Elephant 6 Collective Label Returns With Reissue Of Debut Album From The Gerbils

Things may have been quiet for the last decade on the "label" front, but the Elephant Six Recording Company -- home of The Apples in stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and more -- never really ever went away; I guess you could say it just took a really long nap. In 2019, the slumber is over as the E6 label imprint relaunches with a series of reissues, new albums, and some first-time-ever-released-to-the-public releases from the deep archives (we'll save that announcement for another time, but you won't believe it when we tell you).

Listen here:

The first release on the newly-relaunched Elephant Six label will be the 1998 debut album Are You Sleepy by The Gerbils. For those who know the E6 history, I'm sure you already know The Gerbils are from Ruston, LA, but they were always considered an Athens, GA, band since all those Ruston folks settled in Athens before the collective became known to the general public. I'm sure you also know The Gerbils features both Scott Spillane and Jeremy Barnes of Neutral Milk Hotel. I'm sure you also know that The Gerbils were the scrappy psychedelic tape warble 4-track misfits of E6 with a love of 70s prog rock that also kept the collective firmly rooted in the outsider indie-rock scene at the time. But hey, E6 super nerd, this press release isn't for you. It's for the new fans.

So please enjoy one of the best lo-fi indie-pop/indie-rock records of the late 90s. Are You Sleepy was available on CD worldwide and on a very limited run of vinyl in the UK back in the day. Thankfully, the Elephant Six Collective Recording Co. imprint is back and have put this awesome record back in print for all those folks who missed it the first time around.