|
 Who is Jeff Mangum? In the early 90s, four young men in Denver formed a musical collective known as The Elephant 6 Recording Company. The first bands to come of this were The Olivia Tremor Control, The Apples in Stereo, and Neutral Milk Hotel. While Neutral Milk Hotel were technically a band, it was more or less a thing wholly inside the head of a man named Jeff Mangum. While he only released two studio albums - On Avery Island and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - before having a mental breakdown, they are regarded by many as two of the most important, and best, independent rock albums of the 90s (some would say "ever"). The latter album ended with the sound of Jeff putting down his guitar and walking away, which was either a genius bit of foreshadowing or a sad premonition. After touring throughout 1998, the band simply stopped. The last show Jeff played before his recent return was New Year's Eve, 1998. 2002 posted:Jeff: I went through a period, after Aeroplane , when a lot of the basic assumptions I held about reality started crumbling. It wasn't until 2010 that he fully returned to live performances, a few minor appearances notwithstanding. Last year, he curated and headlined the long-running concert event All Tomorrow's Parties. Now, he's set to embark on his first major tour in over a decade (and, allegedly, his "last"). Tour Dates posted:01-09 Buffalo, NY - Ashbury Hall, Babeville Yes, it would appear to be entirely an East Coast tour. There hasn't been any indication of West Coast dates. Personally, I'm planning on flying to Texas to catch it. I'm sure a lot of you are attending these shows, and it would be nice to hear about how they go.
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2013 20:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 00:43 |
|
|
Lawrence, Kansas isn't TOO far away... Maybe I can catch it. Always wanted to see him.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2013 22:14
|
|
|
I saw this dude at Coachella last year and it was honestly one of the most moving performances I have ever seen. He encourages everyone to sing along with him and this leads to the songs having a much larger impact than you would imagine. Really upset I can't see him again, but very thankful I saw him at all.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2013 22:19
|
|
|
Kart Barfunkel posted:I saw this dude at Coachella last year and it was honestly one of the most moving performances I have ever seen. He encourages everyone to sing along with him and this leads to the songs having a much larger impact than you would imagine. I saw him in London in Union Chapel, which is literally a church where the audience sits in pews, and probably my favourite music venue in the world. It was an amazing, gorgeously intimate performance, but there was this weird dynamic where Jeff kept encouraging everyone to sing along, but the vibe felt so sacred (I mean it was a church come on) people were scared to do it. Nonetheless I felt it rude to ignore Jeff's requests (it was clearly making him sad people weren't participating) so I was one of the 50% of people who sang along like drunk sailors. There was even a bit of hand drumming going on on the pews from me and others. Afterwards I read some experiences of the concert online and someone posted a lengthy rant about the guy next to him who sang loudly through the songs and drummed on the pews like an rear end in a top hat. Pretty sure that rear end in a top hat was me, based on the description. Sorry dude, whoever you are.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2013 22:26
|
|
|
He was with Olivia Tremor Control when I saw them in early '99, but they didn't play any NMH songs. I don't even remember for sure if Jeff actually played with the band or just stood there. Like most people, I assumed there would be plenty of chances to see him so I passed up the '98 tour entirely. I usually don't get very excited about these kind of tours. I didn't really care when the Pixies got back together and didn't bother, I only saw a post-reunion Dinosaur Jr. show because it was free (it ended up being totally amazing, though, to my surprise), and I completely ignored the Pavement reunion. With this, though, it's like... yeah, I kind of care. On Avery Island was the soundtrack to all of '97 and '98 for me for a variety of reasons. The one song I really hope he does is "Song Against Sex". fake edit: I was in Athens when he recorded the Live at Jittery Joe's show and passed it up for... I don't even remember why, probably drug related.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2013 22:27
|
|
|
I sure hope you bothered listening to more Dinosaur Jr. because Farm is one of their best albums ever.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2013 01:06
|
|
|
Singing along with Jeff Mangum live is like being in a contest with someone to see who can hold a note the longest and you always lose.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2013 01:08
|
|
|
Davincie posted:I sure hope you bothered listening to more Dinosaur Jr. because Farm is one of their best albums ever. Oh, I sure did! The show was before the album came out, but yeah, it's become probably my second favorite of theirs.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2013 01:19
|
|
|
I know where I'll be the on the 23.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2013 06:18
|
|
|
Mad Mafioso posted:I know where I'll be the on the 23. I'd like to be able to say the same but it appears that he's playing two shows at One Eyed Jacks (one earlier and one later) and both are sold out already 
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2013 09:47
|
|
|
My boyfriend and I are seeing him in St. Louis on the 16th. Frankly, I'm surprised we were able to get tickets. They sold out something like 10 minutes after going on sale.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2013 10:03
|
|
|
Yeah, every show I've checked on sold out very fast. Understandable, since they're all small venues and it's Jeff loving Mangum. I find it pretty strange that he decided not to play a show in Athens, though, since the Elephant 6 commune is still a thing. The girl that originally introduced me to the band lived in it for a while, according to her they do a lot of cocaine. She babysat Will Cullen Hart's kids at one point around 7 years ago and claims he and his wife tried to get her to have a threesome with them. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2013 20:06
|
|
|
Jeff made a surprise appearance sometime in 2008 (2009?) in Lexington, Kentucky during an E6 performance and I must say it was amazing. Though he only participated in "The Fool" and "Forever" it was truly magical to be apart of the show. I would recommend anyone who hasn't seen him to take the dive.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 05:49
|
|
|
Mangum played in Denver last April. It was the best show I've ever been to, and it was the only ticket I've ever saved. I highly recommend to everyone, if you can, to go to one of his shows. You will not regret it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 12:09
|
|
|
I saw him last year in DC and it was pretty good but made worse by all the weirdos freaking out and crying through the set because it was "just so beautiful".
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 15:34
|
|
|
answersyouseek posted:I saw him last year in DC and it was pretty good but made worse by all the weirdos freaking out and crying through the set because it was "just so beautiful". This is the sort of thing that would normally bug me but I could see it being actually that good/powerful. I've broken down and cried at every Spiritualized show I've seen, and at Silver Mt. Zion once. I mean I didn't "freak out", mind you, but yeah. I think one should go to any of these shows and expect that to happen, really.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 17:13
|
|
|
I saw Neutral Milk Hotel open for Superchunk in 1998, maybe a week or so after Aeroplane came out, and they were a great loving band. Loud, weird, frantic-- just an outpouring of psychedelia and emotion that absolutely matched the energy of the two LPs. I saw Jeff doing his solo thing in 2011 at ATP New Jersey, and while it was a really good show, it was just too haunted by this overly precious air, the "legend" that kind of sprung up somewhere in the last 10 years about the guy. Not really his fault, I know, but people just take the guy SO loving SERIOUSLY and at least for me, when you strip away the sonics that the full band brought to the table, there's just a kind of hollowness to his songs. I'm glad I saw him, but when he came to my town last spring I opted to not spend the $30 or whatever on a ticket, and I'm passing on this tour, too.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 20:09
|
|
|
At least in my experience, the "legend" has been there since the first album, really. I knew people back then that were just as into it as the obsessives of today. I disagree about him being not as good on his own though, Live at Jittery Joe's is fantastic. That cover of "I Love How You Love Me", my god.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 20:22
|
|
|
answersyouseek posted:I saw him last year in DC and it was pretty good but made worse by all the weirdos freaking out and crying through the set because it was "just so beautiful". I had to leave in the middle of Oh Comely. I felt in danger of unlearning everything I knew about sex/reality and becoming a crying 15 year old again.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2013 23:54
|
|
|
I've listened to ITAOTS a few hundred times, pouring over every line and piecing together the story in its entirety through interviews and b-sides. I've even considered doing an annotated version of the album. NMH's death was almost perfect in what it contributed to ITAOTS and its legacy. It seems Jeff has finally accepted the experience and is allowing himself some healthy nostalgia. I really wish he did more of his own stuff as he was a fantastic lyricist. If I hadn't already made another commitment I would be seeing him tomorrow night. I'm a little bummed, but not so bummed that I would break my commitment. The album will always be there. The album is the experience.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 05:01
|
|
|
One of the first shows I ever want to was Olivia Tremor Control with Elf Power and Jeff Mangum back in 96. It was really amazing but I don't think I appreciated as much as I would now.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 11:40
|
|
|
precision posted:At least in my experience, the "legend" has been there since the first album, really. I knew people back then that were just as into it as the obsessives of today. I didn't know this, was he really always treated with the same strange reverence as he is today? By the time I was old enough to discover NMH's music Jeff had already been in exile for several years and his myth firmly established, so I actually thought of his music with the same finality as songs by guys like John Lennon or Nick Drake. I think it's a little easier to understand all the hero worship in that context, but that's crazy if this is just how the world interacts with Jeff Mangum. I was super stoked that I got to see him perform in Austin last year. Maybe it's because I'm not used to such bare shows, but it really did feel like something special. Plus he played a lovely Daniel Johnston cover. I'm thinking about going to the Houston show, though I'm not sure I'm ready watch him perform the same fifteen or so songs again quite so soon. (But he says this is the last!  ) Anyone who's interested but is on the fence because of creepy religious vibes or whatever should totally just go.
boozy fucked around with this message at 14:03 on Jan 8, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 13:59
|
|
|
I think the fact that there are still tickets available in Orlando makes my not being able to make the 4-hour trek up there hurt more. Come to Miami Jeff please!!!! 
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 15:13
|
|
|
Kart Barfunkel posted:He encourages everyone to sing along with him and No Jeff don't!!! If this is your last tour I want to hear you play songs, I don't want to just hear 27-year olds bellowing Two Headed Boy into the back of my head.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 18:18
|
|
|
boozy posted:I didn't know this, was he really always treated with the same strange reverence as he is today? I don't think it was universal like it is now - for example, Pitchfork's initial review of In the Aeroplane "only" gave it an 8.7 (they've since "revised" and gave it a 10, natch). But certainly the people I knew that were into them, that got me into them, they were obsessive about it. I distinctly recall hating the name of the band well before I even heard them because of people I knew who talked them up as the best thing ever (and that was just based on On Avery Island, they went much crazier later). In my opinion it detracted somewhat from the rest of Elephant 6. Olivia Tremor Control had done arguably the best pop album since Pet Sounds with Music From the Unrealized Film Script Dusk at Cubist Castle and Elf Power's When the Red King Comes was every bit as good to me as On Avery Island. Speaking of which, there is even evidence that within E6 themselves Jeff had already reached legend status - Elf Power's "The Arrow Flies Close" describes a fictional funeral, with the lyric "I hope Jeff will sing me a song" (followed by him faintly singing "la, la, la" in the background), for example. The last show they did in '98 that I mention in the OP was a party for E6 members and friends, certainly suggesting that even they knew they had something special, way back then.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 18:33
|
|
|
It pains me greatly that I will never write lyrics even half as good as Two Headed Boy Pt. 2. Every line is so beautiful and haunting.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 20:10
|
|
|
exquisite tea posted:It pains me greatly that I will never write lyrics even half as good as Two Headed Boy Pt. 2. Every line is so beautiful and haunting. I've always held that Aeroplane is a flawed, not flawless, album. The title track has never appealed to me, and "Oh Comely" started to really drag after the first few months I had the record. So that's 1/4 of the album right there. Maybe I just always wanted, and still want, more along the lines of "Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone" (oh my god that song) and "Song Against Sex". But "Two Headed Boy Pt. 2". That song is unassailable. Unassailable. Gets me every time. Hell, just thinking about it is making me tear up. e: re: Gardenhead, I think that "I just want to dance in your tangles to give me some reason to move" is literally the greatest lyric I've ever heard.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2013 20:40
|
|
|
Ahhh so so so so so so excited for this. I was lucky enough to see Jeff in August of 2011 in my own neighbourhood in Montreal at a tiny venue. It was mind blowing and I definitely broke down and cried during Ferris Wheel on Fire. The passion and emotion was so much to take. After 10 years, I'm still as in love with NMH as I was the first time I heard them back in 2003. I'm happy to say that my fiance and I are making a 6 hour drive from New Brunswick to Portland, ME to see Jeff on this tour. It will be his first time and my second. I can't wait to share that experience with him.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2013 22:32
|
|
|
jennyinstereo posted:Ahhh so so so so so so excited for this. I was lucky enough to see Jeff in August of 2011 in my own neighbourhood in Montreal at a tiny venue. It was mind blowing and I definitely broke down and cried during Ferris Wheel on Fire. The passion and emotion was so much to take. After 10 years, I'm still as in love with NMH as I was the first time I heard them back in 2003. I'm happy to say that my fiance and I are making a 6 hour drive from New Brunswick to Portland, ME to see Jeff on this tour. It will be his first time and my second. I can't wait to share that experience with him. And I can't wait to share it with you 
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2013 22:35
|
|
|
precision posted:I've always held that Aeroplane is a flawed, not flawless, album. You and me man... you and me against the world.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2013 23:21
|
|
|
Luckily myself and a ton of my friends caught him when he was in Milwaukee last year. We essentially all camped out and each bought four tickets, resulting in being able to frantically run around the Pabst theater running into people I hadn't seen since High School. Jeff brought along a few other acts from the Elephant Six collective, which were pretty neat and odd. For his set, with the exception of other bandmates walking on from offstage for [untitled] it was just Jeff by himself on stage. It's amazing how well the songs hold up with nothing but his voice and the acoustic. I can see how the atmosphere could be creepy depending on the venue, but at least in Miluwakee the mood stayed a warming cloud of admiration. If you're gonna see him, get tickets quickly. I think our show sold out in about an hour. (They also sell sweat t-shirts)
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2013 00:39
|
|
|
Flying to Dallas tomorrow. The friend we're gonna be staying with has secured some acid and tested it to make sure it's strong. Oh my.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2013 23:45
|
|
|
Joff doesn't seem the kind of show I'd dig tripping at. But you've said you can't listen to music sober, so do what you gotta do.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2013 00:26
|
|
|
I've only taken psychedelics when seeing bands very few times, for things like Acid Mothers Temple or Polyphonic Spree. I don't know, it seems like a good idea for some reason.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2013 01:14
|
|
|
precision posted:Flying to Dallas tomorrow. The friend we're gonna be staying with has secured some acid and tested it to make sure it's strong. Last time I heard an idea this bad it was when my friend told me about how he bought MDMA for a Sunn O))) show. But then again I took acid and saw Why? once while wearing a dress so I guess I can't really talk 
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2013 02:27
|
|
|
Holy poo poo new dates and he's coming to Boise.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2013 22:53
|
|
|
So, your friend is aware that this thing will be so very un-psychedelic right?
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2013 03:28
|
|
|
Just got back a bit ago from his Lawrence show. It was pretty much exactly what you would expect: lots of mumbling into the microphone, being ultra-introverted and the "aw, shucks guys, you really like me?" routine. That said, it's one of the best shows I've been to and the most electric crowd I've ever been apart of. It reminded me of a really, really hyped up basketball game, where every tiny movements gets huge reactions and completely coordinated crowd responses.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2013 06:14
|
|
|
vegaji posted:Just got back a bit ago from his Lawrence show. It was pretty much exactly what you would expect: lots of mumbling into the microphone, being ultra-introverted and the "aw, shucks guys, you really like me?" routine. Hey, I was there too. My feet are loving killing me but it was so worth it to be two feet back from the stage, dead center.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2013 06:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 00:43 |
|
|
I was at Lawrence last night, too. (Balcony-- I am far too short to ever see poo poo at gen admission shows.) I totally cried during Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2, and the four hour drive was absolutely worth it. How does someone who is dousing himself with chlorosceptic between every song hold notes for that long? Jesus. My husband, who has always hated NMH and only went with me because he is the best husband ever, was also impressed by the show. I somehow hadn't heard about this being his last tour ever. I'm a little heart-broken.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2013 21:06
|
|