Ten Years Of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Why does it continue to be so influential? Beyond the lyrics, there's the use of singing saws, horn arrangements (holy, Beirut), accordion, banjo, etc. There's a reason the official NMH site links to Harry Partch. Of course, In The Aeroplane was influential for folks beyond Zach Condon -- the ragtag sense of composition, the patchwork jug-band. Right, what came to be known as "the Elephant 6 sound." But unlike most E6 participants, NMH injected a real emotion into the interesting backwoods psychedelic compositional sense. Actually, of Montreal has gotten closer with more recent albums (tracing trips to Norway and a relationship's ups and downs), but it's hard to get past all the glitter sometimes. What else? Let us count the ways...
Colbert likes it. There's a story post over at Lindsayism about one of her friends (Stephanie) singing along to "Holland, 1945" during a break in filming between segments, Colbert seeing her, and the two of them continuing to intone it together. We're serious; apparently Stephen even knows the Anne Frank backdrop. Read about it here. Oh, it looks like this woman likes it, too.
Mangum hasn't entirely stopped making music. He's had those tape loop projects and Major Organ and the Adding Machine, and sometimes he shows up and sings at his friend's live sets, etc. Sadly, every move he makes at this point gets a headline. Even if it wasn't him. Though a headline's deserved when he dresses up like a lobster.
Yes, he's married. His wife, the filmmaker and writer Astra Taylor, did a documentary about Slavoj Žižek. How cool is that? But no need to pry further. One of us met Mangum by mistake during a reading of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood in a friend's apartment in Brooklyn a couple years ago, but pretended not to know who he was as we sipped the play-specific parsnip gin and nibbled the parchment-paper fish. Why? Well, because the album means so much to so many of us, and you want to respect the silence of the man behind it. The last line of "Two-Headed Boy Part 2," the final song on the album, is "Just don't hate her when she gets up to leave." After that, you hear Mangum put down his guitar, get up, and, well, literally leave. Seems like maybe he knew it was his final NMH moment even then. With that in mind, why not watch some videos of the man before he left?
"King Of Carrot Flowers Part 2"
"In The Aeroplane Over The Sea"
"Two-Headed Boy" and then "Gardenhead," etc.
"Holland, 1945"
An early "Two-Headed Boy Part 2"
Thanks, Jeff.
Posted at 12:40 PM in Video
Tags: Jeff Mangum | Neutral Milk Hotel
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yes.
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Great album / great post - thanks!
I always thought a good literary compliment to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was Phillip Roth's "The Ghost Writer." The thematics are so similar, and even some of the humor seems to match up in an odd way...
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This is my favorite album of all time. Thank you for not doing a covers deal of it.
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The songs of In the Aeroplane are no more "interwoven" than the those on OKC. Seems like a bit of a cop-out (not that I really needed a NMH cover album).
Jesse Lacey of Brand New does a great Oh, Comely cover, though.
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That's SO weird! I never listen to this and I put it on Today WITHOUT the knowledge of it's 10 yr anv.
That's how cosmic this record is.
That's f**king crazy
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Tit Photos and Neutral Milk Hotel, this post has everything I like. I think Magnum realized that he had said what he wanted to say and put the guitar down. Thank goodness he didn't try to hold onto the dream lamely with halfassed followups for a decade, i'm looking at you Rivers. Infact the ambiguity of the album makes it better, like a puzzle you have to figure out. If some band like deerhunter made this album came today would we still love it, or would we have to hear about his fucking daddy issues on some blog day after day constantly watering down any connection we made with the inital recording?
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Overrated then.
Overrated now.
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Could never really get into this album. huh.
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sure it's nice for all of us that this album and mangum's story created a great rock and roll myth, but the truth is that it's tragic that for him the thing that gave him (and us) so much pleasure is now what seems to cause him so much pain.
he is an artist, a true artist. which is why he didn't do things like blab his life story to every magazine around and go to photo shoots and all that. i think the same can be said for all of his elephant 6 collaborators, but they reacted to all that bullshit in a much healthier way, and continue making music (although they were never subjected to the kind of scrutiny mangum was).
it would be nice to know that he was still happily creating, whether he was putting out records wouldn't matter.
this article from a few years back was pretty great:
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A13178
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my favorite album ever. good post!
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One of the most overrated albums of all time.
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I came to this album relatively late, only a couple years back, but it has made a huge impact on my life and quickly jumped to "favorite album ever" status.
I also clearly remember the first time I listened to it (I guess that's not all that odd since it was relatively recent for me). It really helped me through a rough patch. If anyone involved in its creation happens to read this, I'd just like to say thanks for bringing it into the world.
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i love how the people saying it's overrated don't feel the need to explain why they think that way. not to mention it's an incredibly shortsighted opinion.
i've listened to this album in many different contexts over the years, and 10 years out i'm still take something new from it with each successive listen. not to mention, if it came out this past Tuesday, it would still sound "current". these facts alone speak to it's importance and longevity.
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NMH covers can be pretty, pretty, bad. I would know, i've recorded/heard many.
10 years, though! amazing to watch it take off during that time.
the album is always in the back of my head whenever i write a song or hear a new band.
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(well, you know that until the last minute I was expecting the covers)
;)
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i'd be more into this album if it wasn't complete drivel. hey neutral - jesus loves you too.
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and by the way ethan. the reason we dont want to describe the album is because i feel like i would be a better person if this album didnt exist. it's an annoying record, full abnoxious music that's only interesting because of how abnoxious it is. the recording is bad, the lyrics are childish, the whole album is abbrasive. that said, i'm sure it's gonna hit me someday and i'll fall in love with it. i stil think it's freaking annoying though.
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How much of an absolute cooler-than-thou, hipster d-bag do you have to be to hate on this album? Do you really have no emotion inside you? Are you that withered up? Pretty sad if that's so. And if I've said it once, I've said it a million times: if you're going to rag on something, at least do it in proper English. It's "obnoxious," wes. And "abrasive." Go buy a clue. And a heart.
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I remember the first few times I heard this album I had the tracks running in reverse on a burnt CD. After I corrected my error it soon became the greatest album I'de ever heard. Since then I've become something of a NMH evangelist.
If you haven't found the bootleg/rare website yet:
http://www.the-collective.net/~sashwap/media.html
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One of the most underrated albums of all time.
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Just to be a bridge between the haters and the admirers, I never really got that excited about this album either. Since an explanation is absolutely necessary when declaring a lack of adoration (but not required when blankly stating it is the greatest thing since sex):
It is not very original musically. The arrangements sound like a bunch of Celtic/Irish folk songs. The distorted bass, horns, etc. have been used a lot and by the Elephant 6 group for years before this came out.
When it came out, it fit in with the E6 catalog perfectly. Whether or not this guy's voice has a particular charm seems subjective. I thought he should have went for another take or two on many of the performances.
I don't disrespect this album, though. It has touched people in a positive way and that is cool. But there is legitimacy in not being wowed, it's okay.
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Bravo, jz! Well said!
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I remember buying Aeorplane vividly. I had seen NMH live, opening for Superchunk in Cincinnati 2 weeks before my first trip to New York City. Needless to say, I was blown away by them. When I got to New York, I went record shopping. On my first day in the city I picked up Aeroplane and it was the only thing I was carrying with me. Within an hour of buying the CD, I was in a used book store and found myself standing next to a man with bushy beard and no mustache. Before I knew it, it just came out of my mouth, "You're in Neutral Milk Hotel!" Scott Spillane was very nice, and I think a little taken aback when I reached in my bag and pulled out the CD that he played on. He autographed the liner notes - right on the black edges where you can barely make out.
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Don't be haters, people. Just let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see.
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This post makes that album seem like a hallmark card. Way to go.
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Great post. Well said.
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Wes is "abnoxious"
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this record pretty much got me through high school. i owe so much to it. i was at the olivia tremor control gig in 2005 where jeff showed up, it was seriously one of the most exciting moments of my life. the entire crowd was completely beside themselves. and even better, jeff looked like he was having as great a time as we in the audience were. still on my top 5 best gigs i've ever been to.
in any case, thanks for this piece. i totally would've forgotten about this if you guys hadn't written about it.
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Oh man... thanks for that. Great post.
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overrated then, overrated now.
I see more emotion in Acid Mothers Temple records and Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury masterpiece. face the facts, Pusha T and Malice wrote better, inspiring poetry than jeff magnum wished he could.
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There's a really good novel that was recently published, inspired by a lyric from Song Against Sex. It was reviewed on largeheartedboy.com a few months ago.
http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2007/08/book_notes_andr_1.html
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Thank You Jeff Mangum.
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my boyfriend and i both listened to nmh today independently of one another without knowledge of this. i swear, there really is something there.
also, am i the only person who feels really sorry for mangum in that creativeloafing article? that guy went way too far, in my opinion. let the guy be.
wonderful post.
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So yeah, Aeroplane is a great record. But On Avery Island: equally sweet. Just wanna put that out there.
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this is my cold weather album... the lyrics literally warm me up when i listen to them. so many lost nights spent...
i remember when i first heard it i was flabbergasted, thought i had found the perfect band that no one in their right mind could dislike. and then i played it to my girlfriend and she hated it. she didn't last long.
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I was only a wee little lad of 10 when this album was released. But in the time since I discovered it five years ago, it has shaped my whole opinion on music and what it should sound like. Mangum's opus surrounds me in a way few records every truly will. From the moment I brought it home from the library and popped it in, I knew that it was the kind of album that would forever rotate in my collection. So if you ever read this Mr. Mangum, thank you. This album is everything an album should be: complete, encompassing, awe inspiring, and at times tear jerking.
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Last week i saw Brand New at the Metro in Melbourne, Australia. Jesse Lacey, the lead singer, opened the show with an acoustic version of what turned out to be 'Oh, Comely', and i was transfixed. I asked someone in the crowd what it was, he knew, and i bought 'aeroplane' the next day. Agreed, it is remarkable, and the cover is highly, highly reccommended.
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Easily the best album ever made.
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Just wanted to mention this great piece on Aeroplane by Will Sheff (Okkervil River) from the old Audiogalaxy website.
http://www.audiogalaxy.com/articles?&a=116
Probably my favorite album ever, forever, by the way.
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This is one of my favorite albums of all time, and I find myself unable to explain why. I agree that musically, there's nothing original or that creative about it. There's just something about the music that makes me feel entirely unlike anything else I've ever felt. Even without listening to the lyrics, or knowing the whole Anne Frank story behind it, just by listening to the music, this immense story of beauty, happiness, and tragedy is inside you. You feel like you sort of understand the world. Even after hundreds and hundreds of listen, it makes me feel the same way every time.
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i love you jesus cuh-riiiist...
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sorry i'm not a good speller. the album still sucks though. neutral milk hotel has nothing on melissa ethredge.
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and melissa ethridge sucks.
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Personally I think the best album of 1998 was Korn's "Follow the Leader". Well, either that or "Psycho Circus" by Kiss.
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listen to clipse and arcade fire instead. more inspiring than neutral shit hotel.
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Some of the hate comments like above are just stupid while others completely fail to reason themselves out.
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Respect the 'Gum's reverence for NMH, but I don't think you can only be Anne Frank or Jeff Mangum to "get it." Clearly the album occupies a sacred place in many hearts, some of whom belong to talented musicians in their own right, so I think they would be able to pull off the emotional resonance of the songs, because they themselves have an intimate reaction to them as fans. Does that make sense?
Case in point, I echo the props for Jesse Lacey's cover of "Oh Comely." You can find it here:
http://thephoenix.com/onthedownload/PermaLink.aspx?guid=df43898d-1396-4884-b32e-85a501178afb
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Happy 10th.
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Aeroplane can't be overrated. It's the best thing.
I'd also like to thank sashwap for his wonderful website.
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http://cutshallowradio.blogspot.com/2007/12/020-in-aeroplane-over-sea.html
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I listened to the whole album last night, listening to everything Jeff had to say. The pain he cries, the joy he shouts, the nonsense and pure logic that comes from his mouth. It is all there. It is an incredible feeling to hear this album especially on its 10th anniversary. It will continue to inspire, to blow people’s minds forever. It will never be forgotten, it will never die.
P.S. To everyone who says they hate this album... please listen to it one last time. Thank you.
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Oh Comely is still my favorite.
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Wonderful record. I'll play it loud and proud here in Athens tonight.
Happy 10th, Aeroplane!
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I honestly had no idea this album was 10 years old. I knew it was from the 90's, but I just never actually considered that. I first heard it three years ago, and I thought it was new. I can vividly remember, I was on the way to go see of Montreal, and it came on a friends iPod. "What a beautiful face I have found in this place that is circling all around the sun." I was taken aback at the poetry that permeates the entire album. I can easily say that I still listen to it frequently. In the way of bad covers, Jenny Lewis butchered "In an Aeroplane Over the Sea" I'm pretty sure once in a live performance, though it may just be crappy recording quality. Overall though, this album is so far from overrated, and I can easily see myself listening to it 10-20 years from now.
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I literally found this album last year through complete fluke.
I'm not part of any 'indie' scene although my musical tastes lean that way.
It's one of my personal favourites, it's just good music to me. Reading into how or why is entirely up to you, but taking it for face value, it's a good, if somewhat dejected album.
The recordings are made of ass and fail, but it doesn't stop it being a quality album.
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From the opening chords this album encases you completely and takes you on a journey. You can close your eyes and cover your ears or sit back, open all your senses and take in the ride. Whether you are listening for the first time or for the hundredth, you are never quite the same person after the footsteps fade away at the end.
A Record this perfect comes along so rarely that ten years later it is still to be bettered.
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If you think the recordings are made of ass and fail you are listening to it wrong. The recording is beautiful.
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Greatest album of all time. (Great post, too)
As much as I respect Mangum's need to get away from the spotlight, if he eeeeever wants to get the ol' band back together for one show, I would pay any amount of money and travel anywhere to hear it live.
Damn me for being too young and stupid to know of / appreciate NMH in 1998 :(
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This is truly a great album. I think people who hear this album either hear a genius or someone banging on pots and pans. I hear the genius! BTW I think the all time best NMH song is "Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone" from "On Avery Island". That song will knock the wind out of you.
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I'm clearly missing something here. I'd never heard of the band or album, and I don't listen to any music in this genre. I listened to the Youtube video of Aeroplane in the background for a few minutes, said "meh", and turned it off. Just sounded like self-indulgent wankery to me.
Do I need to be all sad and weepy to enjoy this stuff?
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/welliguess/10yearsdudes.jpg
this is one of those albums i think deserves all the accolades it receives.
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Why no mention of the Producer of the album - RObert Schneider?!!!? He did a great job recording the NMH albums!!!
Bad Stereogum! Bad stereogum!!
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matt pond pa does the best cover of In an Aeroplane that i have ever heard.
you will not be disappointed!
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im surprised that nobody, in all of this massive freak out (which never happened with OKC), has mentioned that the decemberists would not exist if not for this record.
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Clipse is a moron--"And my weight, that's just as heavy as my name
So much dough, I can't swear I won't change" Cringe worthy at every line. Terrible lyrics about living a horrible life.
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I know stereogum is a NYC blog sort of but if anyone is interested Sgt Dunbar and the Hobo Banned are doing a tribute set of the entire album, covering all the parts up in albany NY on feb 22nd. In case anyone is interested. listed at http://www.valentinesalbany.com
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Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned are fantastic and anyone in Albany should check them out.
Also I recorded a cover of Engine in honor of the 10th anniversary which you can get from myspace: http://www.myspace.com/stevegoldberg
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in the aeroplane..?
pretty much the most heartfelt
psychedelic folk record ever-
easily.
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how could anyone possibly think this album is overrated....it is so underrated....my favorite album ever...and nothing in my top 10 sounds anything like it at all....not even the same genre.
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in the aeroplane over the sea is easily the best album as a whole that i've ever heard. the way the songs flow in and out of one another, and create this old timey surrealist picture of a childs world in chaos, its just phenomenal.
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Sorry -- just found this post. Wanted to chime in on this album. On the third date with my boyfriend of two years (and yes, I spent the night with him on the third date -- actually the 2nd...), I awoke in a drunken haze to see him sitting in the sunlight on the steps, with the brackish smell of Puget Sound wafting into the house, just during the first few lines of "King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1. It was maybe one of the best moments of my life. Sadly, come to find out, this was some special, nostalgic record between him and his ex of seven years. They met in 1998 right when this album came out and she was some kind of indie rock devotee. I didn't find this out until later, of course, but by then, I'd already found the album on a friend's iTunes and had memorized the lyrics to every song. But my BF never knew that I loved the album, that it's one of my favorite albums ever and to this day, I only listen to it in secret, never mention it, and kind of shrug my shoulders if a song or the topic comes up. He only played it that brackish day and one other time. Don't know why. Maybe he thought of her that morning, after making love with this new, strange woman. Maybe the emotion meets me on levels of both me and him and her and him and all of us, omniscient. The Anne Frank story line seems tangential, and that's good. When something's "about" something, it always sucks. This album is emotionally resonant. That is its one and only critically important attribute. It's true -- the voice is rough, the sound is a little off, the chords and musicianship are standard fare. But it is perhaps the MOST emotionally resonant album that I've ever heard, beating all indie maudlin stuff to shit. And that's enough.
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