Olivia Tremor Control returns from the Great Beyond!

Twenty-seven years. Two departed songwriters. One long-lost hard drive. And finally, a new Olivia Tremor Control album.

On this episode of The New Dad Rock, Steve and Keith dive into the unlikely arrival of The Same Place, the first new album from the Elephant 6 psychedelic collective since Black Foliage in 1999. With founding songwriters Bill Doss and Will Cullen Hart both gone, how did their bandmates manage to complete a record that had been in the works for years? The answer involves forgotten recordings, multiple formats, decades-old sessions, and a musical community determined to finish what it started.

But this isn't just a story about archival archaeology and unfinished business. Steve and Keith revisit the strange, wonderful world of Olivia Tremor Control: the irresistible pop melodies, sprawling sound collages, tape-loop experiments, and psychedelic excursions that made the band one of the most fascinating acts to emerge from the nineties indie underground. Along the way, they revisit the parallel paths of the Sunshine Fix and Circulatory System, consider the legacy of Elephant 6, and ask the big question: does The Same Place stand up as an album in its own right, or does its extraordinary backstory shape how we hear it?

Can a record assembled across decades recapture the spirit of a band that no longer exists? And where does it belong alongside those first two remarkable albums?

It's a story about friendship, experimentation, memory, and the strange afterlife of music. Some records take a little longer to find their way into the world.

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