I was wondering if anyone on the list could share with me their = knowledge of Neutral Milk Hotel, like are they touring anytime soon, = where'd the name come from? I think I recall now seeing them mentioned = once or twice on the list but I can't seem to find anything. And if you = haven't heard NMH, I sincerely recommend that you go check them out and = experience their music.
Todd
Ah! Here we go. Neutral Milk Hotel are among the last truly wonderful bands floating around unrecognized these days. I'm going to gush about them for a while but should preface this all with the disclaimer that Jeff Mangum and Julian Koster are my housemates in Athens, so none of this is exactly objective. Jeff grew up in Ruston, Louisiana and went to school with Will Hart, Bill Doss, and Rob Schneider. In high school they made home recordings for each other under the names Neutral Milk Hotel, Clay Bears, etc for a free-floating label they called Elephant 6. Jeff, Will, and Bill ended up in Athens forming a band called Synthetic Flying Machine around 1993. When that disolved Will and Bill continued as Olivia Tremor Control and Jeff left Athens for brief stays in Texas, Denver, Seattle, New York and Olympia living in closets and recording more Neutral Milk Hotel material. After finishing 1996's On Avery Island he assembled the line up of Julian Koster (singing saw, accordian, keyboard, banjo, bass) Scott Spillane (Trumpet, french horn, etc) and Jeremy Barnes (drums) to tour with, and this core group ended up relocating to Athens in 96 after the tour was done. That line up made 1998's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea," an even more striking album than Avery Island. It came out on Merge records here in the States, and was pressed by Blue Rose immediately before that label went bankrupt in the UK. They toured extensively, then went into a sort of reclusion that fall. Julian concentrated on his band The Music Tapes, Scott had the Gerbils, Jeremy had Bablicon, and Jeff wrote and spent time with friends. Jeff played a solo acoustic show last December 5th for a birthday party at the old school gynasium I was living in at the time, then did three Neutral Milk Hotel songs on New Years Eve at the 40 Watt, and that was it. He turned down every potential NMH show in 1999, including slots opening for R.E.M., playing Yo Yo A Go Go, Terrastock, and so on. He has joined Elfpower, Olivia Tremor Control, the Gerbils, Dixie Blood Moustache and other Elephant 6 performers but hasn't played a Neutral Milk Hotel show all year. For a while he was recording sound concrete tape experiments with Will Hart. More recently he has begun to actually work on new NMH songs, which sounded amazing. There is a chance he may perform in Athens at a benefit for the Broad River but nothing is confirmed yet. I recommend both "On Avery Island" and "On the Aeroplane Over the Sea" to any Belle & Sebastian fans who haven't discvered them yet. For actual band history/interview, there was an excellent cover story in Puncture last year that may be available online. B&S content? That's Jeff in the sheet as a ghost in the video for "Dirty Dream #2" with the dog jumping around. Julian and Robbie are laying on the roof with all of their tape machines, and Scott has the flowers bursting out of his sleeves. They are all Belle & Sebastian fans and joined the list members who came to Athens to be in the video... Take care, Lance Bangs ----------
From: "Todd Herrmann" <tmh@wam.umd.edu> To: <sinister@Majordomo.net> Subject: Sinister: This feeling I get is a good feeling Date: Sun, Sep 19, 1999, 2:46 PM
You know that feeling you get when you're approaching something new that =
you're not sure of (no not the feeling when you've just spotted the = cutest guy or girl in the room and you really want to go talk to them = but those damn butterflys in your stomach weigh so much that you can't = even lift you're feet to take steps--but that's another story for = another time). Anyway I'm talking about the nervous anticipation you = get when you've just bought an album by someone you haven't heard that = much about but you decided to pick it up because you just have this = feeling that you might really like it. I was on Amazon.com the other = day and reading through some of the online reviews of B & S and I = decided to click on those "people who bought this CD also bought these = CD's because I was just curious about some of the bands listed there = that I'd never heard. So I click on this one called Neutral Milk Hotel, = at the time I'm just like "hmm sounds like unique name, I wonder what = they sound like." So I listened to some of those little 30 second clips = and I was pretty impressed but its really hard to tell anything by those = little clips so tonight I picked up On Avery Island, I believe its their = first album, I could be wrong though. So it was with nervous = anticipation and a little shaking of the hands that I ripped off the = plastic and put the CD in the player. Well I'm listening to the album = for the third time in a row while I'm writing this and I'm more than = impressed. The vocal tracks are so expertly arranged with Jeff Mangum's = voices and the intruments creating a beautiful melody together...I = almost wept listening to "Three Peaches" And the solely intrumental = songs remind me of Mogwai, albeit the little Mogwai that I have heard.
I was wondering if anyone on the list could share with me their = knowledge of Neutral Milk Hotel, like are they touring anytime soon, = where'd the name come from? I think I recall now seeing them mentioned = once or twice on the list but I can't seem to find anything. And if you = haven't heard NMH, I sincerely recommend that you go check them out and = experience their music.
Todd
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+