The Olivia Tremor Control

The Olivia Tremor Control is an American rock band that was prominent in the mid-to-late 1990s. It was, along with The Apples in Stereo and Neutral Milk Hotel, one of the three original projects of The Elephant 6 Recording Company.[3] The band was founded by the remnants of the group Synthetic Flying Machine (Jeff Mangum, Bill Doss, and Will Cullen Hart) in 1994. The band went on hiatus in early 2000,[4] and later reformed in 2009.

The Olivia Tremor Control
Olivia Tremor Control performing in 2005
Background information
OriginRuston, Louisiana, U.S.
Genres
Years active
  • 1992–2000
  • 2005
  • 2009–present
Labels
Associated acts
Website
MembersWill Cullen Hart
Eric Harris
John Fernandes
Peter Erchick
Derek Almstead
Past membersBill Doss
Jeff Mangum

Bill Doss died on July 31, 2012 (according to some sources, due to an aneurysm, however no official cause of death has been released).[5][6]

History

Early years

The Olivia Tremor Control originated as a psychedelic band called Cranberry Lifecycle.[7] This band was formed in Ruston, Louisiana in the late 1980s, by high school friends Will Cullen Hart and Jeff Mangum. It was one of the many home recording projects they created with their friends Bill Doss and Robert Schneider.[7] The four exchanged the recordings between each other, and the constant stream of cassette tapes would eventually lead to the formation of a musical collective known as Elephant 6.[8] Musician Ross Beach describes Cranberry Lifecycle as the group's "first collaboration of 'serious' songs."[7]

After high school, Doss, Hart, and Mangum moved to Athens, Georgia, as they were drawn to the city's well known music scene.[9] Cranberry Lifecycle was renamed to Synthetic Flying Machine, and the lineup consisted of Hart on electric guitar, Doss on bass guitar, and Mangum on drums.[10][lower-alpha 1] The band gained a small following due in part to the psychedelic-infused music, which was different than the prevalent grunge sound in the city.[12] Synthetic Flying Machine would evolve into the Olivia Tremor Control, and this band played its first live show in 1993.[11] Mangum suggested the name, which was intended to be a surreal sounding phrase with no further meaning.[13][lower-alpha 2]

The first Olivia Tremor Control release was the extended play (EP) California Demise in 1994.[15] Music critic Nig Hodgkins wrote: "California Demise introduced the trademark splintered sound, complete with guitar effects and Beach Boys vocal harmonizing."[16] After California Demise, Mangum left the group, and would go on to form Neutral Milk Hotel.[17] Doss and Hart then recruited multi-instrumentalists John Fernandes and Eric Harris, and keyboardist Peter Erchick.[1] During this period, the Olivia Tremor Control released the 1994 split single The Olivia Tremor Control/The Apples in Stereo with the Apples in Stereo, and the 1996 EP The Giant Day.[18]

Dusk at Cubist Castle

Doss and Hart had been working on songs for a studio album as early as 1993.[19] Doss' ideas were more pop friendly while Hart wrote more experimental songs.[1] Stereogum compared their dichotomous partnership to Lennon–McCartney of the Beatles.[1] In 1995, the Olivia Tremor Control went to Denver, Colorado to record their debut album, Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle (commonly referred to as Dusk at Cubist Castle).[1] It was recorded at Pet Sounds Studio, and was produced by Schneider.[1]

At 74 minutes in length with 27 songs, Dusk at Cubist Castle was a large undertaking.[20] It was intended to be the soundtrack to an unmade film, and thus covers a wide range of genres, including psychedelia, krautrock, noise music, and folk-rock.[21] Recorded entirely on 4-track and 8-track tapes, the album features maximalist production.[1] The band used experimental recording techniques, such as tape manipulation, sound collages, and homemade instruments.[1] Many people were involved in the recording sessions, including Schneider and Mangum; Hart believes at least eight people played guitar on the song "The Opera House."[1] According to Fernandes:

We wanted to change the way people listen to music. There was an experimental scene. There was a pop scene. We wanted to combine those two things. Make people who love the Beatles also appreciate John Cage."[1]

Dusk at Cubist Castle was released in August 1996, by Flydaddy Records.[1] Early CD pressings included a second album titled Explanation II: Instrumental Themes and Dream Sequences.[18] This album contains nine ambient songs, and in the liner notes it is suggested to play the two albums in synchronicity, as this would create quadraphonic sound.[22][lower-alpha 3] The songs "The Opera House" and "Jumping Fences" were released as singles.[18] To promote the album, the Olivia Tremor Control served as an opener for Beck, and toured with Gorky's Zygotic Mynci in 1998.[16]

Dusk at Cubist Castle received positive reviews from critics.[24] Jason Cohen of The Austin Chronicle described the album as "intricate, gorgeous," but suggested the experimental noise songs could have been removed to enhance the quality.[25] Tom Cox of NME praised the genre hybridity, writing: "These men are experts at combining the absurd with the uplifting. In amongst the narcotic noisiness they scatter mouth-watering snatches of Beach Boy-type pop ('Courtyard', 'Jumping Fences') primed to keep boredom down to an absolute minimum."[26] It ranked at number 37 on The Village Voice's year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[27]

Sound and history

The band's distinct sound is a mixture of Doss and Hart's pop and experimental tendencies. Some tracks are 2–3 minute songs, while others are electro-acoustic collages ranging in length from 2 seconds to 10 minutes, and differing in content from vibrant horns to near silence.[28][29][30] Furthermore, the band released a record of experimental electro-acoustic music, The Late Music, Volume One, under the name The Black Swan Network, in 1997. Another Black Swan Network release, a 7" EP on the Happy Happy Birthday to Me label, appeared in 2000, though it did not feature Bill Doss. In October 1997, a "collaborative" LP between the Olivia Tremor Control and The Black Swan Network was released, originally as a tour-only item, and later put out as a CD by Flydaddy, which gave the record the title, The Olivia Tremor Control vs. The Black Swan Network, though the band had never wanted the record to be named as such.

Other projects

The members of the Olivia Tremor Control embarked on a variety of different projects before and after the band broke up. Eric Harris released a record under the name Frosted Ambassador and later two CD-R releases under his own name on Cloud Recordings, the label founded by Fernandes and Hart in the wake of OTC's demise. Pete Erchick released three records, Individualized Shirts, Special Fanfare For Anything and Lost in the Pancakes, under the name Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't. Bill Doss followed OTC by putting out records as The Sunshine Fix, a name he had used years before. The Sunshine Fix has evolved from a recording project to a formal working band. Hart's post-OTC project, Circulatory System, has taken a similar route. The self-titled 2001 LP continued the melding together of pop and experimental traditions the OTC had worked on and won high accolades from the press. Jeff Mangum followed OTC with Neutral Milk Hotel, releasing On Avery Island and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, as well as a few "underground" acoustic demos.

Signal Morning, Circulatory System's sophomore LP features the reunion of Will Hart and Bill Doss singing harmonies on its opening track. Signal Morning was released on 8 September 2009 on Cloud Recordings.

Will Cullen Hart has collaborated with groups such as Athens Tango Project in which he contributed backup vocals to a cover version of Olivia Tremor Control's song, I Have Been Floated[31] which appeared on the compilation album release, An Enthusiast's Fanfare for Elephant 6 released in 2019.[32]

Reunion

In 2005, the Olivia Tremor Control temporarily reunited, solely for live shows, at the behest of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival.[3] They appeared at a UK version of the festival, preceded by warm-up shows in Athens, Georgia and London; that summer, they again played Athens, at the Orange Twin Conservation Community, as well as gigs in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and L.A.[33] In the fall of 2008, all members of the Olivia Tremor Control toured with other members of the Elephant 6 collective as part of the Holiday Surprise tour. In May 2009, Will Hart said in an interview that the band had recently re-entered the recording studio: "We've got two songs for the next Olivia record, in my opinion. They're on Bill's hard drive."

In March 2011, Elf Power drummer Derek Almstead confirmed that he was engineering and playing percussion on the new record and that new material would be debuted at All Tomorrows' Parties later in the year.[34][35] In addition to this, they have released a song titled North Term Reality under Olivia Tremor Control for AUX Vol. 2.

In September 2011, the band released the single The Game You Play Is In Your Head, a 3-song suite. It is unknown whether or not the song is a single from their new album. More live shows were planned including an appearance at the ATP Curated by Jeff Mangum festival in March 2012 in Minehead, England. On January 17, 2012, it was announced that OTC would play the fifth Austin Psych Fest April 27–29, 2012 at Emo's East in Austin Texas. OTC performed at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago's Union Park on July 13, 2012.

On July 31, 2012, the band announced the death of Bill Doss. He died of an aneurysm.[36]

Members
Current members
Former members

Discography

Studio albums

Other albums

Compilations

EPs and singles

Notes
  1. Beach also identifies Hart's then-girlfriend as a member of the band, but did not specify her role.[11]
  2. Doss offered a different explanation of the band name in 1998, stating: "It refers to two friends, Jacqueline and Olivia, who were separated during the California earthquake of 1906 and have been searching for each other ever since, across different dimensions of time and space."[14]
  3. Playing Dusk at Cubist Castle and Explanation II in synchronicity does not produce quadraphonic sound, as the two albums are of different lengths.[23]

Footnotes
  1. Anon. 2016.
  2. Pickard, Joshua (July 5, 2014). "Record Bin: The fractured pop wonder of The Olivia Tremor Control's "Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One"". Nooga.
  3. "PitchforkMedia News". Archived from the original on March 3, 2008.
  4. "elephant6.com". Archived from the original on April 4, 2004.
  5. "Apples in Stereo's Robert Schneider gave up a flourishing music career to chase his true passion: Math". Atlanta Magazine. 2018-02-22. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  6. "Bill Doss of The Olivia Tremor Control reported dead". The Line of Best Fit.
  7. Cooper 2005, p. 17.
  8. Shook Jr. 2013.
  9. Cooper 2005, pp. 24–25.
  10. Cooper 2005, p. 25.
  11. Heater 2006, p. 1.
  12. Cooper 2005, pp. 25–26.
  13. Kramer n.d., p. 3.
  14. Holmes 1998, p. 03.
  15. Kitching 2019.
  16. Buckley 2003, p. 749.
  17. Hermes 1998, p. 24.
  18. Anon. n.d.
  19. Anon. 1996; Anon. 2016.
  20. Houle 2011; Anon. 2016.
  21. Ankeny n.d.
  22. Anon. 1998; Houle 2011.
  23. Houle 2011.
  24. Anon. 2016; Kitching 2019.
  25. Cohen 1996.
  26. Cox n.d.
  27. Anon. 1997.
  29. "PitchforkMedia Review". Archived from the original on July 2, 2007.
  30. "PitchforkMedia Review". Archived from the original on September 22, 2007.
  31. Lamb, Gordon. "Hope for Agoldensummer Scores Podcast, and More Music News and Gossip". Flagpole Magazine. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  32. "Athens Tango Project - I Have Been Floated". Bandcamp. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  33. "PitchforkMedia News". Archived from the original on January 10, 2008.
  34. Faix, Thomas (March 25, 2011). "Elephant Six Bring Spring To Philly". Square Cotton Candy. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
  35. "Music". EW.com.
  36. Andre Gallant (July 31, 2012). "Olivia Tremor Control's Bill Doss dead at 43". OnlineAthens. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
  37. "RiYL podcast 029: Will Cullen Hart of The Olivia Tremor Control and Circulatory System". Boingboing.net. December 6, 2013.

References
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