i feel like its a uniquely queer/neurodivergent/survivor of childhood abuse thing to mourn your lack of childhood because anytime i see like a depiction of a parent talking to their kid or just having a nice time i feel a deep sense of melancholy and almost jealousy that i neve had that because ill never be that kid again
I know elephant 6 on tumblr is kinda dead but i wanted to talk about this, major organ and the adding machine is a really cool album that also has a really cool short film however even cooler is the bonus features of the short films dvd.
in this collection is a lot of interesting elephant 6 live videos and archival footage including apples in stereo cutting their first vinyl pressing, some cool live nmh, dixie blood moustaches short film oh hi, and major organ doing what a wonderful world live (i didnt even know they played live until i saw the dvd)
ive found only a couple of these features online that i will link here as well as the short film but i do recommend if you are able to get the album and dvd on bandcamp (like i did) or directly from orange twin and if you havent scoured the orange twin site i recommend it has a bunch of E6 stuff people dont talk about like jeffs field recordings
LINKS IVE FOUND FOR E6 AT THE MOVIES
Major Organ and the Adding Machine film
Circulatory System "Should a Cloud Replace a Compass?"
A Hawk and A Hacksaw Live 2002 snippet (discogs listed this as 2004 i havent checked this one up with the dvd)
Dixie Blood Moustache "Oh, Hi! movie"
Music Tapes "For the Planet Pluto" (this one was officially uploaded to youtube :P)
NMH "Songs Against Sex" & "Ghost" live at the knitting factory (julians bass looks so cool in these)
of Montreal "When You Come Around (Everything Disappears)" live on a public broadcast show called Spy Girls from Athens GA
i am unable to rip things off my dvd for i do not have a computer but if anyone else has the dvd or finds anymore links please let me know and share them discogs has a pretty good list of everything on the dvd.
The Elephant 6 Lost Release: E6-013 - The Clay Bears
Below the cut for more info!
Okay, well it was never released, only catalogued!
“The Clay Bears” was, per the Elephant 6 Instagram, an experimental noise band from Ruston, Louisiana featuring a rotating lineup of Elephant 6 musicians. They were “known for their unpredictable performances and room-clearing live shows.”
One of the more well known quotes about the band came from the Elephant 6 website, which used to read “Clay Bears - One of the big mysteries of the E6. Apparently a super-group of some sort from the Ruston-era. The band had a revolving door line-up which at some points included such people as Scott Spillane, Jeff Mangum & Will Westbrook. They are thanked in the liner notes of Neutral Milk Hotel's album On Avery Island.”
And they are thanked on the On Avery Island linear notes! Taken from my personal copy:
That quote is no longer on the website, but it is archived on NMH fansite neutralmilkhotel.org. That website also contains this snippet of information: "In a BBC interview in August 1998, Jeff mentioned the Clay Bears had a double album which was poised to be released. This never transpired, however. Ross Beach, a member of the band for a while, told me the following: 'As far as I know, the Clay Bears never had any official releases, though there were probably some 4-track cassette one-offs floating around Ruston in the early 90's. That was also a Jeff solo project, only noisier and more chaotic. The live version that I was in was purely an experimental noise improv band.'"
So based off this, we can assume that The Clay Bears was a project possibly spearheaded by Jeff Mangum and there may be demo tapes floating around the Elephant 6 sphere. The double LP Jeff mentioned is catalogued (but not listed in the database) as E6-013 on Discogs.
There is supposedly a clip of a Clay Bears concert on YouTube, but the video's since been privated. A Reddit post on r/Elephant6 asked about this clip (but got no replies). This redditor also did some digging, supposedly uncovering news from the 2006 Elephant 6 website about a DVD release with a Clay Bears snippet. Whether or not the supposed clip would be the one from the YouTube video is not known. The redditor further opines that the DVD was never released. Another redditor on a different post asked Jeff (because this was back when NMH were on their reunion tour) if Clay Bears would ever see the light of day, saying "it’s up to the people to decipher." The post itself speculates that the Clay Bears would appear on the Elephant 6 documentary. Admittedly, I haven't seen the doc, but I would assume it didn't end up appearing because there's seldom any discussion about the band or any resurfaced clip.
In another Reddit post, a user shows the University of Georgia media archive, which featured several Neutral Milk Hotel stuff in the Robert Schneider Collection of Elephant 6 Recording Co. Records. There is a Wayback link, but it's broken and while I can see the first recording is NMH instrumentals, I don't know what the second recording is. Apparently, the Clay Bears is somewhere in the archives, but the University of Georgia seems to have removed the collection and the Wayback Machine only archived the two aforementioned files. Although according to a commenter in the Reddit post, most of the links (including the Clay Bears) didn't work and would require going out to Georgia to listen to the physical tapes.
So that's about where the whole Clay Bears mystery stands. It's interesting how there's been multiple possible Clay Bears leaks, yet none of them seemed to survive. The Clay Bears is still listed as an Elephant 6 band under "The Collective + Extended Family" section of the website and there was an (aforementioned) Instagram post by the official Elephant 6 account last year.
Last thing, the image up at the top was posted by the Elephant 6 Instagram, but I don't really know what it is. They don't explain it and reverse image searching turns up nothing. It could be one of Jeff's demo tapes, but that's pure speculation on my part. I might try to contact them in the future for clarity, but I'm lazy and shy so I dunno.
Anyway, here's a few posters also posted by the Elephant 6 Instagram:
Imagine if we did the “public libraries are punk” thing for other subcultures. Imagine if people made shirts that said “Soup kitchens are grunge” or “Mixed Use Urbanism is Juggalo”.
“This made me think of you” makes me feel so very loved. It’s such a small thing, sure, but I think it’s great. Something not inherently about me, but it reminded you of me? You were thinking of me? And you decided to tell me about it? That is absolutely amazing I love it
Imagine this; me and you are childhood best friends raised out in the countryside right? We were both raised in homophobic families so naturally we had the same views so we never acknowledged the prolonged stares, or the moments we were just a little too close to be normal, or the moments out hands would brush while doing work, or the time you showed me how to till the soil by getting behind me and guiding my body. Until one night sitting out by the bonfire we created in the field while we both have a few drinks we snuck from our parents, then a few more, then our words start to slur together and out comes a drunken confession, who knows which one of us said it, but suddenly were looking into eachothers eyes and we inch closer and closer until our lips just barely brush and were breathing heavy then one of us pushes their lips into the other and now were making out infront of the fire, im in your lap and were hoping our parents dont see us but we also don't care because it just feels so good and so right. Like imagine that, that would be so crazy.
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