Jeff Magnum writes songs that read like bad dreams...

He inherits a world of cannibalism, elastic sexuality and freaks of nature.

We can only assume he likes it there.

Neutral Milk Hotel is derived from the Elephant 6 music collective

Where Art-minded kids have to band together and play music with each other.

They are a group of friends who grew up together in the boondocks of Louisiana.

But small town isolation has produced oddly fresh

music:

folk-pop united with a fuzzy musical circus.

Neutral Milk Hotel combines:Jeff Mangum's distinctive lyrics

to expose the listener to a bevy of emotions expressed in "radiantly poetic fashion."

with music that borrows from psychedelic rock, folk, and jazz

For example, From the song “Oh Comely”

My dear we will fold and freeze togetherFar away from here There is sun and spring and green forever But now we move to feel For ourselves inside some stranger's stomach Place your body here Let your skin begin to blend itself with mine

Neutral Milk Hotel first released a series of cassettes and 7 inch singles between 1991 and 1996:

These are very rare and sell for large sums of money

1991: Invent yourself a shortcake (cassette)1992: Beauty (cassette)1993: Hype City (cassette)1994: Everything Is (7 inch)

in 1996 came Neutral Milk Hotel’s debut LP, On Avery Island.

"Jeff Mangum recorded this album while living in a 6 by 6-foot walk-in closet….

He also does not own a phone…

But he is one of the reasons that rock music, almost in spite of itself, continued to matter in 1996."

- Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune

Spin Magazine said this album is one of the ten best "you didn't hear" of 1996.

Musically, it's a fuzzy take on psych-folk/pop music with Mangum's unique voice, diction and stream-of-conscious

lyrics

1998 brought the acclaimed "Aeroplane Over The Sea"

There are very few albums that resist categorization quite so effortlessly as In "Aeroplane Over The Sea."

Mangum sings as if possessed, painfully conveying fractured and moving tales with the skill of a brilliant novelist.

It's a surreal universe of sad, awkward emotions, fanciful characters and equally colorful instrumentation, like

Flugelhorn

Euphonium

Uillean Pipes

…and the Zanzithophone

Which is an electronic MIDI saxophone that Casio used to make.

Apperently no one took picture of it either.

Magnet magazine named Neutral Milk Hotel the artists of the year for 1998

CMJ New Music Report chose "Aeroplane Over The Sea" as its album of the year.

Pitchforkmedia.com selected this as the #4 album of the 90's

Neutral Milk Hotel played their last show on December 5th, 1998

Then…..nothing

Some people thought he dropped off the face of the earth

Others thought he was kidnapped by a group of rogue midgets

But he wasn't

He's really into Bulgarian folk music now.

In 2001, Magnum released a compilation of Bulgarian folk music

And I think that's about it.

All info and pictures from:

Pitchforkmedia.comNeutralmilkhotel.net

Elephant6.comhttp://members.cox.net/nmhdd/

Music: Neutral Milk Hotel – [Untitled]