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| Chad Stockfleth's look at the DIY origins of the Elephant 6 music collective comes to Toronto for a short run in August. |
Here's the scoop...
Around 1985, a group of Ruston, Louisiana area high schoolers began experimenting with whatever random instruments and gear they could lay their hands on.
Moving to other small college towns including Denver, Colorado and Athens, Georgia, their musical coming-of-age coincides with the new consumer availability of 4-track and 8-track recording technology and cassette tapes.
Sharing like-minded sensibilities, influenced by past sounds and psychedelia, and with little to distract them, their efforts to create whole new musical worlds become the bands The Apples In Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control, The Minders, Beulah, The Music Tapes, Of Montreal, Marbles, The Essex Green, Elf Power, Sunshine Fix, Neutral Milk Hotel, Von Hemmling, Secret Squares, and many more. While the collective grew to a natural breaking point, its founding members overcame obstacles and remained closely bonded, reuniting for tours and still collaborating today.
Chad Stockfleth's feature-length documentary provides insight into this revolutionary era of popular independent music in America, the defiant DIY spirit in music making, and championing the integrity of an authentic quest for artistic expressiveness over the more mainstream image of being a "successful" musician in our fame-obsessed times.
The Elephant 6 Recording Co. screens at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema on Wednesday (August 30) at 4pm, Friday (September 1) at 9:30pm, Tuesday (September 5) at 6:30pm. Tickets: $15 (Members from $10). Get 'em here. Watch the trailer and a couple of interviews with the director, Chad Stockfleth.
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