My obsession with Neutral Milk Hotel.

Note : This was written over a week ago. I'm finally just starting to post some of my collected thoughts.

I just finished reading a book about Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. It was part of the 33 1/3 series. For myself personally, the album is one of my top favorites. A must own on vinyl as the cd/digital version just doesn’t do the recording style justice. Some of the most interesting parts of the book were the stories about the personalities of the members from Jeff’s unique personality to Roberts sound and production values that would have to be modified in order to suit the needs of Jeff’s less pristine vision. (I'm not going to go over this, borrow the book from me or buy it if you're really interested in the ideas.)

One of the best known NMH songs, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, has a cool story behind it. The Elephant Six gang was hanging out on a spring day in the backyard. They mention some of them being on MDMA at the time. Jeff went upstairs to his favorite practice space, the bathroom. This is something I found odd considering I’ve done the same. Whatever material that showers and tubs are made of, plus the smallness of space creates a excellent acoustic sound. The waves must bounce all over the walls. Sam Beam (Iron & Wine) and Rob Crow (Pinback) both also have noted recording and practicing in the bathroom. So back to the original topic… after Jeff was finished he went back outside and played the song. They dubbed the song, "Beautiful Face" by his friends. Everyone else who isn’t cool enough to be part of E6 will have to stick to the album name.

I started listening to the album at almost obsessive level, as well as On Avery Island. As I drove to work today I got frustrated with Everything Is and went to the acoustic Jittery Joe’s performance. In the book they note some of the obvious differences between the songs lyrically and on Aeroplane. Fans would pick this up fairly fast, the one thing that really was interesting to me was that the sound of a baby crying was actually not a baby some punk-rock mother felt should see Jeff… it was actually a performance artist that the collective had done previous work with. Go figure.

The book is short and very easy to read. It gives a lot of insight into the band as well as the ascetics that shaped the album. It’s for fans who want more, but this book isn’t going to change your life… it just helps explain a record that just might have.