The Olivia Tremor Control, with The Music Tapes / New Hazlett Theater / Thursday 09.15.2011 / 8:00 / $12-$15

Words by Brendan

This is by far the coolest giveaway we have done here at Draw Us Lines. First off, we are incredibly psyched that The Olivia Tremor Control are back on the scene, making their first new music since 1999, playing their first live shows in nearly as long, and choosing to swing through Pittsburgh on this tour. I fell into the inviting musical lap of The OTC, The Apples in Stereo, of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel and the rest of the Elephant 6 gang during college and have never looked back. Second, we’ve teamed up with the fine folks at the Warhol Muesum’s Sound Series program and the Elephant 6 themselves to offer you an extra special contest this time around. In short, we have TWO SETS OF TWO FREE TICKETS AND A SIGNED CD to give away, so read on for more about the band, the show, and how to enter the contests!

The Olivia Tremor Control / Jumping Fences
The Olivia Tremor Control / A Familiar Noise Called “Train Director”
The Music Tapes / The Minister Of Longitude

What in the world can I say about The Olivia Tremor Control? They are an incredibly inventive and creative band, smashing together 60s-era psychedelic pop structures and neoclassical sonic pastiches to produce some sprawling, experimental yet highly-listenable albums. To wit, their 1996 LP Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle spans 27 tracks and almost 1.25 hours, including a 10-part interlude entitled “Green Typewriters” that covers 23 minutes with little pop ditties, weird experiments with noise effects, and actual typewriter sounds. Sounds kinda odd, and indeed it is, but in the context of the album it makes a whole lotta sense. The rest is peppered with more straightforward psych-rock numbers like “Define A Transparent Dream” and “Can You Come Down With Us?” plus a variety of other genre-melding songs, and the album, as a whole, is amazingly progressive and no one really knew what to do with it in 1996. I can’t imagine this type of music coming from anywhere but the Elephant 6 collective, a breeding ground for such experimental stylings. Cubist Castle features principal band members Bill Doss and Will Cullen Hart as songwriters and singers/instrumentalists, with lots of additional instrumentation from Eric Harris, John Fernandes, Peter Erchick, and Jeff Mangum (yeah, that guy).
 
The Olivia Tremor Control / “Another Set Of Bees In The Museum” / Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One [Flydaddy] / dir. Joey Foreman

 
Over the next few years, Jeff went off to focus on NMH, while the rest of the band members released a string of EPs and another LP, Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One under the OTC name, continuing their psych-pop experiments in full force. They even found time, along the way, to put out two other unofficial-ish studio albums (one under the pseudonym Black Swan Network) and pursue a variety of side projects (like Circulatory System, The Sunshine Fix, and Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t), some of which exist to this day. After Black Foliage and its subsequent tour, though, the band essentially called it quits. In a very recent interview with NPR, Hart reveals that they’ve really been working all along, those side projects have carried on, and the breakup happened more because they didn’t know what else to do, not wanting to tie themselves down with a restrictive record contract. In the current internet/music era, though, they’ll fit right in and be able to carry on with everything they had been doing so well all along. They’re already working on new material, with a new song premiering on NPR and available as an mp3 purchase, plus they have plans for an LP next year and their previous two LPs are getting the fancy vinyl reissue treatment.

 
Those LP reissues, along with tons of bonus material, will come out officially on November 15, but you’ll have a chance to buy them ahead of time on their tour dates (like this one!), in addition to CDs, t-shirts, posters and the like. They’ll also have their latest band lineup with Elf Power‘s Derek Almstead on percussion, filling in for Eric Harris. What I’m particularly excited about, too, is seeing them at the New Hazlett Theater, with a fascinatingly fancy surrounding arrangement of seats (see the photo above). It will be crazy to see the band spread out on stage from different angles. Opening the show is Julian Koster’s band The Music Tapes, another Elephant 6 stalwart (now on Merge Records) that features the singing saw, bowed banjo and whimsical lyrics. I was lucky enough to catch them at an intimate house show back in January and they are absolutely fascinating to watch. In short, this show is going to be amazing, for many many many reasons.

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So, leave a note on our Facebook wall, @ us on Twitter (with the hashtag #OTCpgh to make it easier to find), or send me an email by Thursday 09.08 at 11:59 pm to enter one contest to win a pair of tickets. (Be sure to mention OTC in your entry!) We’ll pick a winner (at random) on Friday morning and let you know who the lucky guy/gal is!

We are ALSO offering a special giveaway with a pair of tickets and a CD signed by the band! To earn this one, we want to hear about your favorite Olivia Tremor Control song or album. Tell us about your special connection, what it means to you, and why you love it. Just a paragraph or two will suffice, but make it super nice, because we will put our heads together and pick the best one as the winner! (Entry in this contest counts as an automatic entry in the first one, btw.) Send your entry to me via email (brendan AT drawuslines DOT com) also by Thursday 09.08 at 11:59 pm, and we’ll talk amongst ourselves and share the winning entry the next day.

Best of luck to everyone, and see yinz at the show!

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Buy tickets for this show: Online / call 412.237.8300 / Facebook event / Warhol Sound Series website

The Olivia Tremor Control on the web: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Cloud Recordings / Insound
The Music Tapes on the web: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Merge Records / Insound
Elephant 6 Collective on the web: Website / Facebook / Forum

Filed under: Live Music, Ticket Giveaway