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.
My Dream Girl Don't Exist
Neutral Milk Hotel Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And at the age of five she slit her wrist
She didn't know that I'd be hanging around
So her parents buried her in the ground
And this day I can still hear the sound
Of a life in outer space
My dream girl don't exist
And this illness seems to feel so strange
Like a henchman that's about to hang
The moon up like a ball and chain
And set its sands ablaze
And the weight is waiting off
Feel the world so real and strong
My dream girl don't exist
Just a photograph in a history book
And I believe she had a voice and name
Three children on the coast of Maine
And her life was in a hurricane
Of love and real embrace
My dream girl don't exist
And at the age of five she slit her wrist
She didn't know that I'd be hanging around
So one day she took a stroll to town
And walked in front of a greyhound bound
For New York Central State
And the weight is waiting off
And the weight is waiting off
Feel the world so real and strong
She goes, and now she knows
She'll never be afraid
The lyrics of Neutral Milk Hotel's song "My Dream Girl Don't Exist" speak of the singer's longing for a dream girl that he believes will never come to fruition. The song begins with a haunting line, "My dream girl don't exist / And at the age of five she slit her wrist." This line sets the dark tone for the rest of the song, as it becomes clear that the singer's dream girl has passed away at a young age.
The song is filled with vivid imagery that is both beautiful and melancholic. The lyrics describe the singer's desire for love and companionship, but also his realization that he may never find it. He compares his feelings of loneliness to "a henchman that's about to hang / The moon up like a ball and chain / And set its sands ablaze."
As the song progresses, it becomes clear that the singer believes his dream girl has passed away, and he mourns her loss. He describes her as "just a photograph in a history book" and imagines her life as "in a hurricane / Of love and real embrace." The final lines of the song suggest that the singer has come to terms with his loneliness and has found strength in accepting that his dream girl is gone.
Overall, "My Dream Girl Don't Exist" is a hauntingly beautiful song that explores themes of longing, love, and loss. The lyrics paint a vivid picture of the singer's inner world and his struggles with loneliness and grief.
Line by Line Meaning
My dream girl don't exist
The singer's perfect partner doesn't exist in reality
And at the age of five she slit her wrist
The ideal girl the singer has concocted in his mind died at a young age, before they could have ever met
She didn't know that I'd be hanging around
The girl never got the chance to meet the singer who had already formed an idea of her
So her parents buried her in the ground
The girl passed away and was buried, ending any chance of meeting the singer or any possibility of a relationship
And this day I can still hear the sound
The singer still remembers the thought of a potential future with the dream girl
Of a life in outer space
The unattainable and distant concept of the perfect partner still lingers in the singer's mind
It just you and I and this TV
The singer is lonely and is reminded of his isolation by the presence of only the TV
And this illness seems to feel so strange
The singer is feeling unwell both physically and emotionally
Like a henchman that's about to hang
The illness feels like a threat of an impending danger or death
The moon up like a ball and chain
The burden and weight of the illness seems to hold the singer down like a heavy chain
And set its sands ablaze
The illness creates a sense of chaos and destruction, similar to a wildfire
Just a photograph in a history book
The girl still exists only in the singer's memory or imagination, like a snapshot in time
And I believe she had a voice and name
The singer has a strong conviction that the dream girl had an identity and was real, despite not being able to meet her
Three children on the coast of Maine
The dream girl had a real life, with a family and a location, similar to regular people
And her life was in a hurricane
The girl's life was full of turmoil and chaos, like being in the midst of a hurricane
Of love and real embrace
Despite the turmoil, the girl also experienced love and affection
So one day she took a stroll to town
The dream girl is imagined by the singer to have lived a normal life, even if he didn't get to experience it with her
And walked in front of a greyhound bound
The death of the dream girl was sudden and accidental, cutting short any chance of ever meeting or experiencing a relationship with the girl
For New York Central State
The girl's accidental death suggests that the details of her death are insignificant, as she is already gone
She goes, and now she knows
The girl has passed away and now knows everything, leaving the singer with unfulfilled expectations and longing
She'll never be afraid
The dream girl's death has freed her from any fear or pain, while the singer is still haunted by the idea of her
Contributed by Aaliyah K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@damaraortiz
My dream girl don't exist
And at the age of five she slit her wrist
She didn't know that I'd be hanging around
So her parents buried her in the ground
And this day I can still hear the sound
Of a life in outer space
My dream girl don't exist
It just you and I and this TV
And this illness seems to feel so strange
Like a henchman that's about to hang
The moon up like a ball and chain
And set its sands ablaze
And the weight is waiting off
Feel the world so real and strong
My dream girl don't exist
Just a photograph in a history book
And I believe she had a voice and name
Three children on the coast of Maine
And her life was in a hurricane
Of love and real embrace
My dream girl don't exist
And at the age of five she slit her wrist
She didn't know that I'd be hanging around
So one day she took a stroll to town
And walked in front of a greyhound bound
For New York Central State
And the weight is waiting off
And the weight is waiting off
Feel the world so real and strong
She goes, and now she knows
She'll never be afraid
@lukemikel1747
[Verse 1]
My dream girl don't exist
At the age of five she slit her wrist
She didn't know that I'd be hanging around
So her parents buried her in the ground
And this day I can still hear the sound
Of a life in outer space
[Verse 2]
My dream girl don't exist
Just you and I and this TV
And this illness seems to feel so strange
Like a henchman that's about to hang
The moon up like a ball and chain
And set the sands ablaze
[Chorus]
And the weight is waiting on
Feel the world so real and strong
[Verse 3]
My dream girl don't exist
Took her photograph from a history book
I believe she had a voice and name
Three children on the coast of Maine
Her life was in a hurricane
Of love and real embrace
[Verse 4]
My dream girl don't exist
At the age of five she slit her wrist
She didn't know that I'd be hanging around
So one day she took a stroll to town
And walked in front of a Greyhound bound
For New York central state
[Chorus]
And the weight is waiting on
And the weight is waiting on
Feel the world so real and strong
She goes and now she knows she'll never be afraid
@eeeeeeevvvvvvrrrw
My dream girl is jeff mangum
@l0s72
same
@MultiYoutubuser
Basicaly
@Crapanomics
You speak it
@creativeamerican8811
coolest beans
:)
And yup, Jeff Mangum don’t exist.. he didn’t know that we’d be hanging around..
@neros12346
@@creativeamerican8811 he exists, alright...
@collinlopez
Possibly Jeff's best song lyrically IMO. It's such an interesting concept, having "the one" die and then being alone in this world forever. Makes me wonder if my "one" was buried in the ground.
@nightdriver
ever hear the song "ana ng"?
@daario4278
Very boring chord progression though
@Lowfe
@@daario4278 True, it's a very overused chord progression but I don't think it takes away from the song