Pitchfork

Rejoice! For the Frodo has finally joined the Elephant 6 Collective. Sort of.

Elijah Wood has signed the first act to his newly formed Simian Records -- the Apples in Stereo. And Robert Schneider & co. have a new album due, New Magnetic Wonder, their first in five years. AND Jeff Mangum's on it!

The dual-sided CD is slated for record store shelves on February 7, 2007 via Simian/Elephant 6/Yep Roc. It holds 14 songs and, says a press release, 12 "link tracks". In addition to Mangum, guest contributors include Per Ole Bratset, Bill Doss, John Ferguson, John Fernandes, Pete Fitzpatrick, Bryce Goggin (who also grabs a production credit), Matthew Goodman, W. Cullen Hart, Otto Helmuth, Jeff Holland, Tony Miller, Craig Morris, Adam Sachs, Zach Shaw, and more.

Mangum plays "drums, cow object, backing vocals, handclaps" (no, we don't know what a "cow object" is either-- a friendly reader suggested it might be one of these!), while "London audience" contributes "anger due to Apples' overly-loud guitars." Oh you sensitive Brits!

On New Magnetic Wonder, Schneider invented a new musical scale, the "Non-Pythagorean Scale", which can be experienced on an enhanced portion of the multimedia release (it includes digital files for MIDI usage and an in-depth description of the new scale, which, quite frankly, we'll need).

Other developments include the semi-loss of drummer and backup vocalist Hilarie Sidney, who left the Apples in Stereo to focus on her other band, the High Water Marks. She did, however, compose two numbers on the record: "Sunndal Song" and "Sunday Sounds".

A tour is also on its way, though dates have not yet been confirmed.

Tracklist:

Side one:

01 Can You Feel It?
02 Skyway
03 Mellotron 1
04 Energy
05 Same Old Drag
06 Joanie Don't U Worry
07 Sunndal Song
08 Droplet
09 Play Tough
10 Sun Is Out
11 Non-Pythagorean Composition 1

Side two:

12 Hello Lola
13 7 Stars
14 Mellotron 2
15 Sunday Sounds
16 Open Eyes
17 Crimson
18 Pre-Crimson
19 Vocoder Ba Ba
20 Radiation
21 Beautiful Machine Parts 1-2
22 Beautiful Machine Parts 3-4
23 My Pretend
24 Non-Pythagorean Composition 3