hypersongs

Neutral Milk Hotel

Jeff Mangum's Louisiana-born indie band, part of the Elephant 6 circle, whose In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998) became one of the decade's most loved records, and which holds "Two-Headed Boy".

Ruston, Athens and Elephant 6

Neutral Milk Hotel began in the late 1980s as Jeff Mangum's high-school home-recording project, called Milk, in Ruston, Louisiana. Mangum, born Jeffrey Nye Mangum on October 24, 1970, renamed it after learning of another band called Milk, on a name suggested by Will Cullen Hart; Bill Doss said it was a Dada-influenced non sequitur with no meaning. Early cassettes carried the imaginary label Elephant 6, shared with Robert Schneider, Bill Doss and Hart. The single "Everything Is" came out on Cher Doll in 1993, and Merge's Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan signed the band through its manager Brian McPherson.

On Avery Island, recorded between February and May 1995 in Denver and at a home on four-track reel-to-reel, with Robert Schneider producing, came out on Merge on March 26, 1996 (Fire in the UK, September 30, 1996), 47:58, and sold about 5,000. Julian Koster, Jeremy Barnes and Scott Spillane joined in 1996 and 1997; the first full-lineup gig was on April 28, 1997 at Brownies in the East Village, after which the band moved to Athens, Georgia.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and after

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, produced by Schneider at Pet Sounds Studio in Denver between July and September 1997 and released by Merge on February 10, 1998, runs 39:55. Merge pressed 5,500 CDs and 1,600 LPs; it never charted on the Billboard 200, but had sold over 393,000 by 2013 and is certified silver in the UK. Pitchfork gave it 8.7 in 1998 and 10.0 for the 2005 reissue and ranked it fourth of the 1990s; Rolling Stone's Ben Ratliff, in 1998, called it thin-blooded, woolgathering stuff, while CMJ named it album of the year. Kim Cooper wrote the 33 1/3 volume on it in 2005. The band's last show of that era was on October 13, 1998 in London.

Mangum gave one major interview, to Pitchfork in February 2002, and said he doubted he would record another NMH album: these windows open up for something to be honest, and they don't stay open for very long. He toured solo from 2011 to 2013, and on April 29, 2013 the four core members announced a reunion, touring until 2015, the last tour for the foreseeable future by the band's own account in 2014. The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel, a box set, was reissued by Merge on February 24, 2023. Rolling Stone and NME rank the album 376th and 98th on their lists of the 500 greatest albums.

Albums

Songs

  • Two-Headed Boy In the Aeroplane Over the Sea · 1998

    Track four of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, a fan sing-along on acoustic guitar with a companion, Part Two.

Sources

  1. Neutral Milk Hotel, Wikipedia
  2. On Avery Island, Wikipedia
  3. Jeff Mangum, Wikipedia
  4. Neutral Milk Hotel, Merge Records