Jeff Mangum isn't on the list, but one could argue that the elusive frontman of Neutral Milk Hotel might be classifiable as an "outsider musician", much like Daniel Johnston (who he covered on Friday again) and Roky Erickson (who he covered on Sunday again). Those covers aside, Jeff's three ATP Asbury Park setlists, religous experiences for many, stuck 100% to songs he wrote.

At last night's show (Monday, 10/3), Jeff was also joined on stage for two songs by show opener A Hawk and a Hacksaw, his Neutral Milk Hotel band-mate Jeremy Barnes included. To quote one anonymous attendee, "I loved him just solo but when they came out it sounded like neutral milk hotel." It looks like we're one step closer to the full on reunion. The Neutral Milk Hotel box set is out 11/22.

Last night's setlist also included "Little Birds" which he didn't play the other two nights. Two quote wiki, it's "the only song by Neutral Milk Hotel written after the release of In the Aeroplane over the Sea of which a recorded version exists.

"It's the beginning of a story where a boy is in a not-so-nice situation. One day, little birds start to form around him in his room. They start coming into his body and he was very happy about this. But unfortunately he tries to share it with other people and they get very upset because this is something that he finds to be very beautiful but they don't find very beautiful and they want to destroy it." -Jeff Mangum

Jeff comes even closer to and in NYC when he plays sold out shows at Town Hall on October 29th and Landmark Loew's Theatre in Jersey City on 11/6. Jeff also has a benefit show scheduled in Woodstock. No openers have been announced for those.

Above photo by missdubs. All three Asbury Park setlists below...

Continue reading "Jeff Mangum played 3 shows @ Paramount Theatre, was joined by Jermey Barnes, covered other outsider musicians (setlists)"

photos by Chris La Putt

Dark Dark Dark / A Hawk and a Hacksaw

"Eerily soothing piano melodies, smirking accordion lines plucked from a New Orleans carnival, cloudy gang vocal harmonies, and lonely horn bleats inhabit last year's Bright Bright Bright EP and full-length Wild Go (both from Supply & Demand Music). Thus far, the catalogue of Dark Dark Dark could be mistaken for lullabies inexplicably emanating from a deserted lakeside cabin haunted by Tori Amos and Gogol Bordello . . . except that, thankfully, Amos and those affiliated with the Bordello camp are alive and well, and therefore can't haunt anything. [The Phoenix]

The A Hawk and a Hacksaw (ft. Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeremy Barnes) / Dark Dark Dark / Pillars & Tongues tour came to NYC for two shows last week - 9/28 at the Bell House and 9/29 at Drom. Pictures from the latter are in this post.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw have since opened for Jeff Mangum as part of ATP at the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park on Friday (9/30) and will again in the same venue tonight (10/3)...

Without a word, Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Magnum walked onto the stage of Asbury Park's gilded, enveloping Paramount Theatre Friday night and eased into "Oh Comely," staring straight ahead, singing "soft silly music is meaningful, magical." In the recorded version of that song, at the end, you can hear someone far off exclaim "holy shit!" as if startled - which is just about right.

Over an hour and 15 minutes, Mangum - performing as part of the three-day ATP I'll Be Your Mirror Festival - was focused and relaxed, sitting on a chair mid-stage. He was flanked by four guitars, bathed in autumn orange lighting and looking especially solitary in the theatre's expanse. Where Bon Iver has traded up in touring accompaniment, Mangum is more at home alone - except, of course, for the rapt, capacity crowd of around 1500. [Rolling Stone]

Jeff Mangum's entire Friday setlist, along with more pictures from the non-Mangum NYC show at Drom, below...

Continue reading "A Hawk & a Hacksaw played Drom w/ Dark Dark Dark (pics), opened for Jeff Mangum @ Paramount Theater (do again tonight)"

words & photos by Natasha Ryan

The duo from New Mexico quietly emerged from the side of the stage and began playing to each other in the middle of the floor. The giddy audience started snapping photos and wondered out loud, "are they going to do the whole set here?" After the second song the band made their way on stage and Jeremy Barnes (ex-Neutral Milk Hotel and one half of A Hack and a Hacksaw) shared his enthusiasm for the brand new accordion he'd just purchased earlier that day. The pulsing, frantic Balkan sounds of the duo transformed the entire room into fluctuations of silent awe and pandemonium. Barnes was an eight-armed beast, hitting cymbals and playing percussion while attacking the accordion. Heather Trost broke a string towards the end of the set, but pulled on it for some interesting effects. the occasional shrieks in a definitively instrumental set elevated the hypnotizing beats to the climatic point of the night, and the set ended as suddenly as it began. - Natasha Ryan

Zach Condon was nowhere to be found, but Jeremy's old bandmate Jeff Mangum was reportedly there to take in the show by A Hawk and A Hacksaw Saturday night at Mercury Lounge (1/10). Someone else said they also saw Julian Koster.

It was one of two shows AHAAH played in NYC this weekend. The second was last night (Sunday, January 11th) at Union Hall in Brooklyn. More pictures from Mercury Lounge below...

Continue reading "A Hawk and A Hacksaw @ Mercury Lounge, NYC - pics "