July 1997 | Denver Weekly

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In January the Apples began making preparations for their upcoming CD, tentatively titled Tone Soul Evolution. Shortly thereafter, the musicians headed to Hartford, Connecticut, to begin recording at Studio 45, a facility located in the most unlikely of places. "It 's the old Colt Factory," Schneider divulges. "It used to be an armory, where they made most of the country's weapons between the Civil War and the Korean War. It was shut down in the Fifties or Sixties, but more recently they built this studio there, and it's amazing. It's on one of the biggest buildings I've ever seen. It's so big it's almost inconceivable."

That the Apples were interested in recording anywhere other than their home studio in Denver comes as something of a surprise. After all, Schneider has made virtually all of the Apples' platters-as well as critically lauded long-players by Olivia Tremor Control, Chocolate U.S.A. and the aforementioned Neutral Milk Hotel-using his own gear. But for the followup to the act's Funtricknoisemaker, a CD showered with compliments by numerous national publications and artists such as Beck, Schneider was determined not to take any shortcuts. "We had been working here with our eight-track, but it was sort of a scattered effort," he admits. "There just wasn't as much passion in it as I wanted. Besides, in the last couple of years we've gotten better live, and the recording just didn't measure up. We did a live four-track tape, and it sounded fifty times better than the one we'd been working on."

As a result, Schneider and company began to cast about for somewhere new to record. They settled on Studio 45, in part because of the impressive full-lengths that have been made there by the Lilys and the Silver Jews, among others. But the real selling point was engineer Michael Deming. "He's a great guy," Schneider says."And he was just what we needed, because I really wanted to work with an engineer on this album. It's hard for me to produce, engineer and play at the same time- I can't do justice to all three things. And I wanted things to sound on tape the way they did in my head. The previous recordings have been somewhat muddy because we've put so much on top of the original tracks that they sort of got drowned out. But with Michael helping us and the 24-track they've got at Studio45, I knew we could sound the way I always wanted us to." This process was slowed considerably by several pleasant interruptions. In February the Apples were invited to tour with Sebadeh. Then , a few weeks later, the outfit was invited to open a string of dates for Pavement. "We were right in the middle of things, and by doing that, It knocked two weeks out of our recording schedule," Schneider says. "But they're one of our favorite groups. We just couldn't turn it down." The case was much the same for a June jaunt the independent Sealed Fate imprint that Schneider describes as "really amazing-like a cross between Gerry and the Pacemakers and Badfinger."

Now, however, the Apples are home, and Schneider can hardly be more enthusiastic about the material that will make up the new CD. "Most modern records have a certain gloss to them, but not this one. It's very warm and natural:modern minus the gloss. There's a lot of piano, horns, percussion and stuff on it, but there are also tons of guitars;it's a much more guitar-oriented record than we've made before. And best of all, it sounds like a real record so that nobody could say,"Well, it's good for the kind of record it is."It's good enough, I wanted it just to be great-and I think it is." The album is scheduled to be issued under the spinArt insignia on September 9.

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Sept 1997 | College Music Jounal

Make mention to a pop junkie that his favored music style is no longer the focal point of the musical mainstream and his eyes will go vacant and glaze over. Only after his friends remind him of recent pop achievements- the High Llamas, Richard Davies, Magnetic Fields, the Apples In Stereo-will the color return to the face of the pale victim. Because after all, even though those aforementioned bands are not topping the charts, they are certainly making amazing pop music. Like their spiritual brothers and sisters, the Apples In Stereo take much influence from the Beatles and the Beach Boys, as heard through the ears of '80s popsters. After one album, 1955's Fun Trick Noisemaker, and last year's Science Faire, a compilation of singles and odds 'n' ends, talented songwriter Robert Schneider, with the help of drummer/vocalist Hilarie Sidney, guitarist John Hill and bassist Jim McIntyre, has a beuy of well-crafted songs on the band's new album, Tone Soul Evolution. They do it with straightforward but catchy hooks, choruses you can sing along to, and lyrics that aren't afraid to use a metaphor. Sounding both lush and lo-fi, songs like "Seems So," "Shine A Light," "Silver Chain," and "We'll Come To Be" are the cure for pop blahs that ail you.

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Oct 2, 1997 | Hartford Courant

Cd Reviews & New Releases
"If they'd listen to me whistling, they'd whistle along,"sings Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo, confessing his dream with a trace of regret on "Tin Pan Alley," from his band's excellent third album. Indeed, Schneider has created an indie-rock Tin Pan Alley, started in, of all places, tiny Rustin, La. It's known as the Elephant 6 Recording Collective and includes bands like the Apples, Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control, who have each in different ways blended '60s sounds and production qualities with wildly tuneful melodies and adventurous instrumentation. The Apples are the most accessible of the Elephant 6 bands. The fingerprints of Brian Wilson and the Beatles are everywhere. Yet, ironically, the Apples' songs are produced so perfectly, they yield treasures with each listen. Recorded at Hartford's Studio 45 with maestro Mike Deming "Tone Soul Evolution" is the band's most fully realized album yet. The sound is magnificent;the hooks and melodies tumble one after another, especially "Seems So," "Will Come To Be" and "About Your Fame." Would that the world whistle along. The Apples In Stereo open for Son Volt Monday at Toad's Place in New Haven.

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Jan 1998 | Rolling Stone

It is, to borrow a (para) phrase from another time, like grunge never happened. If the resurgence of Brit bands, bubblegum pop and disco isn't proof enough, consider the state of late-'90s low-fi indie rock: Home recording and grass-roots ideologies remain prominent but, aesthetically, bands like the Apples In Stereo aren't low-fi, idie or rock. The Apples'debut, Fun Trick Noisemaker, came out in '95, making them the first band to emerge from the Elephant 6 collective of cross-pollinating psychedelic popsmiths, whose numbers also include the Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel. Apples leadman Robert Schneider is practically a member of the other two like-minded combos as well. What those minds like is "stereosymphonic" '60s music, in all its fabulously harmonic and catchy candied glory.(Schneider's Denver studio is called Pet Sounds; he's also a big Zombies and Beatles fan.) Tone Soul Evolution uses 24 tracks to continue the Apples's pursuit of lavish, slightly addled melodic beauty. There are ukulele, sleigh bells,"sound-collage art" and six different people on hand claps. Despite Schneider's aspirations toward broody, ornamented epics(such as the moody, two-part "Silvery Light of a Dream"), it's his simplest moments that resonate best:the Byrdsian hookery of "Seems So", the time-warp garage guitar on "What's the #?", the potent lyrics and jangling, carnival charm of "Tin Pan Alley." Schneider's hereos were about good songs as much as groovy sounds;likewise, Tone Soul Evolution is best when it measures up at both ends.

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Jan 1998 | e-Online

Apples In Stereo Tone Soul Evolution B+
Ingeniously dinky like a shiny little pull-toy. The Denver-based Apples In Stereo have polished up pop psychedelia in the tradition of the Association and Donovan to create a record full of nostalgic goodies. The best stuff here lays multitrack vocals and 12-string guitars over melodies so insidiously catchy that you can't help but chirp "la-la-la" over the choruses. "Seems So" bounces around on hand claps like a Turtles classic you missed back in 1967. "Shine a Light" and "We'll Come to Be" are expert re-creations of the Buffalo Springfield, right down to Stephen Stills' guitar tone. Occasionally though, they outsmart themselves--wispy songs such as "Get There Fine" are buried unceremoniously in studio gimmicks. Nonetheless, this is not a bad trip.

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