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Feb 01, 2026 By Frank Valish

J-Card Press specializes in slim biographies of artists or bands whose histories have not yet been chronicled in book form. For its most recent, and sixth, book, Josh Bloom, who has spent years in music publicity and has his own specific and close relationship with frontman Robert Schneider and his band, lends his prodigious and diverse talents to The Apples in Stereo.

The Apples in Stereo were among the first bands in the Elephant 6 collective, despite its home base being in Denver, Colorado, rather than Athens, Georgia, where many of the rest of the Elephant 6 bands resided. The Apples were helmed by frontman/songwriter and producer extraordinaire Robert Schneider, whose then wife Hilarie Sidney also anchored the band’s core lineup until her departure after the band’s fifth album, 2002’s Velocity of Sound.

Bloom’s book, while relative brief (as are all the J-Card titles) at under 200 pages, is an absolute delight. He chronicles the band’s beginnings, highlighting songs from throughout its catalog and relying on primary source information in interviews with Schneider, Sidney, and many others throughout the Elephant 6 universe. All the relevant bases are covered, but this is more than an ordinary band bio. Bloom’s language is playful, keeping the reader enrapt in the story. He has intimate knowledge of the band’s history, which is abundantly clear, but he renders said knowledge in a way that’s as fun as the music he’s describing. Also, to the book’s strength, Bloom makes his biases known and often even puts them at the forefront. Specifically, he leans strongly toward the Sidney-era of the band in terms of musical liking, which leads to an ongoing subplot of his re-examining the band’s two post-Sidney albums, 2007’s New Magnetic Wonder and 2010’s Traveller’s in Space and Time, coincidentally the era from which most of the Apples’ best known material is found.

Bloom’s The Apples in Stereo is more than a welcome addition to the bookshelf of those who have been in love with the band since the early 2000s. It’s a template for how music biographies should be written. (www.jcardpress.com)

Author rating: 9/10