Clay Bears

[the grizzly prospector]

Does anyone have any music by them? I know they released a double LP. I have been searching the internet like a mad man trying to find out info on them. If anyone here could explain them I would greatly appreciate it.

fondly,
p.

[uncle eggma]

i never heard anything about that release other than mangum mentioning it during that radio interview from england..... but who knows?.....

[el topo]

This stuff needs to get rereleased. Other than personal friends of Elephant 6, I don't think anybody owns the stuff. It's certainly never been shared online.

Where's that Elephant 6 box set we were promised so long ago?

[defgav]

http://neutralmilkhotel.org/

THE CLAY BEARS
Not much is know about the mysterious Elephant 6 band, the Clay Bears. Elephant6.com posts the following about the band: "Clay Bears - One of the big mysteries of the E6. Apparently a super-group of some sort from the Ruston-era. The band had a revolving door line-up which at some points included such people as Scott Spillane, Jeff Mangum & Will Westbrook. They are thanked in the liner notes of Neutral Milk Hotel's album On Avery Island."

In a BBC interview in August 1998, Jeff mentioned the Clay Bears had a double album which was poised to be released. This never transpired, however. Ross Beach, a member of the band for a while, told me the following: "As far as I know, the Clay Bears never had any official releases, though there were probably some 4-track cassette one-offs floating around Ruston in the early 90's. That was also a Jeff solo project, only noisier and more chaotic. The live version that I was in was purely an experimental noise improv band."

[Plastic_hero]

Ross Beach has a homepage (http://www.rossbeach.com/) where there is some (well extremely little acctually) information. I tried mailing her a while ago, but I never got any answer, probably because she's tired of answering questions relating Jeff, and I feel a bit like an ass for trying.