Origins
Jeff Mangum was a member of The Olivia Tremor Control, along with his friend Will Cullen Hart and Bill Doss, appearing on their first release, the California Demise 7".
Prior to recording for friends under the NMH moniker, Mangum recorded at least one cassette under the name Milk: the only known tape was called Pygmie Barn in E Minor. This is the earliest known recordings that Mangum initiated and executed himself, on the cover there is "all songs: j.m '89. art: w. cullen hart". There is only an estimated dozen or so copies ever made of this tape, none of which have been made public. The tracklist etc. are also unknown.
Neutral Milk Hotel began life in Ruston, Louisiana, United States in the early 1990s, simply as a recording project for Mangum. He produced several demo cassettes, among them 1991's Invent Yourself a Shortcake, 1992's Beauty and 1993's Hype City Soundtrack, along with two more from this period, seemingly unnamed. Although easily found on the internet, these demos capture the project at a very embryonic state: songs are played in between various sound collages and tape experiments, and even, at one point, a six minute conversation between Mangum and Hart.
During this period, Mangum was wandering the country, staying in the closets of friends, and in a state of permanent unemployment. It was in these circumstances that the band's first formal releases took shape. Strictly speaking, however, the 'band' usually consisted of Mangum and whoever else was present at the time. This is obvious on Neutral Milk Hotel's first release, a 7" entitled Everything Is, recorded when Mangum was spending time in Seattle, Washington, released on Cher Doll Records in 1994.
On Avery Island
A full album, On Avery Island, followed, this time recorded mainly in Denver, Colorado, where Mangum was backed by Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo, Rick Benjamin of the Perry Weissman Three and Lisa Janssen of Secret Square. Merge Records released it in 1996. On On Avery Island, Mangum's unique vocal style and the band's quirky but playful arrangements create a carnival atmosphere of moods ranging from excitement, suspense, and melodrama.
After the release of On Avery Island, Neutral Milk Hotel became a fully-fledged band, as Julian Koster, Scott Spillane and Jeremy Barnes joined Mangum, the band now being based in New York. Soon after this, they moved to Athens, Georgia, where many of Mangum's friends had begun to settle, and the Elephant 6 recording company began, fully, to take shape. After this, the band went back to Denver, to record a proper follow up to On Avery Island.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
The band's second LP, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, released in 1998, is notable as a critically acclaimed work and a widely popular recording. It is a spiritually motivated work, conceptually based on the beauty to be found in the horrific fate of Anne Frank and similarly overwhelming tragedies. (Mangum has, during live performances, including the one released under the title "Live at Jittery Joe's", described some of the songs off this album as based on urgent, recurring dreams he had of a European family during the 1940s.) The album was highly praised by critics for its wildly inventive instrumentation and Mangum's provocative and impassioned lyrics. Although it met with scant response from the general public when it was released, the recording has continued to gain momentum in indie music circles and has become a cult classic, selling well over 100,000 copies according to Merge Records. However, the record along with the year of constant touring that succeeded it took its toll on Mangum. The band quite abruptly went on hiatus turning down all requests for shows, including a support slot for R.E.M.. All of a sudden, the band appeared to go silent and very little has been heard from Mangum since 1999.
Hiatus
Although all the members are still active with one another in other projects, it is unknown whether any more Neutral Milk Hotel albums will be released. There were plans to release a Neutral Milk Hotel rarities album on the Orange Twin label; however, after an announcement in 2005 on the Orange Twin website claiming that Jeff Mangum had in fact eventually decided against the project, it is unclear if this will ever happen.
There has been, however, some activity since In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. First, Orange Twin re-released Everything Is...., complete with extra bonus tracks, as well as Live at Jittery Joe's, a bootleg recording of a show Mangum played in a coffee house in Athens in 1997. The Major Organ and the Adding Machine album, a rather secretive project released by Orange Twin in 2001 and consisting mainly of experimental musical collage, features Mangum, along with Julian Koster, Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes, Elf Power's Andrew Reiger and the Olivia Tremor Control and Circulatory System's Will Cullen Hart and Eric Harris. There was also the release of Orange Twin Field Works, Vol. 1, Mangum's field recording of a Bulgarian folk festival, also on Orange Twin in 2001. Additionally, he plays drums on the first Circulatory System album.
Since the start of the hiatus Neutral Milk Hotel, Jeff Mangum has only played live properly again once, under the pseudonym 'World of Wild Beards, Inc.', at the Kings Arms pub in Auckland, New Zealand, at the request of the Tall Dwarfs' Chris Knox. He has also made appearances with Elf Power, and appeared onstage at the first of The Olivia Tremor Control's New York shows on their 2005 reunion tour, to sing briefly. Further releases from Neutral Milk Hotel, however, are indicated to be unlikely.
The other members are all still releasing or recording material: Julian Koster as The Music Tapes, Scott Spillane as The Gerbils and Jeremy Barnes as A Hawk & A Hacksaw, Bablicon and Marta Tennae.
In 2005, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea saw its re-release by Domino Records in the UK, in a sleeve featuring praise from, among others, Franz Ferdinand and The Arcade Fire, both very much influenced by the band. On Avery Island was re-released in the US in January of 2006 with live bonus tracks. Mangum has also been fairly busy creatively - following a charity auction on eBay of an acoustic guitar decorated by Mangum himself, more guitars hand-decorated by Mangum were sold via Orange Twin Records for $900 apiece. In addition, a number of Mangum's original drawings, this time costing only $10 each, were sold via Neutral Milk Hotel's website.
In 2013, made a reunion tour of the United States, Australia, Taiwan and Japan. The band subsequently played concerts sporadically until going on indefinite hiatus in mid-2015.
Everything Is…
Neutral Milk Hotel Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A member of Kiss or a punk rocker
Is that who you are?
It's just kind of funny
Yeah, I would dress up as a punk rocker
When I was, um, little
So what'd you do when you became a punk rocker?
I wore a trash bag
Growing sleepy as the rain falls
As children draped in flowers form a chain
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
As night falls into dust and it's day again
I'm not afraid of a love parade in my daydream
Old men with kazoos and beating drums
But I awake and I see the streets are ice cream
It's just you and me and oh, dear, our life has just begun
Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles 'round my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading
Oh, beautiful smiles, won't you stay awhile?
We could close the door and sleep all day
It's a September sky with pretty pictures in my mind
That's lost its feeling of so afraid
Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles 'round my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading
Oh, oh, whoa-whoa, oh-oh-oh
Oh-whoa, oh-whoa, whoa, whoa-oh-oh
Oh-whoa, oh-whoa, whoa, whoa-oh-oh
Oh-whoa, oh-whoa-oh
Grown sleepy now as the rain falls
As children draped in flowers form a chain
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
As night falls into dust and it's day again
Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles 'round my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading
Oh, fading
Oh, and it's fading
Oh, and it's fading
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh, oh
The lyrics of "Everything Is..." by Neutral Milk Hotel seem to describe a personal epiphany about the beauty of life. The singer describes feeling tired and sleepy as the rain falls, but he is surrounded by the innocence and purity of childhood, symbolized by children draped in flowers forming a chain and singing a song with jelly jars and bird calls. The imagery suggests a sense of warmth and nostalgia. The singer then shares a daydream about a parade filled with love and joy. However, when he wakes up, the streets are not a parade but rather ice cream. This could be a metaphor for life being sweet, but also short-lived and fleeting. Nevertheless, the singer looks to the future with optimism and a sense of renewal, as he declares that his life has just begun and he is breaking free from fear. He welcomes the beauty and the swirling sensations that surround him, finally putting aside his doubts and embracing the present moment.
The song's theme of being present and alive in the moment is a recurring motif in Neutral Milk Hotel's discography. Jeff Mangum, the band's frontman, has attributed this to his interest in Zen Buddhism and the teachings of Alan Watts. Mangum and his bandmates often incorporate references to nature and childhood into their music, along with surrealistic and dreamlike imagery. There's a sense of nostalgia and longing for a past that is long gone but still holds a sense of beauty and wonder. All of these elements come together in "Everything Is...", creating a sense of ease and contentment that is both comforting and profound.
Line by Line Meaning
Growing sleepy as the rain falls
Becoming tired and drowsy as the raindrops are falling from the skies
As children draped in flowers form a chain
Kids holding flowers linked together in a sequence
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
Creating music using jelly jars and bird sounds
As night falls into dust and it's day again
The night slowly passes until it becomes morning
I'm not afraid of a love parade in my daydream
I'm unafraid of letting my imagination run wild and dreaming of a love parade
Old men with kazoos and beating drums
Elderly citizens playing kazoos and drums for music
But I awake and I see the streets are ice cream
Upon waking, I realize that the pavement is melting and becoming ice cream
It's just you and me and oh dear, our life has just begun
It's only the two of us, and our life is just starting
Everything is beautiful here
Every little detail in this moment is stunningly gorgeous
It's spinning circles around my ears
It's making me feel dizzy, in a good way
I'm finally breaking free from fear
I'm no longer held captive by my anxieties
And it's fading
My fear is gradually dissipating
Oh beautiful smiles, won't you stay awhile
Gorgeous smiles, please stay longer with me
We could close the door and sleep all day
Let's shut ourselves in and nap until evening
It's a September sky with pretty pictures in my mind
The vivid blue sky of September evokes vivid imagery within my imagination
That's lost its feeling of so afraid
The fear I once had seems to have disappeared
Grown sleepy now as the rain falls
Now becoming tired and dozing off once more as the rainfall continues
As children draped in flowers form a chain
Youngsters holding flowers linked together in a sequence
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
Making music with jelly jars and bird tweets
As night falls into dust and it's day again
The nighttime becomes morning, and the dust starts to settle
Everything is beautiful here
Every nook and cranny of this place is stunningly beautiful
It's spinning circles around my ears
It's making me feel dizzy, in a good way
I'm finally breaking free from fear
I'm no longer held captive by my anxieties
And it's fading
My fear is gradually disappearing
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Jeff Mangum
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@amyjones4362
Growing sleepy as the rain falls
As children draped in flowers form a chain
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
As night falls into dust and it's day again
I'm not afraid of a love parade in my daydream
Old men with kazoos and beating drums
But I awake and I see the streets are ice cream
It's just you and me and oh dear, our life has just begun
Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading
Oh beautiful smiles, won't you stay awhile
We could close the door and sleep all day
It's a September sky with pretty pictures in my mind
That's lost its feeling of so afraid
Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading
Grown sleepy now as the rain falls
As children draped in flowers form a chain
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
As night falls into dust and it's day again
Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading
@bittercoleslaw1811
i have no idea why but this song made me cry when i thought about how he said "i'm finally breaking free from fear" and i remembered his mental breakdown post-ITAOTS, when he said he used to think his music would solve everything bad in his life and realized it wasn't like that
i find it heartbreaking
@magpie-yf8gf
bro i did not need that
@matthewdavis2267
I did! It's okay to shed a tear while breaking free from fear. It's a bittersweet reaction.
@fish4814
Shit...
@m0012
healing isnt linear 💯 hope he finds what he is looking for in life on his own terms !
@La_Ru-yg8es
Great song! Quite a departure to hear something so unabashedly positive from what has become my favorite band. Saw them live in April, they were wonderful.
@stellarguymk
Only 4 years late, but did you see them on April 8th???
@amyjones4362
Growing sleepy as the rain falls
As children draped in flowers form a chain
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
As night falls into dust and it's day again
I'm not afraid of a love parade in my daydream
Old men with kazoos and beating drums
But I awake and I see the streets are ice cream
It's just you and me and oh dear, our life has just begun
Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading
Oh beautiful smiles, won't you stay awhile
We could close the door and sleep all day
It's a September sky with pretty pictures in my mind
That's lost its feeling of so afraid
Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading
Grown sleepy now as the rain falls
As children draped in flowers form a chain
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
As night falls into dust and it's day again
Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading
@davizitopa7252
The little interview at the beginning really sets the mood for these amazing lyrics. The girl sounds so much like the quintessential _girl-next-door _ and I love it.
@saramgeorge
wow. this band is incredibly indie.