Jeff needs to stop being a little bitch and have a reunion show already.

Old news. Go back to covering corporate denim parties, ya hack.

Woah...relax...

"Old news. Go back to covering corporate denim parties, ya hack."

ha, what a moron.

i thought one of the highlights of the show was the group Nana Grizol. anybody know more about them? this was the first time i heard them.

6:25 needs to get a life.

ATP NY 2009. Neutral Milk Hotel. Please!

what a show! some more video evidence of elusive jeff sighting at the event...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1671703379835484392&hl=en

Have to say, I've always loved NMH, and like pretty much everyone, think that Aeroplane is a brilliant record, one of the true touchstones of the past decade or so in indie rock. But I do also find the endless hero worship of Jeff a little odd and the expectations for his occasional ten-minute stage appearances a little off the charts.

I saw NMH live on the Aeroplane tour, at the Bowery show that has now become legendary, and, honestly, it wasn't that good. It was pretty sloppy, in fact. Not great-despite-themselves-Replacements-style sloppy, just sloppy. And, let's be honest, the first NMH record isn't all that good, and, if we want to be really honest, Aeroplane's Side Two can't touch Side One with a pole.

The closest comparison has always been Kevin Shields, but Shields at least put out two stunning albums, an incredible ep and, depending on your taste for indie pop, some truly wonderful seven inches in the early days. Plus they pretty much redefined what a live indie band could be. Yeah, they borrowed from Dinosaur Jr., but still....

Don't get me wrong with NMH, I still love that record and think that Jeff pretty much re-defined at least one strain of indie rock, but if we look at his career, it's really just one truly brilliant half-a-record and some so-so live shows. Has he been tremendously influential? Of course. Okervill River and Conner Oberst pretty much owe the man their careers. But is there any reason to think another NMH record or tour would be all that great? Not really.

Honestly, in the wash, Robert Schneider has put out a hell of a lot more great music than Jeff has.

what

Matt, you are an ass. Jeff Magnum is a God and can do no wrong. How dare you say Jeff is anything less than perfect.

On Avery Island is great and underrated record.. more often than not I prefer to listen it to over Aeroplane.. its so fuzzy and warm & weird.
I too like The Apples (well the first 2 records and ep) but Robert works in a different way than Jeff on many different levels and while yes he has a much larger body of work there's alot of sub par stuff there & talk about sloppy live, I've seen them both play (sometimes on the same bill) & The Apples made NMH look like Journey at times..

I'm pretty sure Conor Oberst doesn't owe Jeff Mangum his career, they're contemporaries, Conor was writing and recording around the same time Jeff was.

>>I'm pretty sure Conor Oberst doesn't owe Jeff Mangum his career, they're contemporaries, Conor was writing and recording around the same time Jeff was.

well a small part of his career maybe ... now The Decemberists are a different story.. those first two Decemberists record sound a water downed NMH tribute band..

Whatever, GBV at ATP 2009!

>>Whatever, GBV at ATP 2009!

no chance dude

omg he's alive.

he was walking around atp for the whole weekend this year.

long live Scott Spillane. That guy stole the show for me!

Ok, Matt just needs to hold his horses on this Aeroplane as 1/2 a great record business. Maybe (and I'm only giving you maybe) the first half is a little stronger, but the second half of that record is still better than 99.9% of the records that have been put out by other bands since then. To claim NMH has 1/2 a record of great material and nothing else is a little silly and very reductive in reasoning.

Let's save our hyperbolic comments for Dan Deacon and the Black Kids please. Leave one of the best albums of all time out of the silliness.

Set list?

Who cares?

Really? This is being reported? No wonder dude is a shut in.

9:54, "one of the best albums of all time", sorry, maybe according to Pitchfork and a lot of indie-rock fans, but in "all time"? Not quite...

It's a good album, don't get me wrong, but it's amazing how people put this album WAY UP on a pedestal way up higher then even a guy like Mangum feels it should be.

Is it on par with Big Star's Third? London Calling? REM's 'Fables' or even 'Murmur'? 'Pet Sounds'? Not even close. I'd take Marquee Moon, Let it Be, or even Disintegration over this record anyday of the week. Sonically even OK Computer (from a REALLY over-rated band) blows this album out of the water. There's songs on Aeroplane that are borderline unlistenable at the end of the day, and not even in a good way. For a record as over-rated as this, please go out and learn something about musical history before making moronic declarations.

^^ Missed the boat on NMH.

Seriously overrated. You children didn't grow up with good music.

"You children didn't grow up with good music."

Ok, sure, because only bands that were around pre 1800 or whenever you were born were good right? If that's your attitude it's time to put yourself down pops.

"please go out and learn something about musical history before making moronic declarations."

Stamping musical snobbery over other people's tastes is ridiculously pointless. You might have a mental encyclopedia of rock music tucked away in your enthusiastic brain there, but it doesn't make you an authority on other people's likes and dislikes. It's not a matter of fact, it's a matter of personal choice. You say "London Calling" I say "In The Aeroplane..." - who are you to argue - and more to the point, why even bother?

London Calling was a far more influential LP, not to mention sprouted far more songs. Musically it's comparing apples to oranges, but we're also talking about two different leagues of talent here.

i'm pretty sure conor oberst does owe his career to simon joyner.

Aeroplane is a great record, and I think time may even put it up there with the other albums people mentioned.

But it is pretty pathetic how people who were ten when the record came out have these N'Sync level fits about just *seeing* the guy, so much so that they feel the need to e-mail a blogger about it as soon as they get back to their dorm.

It's really unflattering, cliquish, post-Facebook "look what I did" posturing. The issue isn't Mangum's talent, it's that 95% of people who go to NYC shows nowadays have vapid, uninteresting lives.

we are talking about different leagues of talent, and it matters what you like. in the aeroplane over the sea is a concept album, and an album based off of wierd dreams and abstract afflictions based off of the holocaust. A lot of albums mentioned are in a different category of music, and substance. It is beautiful at both ends of the dark things in life, and the colorful things in life. It is a concept...to be interpreted, and you all are acting like children, with your cute puns, and clever quotations....which I'm sure will happen with what I am writing. Just enjoy the music, and if you love it, love it.