{"title":"Elephant Micah","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eElephant Micah, the musical moniker of Joe O'Connell, is a talented artist hailing from Pekin, Indiana. With his own label LRRC (Luddite Rural Recording Cooperative), Elephant Micah has carved out a unique space in the music industry. His soulful and introspective sound resonates with listeners, drawing them into his world of heartfelt storytelling. Influenced by artists such as Will Johnson and Sam Amidon, Elephant Micah's music captivates with its raw emotion and authentic lyrics. Discover the enchanting melodies of Elephant Micah and immerse yourself in a truly captivating musical experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEmail: elephantmicah@hotmail.com\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eContact Address:\u003cbr\u003e\nJoe O'Connell\u003cbr\u003e\n9206 S. Old Palmyra Rd.\u003cbr\u003e\nPekin, IN 47165\u003cbr\u003e\nUSA\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"where-in-our-woods","title":"Where In Our Woods","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Where In Our Woods' features vocals by Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy. For the past 14 years, Elephant Micah's Joseph O'Connell has quietly self-released his music, sometimes collaborating with the psych-folk imprint Time-Lag Records or other very small labels. Despite the project's almost secretive status, Elephant Micah has repeatedly caught the attention of NPR, and has been championed by an impressive cohort of like-minded artists including Jason Molina, Hiss Golden Messenger, Dark Dark Dark, and Hurray for the Riff Raff. Where in Our Woods, the 12th Elephant Micah album and the first for Western Vinyl, is defined by its limited palette. The arrangements foreground nylon-string guitar and an antique portable pump organ. A stripped-down drum set, a baritone ukulele, a toy recorder, and harmony vocals (sung by Will Oldham, a friend of and key influence on O'Connell) round out the sound. This sparse ensemble leaves O'Connell's voice room to breathe, while elevating and magnifying the poetry of his songs. The album follows an ensemble cast of human and animal characters as they negotiate the supernatural and the mundane: \"Light Side\" catalogues a friend's search for sublime experience through a self-described \"redneck mysticism\" involving in drugs, sex, and travel. \"Rare Beliefs\" and \"Demise of the Bible Birds\" explore the world of a \"Bible Bird Man\" from Noblesville, Indiana, who trained exotic birds to perform stunning Christian-themed stunts. \"Albino Animals\" is a modern day journalistic ballad, summarizing three stories found in one edition of O'Connell's hometown newspaper: readers responding to the recent slaying of an albino deer, husband-and-wife meth cooks escape federal prosecution based on an error in legal process, and a rower with local roots attempts atransatlantic passage that ends in disaster. The album closes with \"Slow Time Vultures,\" which was inspired by the descent of hundreds of migrating vultures on O'Connell's parents' farm in southern Indiana. At the time of this avian congress, state government was instituting the observance of daylight savings time for the first time in Indiana. As O'Connell explains, \"Maybe it goes without saying that the unexplained appearance of a sky full of vultures might seem like a harbinger of doom. I wondered if it related to the time change. At its core, this song is in the tradition of American country songs that express indignation toward the idea of progress.\" Throughout the album, O'Connell deftly transforms the stuff of everyday American life into a series of entrancing meditations on culture, nature, religion, and modernity.   \"A beautiful slice of narcoleptic folk...\" WIRE  \/\/  \"A stealthy album, which rewards your patience.\" UNCUT  \/\/  \"Haunted Americana at its lo-fi best. Unendingly elegant.\" DUSTED  \/\/\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Western Vinyl","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50496473465163,"sku":"384145","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5e997478-a289-4965-bafe-d6bb5e2664c1_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727721238"},{"product_id":"genericana","title":"Genericana","description":"\u003cp\u003eBy day, Elephant Micah’s Joseph O'Connell works as a folklorist, documenting the local culture of southern Indiana and other Midwest regions. Not surprisingly, his songs seem to emerge from habits of travel and observation. Their account of the phenomenal world is as vivid as it is mysterious, equal parts ethnographic fact and fable. For the past 14 years, O'Connell has quietly self-released his work on CD-R and limited LPs, sometimes collaborating with the psych-folk imprint Time-Lag Records or other very small labels. Despite the project’s almost secretive status, Elephant Micah has repeatedly caught the attention of NPR, and has been championed by an impressive cohort of like-minded artists, including Jason Molina, Patterson Hood, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Dark Dark Dark. Over time, O’Connell’s songwriting has grown in confidence and intensity, while maintaining its signature restraint. \u003ci\u003eGenericana\u003c\/i\u003e, the 13th Elephant Micah album and the second on Western Vinyl, is the fruit of this long-term creative progress.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - Black Vinyl with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP+ - Limited White Vinyl with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Western Vinyl","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50497834385739,"sku":"1040052","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50497835204939,"sku":"1040054","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/4310cc07-1288-4f0e-bec2-145f1a97e765_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727733822"},{"product_id":"vague-tidings","title":"Vague Tidings","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe raw inspiration for \u003ci\u003eVague Tidings\u003c\/i\u003e came from a 2006 DIY tour of the 49th state. It was a trip that went off the beaten path sometimes a bit too far for comfort. Now, over a decade later, listeners find Joe O’Connell aka Elephant Micah stationed at a creaky spinet piano, singing about the Alaskan sky. Throughout, his lyrics take a new angle on a pet theme: human encounters with the natural world. Vague Tidings places these encounters in the American West and, at times, in its sci-fi corollary, outer space. Its imagery draws from the allure of Alaska, the idea of Western prosperity, and the human relationship to wilderness more broadly. Often, O’Connell sings about the goal of capturing and commodifying nature. In poetic sketches of resource extraction industries and dark sky tourism, frontier lust runs amok. Pipelines catch fire and stars disappear, all to the tune of a stark, uncanny Americana.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eVague Tidings\u003c\/i\u003e is a sustained, hallucinatory rendering of this theme. In style, its eight songs follow a switchback path between foggy incantations and mountain anthems. Made with a small cohort of acoustic instrumentalists, the record is rough hewn, but easy on the ears. To put Vague Tidings down on tape, O’Connell assembled some of his favorite musicians in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina area, where he’s lived since 2015: Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) bows and plucks a detuned fiddle, Matt Douglas (Mountain Goats) breathes life into various woodwinds, and Matt O’Connell (Lean Year) sets the pace on a two-piece drum set. Their loose, imaginative playing pushes Vague Tidings beyond the singer-songwriter genre into something richer in texture. Ultimately, this is foreboding but spacious music, with plenty of room for reconsidering life on earth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Jason Molina, Bonnie Prince Billy, Bill Callahan, Damien Jurado.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Western Vinyl","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50512907862347,"sku":"1115539","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50512907534667,"sku":"1115538","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/05f04938-9ad0-4d61-a9c0-680a32ef7465_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727910048"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_41d16b65_thumbnail_4096_9ce29b9b-7a7b-4412-9a85-fcd12180fa57.jpg?v=1727721218","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/elephant-micah.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}