History Music / NeutralMilkHotel

--> -- '''Neutral Milk Hotel''', "Holland, 1945"

Neutral Milk Hotel are a highly influential American indie rock band that consisted of Jeff Mangum (vocals, guitar), Scott Spillane (horns), Jeremy Barnes (drums), and Julian Koster (multiple instruments). Along with Music/TheOliviaTremorControl and The Apples in Stereo, they're one of the three main bands forming Elephant 6's first wave.

After leaving The Olivia Tremor Control, Mangum started putting more work into Neutral Milk Hotel, and in 1996 their first album, ''Music/OnAveryIsland'' was released. Though critically praised, this album is -- [[BrokenBase perhaps rather unfairly]] -- not nearly as remembered as their CultClassic that would be released next.

!!Discography

* RetroUniverse: Like the rest of Music/{{Elephant 6}}, NHM is very [[TheSixties Sixties]] inspired. ''...Aeroplane'' in particular references [=WW2=] in its lyrics.
* SpiritualSuccessor: While Music/ArcadeFire is the most immediately discussed candidate, their work after ''Music/{{Funeral}}'' became progressively further from their NMH influence. Commonly discussed successors in [[Website/FourChan certain communities that idolize Neutral Milk Hotel]] include Phil Elverum (specifically his album ''Music/TheGlowPt2''), [[AllLowercaseLetters joordan mason and the horse museum]], and Seamonster.

* NotChristianRock: "King Of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2" starts off with the lines "I love you Jesus Christ". Many people confuse this for a Christian rock song. Notice that a part of the lyrics for this song is absent from the booklet, [[AllThereInTheManual with this message being there instead]]: "a song for an old friend a song for a new friend and now a song for Jesus Christ and since this seems to confuse people i'd like to simply say that i mean what i sing although the theme of endless endless on this album is not based on any religion but more in the belief that all things seem to contain a white light within them that i see as eternal."

Neutral Milk Hotel are a highly influential indie rock band that consisted of Jeff Mangum (vocals, guitar), Scott Spillane (horns), Jeremy Barnes (drums), and Julian Koster (multiple instruments). Along with Music/TheOliviaTremorControl and The Apples in Stereo, they're one of the three main bands forming Elephant 6's first wave.

* SpiritualSuccessor: While Music/ArcadeFire is the most immediately discussed candidate, their work after ''Funeral'' became progressively further from their NMH influence. Commonly discussed successors in [[Website/FourChan certain communities that idolize Neutral Milk Hotel]] include Phil Elverum (specifically his album ''Music/TheGlowPt2''), [[AllLowercaseLetters joordan mason and the horse museum]], and Seamonster.

* RecycledInSpace: ''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'' is Anne Frank... ON FREUD

* MadnessMantra
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Generally around a soft 2-4, though some songs, especially from earlier years, arguably reach a 5 due to the strange instrumentation.
* MyNaymeIs: It's Man'''''gum''''', not Magnum.
** Subverted, as Jeff himself has said he really doesn't care how people spell or pronounce his name.

* BadassBeard: Scott Spillane sports quite an astounding example of this, and as of 2012, so does Jeff.

* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: The band is known for using simple guitar chord progressions, with songs that have only three or four chords ("King of Carrot Flowers Pts. 1-3," "Ghost," "Oh Comely," and "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" just to name a few ) and one song with only one chord ("Rubby Bulbs").

Jeff Mangum formed a band called Synthetic Flying Machine with high school friends Will Cullen Hart and Bill Doss in the late 1980s. Though the band never fully got much recognition, they stayed together for a couple of years, eventually changing their name to The Olivia Tremor Control. Mangum soon got the desire to do some experimentation with a separate project and that's where Neutral Milk Hotel was born.

After leaving The Olivia Tremor Control, Mangum started putting more work into Neutral Milk Hotel and in 1996 their first album, ''Music/OnAveryIsland'' was released. Though critically praised, this album is -- [[BrokenBase perhaps rather unfairly]] -- not nearly as remembered as their CultClassic that would be released next.

Over the next two years, Mangum would develop a strange obsession with [[Literature/TheDiaryOfAYoungGirl Anne Frank]] and the Holocaust, and he would start writing lyrics for what would appear on ''Music/InTheAeroplaneOverTheSea'', which is considered a modern classic. The album was released in 1998 and the band toured in support of it, but as touring persisted, Mangum's obsession just grew stronger. Eventually music press wouldn't leave him alone and the depression of his thoughts constantly swirling around his obsession caused him to have a nervous breakdown, which caused the band to split in 1999.

Hints of reunions have circulated around over the past years, but nothing definite as to whether or not they'd truly get back together. Finally, in 2013 the full band was reunited, if only for a tour. As of yet, there's no information on possible new records. Music/ArcadeFire said that they signed to Merge Records because it was Neutral Milk Hotel's record label. Because of this, the two bands are constantly compared. In contrast, Jeremy Barnes' other band, Music/AHawkAndAHacksaw, is so wildly different from his work with NMH that the two are rarely compared.

* The Early Stuff (No Wide Official Release)
** Invent Yourself a Shortcake (1991)
** Beauty (1992)
** Hype City Soundtrack (1993)
** Unreleased Demo (1993 or 1994)
** Unreleased Demo 2 (1994)
* The Main Stuff (Wide Availability on CD and Music Streaming)
** Everything Is EP (1994)
** Music/OnAveryIsland (1996)
** Music/InTheAeroplaneOverTheSea (1998)
** Ferris Wheel on Fire EP (2011)

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/large_neutral_milk_hotel_1093.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Retraux}} Very old-fashioned.]][[labelnote:*]]Clockwise from top: Scott Spillane, [[Music/AHawkAndAHacksaw Jeremy Barnes]], Jeff Mangum, [[Podcast/TheOrbitingHumanCircusOfTheAir Julian Koster]][[/labelnote]]]]

Neutral Milk Hotel are a highly influential indie rock band that consisted of Jeff Mangum (vocals, guitar), Scott Spillane (horns), Jeremy Barnes (drums), and Julian Koster (multiple instruments). Along with ''Music/TheOliviaTremorControl'' and ''Music/TheApplesInStereo'', one of the three main bands forming Music/{{Elephant 6}}'s first wave.