Sinister: Neutral Milk Hotel

[===]

>> 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 at xxx.edu>
>To: <sinister at 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
>
>
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> +-+  "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+
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> +-+                     "jelly-filled danishes"                   +-+
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   +---+  Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list  +---+
  To send to the list mail "sinister at majordomo.net". To unsubscribe
   send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
  "majordomo at 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"                   +-+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+