// Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery
// Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery
Adam’s first book studies the Elephant 6 Recording Company, untangling modern music’s biggest mystery and weaving together the massive influence the enigmatic collective had on how we make and consume music during the transformational period when CDs, fancy studios, and glossy magazines gave way to mp3s, home recordings, and music blogs.
Selected Endless Endless Coverage
Sound Opinions
Episode 858
The author speaks with hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot about the Elephant 6 collective and its lingering influence.
Flagpole
“Adam Clair Explores Imaginative Collective”
Jessica Smith blends analysis of the book with an interview with the author on the book’s structure and style.
Bandsplain
“Neutral Milk Hotel”
Host Yasi Salek and decorated music writer Mark Richardson discuss Neutral Milk Hotel in the context of original reporting from Endless Endless.
Look at My Records!
“Adam Clair, Author of Endless, Endless”
Tom Gallo dives deep on process, inspiration, and musical and literary influences in a Q&A with the author.
Big Table
“Adam Clair on the Elephant 6 Collective”
The author chats with host J.C. Gabel about Endless Endless and why he spent more than a decade researching and reporting for the book.
Athens News Matters, WUGA
“What Happened to Athens Band Neutral Milk Hotel?”
Alexia Ridley talks to the author about the story of the collective and why the topic still resonates locally.
More Endless Endless Media
Music Journalism Insider
“Adam Clair Interview” (paywalled)
Writing Samples
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
Building a Sense of Belonging through Community-Centered Theater
“That's the exchange we can offer as artists and people who can imagine these different worlds: not to create something that's just reality, but to lift people out of it and get them to see themselves, their lives, their community in a new way.”
Real Life
I am listening to Coast to Coast AM tonight the way I usually do: on a long, lonely late-night drive home. I’m tired and alone, and the radio is on to keep me awake. The monolithic openness of the highway is perforated sparsely by taillights and winking brake lights. We all keep a respectful distance at this hour.
But contrary to the bromides from executives about what audiences really want, this “pivot to video” is more about advertisers’ ongoing search for a sustainable ad format, one that doesn’t end up proving its own ineffectiveness or exhausting its novelty.
We know our actions are recorded, but not necessarily by whom. We know we are judged, but not how. Our lives and opportunities are altered accordingly but invisibly. We are forced to figure out not only how to adapt to the best of our abilities but what it is that even happened to us.
Stereogum
Elephant 6 & Friends Reflect On The Legacy Of The Olivia Tremor Control’s Dusk At Cubist Castle
The Olivia Tremor Control were never a band that quite fit in, nor a band that wanted to. Commercial success was never a goal, and even though it nearly happened anyway, no one seems to harbor any regrets about missing out.
The Verge
Slimed: How slime oozed back into our lives
The resurgence is a nostalgic throwback to the '80s and '90s, slime’s golden era. From The Toxic Avenger and Ghostbusters franchises to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Nickelodeon, slime was a dominant visual trope 20 years ago. So, what’s behind its return?
Vice
The Mysterious, Stubborn Appeal of Mass-Produced Fried Chicken
Except for vegetarians and perhaps the hyperlipidemic, fried chicken is beloved nearly universally. And that’s a universe that includes some pretty discriminating palates—many of whom seem to prefer Popeyes over anything else.
WHYY
Shooting star watch: How to stargaze the Perseid meteor shower
Dust and dirt melt out of the comet’s nucleus and hang in an orbital path. As these bits of debris enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they burn up. Though each is just the size of a grain of sand, burning 25 to 35 miles away, they create fantastic superheated streaks visible for a few seconds at a time.