Friday, January 27, 2006

Jeff Mangum is back


I'm going through a pretty intense rediscovery of Neutral Milk Hotel these days. The album In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea, and their other one, On Avery Island, have helped me wash more than a few dishes over the past week. Nice, fuzzy-guitar, psychedelic, indie rock. I wish Jeff Mangum didn't wig out and join the circus because I miss this band. (I really think that's what happened to the guy, literally, though I haven't kept up with his recent whereabouts)

Some of my favorite records I listen to so much that I "memorize' them almost and get to the point where I don't enjoy hearing them much anymore. I still consider them favorite albums, but I don't enjoy listening to them nearly as much as I used to. That's strange. Guided by Voices records are like that for me, and so are some Galaxie 500 things and even some Nick Drake. It's too bad, but at least I'm not like the dorks whose car stereos I hear outside my house--the guys who have been listening to the same Led Zepelin 8-tracks for thirty years. It's good to move on.

5 comments:

janette said...

Matt had read some article awhile back about how Jeff was just roaming the country and crashing on people's couches. I was so interested in finding him a couple of years ago that I actually e-mailed one of the radio stations he worked at, but of course, folks there didn't know where he went.

I smell a documentary here...The Search for Jeff Mangum. If you find the money, I'll work on it with you! :) In the meantime, I'll come up with a better film title.

Mr. Hill said...

Yeah, that'd be cool to follow his trail from couch to couch, a "Jeff Mangum slept here" kind of thing. We could interview these stoner/slackers saying things like "yeah, that's where he slept--right there on that couch."

LetsGoThrow said...

sounds like my summer - only I don't front a rockin' band.

Unknown said...

jeff mangum wasnt the one who wigged out, one of his band members did, causing jeff to lose his faith in the healing power of music. now lives in georgia on this big reserve with a lot of musicians and people from the elephant six collective (of montreal, elf power, the olivia tremor control, etc)

Mr. Hill said...

I didn't know that part of the story, Conor. Thanks for taking the time to fill me in, whoever you are.