For the York live music promoter Please Please You and the city’s premier live music venue, The Crescent the season of goodwill clearly extends well beyond the Christmas period. They have joined their considerable forces tonight to put on a screening of the documentary film The Elephant 6 Recording Co. plus some bonus short sets from three York underground favourites in Speedreaders, The Leaflets, and Troutflies. Not only this, but the whole event is free! And you then get lashings of free tea thrown in for very good measure. What a brilliant pipe-opener to the new gig Year.
The main feature The Elephant 6 Recording Co. is a documentary about the ’90s indie-rock collective of the same name. Released in 2022, the film reflects upon the creative community that came together through a shared passion for do-it-yourself recording techniques – where 4-tracking was key – hand-crafted cover artwork, and the magic of theatrical live performances. Emerging from the college town of Ruston, Louisiana the collective spawned Neutral Milk Hotel, the Olivia Tremor Control, and the Apples in Stereo as well as perhaps lesser well-known acts such as Synthetic Flying Machine, Elf Power, and Dixie Blood Mustache who are captured in the film playing household appliances with kitchen utensils.
Director C.B. Stockfleth’s debut film allows many of The Elephant 6 Recording Co.’s principal alumni – including Robert Schneider and Hilarie Sidney of the Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel’s front man Jeff Mangum, and the poignant contributions of Bill Doss of the Olivia Tremor Control who unexpectedly died of an aneurysm in 2012 at the age of 43 – to speak for themselves. Their often-hilarious observations – Schneider says that having the household cats all wander into the room where they were creating their latest psych-pop experimental sound “felt like success” – are stitched together with archival live footage and psychedelic imagery.
The Elephant 6 Recording Co. captures the essence of the label and the collective power of a shared artistic vision. You can detect that sense of communal spirit in the Crescent tonight, like-minded individuals all coming together for what is a mutually enjoyable experience.
This deep feeling of connectivity is both complemented and enhanced by the live music that follows. Reuben and Rowan of Troutflies coalesce over guitars, melodica, the occasional bell, and cans of Kronenbourg 1664 beer, producing a sound that embraces the outsider spirit of Kevin Ayers and lo-fi surrealism. It is all to be found on their latest offering The Dancing Years which in true Elephant 6 tradition was available on the night in cassette form.
In their half hour slot, local three-piece outfit The Leaflets shift easily between the melodic charm of Teenage Fanclub, vague psychedelia, and the understated beauty of ‘Pale Blue Eyes’-period Velvet Underground. Like all three acts tonight, 30 minutes is never enough. Bringing a wonderful evening to a close another York three-piece, Speedreaders – Dave, El and Sam – kick straight in with some full-blooded garage-rock and show that just letting go is easy after all. ‘Nobody Died’ from last year’s debut EP affirms this fact.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos HERE
