crowd.”
There is supposedly some good unreleased music still floating around out there from OTC and hopefully we’ll all hear it soon.
Meanwhile, there can be a lot of very psychedelic meanderings on the band’s releases, but there is also plenty of classic pop tunes mixed in. Here are my favorite Olivia Tremor Control songs. (Note: if Dusk at Cubist Castle included just the nine songs on this list rather than all 27 tracks the band included, that album would be as close to perfection as it gets to the Beatles’ last few albums, which remain by far the greatest releases in the psych-pop canon):
Jumping Fences (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
Memories of Jacqueline 1906 (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
Hideaway (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
NYC-25 (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
Define a Transparent Dream (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
The Opera House (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
No Growing (Exegesis) (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
Holiday Surprise 1, 2, 3 (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
A Place We Have Been To (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
Courtyard (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
I Can Smell the Leaves (Dusk at Cubist Castle, 1996)
The Sylvan Screen (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
Mystery (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gained) (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
Beneath the Climb (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
Gypsum Oil Field Fire (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
Love Athena (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
A Peculiar Noise Called “Train Director” (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
California Demise (3) (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
A Sunshine Fix (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
I Have Been Floated (Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1, 1999)
King of the Claws (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
Today I Lost a Tooth (Presents: Singles and Beyond, 2000)
September 11, 2022
This book took me a very long time to get through, but only because when I started it, I was really only familiar with a couple of the bands of Elephant 6, and the more I read, the more I wanted to get acquainted with the new bands first (the ones new to me, that is).
Some people have criticised this book for being too meandering, but that's exactly what I liked about it. Adam Clair goes into every detail possible about the Elephant 6 bands, and each story about them, from their potlucks to tales of their commerical succes, enriched their image and my understanding of them.
So much work has gone into this book, and it really shows. The result is passionate, informative, entertaining, and at times beautiful. What a wonderful collective of people.
Some people have criticised this book for being too meandering, but that's exactly what I liked about it. Adam Clair goes into every detail possible about the Elephant 6 bands, and each story about them, from their potlucks to tales of their commerical succes, enriched their image and my understanding of them.
So much work has gone into this book, and it really shows. The result is passionate, informative, entertaining, and at times beautiful. What a wonderful collective of people.
February 26, 2022
a good overview of a unique group of people during a unique time in music; like all things E6 it's a little Mangum heavy and probably could have been more interesting fleshing out other areas (but I understand the impulse to put the lions' share of the narrative behind the reclusive genius etc). kind of soars when it's about the artists themselves coming together and existing as friends, trading ideas in collaboration and having pot luck dinners focusing on the empathetic and beautiful idea that making great art can change the world a little.
April 28, 2023
Long, wooly, and frequently beautiful, this book is a must-read for any fan of Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, or of Montreal. There's a lot of moving pieces and mercurial artists in the book, few of whom are given a lot of transparency. However, as a statement about the perseverance of the artistic spirit in the face of ever-consolidating capitalism, the book handily delivers. Even if you haven't heard of the Elephant 6 Collective, by the end of the book I guarantee you'll find some new bands to love.
May 5, 2022
Entertaining and enriching oral history of Elephant 6, its loose artistic philosophies, and the mysterious behavior of its beloved members. My heart swelled when reading about the shows I'd gone to. Unfortunately, this also caused me to dig up my journal from the time, and now I also must disappear like Jeff Mangum.
January 28, 2024
Excellent and genuine.
An engaging and informative multi-biography on countless members of the Elephant 6 Recording Company and their intertwined journeys through the music industry and the millennium. Interesting to hear about the progression of these artists alongside the advancement of technology and time.
An engaging and informative multi-biography on countless members of the Elephant 6 Recording Company and their intertwined journeys through the music industry and the millennium. Interesting to hear about the progression of these artists alongside the advancement of technology and time.
April 7, 2022
Incredibly well researched. A bit disjointed and repetitive at times, and lacking granular detail on the process of creation and motives behind specific songs/albums but still insightful and a fun read for fans of Jeff/NMH/Elephant 6 on the whole.
August 10, 2022
Really enjoyed this one and deserves every iota of the 5 stars. Researched and pieced together over 13 and a half years, as complete of a picture as one could expect of the Elephant 6 collective.
Art is not practical. But it's transformative and healing. Enjoy the ride.
Art is not practical. But it's transformative and healing. Enjoy the ride.
April 2, 2023
(If you're reading this digitally, please take a look at the pictures in the back of the book first. It would have helped me contextualize a lot of the people and settings while reading and I didn't discover them until the end.)
June 28, 2022
Never thought I'd get to read a history of the bands that shaped my college years, but here we are.
March 13, 2023
Does a good job of covering the entire collective and all their projects
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