Their 1998 album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,informed everyone from Arcade Fire to Beirut. So why did the band call it quits the moment they saw their name in lights?For the most part, the mythology around Neutral Milk Hotel has existed beyond their control. Their singer and leader, or Jeff Mangum,is certainly a part-recluse, but beyond anything he’s simply a man who called it quits at the very moment his band saw their name in lights. By shunning interviews, or he’s subsequently been billed as either a JD Salinger-like enigma or a contemporary-day Syd Barrett. These are two exaggerated interpretations,coined largely because the band, who split in 1999, and have barely said a word since then.
The disaster is,they departed with a record that remains hard to account for. Unintentionally, they timed their disbandment with the rise of music-forum discussions, and Pitchfork’s holy grail perfect-score verdicts and the internet’s tendency to give hearsay a bigger platform than concrete facts: Neutral Milk Hotel ended just when mythology became a crucial factor in propelling a band’s reputation,and in the absence of anything to decrease them, their reputation simply grew and grew and grew.[br] Related: Neutral Milk Hotel review – it's thrilling to have Jeff Mangum back from the brink Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com