Neutral Milk Hotel is, basically, Jeff Mangum. Originally from Louisiana, he has moved about the country restlessly for the past few years to find a comfortable place to be. Accompanied by some friends, he recorded (essentially as a one-man band) On Avery Island (Merge). The album tears apart pop songs and puts them back together like a puzzle with the wrong pieces smashed into empty spots. Horns, fuzzed-out guitars and weird electronics give it an odd, but appealing feel. The disc ranges in style from the experimental to lo-fi folk and hummable pop tunes, all composed with a quiet brilliance. I had a chance to speak with Jeff before their show at Cicero's. Joining him were his touring entourage, Scott Spillane (trumpet, guitar, tambourine), Chocolate USA member Julian Koster (saw, accordion, bass) and Jeremy Barnes (drums). Very pleasing fellows, were they.
Sample: How did you get together for the tour?
Jeff: Julian called me in New York and said "Well, if you want to do a tour for the record, I can do it."
Julian: (To Jeff) Why don't you start with Scott and you and how you guys grew up together and stuff?
Jeff: Well, you started the whole mess.
Julian: I said start with you two . . . chronologically.
Scott: I wasn't included in the band until the day before he left.
Julian: I thought she was more interested in where you came from . . . they used to be in a band called the Clay Bears together.
Jeff: I wasn't really planning on touring at all. I mean I hadn't really thought about it. It just seemed like getting a band together would be hard. I'm not really good at taking responsibility for everybody and calling up a bunch of people and saying "Hey, come on, come fuck up your life for me." But Julian sort of gave me the incentive to have the guts to do that. I knew Scott for six years in Louisiana. So I was on my way from Denver to New York, because his grandmother lives out there, and we were going to practice in her basement. Scott was living in his van in Austin, Texas. He was sleeping in front of the Gumby's Pizza Parlor that he worked at. And the night before I left it dawned on me that . . .
Scott: The night before he left he came in and it was 2 in the morning and he said "I just stopped by to say goodbye." Then we got hit by this big rush and I asked him to come help me make pizzas and he said "I don't know what to do." So he was slinging pizza juice around and then right before he left he said "Hey man, I just realized something. This job really sucks. So why don't you come with us," and I said okay.
Jeff: Yeah, that would be it. All he had was . . .
Scott: All I had was my guitar and my amp.
Jeff: I didn't even know he could play horn or anything.
Sample: What exactly is the Elephant Six Recording Collective?
Jeff: It started off as a label and then now it's sort of like a symbol for our friendship. I don't really have a definition for it. Everybody has their own little definition.
Julian: A family crest for a group of friends.
Sample: Does it involve projects outside of music?
Julian: It does.
Jeff: We're all probably going to end up living in a farmhouse somewhere.
Sample: Like a commune?
Jeff: Sort of, yeah. We all kind of want to just disappear.
Sample: So who are the other bands that are included in that besides the Olivia Tremor Control?
Jeff: There aren't really any specific bands. It's weird because now that it's something that people recognize and ask for a definition, I don't really have one.
Sample: Well, it's not as fun when people know what it is. So everyone's going to be able to find you in the farmhouse and hound you.
Julian: Scott wanted to set up a tent in Vic Chestnutt's home.
Scott: Yeah, I never got around to it.
Jeff: I don't want to leave the house. I just want to stay in. Well, maybe I'll walk around the yard. I want to have a dog. A little dog.
Julian: . . . and a cat.
Sample: You don't think you would get bored?
Julian: Who cares? Well, we'll record stuff.
Jeff: The plan is to be near New York city.
Julian: One of us will always be making a record and everyone else can play on it. And one of us will always be going on tour and so anybody who wants to go can go.
Sample: What's the worst show on your tour that you've played?
Jeff: There was this one member of the band, and he got killed . . .
Julian: I would vote for Portland or Jabberjaw. (general consent)
Jeff: The Jabberjaw was pretty terrible because our amps are typically pretty quiet and we didn't have a PA.
Julian: No one could hear us.
Jeff: And then we played with the Supreme Dicks in Portland and this guy jumped on the stage.
Scott: This wacked-out neo-nazi looking guy.
Julian: It was really terrible . . . really gross.
Scott: Just to have something to talk about, and it had nothing to do with the Supreme Dicks, but somebody that was there at the show that thought that they would involve themselves for no apparent reason tried to shit in a glass.
Sample: Did he actually pull down his pants?
Julian: He showed his genitalia.
Jeff: And he was throwing fireworks and stuff.
Scott: But the Supreme Dicks still rocked. They're great.
Jeff: We did six or seven shows with them . . . It was really a lot of fun.
Sample: Are you "honorary members" now? Don't they have fifty or so "honorary members"?
Scott: I've been an honorary member since 1994.
Sample: Do you have a card?
Scott: No, but if i go to a show, I can get up and play. That's what honorary membership means. I played slide and whistle.
Julian: I played space echo and blew bubbles into the crowd.
Sample: In regards to the CD (On Avery Island), all the songs run together and you can tell there's an ongoing theme. Two or three of the songs sounds rather similar in parts. I know it's not a rock opera, but is there an overriding concept? Or is it entirely subconscious?
Scott: I've got a really good answer!
Jeff: You're going to give some bullshit . . . alright.
Scott: Okay, but don't put this answer unless he wants it. He only knows two chords!
Jeff: It's more like a story than a concept in the sense that concepts can be overly done. I'm not conceptual in the full sense of the word. It's not supposed to be a book where the opening is page one and it works up to the end. There is definitely a story, but at the same time, there's not a rigid structure. Do you understand?
Sample: Well, although there's a story, I have no idea what it's about. Any explanation I've come up with is by virtue of just making something up in order to find something.
Jeff: I write lots of songs that relate to each other and some of them end up being released and others don't so it's an ongoing thing where the same story is continued in many songs . . . I just keep writing until it's finished and they get cut up into different parts. Because people are going to relate to songs and relate them to their lives, it's not just a one-sided, either you get it or you don't, story.
Sample: Are the different styles on the album used to convey or correspond to different moods? Something will be lo-fi and folk, the opening track is more pop-oriented . . .
Scott: It's because you forget how you mixed and got that sound earlier.
Jeff: Each song has its own mood. That's why I was trying to record at home. I'm into home recording, not lo-fi. Home recording gives the freedom to deal with something for a long time, not so much "Let's make the song sound shitty."
Sample: Were some of the songs on the album recorded in the studio and others at home?
Jeff: They were all recorded at home. But we had a reel-to-reel four-track and a little board console.
Sample: Isn't it hard to hold down a job and tour?
Jeff: Every time I quit a job, I would say, "My mom fell down the stairs. I have to go. Sorry." And then come back in two weeks and say "She's better," and get your job back. My mom got really mad and tired of it.
Scott: That's bad karma.