The organizers of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival have announced that due to unforeseen circumstances they've had to reschedule the Jeff Mangum-curated festival to March 2012. The festival was originally due to take place in England this December. Tickets will still be honored for the new date or refunds will be made available. (See their website for more details).

Unfortunately this effects several e6 bands who are scheduled to play including Apples in Stereo, Holiday Surprise, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, The Olivia Tremor Control and Jeff himself. The Olivia Tremor Control and The Music Tapes have had to also postpone their other European appearances due to the rescheduling.

On Wednesday, Sept. 21 NPR's All Songs Considered are hosting a webcast of the The Olivia Tremor Control live in concert. The video & audio stream will begin at 9:30pm Eastern time. You can tune in at this link NPR All Songs Considered.

The Olivia Tremor Control release a new digital single today, the first new material from the band in ten years. You can hear "The Game You Play is in Your Head Parts 1,2,3" streaming on the NPR website. There's also an interview with W. Cullen Hart where he talks about the band recording new material. Here's a link to also buy the MP3 from iTunes.

Yes, that's right. The Olivia Tremor Control have just announced a tour for the fall in the US and Canada! (see right side of this page). This marks the first live performances for the band since the handful of shows they played in 2005. They'll also be playing some European dates in Nov./Dec. including the Primavera Club festival Nov. 25-26 in Spain and All Tomorrow's Parties festival in England Dec. 2-4. They also have an official facebook page.

You are probably already aware of this event, as I am a bit slow getting it on the news feed here. But just want to officially post that the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in Butlins, Minehead, England from Dec. 2-4, 2011 will be curated by Jeff Mangum. There's a heavy E6 presence on the lineup including Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control, A Hawk and a Hacksaw and E6 Holiday Surprise. (Jeff will also be playing a set). Plus there's dozens of other great bands. You can go to ATP's website for more info and tickets.

The tour is under way and the shows have all been really amazing! We're posting photos and updates every day on our Facebook page! Check it out!

We're only about 2 weeks away from the start of the Holiday surprise tour. Practices are happening every day and the band has almost 50 songs ready for the set. We've also learned a few other details about the show including a game played with a 12 foot snowman, short films by Brian Dewan and others and there will be a limited edition, tour-only 7" for sale by The Elephant Six Orchestra entitled "Welcome to Our Story". We can't wait!

Last week it was announced that there would be another Holiday Suprise tour in early 2011. If you are familiar with the last tour they did in 2008, the show will follow a similar format with 11+ musicians performing in various configurations (sometimes everyone on stage at once), swapping instruments and playing each other's songs. Last time the set was well over 2 hours long. They'll also be screening short films and Julian is going to conduct some audience participation games.

The players this time include: Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, Peter Erchick, John Fernandes, Julian Koster, Scott Spillane, Andrew Rieger, Laura Carter, Derek Almstead, Heather McIntosh, Bryan Poole, Theo Hilton, Robbie Cucchiaro and others play the music of The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Circulatory System, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Gerbils, The Music Tapes, Major Organ and Adding Machine, Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t , The Instruments, The Late BP Helium and Nana Grizol.

Tickets are already on sale in many cities. 1 show sold out in 3 days and several more will sell out this week. If you're planning to go, don't wait too long to reserve a ticket!

In support of the release of their new album, False Priest, Of Montreal have announced a giant list of fall tour dates of the US and Europe. A handful of the dates will be sharing a bill with Janelle Monáe. You can read more about it on Pitchfork.

Sadly it was announced that the elephant six blog, Optical Atlas is ceasing operations. Jeff did a great job covering all the latest E6 news and his contributions will sorely be missed. Hopefully the site will remain up as an archive.

To be honest, when I was finding it hard to find the time to keep this website up-to-date, it was a great relief to have someone else picking up the slack and keeping everyone informed. So that puts that responsibility back on me to keep this site more current. Will do! I already know that there's a lot of exciting E6 news to be announced in the near future. So check back often!

So far we've got news of 3 album releases coming this September 14th. First, we'll finally see the release of the Major Organ and the Adding Machine DVD on Orange Twin. The movie is packaged together with the Major Organ album that was orginally released in 2001. The album has been remastered and re-sequenced with several new bonus tracks. The DVD also includes a collection of E6 video rarities including music videos from Elf Power, Olivia Tremor Control and Circulatory System plus live footage of Neutral Milk Hotel and Major Organ. You can watch a trailer for the movie here on YOUTUBE.

Also, in September will be the release of the 10th Elf Power album! This self-titled record will be released by Orange Twin Records.

Of Montreal have also announced the release of their 10th album titled "False Priest" to be released on Polyvinyl Records. You can download a new song from the Polyvinyl website.

2 notable spring releases are just around the corner. First up is the debut solo album from Miles Kurosky (Beulah's former frontman). The Desert of Shallow Effects is out March 9. Currently you can download a preview EP featuring 3 songs from the album at iTunes.

The Apples in Stereo have also got a brand new album ready called Travellers in Space and Time. It will be available April 20 on the Yep Roc label. In the meantime you can check out an interview with the Apples while they were working on the album last fall on Stereogum's website.

There's going to be a special event here in Athens, GA as part of the AthFest. There will be a screening of "Major Organ and the Adding Machine" as well as a collection of rare short films, music videos and live footage from The Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, Circulatory System, Apples in Stereo, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Sunshine Fix, Elf Power, Dixie Blood Moustache, The Music Tapes and more. They dug into the vaults and there's a bunch of stuff that's never be shown anywhere before. This is a great chance to see a nice variety of new and old E6 footage. The screening are at Cine on Tues. June 23, Thurs. June 25 and Sat. June 27 at 10pm.

Ok, I said I'd have the site all back up in March but I'm busy working on several other E6-related projects right now and i don't have a lot of free time. So i'm just going to add pages as i get them done. Thanks for checking in...

The Holiday Surprise tour is kicking off in just over a week and we're all very excited to be travelling around to see all of you nice people. I will be hanging around at the merch table if you'd like to say hello. It's going to be a fun adventure so we hope you can make it out to one of the shows.