Remember when Elephant 6 was a living, kicking and screaming multi-tentacled music-making machine? Side projects of side projects of indie-pop goodness hailing the days of the beach boys. So many band members interchanging between each band, groups like Olivia Tremor Control would have a list of 20 different people who played in the band for a studio recording... What a beautiful community of artistry.As I was slow to become privy to many of the things going on in the '90's, I stumbled upon this genre of music on accident in a Sam Goody, in 1998. I had never heard Olivia Tremor Control before and for some reason unknown to me (divine intervention?!) bought Black Foliage. Upon taking it home and listening to it all the way through, I was in love with the band, the poppy, spaced out sound and even the semi-annoying interludes of noise.From there I moved on to more and more bands stemming from the Elephant 6 collective including Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples in Stereo, Elf Power and Of Montreal. All of these bands completely reshaped my taste in music for the better and I owe them all a serious thank you and collective pat on the back for doing what they were doing anyway.How frickin' sweet would that concert have been?!As of late, it seems I owe a more unlikely suspect a round of thanks. Who might you ask? Elijah Wood! AKA Frodo Baggins, also AKA Huckleberry Finn and also that guy with the weird glasses in that movie about a jewish guy looking for his past (i think thats what it was about, i passed out halfway through). ANYWAY, he signed the group to his label Simian Records and got them in the studio again to record their first album in over 5 years! The album was released a little less than a year ago and is nothing short of an amazing debut from a recording company that has never before released an album. Not to mention it is a breathtaking album as far as Apples albums go as well.This brings me to what i wanted to talk about when i began writing. After thinking that Elephant six had been all but decapitated (apart from of montreal) here came the Apples in Stereo last year with an amazing new album and a tour to back it up. I saw them at the Subterranean in Chicago with 2 other phenomenal live bands that know how to pop and rock at the same time, Tullycraft and Casper & the Cookies. It was the best show i have seen in a looong time, and might be the most memorable. I NEVER thought i would be able to see the Apples in concert, not to mention that the keyboardist was dressed up in the coolest space-man outfit ever and a dude from OTC graced us with his presence. And before the concert when Rob Schneider walked by me and was like "sorry man" and i said "for what?" and he said "for bumping into you?" and i was like "you didn't man, but rock this place tonight!" What a courteous guy, apologizing for not even doing a thing. Maybe he was apologizing for his future self rocking my socks off in their encore with Strawberry Fire.