The Apples in Stereo - Velocity of Sound (2002)

Related:

Marbles - Marbles (1993)

The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)

The Apples in Stereo - Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)

It's been long enough since my last post that it feels like I should acknowledge it. But chances are, you didn't really notice, and if you did, you probably assumed that I was doing Christmas stuff, which I was. East coast family Christmas stuff. And now I'm back, and I want to give you something sweet before this cursed year of 2021 comes to a close.

So here's Velocity of Sound, the closest that The Apples in Stereo ever came to making a punk record. The instantly memorable hooks remain, but instead of ornate arrangements, fuzz guitar reigns, with the distortion often bleeding over into the vocals, underlining a surprising link between The Apples in Stereo -- whose most obvious influence has always been The Beatles -- and the joyfully simplistic songs of The Ramones. It's also kind of a breakup record, and the breakup in question is between frontman Robert Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney, who also sings lead on album highlights "Rainfall" and "I Want". The album's not billed as such, but most of its songs seem to address a strained romantic relationship, and the two divorced shortly hereafter. Bitter lyrics and sugary tunes: the classic power pop combo.

Happy New Year to you all. Please, please, please let this year be better than the last.

Track listing:

1. Please

2. Rainfall

3. That's Something I Do

4. Do You Understand?

5. Where We Meet

6. Yore Days

7. Better Days

8. I Want

9. Mystery

10. Baroque

11. She's Telling Lies (Bryce's Mix)

I just wanna have a secret or two

Also listen to:

Beulah - Handsome Western States (1997)

Elf Power - When the Red King Comes (1997)

Sunshine Fix - A Spiraling World of Pop (1993)

Related:
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)

Early Elephant 6 magic courtesy of E6 co-founder Bill Doss. If you're expecting this to be warm, fuzzy, wistful, lo-fi indie rock, just because it's an early E6 cassette: you're absolutely right, that's exactly what it is. "Turtle Song" is particularly great.

Track listing:

1. Listen for the Day

2. Love Athena

3. I'll Be Gone

4. You Won't Be

5. Queen Misery

6. Learn

7. Temptation

8. Turtle Song

9. Superman Suit

10. Leonard upon Entering the Fish Market (Speaks of Apple Butter)

But it's not me

That you see

It's only a feeling

That you believe

Similar listening:

Marbles - Marbles (1993)

Beulah - Handsome Western States (1997)

Elf Power - When the Red King Comes (1997)

Related:
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)
Elf Power - The Winter Is Coming (2000)

Stoned reveries and fuzzy indie rockers. Decidedly less sonically diverse than their above-linked masterpiece, but still hella good.

Track listing:
1. Step Through the Portal...
2. Into the Everlasting Time
3. The Frightened Singers
4. The Secret Ocean
5. The Arrow Flies Close
6. Icy Hands Will Never Melt Away
7. When the Red King Comes
8. The Separating Fault
9. Spectators
10. Introducing Cosmic Space
11. The Bengal Parade
12. Needles in the Camels Eyes...
13. The Silver Lake
14. It's Been a Million Years

Deep down in the very center
On the inside of the world
You can hear the electric highways
We can speak imaginary words

You'll also like:

Marbles -
Marbles (1993)

Beulah -
Handsome Western States (1997)

Circulatory System - Circulatory System (2001)

Related:
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)
Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't - Individualized Shirts (2001)

A glorious, colorful aural tapestry featuring most of a then-recently disbanded Olivia Tremor Control. Comes off less as a collection of songs than a joyously psychedelic celebration of the very act of making music and its endless possibilities. The sheer volume of amazing music that Elephant 6 was churning out around this time is astonishing, and Circulatory System is one of the very best -- right up there with Black Foliage (linked above) and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

Track listing:
1. Yesterday's World
2. Prehistoric
3. Diary of Wood
4. Outside Blasts
5. Joy
6. The Lovely Universe
7. Round
8. Inside Blasts
9. Illusion
10. Waves of Bark and Light
11. Now
12. A Peek
13. Fingers
14. Days to Come (In Photographs)
15. Symbols and Maps
16. The Pillow
17. Stars
18. Should a Cloud Replace a Compass?
19. Time or Dateline
20. How Long?
21. Your Parades

Here comes the perfect day
We're inside the Milky Way

More from E6:

The Apples in Stereo -
Science Faire (1996)

Beulah -
When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)

Related:
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)
Elf Power - The Winter Is Coming (2000)
The Gerbils - The Battle of Electricity (2001)
Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't - Individualized Shirts (2001)

Essential 90s indie psych pop. A colorful, dizzying sound-journey through a world of Beatles/Beach Boys-style pop, as refracted through a kaleidoscope then recorded onto a four-track. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea aside, Black Foliage is the quintessential Elephant 6 record, and one of my all-time favorite albums.

Track listing:
1. Opening
2. A Peculiar Noise Called "Train Director"
3. Combinations
4. Hideaway
5. Black Foliage: Animation 1
6. Combinations
7. The Sky Is a Harpsichord Canvas
8. A Sleepy Company
9. Grass Canons
10. A New Day
11. Combinations
12. Black Foliage: Animation 2
13. I Have Been Floated
14. Paranormal Echoes
15. Black Foliage: Animation 3
16. A Place We Have Been To
17. Black Foliage (Itself)
18. The Sylvan Screen
19. The Bark and Below It
20. Black Foliage: Animation 4
21. California Demise 3
22. Looking for Quiet Seeds
23. Combinations
24. Mystery
25. Another Set of Bees in the Museum
26. Black Foliage: Animation 5
27. Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining)

In the blink of an eye, you get several meanings

You should also be listening to:

Bongwater -
The Power of Pussy (1990)

The Boo Radleys -
Giant Steps (1993)

Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Super nerdy, ornate, Beach Boys-worshipping E6-associated power pop. You can practically hear the vocalist pushing the bridge of his thick-framed glasses up the ridge of his nose with his index finger before singing every verse. Embellished by French horns, phased synths, xylophone, and other 90s indie favorites. "Emma Blowgun's Last Stand" surely deserves a place on your "Indie Rock's Greatest Hits" playlist.

Track listing:
1. Score from Augusta
2. Sunday Under Glass
3. Matter Vs. Space
4. Emma Blowgun's Last Stand
5. Calm Go the Wild Seas
6. Ballad of the Lonely Argonaut
7. Comrade's Twenty-Sixth
8. The Aristocratic Swells
9. Silverado Days
10. Warmer
11. If We Can Land a Man on the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart

Let's see the sights!

You might also enjoy:

Marbles - Marbles (1993)

Luna - The Days of Our Nights (1999)

Marbles - Marbles (1993)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)

Before the Apples in Stereo, there was Marbles, Robert Schneider's first project through which his love for 60s psych pop by way of messy, lo-fi indie rock fully blossomed.

Track listing:
1. Laughing
2. Kite
3. Swimming
4. Head
5. Bottom of the Sea
6. Pyramid Landing
7. Death My Bride
8. Invisible
9. Inverse Gazebo
10. Play Fair

I wanna swim with you

Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't - Individualized Shirts (2001)

Related:
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)
Elf Power - The Winter Is Coming (2000)
The Gerbils - The Battle of Electricity (2001)

One of the lesser known Elephant 6 acts, Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't is the brainchild of Olivia Tremor Control keyboardist Peter Erchick. Individualized Shirts is the project's first record, and it has everything that you know and love about E6 -- fuzzy guitars, 60s psych pop-inspired vocal melodies and harmonies, and a warm, analogue, homemade-sounding recording. Why haven't you heard this album?

Track listing:
1. Ten Thousand Years Old
2. If I Leave Tomorrow
3. Do Be Day
4. Karaoke Free
5. Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't
6. I Am Instead
7. Big Giant
8. Million Pieces
9. Moon River
10. Me and Bob
11. Sleep Come Easy
12. I Stopped with Victor
13. Pueblo

Given half a chance, we all end up like someone
Someone we don't like

Elf Power - The Winter Is Coming (2000)

Easily my favorite record from this under-appreciated branch of the Elephant 6 collective. There's a bit of all types of psychedelia -- Eastern-influenced musical mantras ("Wings of Light"), acoustic pop ("The Winter Is Coming", "The Sun Is Forever"), heavy quasi-doom ("The Albatross"), dark alt rock ("The Skeleton"), fuzzed-out, homespun bliss ("People Underneath"), and whatever one might call the sweeping, urgent album opener, "Embrace the Crimson Tide" -- so if you don't like the sound of one track, you can be sure that the next one will be completely different.

Track listing:
1. Embrace the Crimson Tide
2. Skeleton
3. The Great Society
4. The Winter Is Coming
5. Wings of Light
6. The Sun Is Forever
7. People Underneath
8. Green Sea Days
9. The Naughty Villain
10. Leopard's Teeth
11. Birds in the Backyard
12. 10,000 Telescopes
13. The Albatross

There's no path for you to follow
Drift your way right through tomorrow
There's no need to run
No need to hide

The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)

The Apples in Stereo are, as far as I know, the only band from the Elephant 6 collective who still actively record and put out albums. Science Faire compiles a bunch of singles and EPs from before the release of their first (and IMO still best) proper LP, Fun Trick Noisemaker. Personally, I prefer this fuzzier, messier, more lo-fi material to the exuberant, polished power pop they ended up making. I dig that shit, too, though.

Track listing:
1. Tidal Wave
2. Motorcar
3. Turncoat Indian
4. Haley
5. Not the Same
6. Stop Along the Way
7. Running in Circles
8. Hypnotic Suggestion
9. Touch the Water
10. Glowworm
11. To Love the Vibration of the Bulb
12. Time for Bed / I Know You'll Do Well
13. Rocket Pad

Silvery light of a dream

The Gerbils - The Battle of Electricity (2001)

Second and last album from this gang of Elephant 6 weirdos. Gonna be honest: I've always felt that "Are You Underwater", the wondrous, anthemic album opener, writes a check that the rest of The Battle of Electricity can't quite cash. It's a great record, but "Are You Underwater" is such a huge, gloriously uplifting song (think: an early 2000s indie rock interpretation of "Tonight, Tonight") that the ragged, nerdy, lo-fi pop songs that follow feel a bit deflated by comparison.

BUT! This is probably more an issue of sequencing than deteriorating song quality, as The Battle of Electricity slowly reveals itself as a worthy addition to the E6 Hall of Fame. The early-album sag is counteracted by a trio of fuzzed out gems ("Meteoroid from the Sun Strikes a Dead Weirdo", "Song of Love", and "The White Sky") that provide a much-needed visceral release and counterpoint to the album's less immediate first and last acts.

Track listing:
1. Are You Underwater
2. (i)
3. The Air We Share
4. Lucky Girl
5. (ii)
6. Fail to Mention
7. (iii)
8. Meteoroid from the Sun Hits a Dead Weirdo
9. (iv)
10. A Song of Love
11. (v)
12. The White Sky
13. (vi)
14. (vii)
15. Snorkel
16. The Battle of Electricity
17. Share Again
18. (viii)

Why do we like each other between our time submerged?
Or will we bother holding hands and treading water?