The Olivia Tremor Control

The Olivia Tremor Control
Olivia Tremor Control live in 2005 (reunion)
Background information
Origin	Ruston, Louisiana
Genres	Indie rock, experimental rock, psychedelic pop
Years active	1992–2000 (hiatus) 2009–present
Labels	Cloud Recordings
Website	Official Website
Members	Will Cullen Hart Eric Harris John Fernandes Peter Erchick Derek Almstead
Past members	Bill Doss Jeff Mangum

The Olivia Tremor Control is a psychedelic rock band that was prominent in the mid-to-late 1990s. It was, along with The Apples in Stereo and Neutral Milk Hotel, one of the three original projects of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. The band was founded by the remnants of the group Synthetic Flying Machine (Jeff Mangum, Bill Doss, and Will Cullen Hart) in 1994. The band went on hiatus in early 2000, and later reformed in 2009.

An announcement revealed that Bill Doss had died on 31 July 2012, with the Olivia Tremor Control confirming his death on their official website. The cause of his death has not yet been revealed.

Synthetic Flying Machine was an early project of Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, and Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum. The band later went on to become known as the Olivia Tremor Control, with Hart and Doss remaining members while Mangum eventually left to focus on Neutral Milk Hotel. The band had only one official release to their name, Heaven Is for Kids, but there are several other tape cassettes of music distributed among friends and collaborators. Many of the songs performed by Synthetic Flying Machine later became songs by Neutral Milk Hotel ("Arms So Real") or Olivia Tremor Control ("Shaving Spiders", "Opera House"). Jeff Mangum wrote a song about the band of the same name, which became "Up and Over" and finally "The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 3" on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

The band's distinct sound is a mixture of Doss and Hart's pop and experimental tendencies. This chemistry is evident in their albums given that some tracks are 2–3 minute songs, while others are electro-acoustic collages ranging in length from 2 seconds to 10 minutes, and differing in content from vibrant horns to near silence. Furthermore, the band released a record of experimental electro-acoustic music, The Late Music, Volume One, under the name The Black Swan Network, in 1997. Another Black Swan Network release, a 7" EP on the Happy Happy Birthday to Me label, appeared in 2000, though it did not feature Bill Doss. In October 1997, a "collaborative" LP between the Olivia Tremor Control and The Black Swan Network was released, originally as a tour-only item, and later put out as a CD by Flydaddy, which gave the record the title, The Olivia Tremor Control vs. The Black Swan Network, though the band had never wanted the record to be named as such.