The Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour

Earlier volumes of Continuum Books’ 33⅓ series on classic albums covered superstars like the Beatles, Prince and Pink Floyd, yet when Kim Cooper’s volume on Neutral Milk Hotel was published in 2005, it quickly became the series’ best seller. That might seem surprising: an ultra-indie folk-art band that tenuously existed in the ’90s outselling legendary platinum artists. But when one considers the loyalty of the cult surrounding this band and its cohorts in the Elephant 6 Recording Company collective, it makes perfect sense. Every single covetous fan needed a copy.

So don’t expect a lot of elbow room when this nostalgia tour comes to town. Following its Clinton-era gravy days, the loosely connected family of bands folded the E6 umbrella, so this grand tour is sort of a reunion/revival/convention. It features members of Elf Power, Olivia Tremor Control, Gerbils and Neutral Milk Hotel. Julian Koster will represent the latter and will bring along his robotic “bandmates” from Music Tapes, but probably not his reclusive former bandmate Jeff Mangum. (Perhaps Jeff will be hiding in the seven-foot-tall metronome.)

While E6 bands didn’t have one unified sound, what enchanted the fanatics was an approach to psychedelic music that embraced pop while maintaining a cerebral edge. And though nonfanatics can be forgiven if they don’t totally dig these bands’ oddball acid sounds, you still shouldn’t miss this show. There must have been an E6 manifesto declaring that earnestness and theatricality are not mutually exclusive (see Of Montreal). Bonus: Koster bills this as a multimedia variety show with a movie, stage silliness and premature holiday cheer. It’ll be better than the book.