Neutral Milk Hotel
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Neutral Milk Hotel is an American popular music band, centering around its chief lyricist and songwriter, Jeff Mangum, who, on the band's two full-length albums, plays with a number of other musicians, notably Jeremy Barnes, Scott Spillane and producer-instrumentalist Robert Schneider. Neutral Milk Hotel is a part of the Elephant 6 collective.
The band's second LP, In the Aeroplane over the Sea, is notable as a critically acclaimed work and a fairly 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. (Mangum is reported to have, during a live performance, 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.
The band's sound and approach have been influential in indie rock, drawing comparisons with later bands such as The Decemberists and The Arcade Fire.
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; however, after an announcement in 2005 on the Orange Twin website claiming that Jeff Mangum had in fact eventually decided against the project, it is unclear if this will ever happen.
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Discography
Albums
- Invent Yourself A Shortcake (Elephant 6; cassette; 1991)
- Beauty (Elephant 6; cassette; 1992)
- Hype City (Elephant 6; cassette; 1993)
- On Avery Island (Merge; CD; 1996)
- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Merge; CD; 1998)
EPs and singles
- Everything Is (Cher Doll; EP; 1994)
- Everything Is (Fire; EP; 1995)
- Holland, 1945 (Blue Rose; single; 1998)
- Everything Is (Orange Twin; EP; 2001)
Compilation appearances
- Those Pre-phylloxera Years (Box Dog Sound; EP; 1993)
- Periscope - Another Yoyo Compilation (Yoyo; LP/CD; 1994)
- Amazing Phantom Third Channel (Cher Doll; EP; 1994)
- Champagne Dancing Party (Cher Doll; EP; 1995)
- Yoyo A Go Go (Yoyo; LP/CD; 1996)
- Ptolemaic Terrascope No. 21 (Ptolemaic Terrascope; EP; 1996)
- The Basement Tapes, Volume Two: Live Underground (CD; 1997)
- Blue Rose Sampler (Blue Rose; CD; 1998)
Books
- Azerrad, Michael, Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 (2002) ISBN 0316787531
- Derogatis, Jim, Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock (2003) ISBN 0634055488
- Cooper, Kim, 33 1/3: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (2005)(forthcoming)
External links
- Neutral Milk Hotel's official website (http://www.neutralmilkhotel.net/)
- The band's page at Elephant 6's website (http://www.elephant6.com/bands/neutral.html)
- Ptolemaic Terrascope biography (http://www.neutralmilkhotel.net/pt.html)
- Info and Quicktime movies of NMH (http://www.knerd.com/~sashwap/main.html)
- Pitchfork: Jeff Mangum Interview (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/n/neutral-milk-hotel-02/)