Jeff Mangum played Town Hall Saturday

For the entire hour-long set, during which he played only old songs, the audience sat rapt, hanging on every note. And between songs, if anything, the focus sharpened alongside a collective hope that the odd, angular figure in the page-boy cap might take five minutes to explain everything: why he took a J.D. Salinger-like dive out of public life, why he's back now, and what the future holds.

But true to character, Mangum gave up little. At one point, he said the audience could ask him questions -- and a few rang out. But the one he chose to answer -- "What's your favorite book?" -- he didn't really answer at all. "You know the answer to that one," he said, cryptically. Devoted fans suspected, perhaps, that he was referring to "The Diary of Anne Frank," which supposedly inspired many of the songs on "Aeroplane." But it could have just as easily been anything else -- "The Catcher in The Rye" or "Gravity's Rainbow," the Bible or the Koran or "How to Make Friends and Influence People." Who the heck knew?

Jeff Mangum @ Town Hall, New York, NY, USA on October 29, 2011
Two Headed Boy Pt. 2
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Song Against Sex
Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone
Oh Comely
I Love The Living You (Roky Erickson cover)
Ghost
A Baby for Pree
Naomi
The King of Carrot Flowers, Part One
The King of Carrot Flowers, Parts Two & Three
Holland, 1945
Encore:
Two-Headed Boy
Engine

Has ANYONE else ever been so reclusive, still draw major fans and critics, without releasing anything new in years? No. But no one else is Jeff Mangum.

Link

Read more...

Jeff Mangum Does Chris Knox Cover

Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum on a new benefit CD called Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox.

From the All Things Considered Show on NPR.

Read more...

RIP Vic Chesnutt

Vic Chesnutt Tributes Pour in from Musicians, Journalists, Fans

Michael Stipe on Vic Chesnutt: Chesnutt's death is believed to be a suicide, and Stipe said that the musician "was very open about talking about his depression and about suicidal tendencies and thoughts." Stipe added that Chesnutt's tune "Flirted With You All My Life" was the late singer's "break-up song with death."

As news of Chesnutt's death spread over the holiday weekend, musicians took to the web to pay their respects. Patti Smith and Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum both wrote to the website of Constellation Records, which released some of Chesnutt's albums.

"...in 1991 i moved to athens georgia in search of god, but what I discovered instead was vic chesnutt. Hearing his music completely transformed the way I thought about writing songs, and I will forever be in his debt." "He possessed an unearthly energy and yet was humanistic with the common man in mind," wrote Smith. "He was entirely present and entirely somewhere else. A mystical somewhere else. A child and an old guy as he called himself… with his angel voice."

Added Mangum: "In 1991 I moved to Athens in search of god, but what I discovered instead was Vic Chesnutt. Hearing his music completely transformed the way I thought about writing songs, and I will forever be in his debt." Read More »

Read more...

Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum Returns With Chris Knox Cover

Reclusive Neutral Milk Hotel leader Jeff Mangum hasn't released any new music in forever, so any news of a new Mangum track is a big deal. In July, we reported that Mangum would show up on Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox, a tribute album dedicated to New Zealand indie forefather and stroke survivor Chris Knox. But when the tracklist for the New Zealand release of Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox came out last month, Mangum wasn't on it.

Well, good news: Mangum is on the U.S. version of the album, which is out now digitally via Merge. (Physical copies are due February 23.) Mangum covers "Sign the Dotted Line", a song by Knox's band Tall Dwarfs.

Read More »

Any bit of news on Jeff Mangum is better than NO news on Jeff Mangum. Eventually we may get him alltheway back.

Read more...

The Elephant 6 Orchestra

The Elephant 6 Orchestra

It was a magical and historic night for indie-rock. For the first time in more than a decade, the founding members of the widely adored and influential Elephant 6 Collective, including Robert Schneider (The Apples in Stereo) and the famously reclusive Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel), took the stage together for a sprawling live performance. The group, which featured 15 artists from 10 different bands, served up more than three hours of joyous, psych-tinged singalongs under the glow of the rainbow-colored lights at Chicago's Bottom Lounge on Oct. 21, 2008.

Singer songwriter (genius?) Jeff Mangum, who can do no wrong, has pretty much been a recluse the past few years or so. Too bad he's not a vain egomaniac who needs the publicity 24/7. But if he's going to dole it out to us in dribs and drabs, I'll take it anyway I can get it. My favorites by him are whatever I'm currently listening to so for today that would have to be "I Have Been Floated" and "Engine".

[More »] | Video

Read more...

FRIDAY RANDOM 10
Shuffle 'em up and show us your ten.

1. Dinosaur Jr - We're Not Alone
2. Djivan Gasparyan - A Wind Is Blowing
3. Jethro Tull - With You There To Help Me
4. Morphine - Buena
5. Ian Brown - Keep What You Got
6. Six Organs of Admittance -Assyrian Blood
7. Jeff Mangum - Little Birds
8. Portishead - Wandering Star (live)
9. David Gilmour - Raise The Rent
10. Alela Diane - White As Diamonds

Read more...