The Zimmermann Note

On first listen, Black Foliage might sound like a bunch of random blips and gadgets strewn together with pop-centric melodies, but deeper listens will reveal a much more deliberate approach to their music. Black Foliage was my introduction to not only the Olivia Tremor Control but to the Elephant 6 Collective, which began my madness in the late 90s of attempting to purchase any and all of these bands.

There was something that Athens, Georgia gave rock and roll and that was the ability to collaborate outside of your own group. For much of the music scene you could make the argument that it just wasn’t something that was seen all that much. R.E.M., made it okay, and the Elephant 6 made it part of their livelihood.

Olivia Tremor Control did not have the benefit of Pro Tools. They embraced the idea of lo-fi psychedelic music that involved their friends providing whatever utilitarian concept they could with the entire notion of releasing an album. That might have been constructing flowchart diagrams so that each portion could be recorded on the limited amount of equipment that they had as the entire album was recorded on 4 and 8 track recorders.

For OTC, they were the unique underwater psychedelic and highly visual band of the E6. Black Foliage is 27 tracks that lay out pop nuggets in-between odd interludes that push itself more like a puppet show than a rock and roll album.

While I have felt that the band was one of the seminal acts that were able to produce substantially with very little, their concept of producing in the studio was unlike many acts today in that their shows were often unique. It might have been the band arriving on stage from the audience reminiscent if the Peanuts characters had started their own band and were marching around Charlie Brown’s backyard.

The sound would be layers of instrumentation and vocals not to mention the blips and bleeps that they would capture that would leave mesmerized and wanting more. Only in the last few years the band had reformed and there was plans to release new material but with the recent unexpected passing of Bill Doss one of the founding members who played a prominent role in it’s sound, I would imagine that those plans are tabled.

For me, there are always surprises when I listen to the album again. It might be an instrument that stands out more prominently now than the last time or just the glee of taking into account the purpose of listening to the album and that would be to imagine and dream.

As a sidenote: I have attempted at all possible to post live video of the bands that I have been discussing. In certain cases the live streaming videos would not do the band justice in posting. For a band like the Olivia Tremor Control, it makes sense to just put on a pair of headphones, turn out the lights and close your eyes.