Music Amused

Spoiled Milk

In the early 90s, a group called Neutral Milk Hotel formed. There's a total of four members, but the main and steady guy is Jeff Mangum. Pretty much he roamed around experimenting with loads of different projects. He had a band here with a friend, then he went and played with another friend somewhere else. He'd record a few songs with one idea in mind, then switch to a totally different idea and project.

While I was reading up on Mangum, I found an article through their website. It was written back in '96 by Phil McMullen.

"It was January in Denver, freezing cold and snowing all over. I moved into a friend's house and was living in a closet and it was cold, not only because of the weather but because it was a haunted house. The closet I was living in was haunted. The person that lived in the house kept having dreams of people having ****tail parties in my closet. There would always be these really beautiful women in really tacky fur coats drinking champagne and telling my friend that we should get the **** out of their party because we were really pissing them off . . . "

Mangum suffered from night terrors, and I've heard that he would stay up entire nights working on his music and sometimes singing the songs to the ghosts. So, I suppose you really can find inspiration anywhere.  

Their first album On Avery Island, was the first formality that Mangum had had out there. This was in 1996 and also when the band became more serious, and they relocated to New York.

Two years later, In the Aeroplane over the Sea was released. This is the album that I own, as I'm not familiar with their first. For some odd reason, I've always been a little bit fascinated by the Holocaust, and the story of Anne Frank. So, I was surprised to learn that Neutral Milk Hotel's second release was sort of based on that period.

"In the Aeroplane over the Sea 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, 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, selling well over 100,000 copies, according to Merge Records."

And, from an article by Taylor Clark for Slate Magazine:

"As he told a Puncture magazine interviewer before Aeroplane's release, "I would go to bed every night and have dreams about having a time machine and somehow I'd have the ability to move through time and space freely, and save Anne Frank. Do you think that's embarrassing?" The songs and lyrics he started writing about Frank could be so nightmarish in vision that Mangum grew afraid of what was issuing from his brain: verses about "pianos filled with flames" and eating "tomatoes and radio wires." At times, he seems possessed, singing on Aeroplane's title track, "Anna's ghost all around/ Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me."

The last time Jeff Mangum performed live was back in 2001 in New Zealand. The band has long been on hiatus, though all of the members still work with each other through other various projects. Also, the other members still have material out there in different groups. Julian Koster, who played the accordion and banjo, now plays with The Music Tapes. Scott Spillane who plays guitar and trumpet, now can be heard with The Gerbils. Drummer Jeremy Barnes with A Hawk and a Hacksaw.

Famous fans of Neutral Milk Hotel include Franz Ferdinand and Arcade Fire (which I thought was quite cool, since I am a fan of them, and I've learned that NMH has influenced their music).

As for a comeback, no one knows for sure, but it seems to be unlikely. Mangum ends his '96 interview with this quote:

"I'd really like to settle down myself, because I haven't had a home in a long time. I'd like to try and find a home and sit there for awhile and record, becuase I really miss those days when I could just go to my room and make music. I still have the opportunity to record and I still have the opportunity to write songs but I kinda want to get to be old recording. I want to explore all the things I can get down on tape and see what happens. I like to work slow, to think about what I'm doing and feel what I'm doing. I'm just making music and that's where it ends."

Since that was said over a decade ago, many wonder what happened to the indie-pysch-folk-rock musician.  Unfortunately, once the world started to catch on to the brilliance of Mangum and Neutral Milk Hotel, it was a bit too late. He'd grown tired; tired of touring and tired of talking. He began to withdraw and even declined an invite to play with R.E.M. He has not done any interviews since '98 except for one. And that one was in 2002 with Pitchfork Media. In it he explains a little bit about what he was feeling and his reasoning for not continuing down the path of success. That reasoning dealt with how he mistakenly thought his words and music would help to save the world, and make everyone happy. It wasn't until he realized most everyone was still in some sort of pain, that he felt inadequate in some way. It is sad that he feels that way, since his music has helped and encouraged many people in times of need. Perhaps since he's traveled the world, and even spent some time in a monastery, his new outlooks will give him the strength he needs to come back for an encore.

*Read what MANY have to say about Jeff Mangum and NMH in Pitchfork Media's article written back in February, here.

Sources: Slate Magazine, Creative Loafing, Neutral Milk Hotel, Amazon, Pitchfork Media, Captains Dead