Chris Parfitt is an American guitarist who was one of the founding members of the Elephant 6 indie pop

Indie pop

Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...

 band The Apples in Stereo

The Apples in Stereo

The Apples in Stereo, styled The Apples in stereo, is an American indie rock band associated with The Elephant Six Collective, a group of bands also including Neutral Milk Hotel and The Olivia Tremor Control. The band is largely a product of lead vocalist/guitarist Robert Schneider, who writes the...

. Before his 1993 departure, he co-wrote the songs "Tidal Wave" and "Not the Same" with Robert Schneider

Robert Schneider

Robert Peter Schneider is one of the co-founders of The Elephant 6 Recording Company, along with Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, and Jeff Mangum...

 and his performances appear on the band's original self-titled EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 Apples.

Parfitt met Robert Schneider in 1992 through a classified ad looking for a bass player. They hit it off over a mutual love of Pavement

Pavement (band)

Pavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...

 and The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...

. Before long he was introduced to Jim McIntyre and Hilarie Sidney, and the four started the Apples.

Since leaving The Apples, Parfitt has been recording sporadically with the band Vince Mole and His Calcium Orchestra, where bandmates include Kingsauce

Kingsauce

Kingsauce is a "novelty-pop" project headed by Richie Chodes. They are considered to be an extension of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Combining elements of mid-1960s pop, 1970s AM radio, and a touch of vaudeville, Kingsauce creates tunes with silly, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Their last full...

 members Richie Chodes and Kevin Swope.

On September 21, 2007 Parfitt made a brief appearance at Maxwell's

Maxwell's

Maxwell's is a music club in Hoboken, New Jersey that also has a restaurant. The intimate venue often attracts a wide variety of acts looking for a change from the New York City concert spaces across the river.-History:...

 in Hoboken, NJ, a reunion of sorts during which he joined the band playing guitar on some of The Apples' early songs.