Artist bio

Neutral Milk Hotel is the sporadically used public persona of frontman Jeff Mangum, who was aligned through childhood friendships with the likes of Apples In Stereo's Robert Schneider and Olivia Tremor Control's Will Cullen-Hart with Athens, Ga.'s Elephant Six Recording Company.

After a handful of obscure singles releases, NMH released a stunner of a debut, On Avery Island, in 1996. The injured acoustic fuzz-rock that populated the record presented a unique musical and lyrical world, but could not accurately presage Mangum & co.'s magnum opus, the incomparable sophomore LP In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. Aeroplane lyrically drew upon such touchstones as "The Diary Of Anne Frank" and the Jewish holocaust to weave a worldview through multifarious references to sex, death and innocence spread within the cryptic wordscape. 11 songs, all in the same key, led listeners on a sonic journey bookended with the 3-part "King Of Carrot Flowers" suite.

As of this writing, Mangum and NMH have yet to follow up Aeroplane, releasing only a collection of solo live recordings by Mangum. This is understandable, as the album may never find its equal in the realm of modern music.

Albums by this artist

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (Recommended) (1998)

On Avery Island (1996)

Neutral Milk Hotel

On Avery Island

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» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

Neutral Milk Hotel On Avery Island Merge, 1996 RiYL: early R.E.M., Uvula, Built To Spill's darker work, the Violent Femmes stuck in a cave on psychedelic drugs

Neutral Milk Hotel's first album is refreshing rock music that doesn't emulate the increasingly stale state of mainstream radio in the mid-'90s. Vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Jeff Mangum writes songs that are relaxed in tone, and at the same time, create a confusing environment all their own which lets in few equals.

The guitars are either acoustic or heavily fuzzed out, and sometimes both. Mangum experiments with theme variations -- two songs having the exact same melody -- and pays special attention to the transitions between tunes, which are either shockingly abrupt or smooth and soothing. The album is a cohesive group of relatively short songs if you discount the last track, which dissolves into a twelve-minute, nearly atonal jam on Indonesian instruments.

Opener "Song Against Sex" is in contrast a rollicking tune with a wonderfully catchy horn arrangement propelling the melody. Mangum's voice stretches upward toward the horns at every chorus break, a Patti Smith-esque method of conveying his dedication and energy.

But the album's coolest track is "Naomi," a more reserved progression placed near the end of the record, in which Mangum's spent energy melts into honesty, and he gives a heartfelt preview of what's to come on the intesely personal second NMH album.

Mangum's lyrics are tantalizing, if only slightly understandable. Check out the opening mantra to "Gardenhead": "like a walk in the park / like a hole in your head / like the feeling you get when you realize you're dead."

Or the curious saga of Pree: "Blistering Pree / all smiling and swollen / makes babies to breathe / with their hearts hanging open....and when the day it came to pour / all her babies across the bathroom floor / she will be swimming in them all forevermore."

Yikes. It's the sort of thing that makes you wonder "what do we have here?"

For all his jagged truths and fragmented tunes, Mangum proves a compelling artist, and if you let it, On Avery Island will draw you into its depressed carnival of authenticity.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.