My friend's book is awesome and inspired by Song Against Sex ... check out this essay at largeheartedboy

http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2007/08/book_notes_andr_1.html

such a freaking great song.

'In the Aeroplane...' is in my top 5 favorite albums of all time, but come on.....you know that Mangum (a lyrical and musical genius) had to be on some serious drugs to come up with some of this shit despite numerous denials to the contrary in the Pitchfork interview. However that doesn't take away from the fact that this album is a masterpiece, though it kind of makes me laugh how much the Diary of Anne Frank influenced it.

i first listened to aeroplane over the sea my second semester senior year of highschool in dallas tx, early 2001. since school was a joke at that point i just listened to new tunes for me (velvet underground, pixies, roxy music, cure, nas, etc), watched obscure films and just had this amazing mind expansion experience (without the hard drugs all my friends were doing...but the green was good..) this album was amazing. it didnt change my life, like the shins (ha!), but man, what a different sound. bless you jeff magnum, your influence is amazing and so clearly felt in so many of my favorite artist today.

definitely a desert island disc

wow, I use to have that same turntable and played that same vinyl record on it a ton of times. The beautiful artwork just adds to the greatness of the record.. One sad aspect of the new digital age is that album artwork will become less part of the overall experience...

Which high school in Dallas?

"Aeroplane" is an incredibly moving piece of work, but I listen to "On Avery Island" more often. Anybody else?

^^^ No you don't. You don't have to lie to kick it.

>>you know that Mangum (a lyrical and musical genius) had to be on some serious drugs to come up with some of this shit despite numerous denials to the contrary in the Pitchfork interview.<<

or maybe just a gifted sense of imagery and empathy...

at the risk of sounding unhip, i'm not into AVERY ISLAND at all. sorry. Aeroplane is a flat-out masterpiece. I'll never forget hearing Two-Headed Boy on a mix (on cassette!) my old guitarist made for me and thinking, wow, I bet this is off of a great album...

snore.

Quit talking shit B.B.!

I agree...Aeroplane is light years better than Avery Island...BUT It's still a damn good album.

Indie rock's swan song. I'm getting misty for the better days... This decade has been a steaming shit sandwich. STEAMING SHIT SANDWICH!

Anyone else glad he turned into a hermit?

^^^Hell yeah. Hope they don't reunite like every other band.

Well, I think unlike other bands they sort of went out suddenly in their prime and never officially made a statement that they broke up (which of course they did) so in some ways they'd have some unfinished business if they got back together.. reunions are always weird , but I'd be there in a second if it happened !
... guess they are not unlike My Bloody Valentine it that way.

>>Quit talking shit B.B.!

Huh ? I was just pointing out that people don't have to be on drugs
to come up with amazing art. I'm not knocking musicians that have created music wacked out of their heads but some people's minds just can create crazy worlds all on their own with no chemical assistance

Plus, Jeff Mangum admits to using pot and acid earlier in his life. He'd not trying to hide that, why would he lie about not using drugs while recording/writing In the Aeroplane?

Not that it even matters to me whether he did or didn't - it would still be my favorite album of all time either way.

RE: reunion tour...

While it will likely never happen, I would pay any amount of money and travel anywhere in the world to go to a NMH show. It sucks that the majority of their fans were too young to have even heard of them by the time the band 'broke up'.

jeff mangum smokes the marijuana like a cigarette.

A great band from Albany Sgt Dunbar and the Hobo Banned will be playing Aeroplane Over the Sea from start to finish at Valentines on February 22nd!! They are a big folk collective, with brass section, banjo, accordion, guitar, bow and more.....Great band!!

How the fuck else are you supposed to smoke the marijuana? Like a Kielbasa?

^^^
I don't understand the question, and I won't respond to it.

Ahh, my favorite album and show, together at last in the same thread.

Thanks for the heads up, artifact. I've never heard of the band, but I will definitely check it out. Probably the closest I'll come to hearing NMH live. Finally it pays to live in Albany.

Somewhere out on the web or some story in the book 33 1/3 details the day that Jeff wrote the title track which his friends called "The Beautiful Face Song". He was apparently on esctasy with a circle of friends, went off for a bit (minutes / hours?) and then came back and played the "completed" song for them.

In the end, who cares if Jeff wrote under the influence? Just thank god that he wrote that album. If we look out over the sea of indie rock albums released over the last 20 years, this one stands out as a true work of "ART" and it happened in our time.

If any of you reading this and love your pirated copy of Aeroplane, help a brother out. Jeff gave a good portion of his life and some of his sanity in the creation / aftermath of it, give him his $10 (or whatever portion he gets from Merge) - buy a copy.

Jeff, know that we love you and hope you are happy.

Neutral Milk Hotel made beautiful music, and that is all that can be said.

Interesting article about Jeff Mangun over at Slate (of all places). Nothing new, but it's a pretty good summary of the band.

http://www.slate.com/id/2185219/