Finally watched the latest episode, and while Matt Pond is no Jeff Mangum, I'm sure you'd all like to hear that Neutral Milk Hotel cover again (and trash it presumably).
Matt Pond PA - "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" (MP3 link expired)
Posted at 11:14 AM
Tags: The O.C.
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Yes, if you're going to cover a song you should have something to add besides suck and boring.
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Scariledge! Matt Pond has balls the size of cantaloupes to do that yes?
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except I meant "sacrilege".
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I was hoping it wouldn't totally suck, but it kind of does. Maybe there's a bright side in that the OC's teeny bopper contingent will start Neutral Milk Hotel flip flop pushed by Urban Outfitters.
Guess we'll have to live with Mountain Goats and Mike Doughty covers of them.
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jeez. why couldn't they just have played the original?
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I'm glad they didn't. I'm glad they played a shitty version so that no teeniebopper bastards start liking nmh
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personally, high school would have been a lot more fun if teeniebopper bastards had liked the same music i did.
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I'm glad this song sucks.
And I am also glad I stopped watching The OC.
(Until Adam Breaks up with Rachel).
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Well, I'm just going to say it, it was great. In it's own right of course...I have much love for both versions. But I see everyone is still quick to jump on the 'hate anything on the oc' bandwagon because that makes you cool and stuff. Well done!
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jesus...he did a good job covering "Champagne Supernova" but this is just crap.
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It makes you think: Does Josh Schwartz have Matt Pond on retainer or something?
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Some teenieboppers at my school DO like NMH. :( I try to talk to them about music, but all they ever talk about are MTV bands and pseudo-indie Garden State/OC stuff.
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Hey, the whole "hate things on The O.C." thing; personally I can say it did make it harder to like Interpol after I heard that they played Evil on the show, but that's not some kind of knee-jerk "oh no! there goes the cred!" reaction, it's the annoyance of songs and bands that one likes now having an association with something that one might dislike and look down upon . . .
The best way I have of explaining the kind of effect it has is how it's like when a great album has just terrible, terrible cover art. The music is still great, but it conjures up images and impressions that are disagreeable. One probably gets past it, but it's hard not to be at least somewhat annoyed.
And having listened to the cover, I can't say I hated it per se, but I can see where the "haters" are coming from, and I wouldn't chalk it up to some kind of "I must hate everything on The O.C. to be cool" imperative.
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yay for the oc!
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Not a huge fan of the OC but I really like Matt Pond PA so this song I deem "cool". it certainly isn't their best work, though.
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The OC is amazing. Neutral Milk Hotel: GET A JOB!
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Oh comon, Adam, last I heard from the random ramblings many fans do about the show, a main recurring plotline is rich people trying to have/keep-having money without actually having anything even resembling a job (and then the trouble this gets them into). Meanwhile, with Neutral Milk Hotel, "all the members are still active with one another in other projects" (from Wikipedia) . . . oh, you're right, I don't even know myself why I'm bothering to reply.
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I think this is the greatest recording in the history of the known universe and beyond. (greatest recording of a hack that is. hee hee)
NMH=4EVA
FIRST POST BEEYOTCHES! oh wait.
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i cant believe i just listened to that.
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I like the MPPA version of the song, too. Of course it isn't the NMH version, but it's interesting and nice to listen to. I don't really listen to as a version of a NMH hotel song, but as a completely separate song that just happens to share the same lyrics and chords.
It should be noted that MPPA didn't cover this song for the show, like they did with "Champagne Supernova;" this was released almost a year ago on their Winter Songs EP.
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What the hell? I coudn't even get through 10 seconds of it. Well, I will give them this at least they are consistent. Fucking lame attempt to cover a brilliant song on a equally fucking lame show.
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does Matt Pond PA ever write their own songs? and how can the oc put a shitty cover of an amazing song on their show? now millions of pseudo-scenechildren will listen to this lame attempt, without even ever hearing of NMH.
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i love the OC, but theyve gone too far. if the girl at my school who listens to the garden state soundtrack exclusively and goes to church camp and sucks off guys at parties ever mentions NMH, i will actually end my life. AAAAR
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Nice headline, Scott... I'm assuming you weren't reading my weekly O.C. soundtrack post yesterday with the EXACT SAME HEADLINE.
http://drakelelane.blogspot.com/2005/09/in-aeroplane-over-oc.html
Seriously, though. I am assuming you weren't one of the handful reading my post yesterday so I just chalk it up to it being an obvious(ly clever) one for the story ;)
While Matt Pond PA's cover of NMH was pretty tame, his cover of Lindsay Buckingham's "Holiday Road" on the same EP (Winter Songs) is pretty cool.
There was also a cover of Badfinger's "Baby Blue" on the O.C. last night as well, by some band I'm not familiar with (All Sad Girls Are Beautiful.)
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dude, drake, the caps were not needed. stereogum didn't steal it because that wording comes across as rather natural, obvious even.
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dude...er...J... try re-reading my comment again (this time try and make it past the caps part.)
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penny lane...For your information, Matt Pond PA have released FIVE albums of original material and will release a sixth on October 11.
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Plus the headline keeps with the punning tradition of O.C. titles such as the The Snow C, The O Sea Et. Al.
Neutral Milk Hotel sounds like every Canadian band who isn't Our Lady Peace or The New Pornographers... melodically anyways. IF you know what I am talking about, you are probably Canadian. If you don't, you are probably American.
"a main recurring plotline is rich people trying to have/keep-having money without actually having anything even resembling a job (and then the trouble this gets them into). "
This is ALMOST only true of one character, and is also like saying that Three's Company is annoying because you don't see them at work. Seeing Kirsten do real estate deals (which we do see sometimes) isn't as compelling as prop stealing and benders to Mexico.
I don't think Neutral Milk Hotel is any kind of secret, it's one of the most popular indie albums ever, and also one of the most widely known I believe.
Alls I know is that at ever party when meeting new people they talk about it, not so much anymore, but almost a 85% talk rate pre-2004.
(Mostly with freshman at college.)
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I'd rather make up my own stories and pictures to the songs...instead of hearing them on TV.
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For the artist, the point of the songs being on tv isn't to associate stories and pictures to them, it's associate themselves to an audience at all.
The traditional avenue of 'getting heard' (radio) is full of potholes, so is it any wonder good music is taking all these side streets and alleys to get to our ears?
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And it's working:
Fans tune in to musicians in ads: study
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/25/AR2005092500183.html
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"Neutral Milk Hotel sounds like every Canadian band who isn't Our Lady Peace or The New Pornographers... melodically anyways. IF you know what I am talking about, you are probably Canadian. If you don't, you are probably American."
Yeah that jeff magnum asshole is always ripping off the constantines, metric, feist, and last but certainly not least, K-Os.
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Anybody else convinced that this Adam guy is actually Adam Brody?
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As a Canadian, I find almost agreeing entirely with Adam on the sound thing, but hashbrownx brings me back to reality. Still, there are some points to be made. Hmm, since The Tragically Hip are the quintessential Canadian band, I think one can probably use them as the base for the "sounds like Canadian" test. Speaking of, I think The Trews are going to be the new The Hip; certainly at least with the "really popular....in Canada" niche in rock. (Hmm, listening to the newest Wide Mouth Mason album right now, and melodically it is, in fact, very similar to The Trews, there's at least a point to be made about certain melodic motifs in the Canadian scene . . . but still, shouldn't exaggerate, it's hardly like they're all sonic copies underneath superficial differences).
But back to the O.C., I still maintain that the basic plot is "poor little rich people". I dug up some quotes from tviv.info and television without pity:
"It is revealed that Caleb died penniless and owing huge amounts of money in debt."
"Jimmy is beaten up when he doesn't come up with the money he owes and runs away again on his boat."
Okay, whatever, I'm already bored. Point is, even if it's just Jimmy, he brings a taste of that no-money issue to most of the other characters he comes in contact with (I mean, not directly, it sounds like it's 'cause the writers write away their money so that Jimmy's problems can remain). Or something like that. Actually, the television without pity recaps are pretty funny, so a few days of idly reading them and I'll probably either admit defeat or have an airtight cynical counter-argument.
Hmm, Adam actually Adam Brody? A salient theory . . . his specific deprecation of Canadian bands, though, it's a very Canadian meme, and Adam Brody was born in San Diego . . . OR SO HE"D LIKE YOU TO BELIEVE!!!!!1
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Ok, so is it perfectly legal for them to play Jeff Mangum's songs on tv, even if its just a cover? Sorry, but fuck that tv show and fuck Matt Pond for having them air a song that wasn't his.
That cover was god damned awful,
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Man, I keep it realer than any of y'all: me and my buddy sent NMH a cookie at the restaurant we both ended up eating at after a show in Pittsburgh in 1996.
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broadcasting matt pond pa's cover of the nhm song on the o.c. represents a misappropriation of a certain spirit that anyone familiar with nmh mythologies treasures. i'm all down with postmodern sharing and (inter)play and artifice, but i also - somewhat hypocritically (or maybe just plain selfishly) - still maintain that certain works are sacred and thus ought not be tainted by tepid approximations. who knows? maybe the world would be better if everyone listened to anything recorded by jeff mangum? yet there's something to be said for the camaraderie instilled in seeking something like nmh out, i.e. going to the local record store and buying the record, according the the recommendations of a friend or or a loved one instead of being spoon-fed extra credit hipster/aesthetic points by prime-time tv.
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fyi, matt pond is on their fifth record. so yes, they do write their own songs. lots of them. and they are very good. and while they decided to record a cover of this song, they did not decide to put it on the show. that was decided by the show. they probably just agreed to it, since, well, it probably made them a bit of cash. I am sure if they could have made the choice, they would have had the show use one of the songs off their very good new record, several arrows later. which is out, almost now.
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Wow! I don't watch O.C., but this is a very good cover of a very good song. How can you not like Matt's melodic guitar work and Eve Miller's violin lines. Yes, the drummer sounds half asleep, but he doesn't bring the song down that much. This is one of the best songs on Matt Pond PA'S WINTER SONGS EP.
I just don't know why the O.C. bypassed Matt Pond's very good EMBLEMS CD (recently released in the UK by the way) and went with a cover from a decent, but not great Winter Songs EP, an EP that I'm sure had no intentions of getting commercialized other than giving MPPA fans like me something to listen to while they're recording their next album.
But you know what, MATT POND needs to have his music exposed to much bigger audiences, and if it takes an NMH cover on the O.C. show to do it, then I'm happy for them. I hope they become a "breakout" band someday soon like Death Cab cuz their window of opportunity will only last for so long.
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you guys are a bunch of phoney balonies. it's the "cool" thing now to like NMH and if someone with no cred like MPPA cover one of their songs, of course they will be bashed. it's a ridiculous practice, and i bet over half of you so called "fans" of NMH don't even own an album of theirs and are likely not that familiar with the band and it's history.
I think MPPA do a fair version, and they do it in the style of music that they make, which is more respectful than trying to go lo-fi and make an exact copy of an already great song.
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Unless it's "killing innocent people," or "raping nuns" or something like that, why don't we all just ease up on giving a shit what other people like... or don't. Except Celine Dion. That's just not natural.
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crappity crapperson.
no me gusta.
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man, I wish I could have those 4 minutes back..
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you know what, I've decided that the MPPA version of "Aeroplane..." is MUCH BETTER, and more of a COHESIVE song than NMH's original. I can't stand those SQUEAKY, OUT OF TUNE-sounding horns breaks in the middle of the Neutral Milk Hotel version; I have to fast-forward over it because they ruin the song.
I think Matt Pond covered it so he could listen to a version of the song that doesn't have the needless horny squeaks.
Man, you Matt Pond haters have BAD TASTE in music if you all hate their version so much and think the original is better. I mean, really. Never mind this "indie cred" bullsh*t!
Matt Pond made a version of the song that actually SOUNDS better than NMH's, and they make it sound like its their own song to top, which is why I like it so much to begin with.
HATERS, go away!
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i'm with chuck..go Matt,,,and while you're about it, how 'bout doing a ton of Dylan and Banhart covers and other folks who right great songs but can't put em over in a way anyone can bear to listen to for more than a few seconds...
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actually ultragirlll posted a version of the song that beats the ever living shit out of boht Mangum and MPPA's versions (though Mangum's version is better than PA's.) I bet that really pisses people off.
Matt
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They say Matt Pond never asked Jeff Mangum if he could cover the song and isn't giving any of the money he made from the OC to Mangum. This is a big mistake. If he would have asked, I bet Mangum would never have agreed to have his song on the OC. Legally he doesn't have to ask, but he still has to pay up.
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Personally, I think that there is a difference between a Garden State Soundtrack fan and someone who occasionally gets music from the OC. They are always playing new music and I admit, it helps me to discover bands I wouldn't have heard otherwise. It's not easy to find indie bands everywhere you look- especially living in an isolated, mainstream radio culture. I'm not saying all my musical influences generate from the OC but come on, don't be such a hater! 90% of the OC fans don't even bother to listen to the songs that they didn't manage to include on their crappy hit mix soundtracks. And Interpol still rocks! You don't see any teenyboppers at their concerts, trust me.
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4 posts up-chuck: You know whats funny? That horn part is probably my favorite part of the song.
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first of all.. not all teenagers are evil. we are people too, and although there are many of the spawn of britney around - some of us really care about good music.
secondly, the OC may not be the most intellectually challenging show ever, but it serves it's saccharine purposes - it entertains.
Thirdly (i'm going to stop listing points now cos it gets annoying)- even though i must admit that i like knowing about bands no one else does, it is becoming more and more clear to me that this might be because i like feeling superior (which is ridiculous, really). The bands out there need to get their music heard. Otherwise they don't make money, and they get other jobs. A popular show like the OC is a perfect opportunity, offering publicity that indie bands usually can't afford to buy. Therefore, i don't see it as selling out - appearing on TV made the Beatles famous (not that i'm comparing a talk show to a teen show at all).
The most important thing in music is and will always be the song. a good song is a good song. this doesn't change just because it appears on a tv show.
MPPA's version is nice. It's watered down and filtered and fits into the teen niche perfectly. I personally love the Neutral Milk Hotel's version, its one of my favourite songs ever (i like the horns!) and if people find this song via the other version, u know.. good for neutral milk hotel.i am not sure if the original version would fit into background music anyway. it's too attention-grabbing and it needs a few listens before it lodges itself into your heart for good anyway.
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wow. that was the most disgusting thing i've ever heard. i mean reeeaaaaalllllll bad. yeah. jeff magnum created art...beautiful pieces exploding with soul and infused with being, gorgeous and meandering and full and sexy and loving and so much...so much. what i just wasted four minutes on was a song. no more than that. good job matt pond. way to kill a living, pulsating piece.
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I don't think that hating (what you consider) bad music makes you a hater. When I heard M.I.A. on the O.C., I was confused (did anyone see the weird school dance scene with "Fire Fire" playing in the background?), but not upset. It didn't make me enjoy M.I.A. any less. When I heard the cover of the "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", I was ENRAGED. The reworking of the song completely saps it of its LIFE. Like Boney M singing "Heart of Gold".
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I found that cover rather amusing...
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that was literally the worst thing i've ever heard. matt pond, you should be ashamed of yourself.
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Well, my first reaction on hearing Neutral Milk Hotel on the O.C. was disbelief. Fast-forward a few seconds and I'm a little dissappointed that it's a cover, but happy because I love hearing their songs even if it's not up to the original.
My opinion? Matt Pond's version is, to my ears, vastly inferior, but it's a lot 'softer' and more radio-friendly and so more fitting to the O.C. soundtrack. In a perfect world, planes would fly overhead blasting out 'Holland, 1945' and it would resonate in every tin can and speaker cone in the land, but that's not gonna happen :)
until then i'll be happy if a few million people hear a crappy cover song by one of the most awesome bands i've been privileged enough to hear.
Though I hope Jeff stops filming snails and decides to start recording songs again.
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But is the "softer" "radio-friendly" version really the same song? Really? I say it's pap (Def'n = "worthless or oversimplified idea" also "a diet that does not require chewing; advised for those with intestinal disorders"). Don't piss on me and tell me it's raining. Really.
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Matt pond's version - sounds exactly like it could soundtrack the OC. In other words, its boring. You could almost see two unrealistically beautiful people making out with each other on a fucking boat with the sun setting on a background. Afterwards, the dude makes some snarky comment in which the two proceeds to laugh about it. I vomit a little in my mouth, and wish that I've never heard the song.
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"But is the "softer" "radio-friendly" version really the same song? Really? I say it's pap"
That's a complicated question you're asking (a hypothetical one also, I presume). What makes a song a particular song? How much do you have to change it until it is something distinctly different that should be given a different name? No answers here, but maybe that's a topic worthy of serious debate.
"I say it's pap"
I'd say so too, for the reason that a good cover has to bring something new, a fresh and enlightening interpretation to a song. This version is 'soft' and radio-friendly, but in the conversion to this format, it's lost all of the intensity of emotion and depth of the original. NMH is all about those crazy distorted horns, weird instruments, theremins and singing saws; Jeff's voice on the edge of breaking all the time. You have to wonder in what way Matt Pond appreciates 'In the Aeroplane...' to have recorded a version where he has removed most of what makes it special and unique.
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This topic is long dead I'm sure (but the OC is back this week with more weak-ass cover songs and recycled Animal House antics--yippee!), but amen bro. You nailed it.
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yo. i like this site. you guys say cool stuff. i like the OC haha what can i say i'm easily amused. i dont listen to NMH though i have friends who do (one friend) and he has good taste. he prides himself on listening to apparently amazing music that no one else has heard of, and he often lists bands off to see if anyone has heard of them, and of course no one has. i think he would like this site.
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Hey!! i've seen you mentioned some time ago a song called Baby Blue, played in the oc, by the band all sad girls are beautiful... do you have this song in a mp3 archive in your computer??? please help me, i'm trying to find it but it's impossible!
thanks, send me an e-mail if you can help me!
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You guys are the 34010 best, thanks so much for the help.
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