Neutral Milk Hotel: Classic or Dud?

Yes, they are an E6 band but don't subscribe to the 60s pop aesthic that most (but not all) of the other E6 bands do. Sonically and lyrically they are much more diverse.

And I still think "Pinkerton" is a bigger shock, and Weezer just has a higher profile fan base.

Oh and I want Josh to be my friend.

Why am I only posting about retarded music today?

Speaking of which, _Lateralus_ = wonderfulness.

Classic for the line "I'm tasting Naomi's perfume. It tastes like shit."

the new ladybug transistor record is beautiful, strange thing that all of their side projects are absolutely horrid but because gary olson is around on lt records they are great, but then he was a member of the mad scene and maybe some of hamish kilgour's genius rubbed off on him. how pleasing to see the clientele mention the chills as their favourite band, i imagine he was a big fan of the moles as well.

Haven't ever made it all the way through 'On Avery Island', but, yes, 'song about sex' is utter greatness. search the charred usk of napster for mangum's take of Spector's 'i love how you love me', too, or any NMH boots you can find. wonderful love band.

Ultimately, Neutral Milk Hotel remind me of a Dukes of Stratosphear or _On the Sunday of Life_-era Porcupine Tree that makes a critical mistake -- it takes itself seriously.

p.s. : they're by far the worst band in elephant 6. much love.

More to the point -- you've actually got it wrong, James, I didn't hate it with a deep and abiding passion, I more found it pointless. Consider: I *loathe* Rage Against the Machine and always will. Still, I understand why a lot of people really, *really* like them, even if I never will go down that primrose path. I find Neutral Milk Hotel a general nonstarter, vaguely pleasant at best but no more. Hearing them praised to the skies as some sort of revelation, that's what really suprises and riles me, because I just can't see or hear that at all. Substitute in the word "Weezer" for "Neutral Milk Hotel" and you've got two reactions covered.

I also can’t see how the lyrics are hateful, and I don’t think they exist to shock; I think they’re unironic, honest, loving – to the point where that skewed sincerity could be off-putting (and is, obviously). It is a "love it or hate it" album – you connect with it or you don’t, and that, to me, is more time than not a positive. I can see why people would have a strong connection to this record (and many of the other high-ranking selections in the ILM 100 from the Holy Bible to 69LS to Man-Machine) regardless of whether I enjoy them or not.

If I may, about the lyrics: Mangum uses a number of words repeatedly, seemingly in a oblique way (among them: spine, mouth, sweet, cheek, sink, tongue, teeth, face, smile.) Lyrically, the album traces a personal history of pain, loss, and disappointment from an unhappy family life to attempts at comfort through sexual awakening, religious epiphany and a belief in the invincibility of youth to the experience of reading the Diary of Anne Frank and Mangum’s connection to her hope despite inevitable death to the plight of a "Two-Headed Boy" who longs for some sensual, human connection despite his being birthed to a life of almost inevitable loneliness. Throughout, these seemingly unrelated words above are peppered amidst alternating stream-of-consciousness lyrics and very lucid observations about the pain of both Mangum and his characters.

Then, at the end, the final song is about the suicide of a friend, and all of those words are used in context, it’s the moment where Mangum isn’t transferring that fresh pain to memories or moments of hurt that he has had the opportunity to reconcile. And when he pleads, "Push the pieces in place /Make your smile sweet to see /Don't you take this away / I'm still wanting my face on your cheek" it’s almost as if he is pushing all of those scattered lyrical pieces from the previous songs together, allowing himself the chance to grieve for what is causing his hurt, and then it’s too much and he retreats back into character and the album closes with him comforting the two-headed boy as he worries that he’ll never feel true human contact and love, warning him that when and if he does not to lament that it’s ultimately fleeting.

Again, apologies for the length of this.

I've officially even bored myself on this topic.

"Tenk You Veddy Much"

michael g. breece

1) I think Jeff's a tremendous performer & has a way with a certain kind of melody -- though I think he'd do well to explore some minor keys, occasional seventh-chords, etc

2) I think he's a talented lyricist with a real gift for the rhythms of words within a line

3) I think since he's chosen to make the sort of music that attracts not just fans but people who develop a real emotional attachment to & need for his stuff, he owes them more new material than he seems willing to deliver; I have strong feelings about this as I feel an artist's most important responsibility is to his listeners, and that if you can't write at least five songs a year of you-at-your-best, then you're not trying hard enough

4) "Two-Headed Boy" is a great great great indie rock song, just a great song period; I think if Jeff believed that discipline were a virtue, which he doesn't, he'd be routinely writing some of the great songs of the age

5) Jeff's a prince of a human being, and I don't believe in separating the artist from his output but rather that the one is a reflection of the other: therefore,

CLASSIC

This probably should be another thread (I think it is already, actually!) -- I don't believe in this myself. Mr. M not being the subject under discussion here, I should note! I haven't ever met the man, so no point in my judging him on this point. But I've meet some friendly, fine folks who make music that Annoys and Outrages Me Deeply and I've encountered some standoffish idjits who Brought the Rock or whatever.

Lately I've been listening to live stuff, the acoustic set from Aquarius, to be exact. Lots of good unreleased stuff--"My Dream Girl Don't Exist" ; "Oh, Sister" ; "Rubby Bulbs". The demos are decent as well; some more than others. The tape collage stuff is kind of blah, and the noisy jokey stuff ("Chocolate Coffin"?!?! wtf?!?!) is pretty bad. But then you get grebt unreleased tracks like "Circle of Friends," "Wishful Eyes" and "Wood Guitar."

Right now I'm looking for other live stuff (the show with "Ferris Wheel on Fire" ; is that the one from the Cat's Cradle?) and the "Invent Yrself A Shortcake" demo, which I had aeons ago but somehow lost. slsk doesn't work in my dorm, so I can't get things that way--alas.

I don't really know why I like NMH, or why I like his voice. It doesn't seem like it should be all that affecting to me, but it is-- at least the songs I've heard so far. I relate to what seems to be an elaborate personal mythology running through the songs, and like how he uses language.

"...laughing at everyone I see / can't believe / how strange it is to be / anything at all...."

I don't know why that line resonates so strongly with me, but it really, really does.

So, classic.

I heard a rumor from a reputable source that Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo is trying to get Jeff Magnum to record again.

If anyone gets a chance to see the film, it's well worth it for the music alone.

I thought you knew that already!

The interview from Creative Loafing, above, is terribly sad. I hope things come together for Jeff.

I find this disturbing:

"In his music, I found both mythological nourishment and a nudge toward hope that some piece of life doesn't perish with the body and the brain.

So, of course, the one album wasn't enough. I wanted more."

And then this sets him off on some kind of "Roger and Me" odyssey to find the man behind the music. The guy nees to read some Thich Nhat Hanh or listen to Pete Townshend's "A Little is Enough".

1) "owe them" new work? no, I guess not, but it's pretty unsporting not to make the effort
2) old songs in concert? emphatically yes. "Musician" is a job for which one gets paid. You get hired based on the strength of work you've demonstrated you're capable of doing (i.e., the hits). You ain't gotta play all the hits every time, but fuck a band that thinks people ONLY came to hear the new stuff/whichever way the muse is leading them. People paid to get in. You shouldn't take their money if you're not willing to give them some of what they paid for.
3) throw raw meat? my vegetarian stance on this matter is well known

I'm just so tired of the notion that Artists Must Do What Artists Will Do! The people who suppport artists are as much part of the artist's work as are the growth experiences that the artist brought to the table when he/she had no listeners. I think the debt artists owe their public is routinely undervalued, and that it's artists who've made a point of furthering the notion that "the artist is responsible only to his art," which I think is baloney. If you're only responsible to your art, then keep it to yourself.

That said board was called "I Love Music".

I was all broken hearted about this girl in college and Two-Headed Boy was my mope song of choice.

(Btw, Jittery Joe's is a CD-R, I seem to recall. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

It's almost as if we were totally unaware that we have a noize board here at ILX.

You shouldn't be.

The funny thing about the lyrics for "Two-Headed Boy" is how they might as well be a Smashing Pumpkins song from around 1997 or so.

I believe it's an officially released CD-R. Look at the color of its playable side.

Oh and Neutral Milk Hotel is totally classic. On Avery Island is one of the best albums of manic folk sincerity genius there is.

-- Ned Raggett
From you Ned I'm guessing this is a compliment! There is a "Disarm" vibe to that guitar strum, also.

It's an observation.

NMH > The Beatles

-- cdwill, Monday, 19 September 2005 21:30 (2 years ago) Link

mm

xpost, does it matter?

i mean, really?

"something tells me that NMH would still be cool if he'd stopped after On Avery Island (which is sooooo much better than Aeroplane)"

"it sounds like Oasis singing folk standards."

psssshhh and pfffft respectively.

"can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all" -- it doesn't get much headier than that.

I mean, he's written some good songs and all, but come on people. Let's not fucking cannonize the guy. It's not like he's Diplo, or Digweed.

-- The King of Flop Threads, Monday, 19 September 2005 23:26 (2 years ago) Link

wow, this thread has a lot of interesting inputs throughout it

well its just got to be classic. right?
'in an aeroplane...' = totally enthralling. the vocal melody at the two minute mark of the title track gets me every time - strangely melancholic, lyrically obtuse, entirely captivating.
also, he has a hypnotic way of raising his voice to elevate the tension of the music that gives the sparser moments a density and immediacy that you don't come across too often in music. this record holds you and doesn't let you go. perfect fodder, in album format, for the thoughtful person.

i'm pretty happy for him to be canonised. if only because special music is deserving of special attention. and this guy's forever gonna be relegated to the 'acquired taste' basket regardless.

On Avery Island > Aeroplane

and that said, NMH is classic, but minor not major classic, if i might make the distinction.

whose reunion tour/album will be bigger - MBV or NMH

album: nmh
tour: mbv

Yesterday was the 10-year anniversary of Aeroplane. Happy belated NMH day!

I fear I'll never like them as much as I did when I was 15. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing.

I can't believe people's ears or sanities have survived 10 years of Aeroplane's existence.

My feelings haven't changed re: the album, btw.

i agree with curt1s. also i don't like mangum's voice.

http://rapspace.tv/files/images/HATERS.preview.jpg

i find it hard to believe that nmh featuring in a top 100 was even a surprise back in 2001

NMH's existence obviates the need for a top 100

OR

Jeff Mangum took a time machine back to 2001 and put it on the list

I still stand by my comments as well.

Like a movie like The Holy Mountain, or Anne Carson's poetry, or any other work so personal and flawless one can only ever really look in on it and wonder, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has the rare distinction of existing only technically inside commerce, criticism and opinion. You can of course have an opinion about it, but it would be really hard to even approach the intentions that made it, let alone the constantly unraveling impact it has had and continues to have a decade later. I came to understand with the thousands of other people who have been changed by this music, that you could argue to finer points, but the core of what the record meant was perfect, pure and silently understood.

it's funny how much bile and ire NMH inspire from those who don't like them. i think it has to do with the reverence they are often held in by those who do like them. they do attract the kind of fanatical fervour that can irritate the hell out of me when associated with bands that i like, never mind bands i don't get or can't stand. but at least when i come face to face with that fervour i can relate to my own experience and not get too wound up (unless maybe it's over something really shitty) because i do think that Aeroplane is the best album i've ever heard and i've never tired of listening to it.

I fell in love with the SOUND of the debut LP the moment I heard it, but ended up liking only a couple actual songs. Same is true for Aeroplane, though the songs are better and the overall sound less appealing. At this point, they seem like an okay thing that I don't ever need to hear again. Have to admit that the things like the quote above do drive me a little crazy ("I came to understand with the thousands of other people who have been changed by this music...").

4) "Two-Headed Boy" is a great great great indie rock song, just a great song period; I think if Jeff believed that discipline were a virtue, which he doesn't, he'd be routinely writing some of the great songs of the age.

-- J0hn D.

This I agree with, though I suspect I still wouldn't be a big fan.

Kinda moot given the dropping out forevermore bit.

Like a movie like The Holy Mountain, or Anne Carson's poetry, or any other work so personal and flawless one can only ever really look in on it and wonder, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has the rare distinction of existing only technically inside commerce, criticism and opinion. You can of course have an opinion about it, but it would be really hard to even approach the intentions that made it, let alone the constantly unraveling impact it has had and continues to have a decade later. I came to understand with the thousands of other people who have been changed by this music, that you could argue to finer points, but the core of what the record meant was perfect, pure and silently understood.

-- St3ve Go1db3rg, Tuesday, February 12, 2008 5:49 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

^^^ YEESH

I know, right? It's just a fucking album. Some people like it.

yeah that is some corny shit.

"oh by the way, this album is a perfect and immovable object and completely above all criticism, though you can have an opinion if you like."

bad fans /= bad album

im not saying that, even though this guy's voice does make me want to jump out the window.

yeah i'm not talking about the album, either

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is like the Ron Paul of albums.

i like this album!! he's a really good melodist. i haven't listened to it in a long time.

that quote is o_O in extremis

i like both albums a lot

I should mention when I was 15, this album made prone to gushing fanaticism a la above quote, and I suppose I am one of those 'thousands of other people whose lives have been changed by it."

I don't know whether I matured out of it, or if the music actually stopped being as good. I suspect the former, with a hint of the latter. I think it's still very good, but I can survive going a year or more at a time without giving too much though to it.

It makes sense that people who don't like or don't get Aeroplane would also not like or not get the reactions people have to it. But what can you do.

do get over yourself goldberg

Maybe you should get over me.

Hard to get over what never happened.

I never happened? I don't follow. My point was that we were talking about NMH, not about me.

i was reacting to your prissy statement upthread. "oh what's to be done about those people who don't get it??"

but anyway, the moment has passed

RIP, heaven needed, etc.

I said "don't like or don't get." Some people don't get it because it's not the most accessible album, while I allow that other people may get it and still not enjoy it.

But with an album so weird and unfiltered and rapturous, there's a certain barrier to entry. You have to embrace all of that "embarrassing" stuff. If you're not on board with that, it makes sense that you'd see the weird, unfiltered, rapturous reactions to the album in the same cynical way.

Argue with my premise if you want, there's no need to make it personal.

i love this album, but i think it could definitely stand to be a bit less embarrassing.

I get this album.

I like the song about the girl in spain or whatever and a few others, don't think its hard to get, dont think its be all end all, at the time thought it was a better elephant six album and was surprised when all the emo girls put it on in photography class. I guess if I thought melody driven poppy songs with punk/indie recording quality was the best kind of music out there Id think this album was the best ever too

Fuckin fuck. I get the album. I like the album. It's EXTREMELY accessible. I just draw the line at liking it.

never got the love. but on avery island is pretty great. i still remember the first time i heard it, and it reminded me a lot of the madcap laughs, in spirit, if not necessarily sonically. and then all sorts of people seemed to find the second one the greatest thing ever and i'd ask what they thought of the first one and most would say they'd never heard it. i always thought that was pretty weird. such is life

Why the fuck do people like this shit. They sound like Cake.

On Avery Island is great

I embrace embarrassing stuff in music all the time, but this isn't embarrassing, it's just grating to my ears. Nails on a chalkboard. Makes me physically ill.

I'm siding with Steve here. Do we always have to look at everything through a lens of cool, critical detachment? Of course everyone's absolutely entitled to say "I prefer their first album" or "there are two or three good songs on Aeroplane, but that's it" - but you then surely need to accept that for a small percentage of the population, this record has an extraordinary, emotional power. Half the time I have no idea what Mangum is really singing about, but when this record catches me at the right time it has the power to reduce me to a quivering wreck and my response to it is one of pure and magical love. Is that "embarrassing"? Not to me.

ya i accept it. what do you want me to do about it, never think about this album critically because some people really like it a lot? that's true of a lot of albums! i'm sure people love lionel richie albums as much as you love neutral milk hotel!

I'm sure they do, too! I'd just humbly suggest that if "this guy's voice makes (you) want to jump out the window", you might perhaps not want to waste your time thinking about the album critically - in the same way that I don't want to waste my time thinking about the album critically because it fills me with a sense of wonder and purity.

It sounds like campfire songs with Jeff's see-saw voice. I can't get over how much I hate his voice and the vocal rhythm. However, his voice sounds like all the popular indie singers of today and even the nu-rock nasal screaming I hate.

sounds like all the popular indie singers of today
Really?

I love this album to pieces, if anyone doesn't, that's fine. I remember trying to write more about them when it came out, and they came over, and the response from the Melody Maker was that they sounded like the panpipe band in The Fast Show. I sort of understand peoples' ire against those who don't 'get' it, as a result, but it doesn't bother me much. one of the things I love about the record is that its unafraid to be 'embarassing'.

I still love In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, but I never thought it was perfect.

I think the opening track, "The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One," is perfect. The stretch of songs from 6-9, "Holland, 1945," "Communist Daughter," "Oh Comely," and "Ghost" is also pretty awesome.

so good

good yes, overrated also yes

hearing neutral milk hotel at ear-splitting volume was what made me decide never to go back to Soda (the bar) on indie rock night, no matter how good the burger is.

http://images.emusic.com/music/images/album/284/114/070/11407007/600x600.jpg

fyi

^^i saw this the other day. i don't know what to make of it, but i laughed

the sunn o))) thing totally makes it imo

well that and the fact it is pure lol

hahahahaha

okay wow 1:12-1:14 in that video

Jeff Mangum was on Jeopardy the other day, I wonder if this means there's going to be an NMH reunion.

http://9001chan.org/mus/220/Courage-Wolf-hate-her-when-she-gets-up-to-leave-then-devour-her-with-your-two-heads.jpg

so Jeff Mangum is playing at the September ATP / Portishead I'll Be Your Mirror event in Asbury Park. This'll be his first 'official' performance in over a decade, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ieeL9FWURM

got tickets for the boston show

http://www.southernsouls.ca/jeff-mangum/

^^some good audio from the current tour

really kicking myself for not getting tickets to one of the new england shows. :/ bummed

ty for the link!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BYbmckk9mU

^ shocked how close this sounds to the original!

hahaha i've seen that before

http://www.walkingwallofwords.com/

offical website announced today- theyre still working on it by the looks of it

but a holy fudging unreleased stuff boxset! and like loads of other awesome shit blah blah this band is my life.

awesome he's wearing a Municipal Waste shirt!

are the unreleased/unfamiliar things here "new" songs or archival? wondered if the guy actually still writes music. he's not playing anything except old stuff at these shows, right?

Wow, what the hell did I just watch?

But I'm gonna run off and put a SUNN 0))) sticker on my amp right now.

For the record, I like both NMH albums and nothing else of Elephant 6. Or the Fiery Furnaces.

Interesting to see Mr. Mangum is still playing live tracks, disappointed that they're all old stuff.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Trivia-Woody/218485604853038?v=info

so here's jeff's whole 'set' (i think) from his appearance at #occupywallst

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvLm01ruV00

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lz05eq01Gm1rp2lhyo1_500.png

<3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvb5nmmx714&context=C34b6f99ADOEgsToPDskJ-PzjSA9vjwPaNAnZzdfB0

I failed to see Mr Mangum at the just finished ATP.

http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/peoples-bailout/

i love this album, but i think it could definitely stand to be a bit less embarrassing.

― aaron d.g., Tuesday, February 12, 2008 11:46 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is perfect, hahaha

http://i.imgur.com/fzdMLQV.png

one of ILM's best threads:

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea Poll

Back!

http://pitchfork.com/news/47783-neutral-milk-hotel-reunite-for-tour/

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

mangum was great last time i saw him. not sure how necessary the band is tbh

pretty necessary imo

i'd fucking go that's for sure

neutral milk hotel were fucking awesome when i saw them open for superchunk long long ago.

my gf listens to 'aeroplane' at least once a week but wasn't too excited by the idea of seeing dude solo. we'd both go see the full band though.

Not much of a "tour." Too bad no Cali dates...

i wonder if they'll be another album...

picturing a sleazy executive from merge, chomping on a cigar and encouraging them to "go electric," saying it'd be "like sufjan."

Tom Scharpling is already on the hook to direct that very video.

Not much of a "tour." Too bad no Cali dates...

― schwantz, Monday, 29 April 2013 22:07 (Yesterday) Permalink

It's sort of blowing my mind that they're bothering to call this a tour, and that the headlines are going with it.

It's sort of blowing my mind that you guys didn't notice the part that says

Only a handful have been announced so far, but apparently there is "more to come,"

Yeah, my bad. Crossing my fingers...

are these tickets going to be really expensive?

probably not if you buy them at face value. i think my mangum solos were 30 bucks apiece or so

pretty stoked for this, was listening to the new a hawk and a hacksaw last week and thinking how unlikely it was i'd get to see that band lineup again, when barnes moved out of town that's when it started to be apparent that this 'break after a year of touring' might turn into something more. nmh plus elf power, 1998 all over again, gonna be fun to see mangum pop up to sing in 'the arrow flies close' again.

Enormous honking dud.

If there's one thing I've learned from the oughts, it's that breaking up / losing your mind / retiring forever at some point is the best thing one can do for one's career.

I saw the last ever NMH gig. There were maybe 50 people there. I imagine more people will want to see them this time round.

Was that the Camden Underground show? Where they improvised that song in tribute to the sun at the end? One of the best shows I've ever seen.

That was indeed the Underworld. Brilliant gig. I'd loved In the Aeroplane so much I was convinced everyone else in the world must feel the same, so I was genuinely shocked at how sparsely attended it was. I don't remember the improv, just being bowled over by the whole thing - so ramshackle yet hurtling forward without doubt.

The ramshackle thing was key - I remember the drummer would tumble into these epic drum rolls, and not be able to roll back into the songs, so he'd just stop playing, listen along for a couple of bars and then jump back in. And they were just so joyous, laughing, drunk, a wonderful mess. I couldn't get the Melody Maker to cover them back in the day, but The Times let me mention them in my roundup of the year, and I wrote something about how they played like a Salvation Army Band after their first taste of the demon booze.

The Maker rejected them because an office wag said they sounded like "the panpipe band off the Fast Show".

Got Mark B to write about them for me a couple of years ago. I always wanted to get Simon Schama to do something on them - did you know he's a fan?

Ha! Simon Schama?? Well, the album is steeped in history, I guess...

Get Bieber to write about them.

my gf listens to 'aeroplane' at least once a week but wasn't too excited by the idea of seeing dude solo. we'd both go see the full band though.

ITAOTS was very ~important~ to me but at the ATP JM curated I was pretty cynical about seeing him play for a variety of reasons, and then when he actually played I was a blubbering hysterical wreck from the first note till the last. Dunno how he did it it was just a bloke with a guitar playing some songs I don't have particularly intense feelings for any more ffs.

stalled out on missiontix tryna get a ticket rn...

nvm no one i know got tickets

lol

there are still tickets in columbia mo. for now, at least.

oops. sold out too. fortunately i got one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exRvC0jYOzE

seems like it would be hard to play the ukulele wearing fur gloves. sometimes i feel like my fingers are already too big. kudos to that guy.

Tickets for the January 2014 D.C. show sold out too quick for me. I tried but couldn't get through. Stubhub already has some-- not sure I want to pay $80 a ticket

Just saw them in Jersey City. Thankful there was no gigantic singalong. Such an odd band to become so big.

Hey, me too! I was behind the bar loading drinks for the bartenders. Got to watch the show in full afterwards too! Yeah the audience was not as sappy as I'd imagined they'd be.

i remember a feeling of dread when i checked that indiepop list in the late 90s , that band was "happening" there. i bounced as they say.

If there's one thing I've learned from the oughts, it's that breaking up / losing your mind / retiring forever at some point is the best thing one can do for one's career.

Don't forget dying, that's still a classic move

Friend tweeted from that show "Yes, everyone is old."

saw them over the weekend and it was pretty magical. a surprising number of young kids there, who apparently waited out in the cold all day to get up front (which, it turned out, was totally unnecessary since all the olds were happy to hang out in the tiered seating). i was really impressed at how tight they were, the level of musicianship on that stage is super high. i'll bet they're a way better band than they were in the '90s.

JM was rocking a giant grey beard and kept his hat over his eyes the whole time but sounded spot-on.

"I was really impressed at how tight they were, the level of musicianship on that stage is super high."

Yes! Much more commanding and professional than I was expecting, and I've seen them all perform in other projects over the years.

the drummer and the multi-instrumentalist (jeremy & julian iirc) are particularly great.

Recent DC show sold out fast, but they're coming back to a big shed this summer.

Saw them last night - echoing the comments above, couldn't believe how well they played. I was pretty dubious about seeing a band that I'd cared so much about in 2000, but it was still amazing.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH3CRVVBL9o
I cried all day long after I saw this music video for the first time.
didn't care for any other songs on this album, haven't heard any of their others.

my playlists cataloging the best songs of each decade http://postmusicindustry.blogspot.com

we laughed, we cried, we spammed

http://the-toast.net/2014/10/22/songs-neutral-milk-hotel-album-reference-holocaust/

i was really impressed at how tight they were

well, if you only write, like, 22 songs over the course of a quarter century, I assume you get those songs down pretty good at some point

Who wouldn't get off on being revered like a Christ figure? Dude does not need to write another song in his life. ITAOTS is perfect and only gets better.

huh I could've sworn its stayed p much exactly the same since it was released

its so strange that he doesn't write songs anymore. I figured some new stuff would emerge after the tours he did, but he's still playing all old stuff isnt he?

that well is drty

also dry

I figured some new stuff would emerge after the tours he did

i could see that making it even harder to write new songs.

For a Milk Hotel to be Neutral, at a time like this, is unconscionable

— David Spector (@spectordeforce) January 10, 2021

A funny tweet thread.