Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel was an American band formed in Ruston, Louisiana, by musician Jeff Mangum. They were active from 1989 to 1998, and then from 2013 to 2015. The band's music featured a deliberately low-quality sound, influenced by indie rock and psychedelic folk. Mangum wrote surreal and opaque lyrics that covered a wide range of topics, including love, spirituality, nostalgia, sex, and loneliness. He and the other band members played a variety of instruments, including non-traditional instruments like the singing saw and uilleann pipes.
Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel began as one of Mangum's home recording projects. After graduating high school, Mangum lived as a vagabond and sporadically released music. In 1996, he worked with childhood friend Robert Schneider to record the album On Avery Island, which received modest reviews and sold around 5,000 copies. Mangum recruited musicians Julian Koster, Jeremy Barnes, and Scott Spillane for the band's second album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Its 1998 release received mostly positive, but not laudatory reviews.
While on tour, the band's popularity grew through Internet exposure. This negatively affected Mangum, whose mental health began to deteriorate; he did not want to continue touring and Neutral Milk Hotel went on hiatus shortly after. During their hiatus, Neutral Milk Hotel gained a cult following and the critical standing of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea rose tremendously. Several music outlets such as Pitchfork and Blender called In the Aeroplane Over the Sea a landmark album for indie rock and one of the greatest albums of the 1990s. Many indie rock groups such as Arcade Fire and the Decemberists were influenced by Neutral Milk Hotel's eclectic music and earnest lyrics. Neutral Milk Hotel reunited in 2013 and undertook a reunion tour before another hiatus in 2015.
History[edit]
Early years[edit]
Neutral Milk Hotel originated in Ruston, Louisiana, in the late 1980s as a home recording project of musician Jeff Mangum.[1] Initially called Milk, Mangum made the recordings while in high school.[1] Early Milk recordings, such as Invent Yourself a Shortcake and Beauty, were shared between Mangum and his friends Robert Schneider, Bill Doss, and Will Cullen Hart.[2] The four friends branded these homemade cassette tapes with an imaginary record label, Elephant 6, which eventually grew into a loose musical collective.[3] When Mangum learned of another band called Milk, he changed the name of the project to Neutral Milk Hotel, based on a name Hart suggested.[4]
After graduating from high school, Mangum attended Louisiana Tech University, but dropped out.[5] He moved to Athens, Georgia, and played in a band called Synthetic Flying Machine with Doss and Hart, but left shortly after the band was formed.[6][a] He then became a vagabond, and lived in cities such as Denver, Los Angeles, and Seattle.[8] Mangum occasionally recorded music during this period, including a 1993 demo album titled Hype City Soundtrack.[8] Schneider says Hype City Soundtrack was a reaction to what Mangum believed was the rampant commercialization of music within large cities.[8] While living in Seattle, Mangum overcame his apprehensiveness about the music industry and released the song "Everything Is" on Cher Doll Records.[9] The song's exposure convinced Mangum to record more music under the name Neutral Milk Hotel.[10] According to Mangum: "The single was a godsend because I was pretty much at the end of my rope with just about everything in my life at that point ... I ended up sending a tape to [Nancy Ostrander] at Cher Doll Records and she saved me merely by saying she wanted to do a single."[10]
At the time, Mangum was also a bass guitarist for The Apples in Stereo, a band that Schneider formed while living in Denver.[9] The members of the Apples in Stereo wanted to sign with SpinART Records, and met with their legal representative, Brian McPherson, in Los Angeles.[11] McPherson was drawn to Mangum, who was wearing a Shrimper Records T-shirt.[12] After learning that Mangum wrote "Everything Is", a song that McPherson had previously listened to and enjoyed, the two worked out an agreement for McPherson to become Neutral Milk Hotel's representative.[12] McPherson sent copies of "Everything Is" and another song "Ruby Bulbs" to Merge Records founders Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan.[12] The two liked the music, and added Neutral Milk Hotel to their roster.[12][b]
Artistry[edit]
Music[edit]
Neutral Milk Hotel is known for its experimental sound,[74] which has been described as a mixture of indie rock and psychedelic folk, with lo-fi production.[75] Critics have noted many other musical influences, including Eastern European choral music, Canterbury Sound, circus music, marching band music, musique concrète, drone music, free jazz, and Tropicália.[76] Neutral Milk Hotel songs typically involved simple chord progressions that Mangum would strum on an acoustic guitar.[77] Often as the song progressed, more instruments would be introduced.[78] The band members played a wide range of instruments; on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea for example, conventional instruments like drums and distorted guitars were paired with unique instruments like the singing saw and uilleann pipes.[79]
Neutral Milk Hotel's early recordings, before On Avery Island, featured much distortion and are considered rough.[80] Mark Richardson of Pitchfork believes Mangum's songwriting was undeveloped, and described the 1994 song "Ruby Bulbs" as "raw and noisy and shouty and reflects Mangum's interest in aggro punk, an influence that didn't otherwise surface on his records."[67] On Avery Island represented a move toward greater musical cohesion, and more experimentation.[81] Critic Sasha Geffen said: "The album veers wildly between the accessible and the inscrutable ... the abrupt transitions between perfect pop melodies and gaseous balls of noise lend the album a certain wildfire charm."[81] The most experimental song on the album is the final track "Pree-Sisters Swallowing a Donkey's Eye," a thirteen-minute drone track influenced by gamelan and noise music.[82]
Many critics believe In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is Neutral Milk Hotel's best and most fully developed release.[83] By this point, Neutral Milk Hotel had four members as opposed to just Mangum, which allowed for a more complex and organic sound.[84] Jason Ankeny of AllMusic notes In the Aeroplane Over the Sea emphasizes structure and texture, and that tracks seamlessly segue into one another.[85] The overall sound of the album sometimes abruptly shifts from track to track.[86] Rolling Stone notes the range of musical styles present on the album, such as funeral marches and punk rock.[84] Critic Chris DeVille offers similar commentary, writing: "On the musical axis, Neutral Milk Hotel veered from piercingly intimate psychedelic campfire sing-alongs to full-band segments that barreled ahead with haphazard grace."[37]
Lyrics[edit]
Mangum served as the lyricist for Neutral Milk Hotel.[87] Critic Jim DeRogatis describes Mangum's lyrics as surreal and opaque, and notes that they feature a stream of consciousness style of songwriting.[88] The lyrics would often include references to seemingly unrelated subject matter.[89] Biographer Kim Cooper cites the song "King of Carrot Flowers, Pt.1" as an example of this style of songwriting; although the lyrics are about childhood fantasies, there are references to sexual awakenings, domestic violence, religious fanaticism, and tarot card readings.[90] DeRogatis likened Mangum's lyricism to "Dr. Seuss illustrating William S. Burroughs, or perhaps Sigmund Freud collaborating on lyrics with Syd Barrett."[91]
According to Mangum, many of his lyrics stem from his subconscious, saying: "Some of it I don't understand, I don't know what it is, but it sounds real nice."[89] Another source of inspiration were the visions, lucid dreams, and night terrors Mangum would have.[92] Mangum would sometimes have full conversations between himself and Schneider while sleepwalking.[93] After coming up with an idea for a song, Mangum would start writing "word bridges," which are small connecting ideas that would bridge the seemingly unrelated lyrics.[87] Mangum cites the song "Two-Headed Boy" as an example, as each verse was written separately from each other over a long period of time, and he used the "word bridges" to connect the verses.[87]
Neutral Milk Hotel songs explore many lyrical themes, including love, spirituality, nostalgia, sex, and loneliness.[94] DeRogatis describes Mangum's lyrics as a depiction of id, a personality component related to intrinsic desires.[91] Mangum's lyrics can also be seen as a reaction to events that have happened in his life. For example, "Song Against Sex" was written as a reaction to the use of sex as a source of power in a relationship.[95] A central lyrical topic in In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is the life of Anne Frank, a teenage girl who died in a Nazi concentration camp.[37] Tracks such as "Holland, 1945" and "Ghost" incorporate elements of Frank's life into the lyrics. As a result, some listeners have described In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as a concept album.[96] Anwen Crawford of The Monthly disagrees with this assertion, writing: "It would be overly literal, though, to describe In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as an album about the Holocaust, for Frank is only one of many phantasms to populate a set of looping, interlinked narratives that proceed with the closed logic of a dream or a religious vision."[97]
Legacy[edit]
When Neutral Milk Hotel disbanded in 1998, the subsequent cult following propelled the band into a new level of stardom, which led many fans and journalists to call Neutral Milk Hotel an important indie rock band.[102] Much of Neutral Milk Hotel's legacy is derived from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,[103] which reached sales of roughly 400,000 by 2013.[104] Music outlets such as Pitchfork and Blender have ranked it as one of the greatest indie rock albums of all time, as well as one of the best albums of the 1990s.[105] Richardson noted that In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has become ingrained in the indie rock canon, and consistently attracts new listeners.[62] Chris Morgan of Uproxx wrote: "In short, people share a very deep passion for Neutral Milk Hotel's highly lauded sophomore album ... Lots of albums are loved, but few seem to impact people so much, and so singularly."[106] Some critics have discussed how other recordings of the band, such as On Avery Island, are often overlooked by fans due to the popularity of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.[107]
Part of Neutral Milk Hotel's legacy is also drawn from the general mystique surrounding Mangum.[108] Elephant 6 biographer Adam Clair notes that Mangum's unexplained absence made him more notable than when he was an active member of the music industry.[109] He actively avoided giving interviews, and as a result, music publications began to write clickbait-esque articles in which they would attempt to explain his disappearance with little to no substantive evidence.[110] Even after Mangum resurfaced in 2008, music publications continued publishing detailed reports on his life.[61] Neutral Milk Hotel's legal representative Brian McPherson said: "When the guy sneezes it's on the front page of Pitchfork."[61]
Neutral Milk Hotel has influenced many indie rock bands.[37] According to Miles Raymer of Esquire, the band's cacophonous sound and earnest lyrics were in direct contrast to the underground music scene in the 1990s.[111] While many groups focused on the theme of detached irony, Neutral Milk Hotel's abrasive and overtly emotional lyrics struck a chord with social outcasts.[112] Groups influenced by Neutral Milk Hotel include Arcade Fire and the Decemberists, both of whom create psychedelic-folk inspired music with non-traditional instruments.[112] Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler said that Neutral Milk Hotel's association with Merge Records was a contributing factor to their signing with Merge Records.[113] Neutral Milk Hotel also influenced bands like AJJ,[114] Beirut, Bright Eyes, The Lumineers,[115] Okkervil River,[37] and Pwr Bttm,[116] as well as artists like Melanie Martinez[117] and Amanda Palmer.[118]
