12.02.2005
When you were young
Neutral Milk Hotel fans can get a bit rabid, so when news of unreleased demos from Jeff Magnum surfaced, word spread like wildfire across the blogosphere. I'm happy to do my part -- and to download the tracks -- because I'm quite a fan myself. Magnum helped to create this cult by releasing two discs -- one, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, a clear masterpiece -- and then essentially disappearing. When he himself resurfaced earlier this year to sing at a couple of shows by fellow Elephant 6 band Olivia Tremor Control, you'd have thought Tupac had returned for a sold-out show at Madison Garden (work with me here; I know nobody reading this would really care if Tupac came back).
So, these unreleased recordings are big news. The story begins at Shannon Palmer's blog. She's an artist who moved into a Monroe, Ga., house as Magnum was moving out. She acquired some tapes... and then sat on them for 11 years. She finally realized what she had, worked with some NMH fans to figure out specifically what was on the tapes, and has begun releasing the songs into the wild. She has three tracks on her site, while My Old Kentucky Blog, You Ain't No Picasso and fan site Neutral Milk Hotel.org have one each. As the titles of more of the songs are identified, more will be posted.
How do they sound? Pretty great fidelity-wise for something that sat on a cassette for 11 years. As for the songs, no one is going to toss out the official NMH releases in favor of this, but they do posses some of the same charm that made those discs so captivating. They're mostly composed of a hard-strummed guitar and Magnum's singing, though a couple feature percussion (which may well be Magnum smacking a cardboard box in time). Neutral Milk Hotel.org has a list of all known NMH songs that seems fairly complete, but which doesn't list four of the six tracks posted so far. One, "Gardenhead," turned up on the band's debut, On Avery Island. Details about the entire collection, dubbed "Shannon's Monroe House Demos," are sketchy, but the songs posted so far have track numbers associated with them, the highest being 27. Assuming that's a sign of how much there might be to release, the project will add substantially to the rather limited catalog of this late, great band.
So, these unreleased recordings are big news. The story begins at Shannon Palmer's blog. She's an artist who moved into a Monroe, Ga., house as Magnum was moving out. She acquired some tapes... and then sat on them for 11 years. She finally realized what she had, worked with some NMH fans to figure out specifically what was on the tapes, and has begun releasing the songs into the wild. She has three tracks on her site, while My Old Kentucky Blog, You Ain't No Picasso and fan site Neutral Milk Hotel.org have one each. As the titles of more of the songs are identified, more will be posted.
How do they sound? Pretty great fidelity-wise for something that sat on a cassette for 11 years. As for the songs, no one is going to toss out the official NMH releases in favor of this, but they do posses some of the same charm that made those discs so captivating. They're mostly composed of a hard-strummed guitar and Magnum's singing, though a couple feature percussion (which may well be Magnum smacking a cardboard box in time). Neutral Milk Hotel.org has a list of all known NMH songs that seems fairly complete, but which doesn't list four of the six tracks posted so far. One, "Gardenhead," turned up on the band's debut, On Avery Island. Details about the entire collection, dubbed "Shannon's Monroe House Demos," are sketchy, but the songs posted so far have track numbers associated with them, the highest being 27. Assuming that's a sign of how much there might be to release, the project will add substantially to the rather limited catalog of this late, great band.
