Author Douglas Coupland once wrote in his seminal 1991 slacker work, “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture,” that “nostalgia is a deadly weapon,” and one supposes those words can be cautionary tales about our youth, what we romanticize and what potentially holds us back from growing because we can’t move on past it. I’m not exactly sure what that has to do with the new documentary, “‘The Elephant 6 Recording Co.,” about the late ‘90s recording collective The Elephant 6, mostly comprised of lo-fi indie bands from in and around Athens, Georgie, other than to say after watching this appropriately chaotic, shaggy and baggy documentary, Coupland’s quote immediately flashed back into my memory.

Continue reading ‘The Elephant 6 Recording Co.’ Review: Rock Doc Celebrates The Brief Life Of An Explosively Creative Indie Rock Collective at The Playlist.

In the late ‘90s and early 00s, there was arguably no bigger rage in the indie-rock scene than what was known as the Elephant 6 collective. Comprised of musicians and high school friends Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart, Jeff Mangum, and Robert Schneider—members of which would go on to form beloved indie rock bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, The Apples In Stereo, Elf Power, Of Montreal and many more, the Elephant 6 became darlings of the music magazines like SPIN, Magnet and online sites like Pitchfork.

Continue reading ‘The Elephant 6 Recording Co.’ Trailer: Neutral Milk Hotel & Late ‘90s Indie-Rock Collective Gets The Spotlight at The Playlist.

So… the notoriously hermetic singer just got married, to a documentary filmmaker no less (see the amazing tie-in? Where movies and music meet indeed!).

Mangum, wed Astra Taylor, a writer and filmmaker who directed the excellent 2005 documentary, “Zizek!” about the kooky and eccentric Slovenian philosopher/ranter, Slavoj Zizek.

Continue reading Neutral Milk Hotel Recluse Marries Documentary Filmmaker at The Playlist.