Everything about Neutral Milk Hotel totally explained
Neutral Milk Hotel was an
American indie folk band. The band's chief
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.
History
Origins
Jeff Mangum, along with high-school friends
Will Cullen Hart and
Bill Doss, formed
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
1990s. 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. Another track, "Digestion Machine", features a varied collage of voices answering the question asked by Mangum, "What does the digestion machine mean to you?" The more accessible "Synthetic Flying Machine", also titled "Up and Over", later became "The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 3" on
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
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.
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 Apples in Stereo, Rick Benjamin of The Perry Weissman 3 and Lisa Janssen of
Secret Square. It was released by
Merge Records in
1996.
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.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and final show
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. 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'd 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, 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 abruptly went on hiatus, turning down all requests for shows, including a support slot for
R.E.M.
Before Neutral Milk Hotel began their indefinite hiatus, Mangum played live at a house show on
December 5,
1998 in Athens on Chris Bilheimer's birthday. 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). 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.
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, 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 the
World of Wild Beards Incorporated, although when he explains this bizarre name during the course of the show, Mangum gives a small speech about an obscure, seemingly fictional company existing in the early
1900s named "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 and 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. Mangum has also done a few small art projects - 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.
Discography
Studio albums
EPs
1994: Everything Is
Singles
1998: "Holland, 1945"Further Information
Get more info on 'Neutral Milk Hotel'.
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