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.
oh comely
Neutral Milk Hotel Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I will be with you when you lose your breath
Chasing the only
Meaningful memory you thought you had left
With some pretty bright and bubbly
Terrible scene that was doing her thing on your chest
But oh comely
It isn't as pretty as you'd like to guess
Drunk on your awe to me
It doesn't mean anything at all
Oh comely
All of your friends are all letting you blow
Bristling and ugly
Bursting with fruits falling out from the holes
Of some pretty bright and bubbly
Friend you could need to say comforting things in your ear
But oh comely
There isn't such one friend that you could find
Here standing next to me only my enemy
I'll crush him with everything i own
Say what you want to say hang for your hollow ways
Moving your mouth to pull out all your miracle for me
Your father made fetuses with flesh licking ladies
While you and your mother were asleep in the trailer park
Thunderous sparks from the dark of the stadiums
The music and medicine you needed for comforting
So make all your fat fleshy fingers to moving
And pluck all your silly strings and bend all your notes for me
Soft silly music is meaningful magical
The movements were beautiful all in your ovaries
All of them milking with green fleshy flowers
While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines
Smelling of semen all under the garden was all you were needing
When you still believed in me
Say what you want to say and hang for your hollow ways
Moving your mouth to pull out all your miracle for me
I know they buried her body with others
Her sister and mother and 500 families
And will she remember me 50 years later
I wished i could save her in some sort of time machine
Know all your enemies
We know who our enemies are
Know all your enemies
We know who our enemies are
Goldaline my dear
We will fold and freeze together
Far away from here
There is sun and spring and green forever
But now we move to feel
For ourselves inside some strangers stomach
Place your body here
Let your skin begin to blend itself with mine
The song "Oh Comely" by Neutral Milk Hotel, one of the most revered and enigmatic bands of the indie-rock genre, is a complex and intriguing piece of music that has long captivated the band's devoted fanbase. The lyrics of the song contain a mix of haunting imagery and poetic language that is both beautiful and confounding.
The song begins with a promise to be with someone "when they lose their breath," in a moment of great vulnerability - perhaps referring to a time of death or near-death experience. Then there is a mention of a "meaningful memory" that the person had, which they are now chasing. It's unclear what that memory is, but it's clearly important to the singer. The song then shifts to a scene of someone lying on someone else's chest, with some kind of "bright and bubbly terrible scene" happening. It's not clear what that means either, but the image is both eerie and intriguing.
The second half of the song is even more mysterious. The singer speaks of an "enemy" standing next to them, who they plan to crush with all of their possessions. There is then a shift to a cryptic image of "fat fleshy fingers" and "silly strings" being plucked. It's not clear what instrument is being played, but the music is described as "meaningful" and "magical." The song concludes with a mention of someone named Goldaline, and an enigmatic image of two bodies blending together.
Overall, "Oh Comely" is a song full of rich and elusive imagery that invites interpretation. Some have suggested that the song is about the aftermath of a traumatic event, such as losing a loved one. Others have pointed to the surreal and disconnected images as evidence that the singer is experiencing some sort of dissociation or mental breakdown. Whatever the true meaning of the song, it's clear that it is a powerful work of art that continues to captivate listeners to this day.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh comely
Addressing the subject of the song, who may represent the listener or some other individual, and setting the tone for a raw and introspective contemplation
I will be with you when you lose your breath
Assuring the listener of support and companionship during difficult times
Chasing the only
Meaningful memory you thought you had left
Pursuing a memory that holds significance but may be elusive or fleeting
With some pretty bright and bubbly
Terrible scene that was doing her thing on your chest
Depicting a contradictory or paradoxical experience that combines beauty and horror, pleasure and pain
But oh comely
It isn't as pretty as you'd like to guess
Acknowledging the disparity between the idealized or imagined version of reality and its actual, flawed manifestation
In your memory you're
Drunk on your awe to me
It doesn't mean anything at all
Highlighting the subjective and unreliable aspect of memories, especially those that are infused with emotions or projections
All of your friends are all letting you blow
Bristling and ugly
Bursting with fruits falling out from the holes
Implying that the listener may feel abandoned, betrayed, or overwhelmed by their social circle, which may consist of hypocritical or toxic people
Of some pretty bright and bubbly
Friend you could need to say comforting things in your ear
Suggesting that even a well-intentioned friend may not be able to provide true solace or connection, and may resort to superficial or cliched phrases
There isn't such one friend that you could find
Here standing next to me only my enemy
I'll crush him with everything i own
Positing that the only trustworthy or loyal companion is the singer or the self, and emphasizing the hostility or aggression towards any potential threat
Say what you want to say hang for your hollow ways
Moving your mouth to pull out all your miracle for me
Encouraging the listener to express themselves fully and authentically, even if it exposes their vulnerabilities or insecurities, and implying that the singer may be a receptacle or witness for such revelations
Your father made fetuses with flesh licking ladies
While you and your mother were asleep in the trailer park
Thunderous sparks from the dark of the stadiums
The music and medicine you needed for comforting
Painting a surreal or disturbing image of the listener's origins or early experiences, involving promiscuity, neglect, and juxtapositions between low and high culture
So make all your fat fleshy fingers to moving
And pluck all your silly strings and bend all your notes for me
Soft silly music is meaningful magical
The movements were beautiful all in your ovaries
All of them milking with green fleshy flowers
While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines
Smelling of semen all under the garden was all you were needing
When you still believed in me
Describing a surreal or fantastical scenario that involves creative expression, sexuality, fertility, and industrialization, in a way that blends the absurd and the symbolic, and evokes a sense of wonder and discomfort
I know they buried her body with others
Her sister and mother and 500 families
And will she remember me 50 years later
I wished i could save her in some sort of time machine
Musing on mortality, grief, and regret, and suggesting that the singer may have lost someone dear, who is buried in a mass grave, and may still long for a chance to alter the past
Know all your enemies
We know who our enemies are
Know all your enemies
We know who our enemies are
Reiterating the motif of hostility or violence, and asserting a tribal or confrontational mentality that defines itself against others
Goldaline my dear
We will fold and freeze together
Far away from here
There is sun and spring and green forever
But now we move to feel
For ourselves inside some strangers stomach
Place your body here
Let your skin begin to blend itself with mine
Ending the song with a surreal or transcendent image of unity and liberation, which involves metaphors of metamorphosis, symbiosis, and dissolution, and suggests a longing for escape or transcendence from the mundane reality
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JEFF MANGUM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind