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.
Song Againt Sex
Neutral Milk Hotel Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Of a dead and hanging man
Who was kissing foreign fishes
That flew right out from this hands
And when I put my arms around him
I felt the blushing blood run through my cheeks
And an eeriness surrounded when his tongue began to speak
And he said...Oh boy you are so pretty
And when I finally kissed him the whole world began to ring
Lost like a bell that's tipping over
With two cracks along both sides
And I knew the world was over so I took a look outside
And watched the fires that were reaching
Up to the weather vane and the tops of trees
And the waiting scene and the Sunday dream
They're all waiting here for me
Deli markets with their flower stands
And pretty girls and the burning men
Hanging out on the hooks next to the window displays
And I took out my tongue twice removed from my face
Across a bridge and across the mountains
Threw a nickel in a fountain
To save my soul from all these troubled times
And all the drugs that I don't have the guts to take
To soothe my mind so I'm always sober
Always aching, always heading towards
Mass suicide, occult figurines
And wasted gas-station attendants
Attending to their jobs
And a nice drive in the country
Finds a nice cliff to drop off
Oh when this life just gets so grating
All the grittiness of life
But don't take those pills your boyfriend gave you
You're too wonderful to die
And the last one tore a picture
From the pornographic page
When all the pleasure points attacking
All the looks of love were staged
And it's a lie that you've been given
That just hurts you every day
So why should i lay here naked
When it's just too far away
From anything we could call loving
Any love worth living for
So I'll sleep out in the gutter
You can sleep here on the floor
And when I wake up in the morning
I won't forget to lock the door
Because with a match that's mean and some gasoline
You won't see me anymore
The lyrics of Song Against Sex by Neutral Milk Hotel are difficult to decipher and interpret, but they depict vivid and surreal images that form a disjointed story. The song tells the story of three different encounters with three different people. The first encounter involves a dead man who appears to be kissing foreign fishes that fly out of his hands. The singer feels a sense of eeriness as he puts his arms around the dead man, and the imagery used in the lyrics is both grotesque and beautiful. The man tells the singer that he is pretty enough to wrap up in rice paper string. When the singer finally kisses him, the whole world begins to ring, and he hears the waiting scene and the Sunday dream, which are waiting for him.
The second encounter involves pretty girls and burning men in deli markets with flower stands. The singer takes out his tongue twice removed from his face, and throws a nickel in a fountain to save his soul from troubled times. He resolves not to take the drugs that he doesn't have the guts to take, and he yearns for a love worth living for. The third encounter involves tearing a picture from a pornographic page, and the singer ends up sleeping in the gutter while his partner sleeps on the floor. The singer decides to lock the door in the morning, and he hints at his possible suicide with a match that's mean and some gasoline.
Line by Line Meaning
And the first one tore a picture
The singer describes the first person, who tears a picture
Of a dead and hanging man
The picture was of a man who was dead and hanging
Who was kissing foreign fishes
In the picture, the man was seen kissing exotic fishes
That flew right out from his hands
The fishes appeared to fly out of the man's hands
And when I put my arms around him
The artist embraces the man in the picture
I felt the blushing blood run through my cheeks
The touch of the man caused the singer to blush
And an eeriness surrounded when his tongue began to speak
The singer experiences a strange and unsettling feeling when the man begins to speak
And he said...Oh boy you are so pretty
The man compliments the artist by calling them pretty
Enough to wrap tight in rice-paper string.
The man seems to find the artist's appearance attractive enough to wrap them in rice-paper string
And when I finally kissed him the whole world began to ring
After the artist kisses the man in the picture, they feel a sense of excitement or euphoria
Lost like a bell that's tipping over
The singer feels overwhelmed and unsteady
With two cracks along both sides
The artist's emotional state is fragile, as if they are about to break
And I knew the world was over so I took a look outside
The singer becomes aware of the bleakness of their reality and looks outside for some kind of escape
And watched the fires that were reaching
The singer observes fires in the distance
Up to the weather vane and the tops of trees
The fires are spreading and are visible in the distance, reaching high up to the tops of trees and a weather vane
And the waiting scene and the Sunday dream
The artist describes a scene of waiting and dreaming on a Sunday
They're all waiting here for me
The artist feels like everyone and everything is waiting for them
Deli markets with their flower stands
The singer describes deli markets and their flower stands
And pretty girls and the burning men
The singer observes pretty girls and burning men
Hanging out on the hooks next to the window displays
The burning men are hanging out on hooks next to window displays
And I took out my tongue twice removed from my face
The artist seems to be metaphorically describing an action they took, involving their tongue
Across a bridge and across the mountains
The artist describes crossing a bridge and mountains
Threw a nickel in a fountain
The singer throws a nickel into a fountain
To save my soul from all these troubled times
The artist hopes that throwing a coin in the fountain will help them during difficult times
And all the drugs that I don't have the guts to take
The singer has been offered drugs but doesn't have the courage to take them
To soothe my mind so I'm always sober
The singer desires to feel calm without turning to substances
Always aching, always heading towards
The singer is constantly in pain and feels like they are moving towards something
Mass suicide, occult figurines
The artist mentions mass suicide and occult figurines
And wasted gas-station attendants
The artist observes gas-station attendants who seem unfulfilled
Attending to their jobs
The attendants are focused on their work
And a nice drive in the country finds a nice cliff to drop off
The singer is imagining taking a peaceful drive before driving off a cliff
Oh when this life just gets so grating
The artist expresses frustration with life
All the grittiness of life
The artist describes life as something that can be gritty and difficult
But don't take those pills your boyfriend gave you
The artist warns against taking pills given by a boyfriend
You're too wonderful to die
The singer acknowledges the potential of the person they are addressing and encourages them not to end their life
And the last one tore a picture
The artist describes the last person, who tears a picture
From the pornographic page
The picture was taken from a pornographic magazine
When all the pleasure points attacking
The picture depicted various sexual pleasures
All the looks of love were staged
The singer feels that depictions of love in media are not genuine or real
And it's a lie that you've been given
The artist believes that they and others have been lied to
That just hurts you every day
The lies that people are told cause pain and discomfort
So why should I lay here naked
The singer questions why they should continue to be vulnerable and exposed
When it's just too far away
The singer feels that something they desire is out of reach
From anything we could call loving
The artist feels that their experiences are not love but something else
Any love worth living for
The artist is seeking a deeper, more meaningful kind of love
So I'll sleep out in the gutter
The artist will seek refuge in a dirty, unpleasant place
You can sleep here on the floor
The singer is speaking to someone else, offering them a place to sleep
And when I wake up in the morning
The artist looks ahead to the future
I won't forget to lock the door
The singer takes precautions to protect themselves
Because with a match that's mean and some gasoline
The singer is describing a dangerous scenario involving a match and gasoline
You won't see me anymore
The singer hints at a potentially violent end to their story
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JEFF MANGUM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind