Sim, Chad Stockfleth está dirigindo um documentário sobre o genial coletivo de bandas dos anos 90 (e, possivelmente, uma das coisas mais legais daquela década). Curte lá:

Ele descreve o projeto:

By the mid-1990s, indie music was in a sorry state. Even the good stuff was obsessed with doubt, aggression and misery. At the same time as the grunge implosion was sucking all the joy out of music, four friends from small-town Louisiana started calling themselves Elephant 6 and tuned into what had been lost: friendship and joy. They got together, swapped tapes, taught each other chords, had visions, wrote songs, formed bands, recruited friends, made classic records, went on tour, had fun, and, over time, changed American music. But to move forward, they had to look backward.

Bill Doss, Will Hart, Jeff Mangum and Robert Schneider formed the Elephant 6 collective in Ruston, La. Their musical touchstones, painfully unfashionable at the time, were the Beatles, the Beach Boys, early Pink Floyd, Love, the Zombies…the daydream/nightmare psychedelia of the late 1960s. The first three bands to coalesce from Elephant 6 were the Apples in Stereo, the Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel, but there were no clear boundaries between projects. The four friends collaborated on everything, and produced some of the decade’s most visionary music, including In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Dusk at Cubist Castle, and Fun Trick Noisemaker, each of them an undisputed classic.

Because it was founded on friendship and cooperation, Elephant 6 was destined to grow. By the end of the decade, Doss, Hart, Mangum and Schneider had gathered dozens of like-minded musicians into the Elephant 6 fold. Some of the bands they formed lasted a day, some lasted a week, some are still making music: Of Montreal, Elf Power, Circulator System, The Music Tapes, The Minders, Beulah, Dressy Bessy, the Essex Green, the Gerbils, and on, and on, and on….

The Elephant 6 story has never been told. Made with the cooperation of the founding members of the collective, this film documents Elephant 6 through exclusive interviews, video archives, found footage, and live performance, following the collective from its beginnings, through its heyday, to its resurgence in the last few years, and finally to the Elephant 6-dominated All Tomorrow’s Parties, in Minehead, England, in the winter of 2011.

“What a beautiful dream,” sang Jeff Mangum, “that could flash on the screen in the blink of an eye and be gone.” “Define a transparent dream,” sang Doss and Hart. “What do you see,” sang Schneider, “when you dream about the future?” You see the past and the present. You see the Elephant 6.

E fala sobre o material que está reunindo nessa entrevista:

“Some of the live performances I’ve found are really good. I’m thankful that someone was there with a camera because those performances would have been lost to time. Getting an intimate look at how these guys create music with all of the esoteric instruments and machinery is quite interesting, too. Also, just learning how genuinely friendly everyone is has been a bit of a surprise”

Agora chore:

Demais! Demais!

Falando nisso, você viu esse show?

Não sei nem por onde começar.

Segura: o Jeff Mangum fez um show-surpresa no fim de semana passado, no Brooklyn, que contou com um público de nada menos que 75 privilegiados, no sábado passado. O show foi organizado por Ben Goldberg, da Ba Da Bing Records e fechado para convidados, que receberam instruções rígidas apenas no dia anterior, sobre como comparecer àquela noite. “Acho que vou começar a fazer shows“, disse para o público no meio de uma apresentação com 10 músicas. Felizmente, alguma boa alma gravou o show e botou para download. Louvado seja.

Jeff Mangum – “Song Against Sex” (MP3)

Era só o que faltava: um tumblr de capas de discos com tacos.

O pior é que eu conheço um monte de gente assim…

“Oh Comely” no Le Poisson Rouge, em Nova York, 2010. Isso mesmo – isso que você está vendo aconteceu na quinta passada. Além desta, que encerrou a noite, Jeff também tocou “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” “A Baby for Pree,” “Two Headed Boy Part 2” e “Engine”.

Beastie Boys – “Pow”
Dave Brubeck Quartet – “Take Five”
Medeski Martin & Wood – “We’re All Connected”
João Gilberto – “É Luxo Só”
Juan Garcia Esquivel – “Bikina”
LCD Soundsystem – “Never As Tired As When I’m Waking Up”
Outkast – “Behold a Lady”
Scissor Sisters – “Invisible Light”
Happy Mondays – “Dennis and Lois”
Rolling Stones – “Memphis, Tennessee”
Apples in Stereo – “Hey Elevator”
Rita Lee & Tutti Frutti – “Cartão Postal”
Olivia Tremor Control – “No Growing (Exegesis)”
Beach Boys – “Let’s Go Away for a While”
Kassin + 2 – “Futurismo”
Mussum – “Chiclete de Hortelã”
Paul McCartney – “Momma Miss America”
Neutral Milk Hotel – “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”
Sebadoh – “Two Years, Two Days”

Lean on me.

Lembra que ele gravou uma faixa pro tributo ao Chris Knox? Pois é: o homem-Neutral Milk Hotel deve pintar na terra-natal de Knox – a Nova Zelândia – para uma rara aparição ao vivo, justamente divulgando o disco recém-lançado, em homenagem ao dono dos Tall Dwarves, cuja grana revertida no projeto ajudará o músico a se manter depois de ter sofrido um derrame. O show acontece no dia 6 de maio e, sem dúvida, esse show aparecerá online de algum jeito.

Do Fuck Yeah Rock’n’roll.