Re: (TV) OT: Please explain to me the appeal of Jeff Mangum

[Russ <russvr@gmail.com>]

No. Not at all. What started this was my own crankiness. I commented
on a Pitchfork review ga-ga about something Mangum was doing and all I
got was flack. I merely stated what I stated here, that I didn't get
it. And I received abuse from the cognoscenti who were lock step in
with the party line. Wankers! But the thing is - there is some
semblance of genius there - but Mangum would be better - either
without a band or with a different band. NMH just sounds like a
Salvation Army Band to me.


On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 10:02 PM, Rex Broome <rexbroome@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 6:35 PM, Russ <russvr@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I don't get Jeff Mangum, I don't like Neutral Milk Hotel - I used to
>> have their opus album and I listened to it several times - and it has
>> never added up to anything to me. I like avant garde stuff: Beefheart,
>> Fripp, Gang of Four - Television - but I just don't hear anything
>> special in Jeff Mangum . Please educate me - tell me where I'm wrong -
>> gently - because I suspect something is there - but I don't hear it.
>
>
> Not surprisingly I have the exact same wiring problem.  I just don't hear it
> either.
>
> I should add that I've never quite gotten over being annoyed by the entire
> Elephant Six phenomenon.  I was irritated that if I liked one of those
> artists, I was expected to be totally gaga over the rest of them as well.  I
> frankly didn't have the money to keep up with them even if I'd wanted to, so
> the whole thing seemed like power pop created by trust fund babies for trust
> fund babies, with a side of Pokemon-style "Gotta Catch 'Em All!" hucksterism
> thrown in.
>
> In the end I found that I really liked one tangentially-related band
> (Beulah) and casually enjoyed the Apples in Stereo enough to pick up their
> records when I find them cheap/free, but most of the rest was so-so lo-fi
> pop, and I'm happy to have spent my money on more diverse artists during
> that time period rather than chasing down every split single and
> colored-vinyl 7" of a 4-track demo by every dude who smoked out with Jeff
> Mangum on tour in Idaho.
>
> I am really sounding cranky these days, huh?
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