Neutral Milk Hotel UK Re-Release
Speaking of Louisiana, found this on Domino Records site. (Though associated primarily with Athens' E6 scene, Jeff Mangum is from Ruston, LA):
Rising from the flames of Louisiana's 'crazy psychedelic Christianity' and smouldering bayous, comes the re-release of Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Originally released in 1996, Domino Records have swept off the ashes covering this musical gem that has been sparking inspiration in its listeners and influencing bands including Arcade Fire, Caribou and even Franz Ferdinand.Its relevance to today's musicians is obvious from its fans; Bob Hardy of Franz Ferdinand recalls: "When I first started driving, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea was the only cassette I had in my Ford Fiesta for two years. It is amazing. Friendships can be gauged on the mutual love of Neutral Milk Hotel." Dan Snaith of Caribou cites Aeroplane... as "my favourite album ever recorded without exception."
It's sort of a joke at this point that one can cite Aeroplane as a favorite album for instant indie cred. But if for some reason you don't own this sacred cow, I'm sure folks in the comments section can tell you to drop everything and buy it. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the rerelease has any special bonus tracks.
Posted at 11:15 AM
First post. Look, look, now I have instant indie cred.
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yeah you can totally hear "Two Headed Boy" all over "Take Me Out," and "Pelican Narrows" is basically "Oh Comely"
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Holland 1945 = Neighborhood #3. So obvious.
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Blatant plug for instant indie hip-hop cred:
New Blackalicious here:
http://marathonpacks.blogspot.com
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Oh boy, oh boy! Do I get to be the first person to say that the Decemberists totally ripped off Neutral Milk Hotel? That Colin Meloy is no Jeff Mangum? That'd be so 2003.
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I think the reason that there are no bonus tracks is because this is a UK re-release by Domino, where Aeroplane is out of print. If you want it and do not live in the UK, I would suggest hopping over to Merge's website or Amazon and picking it up there. Domino's pre-order price of 9 pounds is slightly more than Merge's $13 or Amazon's $14.
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and there's a book coming out sometime this fall as part of the wonderful 33 1/3 series about Aeroplane. I read part of it already - mostly dealing with the cover art - and am excited about it coming out
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this album changed my life
p.s. so can i get some more indie cred for saying that...maybe i will get some iron on letters and put it on a thrift store shirt
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If all you have to do to have indie cred is buy something, then why does everyone covet it so? Sounds like just good old consumerism to me. I bought a cup of coffee today. Is that worth indie cred.
PS- That record is indeed wonderful and it did change my life. Well, not in any noticable way.
PSPS- Isn't it weird that it's being talked about like it's 25 years old when it's really like, what 7? 8?
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More info on that book, please!
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the first spin annoyed the hell out of me many years ago, but that second spin amazed me and it grew with each listen. don't confuse cliché with classic, kids. and as always, more than ever, i ask you to
SAVE THE WETLANDS!
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for evil speakers:
http://lostinthegrooves.blogspot.com/2005/06/neutral-milk-hotel-33-13-book.html
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not to get overly pretensious...well, cancel that. Here is my thought: this album seems to have become a vital cultural touchstone for an entire generation. Maybe like "On the Road" spawned a generation of stinking hitchiking hippies, ITAOTS is a basic element of the alternative culture of today.
which by the way i hate. because I am so detached and aloof and cool that I won't associate myself with the word indie and its many connotations.
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it's a sad state of affairs when one gains legitimacy just because he or she bought something. "oh you have this record / t-shirt / etc.? that means you are for REAL!"
WRONG. to steal a line from Fugazi, "you are not what you own!"
having said that, i will say ITAOTS is a truly wonderful album and i know that i would not be the same had i never heard it. it's great because of what it is, NOT because of what it ostensibly makes the listener. it's beautiful, powerful, unique and deserves all of the praise in the world. when people leech off something like that for the sake of being cool or indie or whatever, they're missing the fucking point entirely.
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I'm in the same boat as Kanga on this one, and I know tons of other people who are as well. I thought it sounded terrible the first time I heard it, and then the more I listened, the more I loved. At the very least, it's the PERFECT acoustic guitar sound, but the songs and melodies just hit exactly on that line between familiar and innovative, and the sound of it is both comforting and almost disturbing.
Then again, the best thing about this album is that I can never really pin down why I love it...I just do.
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I think to call it a "vital cultural touchstone" is a bit of an exageration. The difference is, "On The Road" reached across a wider spectrum of youth culture at the time ... ITAOTS appeals to only a small niche of todays altervative youth culture.
I mean honestly guys, I'm 34, and I will occationally ask some "cool" 20-24 yo kids if they have heard of this band, and I've been amazed at the number of times they have said no.
That is because there are entirely perpendicular "cool/alternative" cultures today, that have different "touchstones" if you will. There doesn't seem to be the same level of unity as there was in the late 60's.
Anyhow, I loved this album immensely, and copied it for one of my "cool" 20 yo friends who had never heard of it.
I'd say Belle and Sebastian's "If You're Feeling Sinister" affected me and my musical tastes more than any album I've heard since Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush", though. I know, I'm just a pansy.
And how about the Mountain Goats Tallahassee ? Similiar to ITAOTS in many ways, particularly in it's cathartic approach ... only no horns ... too bad.
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more about that book:
http://www.continuumbooks.com/(zgohe355aloesw45w42uipf4)/BookDetail.aspx?BookID=11271
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/082641690X/qid=1125695515/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-5597199-7123043?v=glance&s=books
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wow, i just don't get what makes this album so amazingly life-changing for so many people. granted, i haven't listened to it in it's entirety more than a couple times, but i just don't see what's so mind-blowing about it. can i get an objective, non-indie-snob-asshole description of what makes this album so great? as far as i can tell, the lyrics are just crazy acid-trip fragments of nutty fairy tales (which is cool and all) and the music is solid but doesn't strike me as amazing. anyone?
ps - i don't cream myself over the microphones or animal collective either, so maybe i'm just one of those "stupid" people that "doesn't get it"
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wha? gawd.. I just don't get how people can sit here and act all "garden state" --- "oh this music changed me"
give me a fucking break. it's a GREAT album!! YES I agree! did it
"change" me!
NO!!!! the reason why I love it is cuz I'm ME! I don't know.. it'd take a lot for an album to "change" me. and can I ask HOW does an album CHANGE someone?
did it make u into a suddenly HONEST person , did it make you Listen to more lo-fi type of albums???
how ..please someone elaborate???
HOW HOW???
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wow... i was just thinking the exact same thing after my last post. music changing someone's life smells like horseshit to me. i love music as much as the next guy, but it has never caused me to shift directions in life, large or small. here's the transscript from my IM covnersation to prove it!
dizzle: man, i hate when people say "that album changed my life".. fuck you, music has never changed my life
dizzle: i call horseshit
snizzle: ha
snizzle: DO IT
snizzle: yeah that's pretty gay
snizzle: but seriously....backstreet's back. CHANGED MY LIFE.
dizzle: oh baby... i forgot about that shit.. it is true. music does change lives
dizzle: anyone that says a particular album changes their life is a pretentious indie-monkey
snizzle: HA!
snizzle: and burn
snizzle: only way i'd buy it is if 1 certain album made someone start playing guitar or somethign and then they became a hella-famous guitarist. seen tom morrello --> U2's Unforgettable Fire. do it.
snizzle: straight up. saw that in an interview.
snizzle: and i also listened to that album last night. checkmate.
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love it,
if you pay attention to it everything changes you, that's how.
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Cool post Reid.
I think i must be ultra hip because not only do i love this album but i'm only 18 and from the North East of England, where nobody knows who NMH are. Unfortunally that leaves very few circles to be cool amongst.
I ordered this album of the net from Canada last year and although it hasn't changed my life (yet) i'd say it's affected it. Like so many great albums (suede's dog man star) it transports you to a surreal and wonderful world in which you can come and go as you wish. It opened the door for me to so much American indie, from elephant 6 to modest mouse.
I was in Canada on vacation recently and hoped i'd be able to find 'On Avery Island' at the local record shop but sigh it was not to be. Having said that i've just got it off Amazon. My copy of ITAOTS is away at the minute because i try and lend it out to as many people who say they like the Arcade Fire.
Cool news about the re-release and book though.
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i have a burned copy. ha!
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So Bob Hardy of Franz Ferdinand had a tape of this album, and so that means Franz Ferdinand was influenced by Neutral Milk Hotel?
What a joke. Bob Hardy doesn't the songs. OK, I'll correct myself: He has two co-writing credits on the first album (out of 11 songs).
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ypu1z85a4yv3
It's probably safe to say that Franz Ferdinand would sound just like Franz Ferdinand whether or not Bob was rockin' NMH in his Ford Fiesta.
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I've heard this album at least a dozen times--more times than many records I actually own--at work, friends' houses, etc., and it's mediocre at best. The guy's voice is so fuckin' annoying it makes Bob Dylan sound like Smokey Robinson (the same could be said about the Decemberists' singer). And it's not psychedelia. If you want some fucking psych go listen to first-album Pink Floyd or Tomorrow or Billy Nichols, if you can't listen to anything released after 1980, the Gris Gris or All Night Radio. Jesus.
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BEFORE 1980, I mean.
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Music does change peoples lives. My life was changed by Extreme's Porno Graffiti. Someone through the case at me and I now have a scar. Before I got hit in the head by that CD i didn't have a scar. It changed my life... ever so slightly.
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While the album didnt change my life (Princes Sign O the Times did that. Well, Prince in general shaped pretty much my entire life...) I remember first hearing it while in the shower. I literally got out of the shower, still soapy because I had to know what album it was. I knew I had to own it after 30 seconds of one song. At the time, there just wasnt anything like it (as far as I knew.)
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Damn - Coolfer dude. calm down. That bit about NMH used the term "relevance" - not "influence"
It's a simple point of reference to tell people "Hey - this musician (that you might like) is a fan of this album. You might like it too."
Nothing more / nothing less. You're trying a little too hard to read between the lines. And for the record - while the other members of Franz Ferdinand (besides Kapranos / McCarthy) may not get the songwriting credits, they have everything to do with the arrangements, tempos, dynamics - you know, all the intricacies of being in a band.
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Wow...some of you people make me very frightened for the future.
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Wow...some of you people make me very frightened for the future. They don't give people like you driver's licenses, do they?
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Clearly, that bore repeating.
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First of all, the comment in the piece was a joke. Seems the wit levels on this thread are running a bit low. Second, anybody who carries on a conversation such as the one happening here...you are NOT COOL. So I wouldn't really worry about it.
Yes, it's a great record.
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music doesn't change lives unless it prompts an action that wouldn't have otherwise been taken, and that, i think, is rare. for example: i heard 'waterloo sunset,' decided right then i needed to know how to make such beautiful sounds, i learned guitar, wrote some songs and now i'm a rock star! short of that i say life changes on it's own. the people in your life change it (for better or for worse), decisions you make change it (do i go to college here or three states away?), time changes it (and you). you may intensely identify the music you're listening to at the time of the change with the change, but it isn't the cause of the change. still, i know, the feeling can be so deep that it all seems like one in the same. that is all. goodnight and thank you. hugs and kisses to you all.
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what in the fuck. if you can't hear anything remarkable in "oh comely" or the title track...
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your life is not action
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dude... yo mofo's will argue over anyting....hope u mofos dont have drivers lic too...ha, mofos
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Lighten up, Francis. Put your knives away. To sit here on our asses and rip into people for liking this album or despising it is a waste of time and in my humble opinion missing the point. Of this album and music period. I used to tear into my younger brother for liking Metallica and radio metal, and then one day I realized I was being an asshole. A fascist. He isn't an idiot, he is brilliant, and one of the few people I look up to and respect in this little world. When he drives down the highway, he enjoys hard guitars and gutteral howls and formula rock. I still don't understand why he likes metallica and doesn't enjoy the misfits, but SFW? I listened to mainly punk for many years, was lucky enough to meet some audiophiles who introduced me to indie, and itaots was one of the first albums they gave me. I think there is something special about the album,something endearing, a perfect introduction to the strange wild world of indie. I won't say the album changed my life, but it did increase my awareness that there was more out there, more to discover. Up there with my top ten albums ever. Am I upset that there are people who think the album is overrated? Not a bit. This music is mine and yours, and if somebody doesn't care for it, their loss. Nothing less, nothing more. Maybe the fact that it wasn't accepted by every tom dick and harry makes it that much more special. If you feel upset by this, start a corporation. Open up a little indie store right next to hot topic in the mall, and sit around all day shitting on everyone, if that is what makes you feel special. Also, thank god for the people who went so far as to say the album changed their lives. The world needs people like that, people who feel things just a little deeper than the rest of us, the thin skinned and the fragile, these people are here to remind us when we are taking something for granted or being obnoxious little pricks. These people bring balance to the world.
so get into your car, put on your favorite album, whatever makes you feel like you have the drive to swallow the road and everything around you, whatever puts a little grin on your face, and dig it. Stop wasting your time on judgement. And think about how it would suck to hear "Holland, 1945" on the radio 20 or 30 times a day.
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Pioneering screenwriter Nigel Kneale, best known for the Quatermass TV serials and films, dies aged 84...
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