I found Neutral Milk Hotel through a video by the YouTuber Whang!, and I listened to the album In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and I was hooked. I’ve been listening to them for months now, and I listen to them almost every day. Every song is filled with so much emotion and talent.
They are an indie rock / psychedelic folk band. They specialize in very surreal lyrics set to purposefully low quality guitars among other unique instruments, all sang beautifully by Jeff Magnum. It would mean a lot to me if yall could give them a chance. I would certainly start with In The Aeroplance Over the Sea, it is actually a masterpiece.
how online am I if I think this is a bit?
Lmao well now I’m paranoid that it is one and I got got. Damn you
dangerous levels of online, touch grass, grow a soul and maybe check a calendar on what year it is
This isn’t a bit. I’ll be real, I can be a bit out of the loop on internet stuff, and I wasn’t sure how popular they were in online spaces.
On one hand, this is “Baby’s First Sophisticated Music Choice”
On the other hAND ONE DAY WE WILL DIE AND OUR ASHES WILL FLY FROM THE AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA 🎵🎶🎺
I know, I’m a basic bitch, I get it. BUT ITS SO DAMN GOOD I must spread the word of our lord and savior Jeff Mangum.
It’s kind of funny to me that someone would need to introduce Neutral Milk Hotel to someone on the internet. “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” is like the quintessential album for online-music nerds around 2010, probably most notably on pitchfork and on 4chans /mu/ board (pretty sure the album art is still their banner) (although now looking up the youtuber you mentioned, i guess you already know all of that).
It’s an absolutely wonderful album, can’t say I’ve listened to it a lot over the last few years, but one that I’ve returned to again and again, there’s just something so sweet and youthful about it, it’s existential but without a worry, serious and emotional, but still light-footed. The very simple chord progressions, unique instrumentation and somewhat experimental stylings really work wonderfully together.
There are very few lines of lyrics I find more poignant than the end of the title track:
And when we meet on a cloud I’ll be laughing out loud I’ll be laughing with everyone I see Can’t believe how strange it is to be anything at all
If you are interested I can only recommend you read up on the history of the band and especially on the Elephant 6 collective the band spawned from and exploring the work of the other bands from the collective. There’s often times not a lot of overlap in terms of sound, but I feel it’s very enlightening to see where they came from, what their inspirations were and in how many different ways they manifested themselves (also I wish I was part of a cool art collective).
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I know, it’s just that I’ve tried to spread my enthusiasm and love for this band on other platforms and nobody ever responds or seems to care. I also want to put emphasis on the fact that they do have other albums such as Ferris Wheel on Fire, that yall should listen to as well it is great.
Neutral Milk Hotel fucks; I got to see them perform at the Fox Theater in Oakland over a decade ago; I only mention the venue because it’s GORGEOUS and was the perfect place to see them. I used to listen to them constantly in middle school/highschool, that’s awesome you discovered them!
Thanks, I’m happy you got to experience them too.
We will take off our clothes
And they’ll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep inside
Now your eyes ain’t moving now, they just lay there in their climb
Except Amanda Palmer has ruined Dresden Dolls music by being a hard R racist, a TERF, and doing apologia for sex pests in the music industry. She later ‘addressed’ the racism in a fucking patreon-exclusive post where she never actually apologised and referred to non-whites as “Patrons of Colour” PoC and not People. Not coming for your treats, because a lot of music can become meaningful before finding out what pieces of shit musicians are, though for anyone not already familiar with Dresden Dolls, Kanye, Anti-Flag, Ace of Bass, Rammstein, RHCP, or any other artists that have gone fash/bigot/sexpest better to steer clear and to check out other music.
Not coming for your treats
No worries. I’m not even a Dresden Dolls fan. I just like this cover
But uh yeah, yikes, that all sucks. I had no idea she was such a piece of shit
I prefer Biased Soy Inn, but you do you!
Oh yeah this album works so well to sing along to. I also recommend checking out other albums like On Avery Island or Ferris Wheel on Fire
Absolutely, I think people give way too much attention to ITAOTS over their other albums. On Avery Island and Ferris Wheel on fire are so damn good, but they never get the attention they deserve. Everything Is is also kind of good.
I would definitely suggest people check out the band that drummer Jeremy Barnes started afterwards, “A Hawk and a Hacksaw”, him and violinist Heather Trost play their take on Eastern European and Balkan folk music, with lots of Accordion and sometimes variants of hammered dulcimers.
I think at least one or maybe several of their albums were collaborations with folk musicians from the various countries like Romania and Hungary too.
There are a lot of good ones from the elephant 6 collective. I myself also like Olivia Tremor Control (which Jeff Mangum was also a part of).
I discovered Neutral Milk Hotel 15 years ago from someone making jokes about hipsters liking Neutral Milk Hotel. I guess I’m a hipster, because they’re good. Shortly after, one of my favorite bands at the time covered 2 Headed Boy: https://youtu.be/xuHE7pwOvOc?si=etEKe_fowA6HNqbA
good post, slimecat
Sweet communist, the communist daughter
Standing in the seaweed water
Semen stains the mountaintops
Semen stains the mountaintops
Jeff man-gum sure loves his cum lyrics
Catch me in the crib getting light to Jeff Mangum
It’s fun to do bad things like rap about handguns
They are name-checked in this indiepop classic tune!
