Neutral Milk Hotel
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| Neutral Milk Hotel | ||
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 Neutral Milk Hotel. From left to right: Jeff Mangum, Scott Spillane, Julian Koster and Jeremy Barnes.
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| Background information | ||
| Origin | Ruston, Louisiana, United States | |
| Genre(s) | Indie rock, Indie pop | |
| Years active | 1989–1998 | |
| Label(s) | Elephant 6, Merge Records |
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| Website | Official website | |
| Members | ||
| Jeff Mangum Scott Spillane Jeremy Barnes Julian Koster |
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Neutral Milk Hotel was an American indie rock band. The band's chief lyricist and songwriter, Jeff Mangum played with a number of other musicians on the band's two full-length albums. Notable contributors to the band's oeuvre include Jeremy Barnes (drums), Scott Spillane (horns), Julian Koster (banjo/bass guitar/saw) and producer-instrumentalist Robert Schneider. Neutral Milk Hotel is a part of The Elephant 6 Recording Company, based out of Athens, Georgia.
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[edit] History
[edit] Origins
Jeff Mangum, along with high-school friends Will Cullen Hart and Bill Doss, formed the The Olivia Tremor Control, with Mangum appearing on their first release, the California Demise 7".
Prior to recording for friends under the NMH moniker, Mangum recorded at least one cassette under the name Milk; the most well-known of these tapes was called Pygmie Barn in E Minor. These are the earliest known recordings that Mangum initiated and executed himself. There were only an estimated dozen or so copies ever made of this tape, none of which has been made public. It was revealed circa 2006 on the Elephant 6 online forums that another tape under said name, entitled Beauty, was released, along with several recordings under the name Rubby Bulbs (also a song dating from that era, perhaps the only Milk song to be played by Neutral Milk Hotel).
Neutral Milk Hotel began simply as a recording project for Mangum, in the early 1990's. He produced several demo cassettes, among them 1991's Invent Yourself a Shortcake, 1992's Beauty (not to be confused with the earlier cassette), and 1993's Hype City Soundtrack, along with two more from this period, seemingly unnamed. Although easily found on the Internet, these demos capture the project at a very embryonic stage: songs are played in between various sound collages and tape experiments, one of which consists only of a six minute conversation between Mangum and Hart.
During this period, Mangum was wandering the country, staying in the closets of friends, and in a state of perpetual unemployment. It was in these circumstances that the band's first formal releases took shape. Strictly speaking, however, the 'band' usually consisted of Mangum and whoever else was present at the time. This is obvious on Neutral Milk Hotel's first release, a 7" record entitled Everything Is, recorded when Mangum was spending time in Seattle, Washington, released on Cher Doll Records in 1994.
[edit] On Avery Island
A full album, On Avery Island, followed, this time recorded mainly in Denver, Colorado, where Mangum was backed by Robert Schneider of the The Apples in Stereo, Rick Benjamin of the Perry Weissman Three and Lisa Janssen of Secret Square. It was released by Merge Records in 1996. Despite being overshadowed by their more popular second release, On Avery Island stands on its own as a brilliant meld of folk and lo-fi indie rock. Mangum's unique vocal style and the band's quirky but playful arrangements create a carnival atmosphere of moods ranging from excitement to suspense to melodrama.
After the release of Avery Island, Neutral Milk Hotel became a fully-fledged band, as Julian Koster, Scott Spillane and Jeremy Barnes joined Mangum, the band now being based in New York. Soon after this, they moved to Athens, GA, where many of Mangum's friends had begun to settle, and the Elephant 6 recording company began to fully take shape. After this, the band went back to Denver, to record a proper follow up to On Avery Island.
[edit] In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and final show
- "In The Aeroplane over the Sea" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- "In the Aeroplane over the Sea", from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
- "Holland, 1945" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- "Holland, 1945", from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
- Problems playing the files? See media help.
The band's second LP, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, released in 1998, is notable as a critically acclaimed work and a widely popular recording. It is a spiritually motivated work conceptually based on the beauty to be found in the horrific fate of Anne Frank and similarly overwhelming tragedies. During live performances, including the one released under the title Live at Jittery Joe's, Mangum has described some of the songs off this album as based on urgent, recurring dreams he had of a Jewish family during World War II. The album was highly praised by critics for its wildly inventive instrumentation and Mangum's provocative and impassioned lyrics. Although it met with scant response from the general public when it was released, the recording has continued to gain momentum in indie music circles and has become a cult classic, selling well over 100,000 copies according to Merge Records. However, the record along with the year of constant touring that succeeded it took its toll on Mangum. The band quite abruptly went on hiatus turning down all requests for shows, including a support slot for R.E.M., and little was heard from Mangum after that point.
However, before Neutral Milk Hotel began their indefinite hiatus, Mangum played live at a house show on December 5, 1998 in Athens. The bill was shared with Elf Power, and the audience was made up almost completely of friends and bandmates. Playing solo and acoustic, Mangum opened the set with what was to be the only post-Aeroplane composition to be performed in public, "Little Birds". He explained to the audience that the song is about a boy whose body becomes filled up with miniature birds that come out of the bathtub faucet and protect him from his murderous father (who has apparently already killed the main character's younger brother).
| “ | Did you know the burning hell it took your baby brother? Did you see how far he fell and how he made us suffer? Another boy in town at night he took him for his lover And deep in sin they held each other So I took a hammer, nearly beat his little brains in Knowing God in Heaven would have never could forgive him |
” |
Mangum finished the rest of the evening with most of the Aeroplane songs, encouraging the audience to sing along in substitute for the horn parts. For the last several songs, Scott Spillane took his trumpet in to an adjacent room and played his parts through the wall. A recording of the show is known to exist, but has never been officially released.
Mangum played another show on December 31, 1998, at which he performed the songs "Oh Sister", "Engine", and "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", joined by Koster and Spillane. In 2002, Mangum played a single show in New Zealand, his last to date.
[edit] Hiatus
Although all the members are still active with one another in other projects, it is unknown whether any more Neutral Milk Hotel albums will be released. There were plans to release a Neutral Milk Hotel rarities album on the Orange Twin label; its cancellation was subsequently announced in 2005 on the Orange Twin website, stating that Jeff Mangum decided against the project. Currently, it is unclear if this will ever happen.
There has, however, been some activity since Aeroplane. First, Orange Twin re-released Everything Is, complete with extra bonus tracks, as well as Live at Jittery Joe's, a live recording by filmmaker Lance Bangs of a show Mangum played in a coffee house in Athens, Georgia in 1997. The Major Organ and the Adding Machine album, a rather secretive project released by Orange Twin in 2001 and consisting mainly of experimental musical collage, features Mangum, along with Julian Koster, Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes, Elf Power's Andrew Reiger and the Olivia Tremor Control and Circulatory System's Will Cullen Hart and Eric Harris. There was also the release of Orange Twin Field Works: Volume I, Mangum's field recording of a Bulgarian folk festival, also on Orange Twin in 2001. Additionally, he plays drums on the first Circulatory System album.
Since the breakup of Neutral Milk Hotel, Jeff Mangum has only played live proper again once, at the Kings Arms pub in Auckland, New Zealand, at the request of the Tall Dwarfs's Chris Knox. The band was billed as 'World of Wild Beards Incorporated', although when he explains this bizarre name during the course of the show, Mangum gives a small speech referring to the name 'Walking Wall of Beards Incorporated'. He has also made appearances with Elf Power and The Instruments, and came onstage at the first of the Olivia Tremor Control's New York shows on their 2005 reunion tours, to sing briefly. Further releases from Neutral Milk Hotel, however, are indicated to be unlikely.
The other members are all still releasing material: Julian Koster as The Music Tapes, Scott Spillane as The Gerbils and Jeremy Barnes as A Hawk & A Hacksaw, Bablicon and Marta Tennae.
In 2005, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea saw its re-release by Domino Records in the UK, in a sleeve featuring praise from, among others, Franz Ferdinand and Arcade Fire, both very much influenced by the band. On Avery Island will be re-released in the US in October of 2006 with bonus tracks by Fire Records. Mangum has also been fairly creatively busy - following a charity auction on eBay of an acoustic guitar decorated by Mangum himself, more guitars hand-decorated by Mangum were sold via Orange Twin Records for $900 apiece. Also, a number of Mangum's original drawings, this time costing only $10 each, were sold via Neutral Milk Hotel's website.
In 2006, a message was posted on the Elephant 6 message board, purportedly from Jeff Mangum. The message suggested that Mangum would again record music and tour, though it was unclear if it would be under the Neutral Milk Hotel moniker or another one. It soon caused an enormous stir within the indie community, and news of the message appeared in Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and Billboard. However, it was eventually discredited by Robert Schneider, frontman for The Apples in Stereo and close friend of Mangum's. The perpetrator of the hoax (which convinced many sources close to Mangum) is still unknown.
On March 30th, 2007, music webzine Tiny Mix Tapes announced that it would be holding a festival at which Neutral Milk Hotel would be "reuniting all over your cheerios". However, later that same day the festival was revealed as an early April Fool's joke.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Demo cassettes
- Pygmie Barn in E Minor (as Milk) (cassette; 1989)
- Beauty (as Milk) (cassette; 1989)
- Invent Yourself a Shortcake (cassette; 1991)
- Beauty (Elephant 6; cassette; 1992)
- Hype City Soundtrack (Elephant 6; cassette; 1993)
- Demo 1 (cassette; 1993)
- Demo 2 (cassette; 1993)
[edit] Albums
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 Billed as a Jeff Mangum record, but every song on the album, aside from a single cover, is a Neutral Milk Hotel song. |
[edit] EPs and singles
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[edit] Compilation appearances
- Those Pre-phylloxera Years (Box Dog Sound; Vinyl 7"; 1993)
- Periscope: Another Yoyo Compilation (Yoyo; LP/CD; 1994)
- Amazing Phantom Third Channel (Cher Doll; Vinyl 7"; 1994)
- Yoyo a GoGo '94 (Yoyo; LP/CD; 1994)
- Champagne Dancing Party (Cher Doll; EP; 1995)
- Master Pete Capitol and His Magic EP (Ptolemaic Terrascope No. 21) (Ptolemaic Terrascope; Vinyl 7"; 1996)
- Ptolemaic Terrascope No. 21 (Ptolemaic Terrascope; EP; 1996)
- The Basement Tapes, Volume Two: Live Underground (KSPC; CD; 1997)
- Audio CD-29 (Audio Magazine; CD; 1997)
- I Wouldn't Piss on It If It Was on Fire (Fire; CD; 1998)
- 9 O'Clock in the Morning (Blue Rose; CD; 1998)
- More Than You Can Ask or Imagine (Blue Rose; CD; 1998)
- Oh, Merge: Merge Records 10 Year Anniversary Compilation (Merge; CD; 1999)
- Songs for Summer (Merge; CD; 2000)
- Orange Twin Records Sampler (Orange Twin; CD; 2002)
- Old Enough to Know Better (Merge; CD; 2004)
[edit] Books
- Cooper, Kim, 33 1/3: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (2005) ISBN 0-8264-1690-X
- Azerrad, Michael, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 (2002) ISBN 0-316-78753-1
- Derogatis, Jim, Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock (2003) ISBN 0-634-05548-8
[edit] External links
[edit] Official Sites
- Neutral Milk Hotel's official website
- The band's page at Elephant 6's website
- Official Neutral Milk Hotel discussion board
- Latest news about the band's 33 1/3 book is a dead link; use the Internet Archive link instead
[edit] Fan Sites
- The Carrot Flower Kingdom: Full, informative discography, most up to date information
- Sashwap: Mp3s, quicktime movies, lyrics, etc.
- Sadtomato: FAQ, lyrics, fan contributions, etc.
- Optical Atlas: Elephant 6 Fansite with NMH content
[edit] External Sources
- Ptolemaic Terrascope biography
- Interactive map to Neutral Milk Hotel's psycho-geography
- Pitchfork: Jeff Mangum Interview
- Pitchfork: The Unreleased Recordings of Jeff Mangum and Neutral Milk Hotel is a dead link; use the Internet Archive link instead
- Essay on Neutral Milk Hotel in Examinations Archive
- 'World of Wild Beards' gig poster
- Neutral Milk Hotel Feature at No Ripcord
- Video of Halloween 1997 Performance
