the of mirror eye

* Neutral Milk Hotel: Bucket (6.5 mb) | Song Against Sex (7.0 mb) | A Baby For Pree (5.5 mb) | Engine (4.5 mb)
From Live At The Knitting Factory : Aug 1st, 1998 : New York City, NY

So, I was originally going to post more about the Grateful Dead, but things beyond my control are preventing me from doing so. I’ve been moving this past week and finally made the big move. But as a result, everything is in total disarray and to top it all off, I don’t even have internet connection at the new house yet!! But, like the post office, this site aims to deliver, regardless of rain, sleet or snow.

Moving always brings out the introspection in me. Mostly because I’m looking at all the detritus that I’ve picked up over the years and trying to decide if I have the energy to move it or just throw it away. But it definitely brings back memories of things past, which is always interesting for me. But it seems that this move was puncuated by this band, Neutral Milk Hotel.

This is a band that I fell in love with the moment that I heard them. It must’ve been fall 1996, and I was working at my college radio station. Their first album, On Avery Island, somehow fell into my lap and I played the hell out of it. For the longest time, it practically lived in my cd player. Accompanying me from class to class, from trips to town and back. This cd was my soundtrack. The album was completely magical. The sounds were super saturated with fuzz and distortion, with this heartbroken singer wailing above it all singing of love and loss. They released a subsequent album in 1998, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, which was even better than their debut album (a feat I never thought possible). And then they disappeared. the rumours were that Jeff Mangum, the ringleader of the band, couldn’t take the intense pressures and scrutiny that resulted from making such masterpieces. He left the country, traveled around for a bit and hasn’t made another Neutral Milk Hotel album since.

I gradually stopped listening to them so much but they’ve always remained within me. This past Sunday, sore as hell from all the moving, me and the lady friend decided to grab some food at the local coffee shop before I had to go into work. It was a rainy, overcast day and the place had some Neutral Milk Hotel playing. Instantly, I was reminded of my great love for this band. The songs haven’t lost any of their meaning or impact for me. The tunes were, from so many previous listens, as familiar to me as the back of my hand.

At any rate. Sorry to go on for so long. This band engenders such feelings in me that sometimes it’s hard to stop. These recordings are from a performance at the Knitting Factory, shortly after releasing In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. The recording quality is kind of poor (unfortunately, I don’t have access to my other albums right not), but the performances are great are are certainly worth listening to. Multiple times. Maybe even on repeat.

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