Neutral Milk Hotel

"What kind of band name is that?" You may think to yourself. Jeff Mangum, lead singer and face of the band, admitted that he had no idea, and that the name had been around ever since he could remember.

Neutral Milk Hotel is known to be quite a mysterious musical group. After being active during around 1989-1999 with various names, they vanished off the face of the Earth, and only recently have begun to resurface after deciding to tour in 2013, and are touring again this year, in which they'll be stopping in Iowa City on April 27th, where I'll be seeing them (You can look at ticket info here).

Neutral Milk Hotel's first releases were the Hype City Soudtrack in 1993 and Everything Is in 1995. Their last most well known, and my personal favorite album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, was released in 1998, and the band disintegrated a few months later, after Jeff Mangum admitted he grew tired of constant touring and interviews.

NMH's last album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, is probably one of the most bizarre albums out there. After Jeff Mangum was heavily inspired by The Diary of Anne Frank, he wrote the entire album about her and a remembrance to her life and happenings. Though it was never explicitly stated, it is heavily inferred throughout the album. It's one of those albums that doesn't involve your ears but also your creativity and your mind. The instruments found in this album are rather peculiar and don't like up; plucky guitars, bagpipes, accordions, harmonicas, and other odd instruments. Listening to the music takes you back to different point in time, especially Anne Frank era.

Mangum was known to be a crazy guy. Born and raised in Ruston, Louisiana, he was an unemployed twenty-something flitting from city to city all across the USA. Mangum often had night terrors, making him stay up, sometimes until morning writing songs to the "haunted ghosts" in his closet. After reading the Diary of Anne Frank, he was heavily consumed by the novel, and it affected him enough that he cried for days afterwards, and in an interview he stated that he would often have dreams about going in a time machine and saving Anne Frank.

And yet this crazy bizarre guy has had the ability to speak to so many peoples' souls, and is now (finally) going back on tour and letting a light be shone on him again, as he rightfully deserves-- and I'll be lucky enough to see him live.