INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Elf Power, Ham1
Elf PowerThursday, July 17, 9 p.m., $6, 21+
Known for their sugar-sweet melodies and often elaborate pocket production, Elf Power is one of very few bands from its era to stick around long enough to see the onetime fad that was home production became standard.
“We’re all recording enthusiasts,” said Andrew Reiger, frontman of indie psych-poppers Elf Power. “We’ve done a lot of home recording over the years; our bass player Derek Almstead runs a recording studio out of his home, so we recorded the new record there.”
The result, released this April as In a Cave, is a pop collection that will instantly remind listeners of the band’s connection to the Elephant 6 collective, a now legendary gathering of Athens, Ga.-based, ’90s-era experimental pop-makers. “I think the new album turned out really well; we did things a bit differently,” Rieger said when asked about the album’s timeless, yet still adventurous sound. “Some of the songs I came up with on acoustic guitar and did demos for, later giving them to the rest of the band. We all kind of came up with the arrangements together, everyone doing their own parts.”
The band has another album in the pike this year: an as yet untitled collaboration with idiosyncratic storyteller Vic Chesnutt, to be released this October on the band’s own Athens-based label, Orange Twin Records.
“We’re big fans of Vic Chesnutt and he lives in Athens, Ga., where we live,” Rieger said. “We’ve gotten to know him over the years and he has this home recording studio in his attic. We go over there and he teaches us songs and we run through ’em and record ’em.”