Jeff Mangum
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| Jeff Mangum | ||
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 Jeff Mangum, 1999
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Jefferson Mangum | |
| Born | 1970 | |
| Origin | Ruston, Louisiana | |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, drums, organ, vocals | |
| Years active | 1989-2001 | |
| Label(s) | Merge Records, Orange Twin Records | |
| Associated acts |
Neutral Milk Hotel, Circulatory System, The Olivia Tremor Control, Synthetic Flying Machine, Cranberry Lifecycle, The Apples in Stereo, Major Organ and the Adding Machine | |
Jefferson Nigh Mangum, or Jeff Mangum (b. 1970 in Ruston, Louisiana) is the founder and driving force behind what was the band Neutral Milk Hotel and one of the cofounders of the Elephant Six Collective. Robert Schneider (of the Apples in Stereo), Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss (formerly of Olivia Tremor Control and now comprising Circulatory System and The Sunshine Fix, respectively) and Mangum all attended the same high school in Ruston, Louisiana in the late 1980s. The friends shared a passion for bands of the 1960s such as The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and The Zombies, as well as an affinity for newer, noisier bands such as Sonic Youth and The Minutemen. They reflected these influences in the tapes they recorded and shared with each other, forming the seeds of what would become the Elephant Six Collective. While Robert Schneider became the "popular" face of the collective with the eventual success of The Apples in Stereo, Mangum would ultimately release some of the collective's most interesting and enduringly popular music.
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[edit] With Neutral Milk Hotel
From the ashes of a band called Synthetic Flying Machine, Olivia Tremor Control was born, with an original line-up of Will and Bill on guitar and bass and Jeff on drums. Around 1995 Jeff decided to leave the group to focus on his own songs. A year of intensive songwriting (some of it accomplished, according to Jeff, while he was living in a haunted closet) in Denver, Colorado with Robert Schneider at his Pet Sounds studio resulted in his debut album, On Avery Island, released in 1996, which was mostly Rob and Jeff playing Jeff's songs with a few helpful friends. Jeff eventually expanded the line up of Neutral Milk Hotel and in 1998 released what many consider the band's (and indeed, the Elephant Six Collective's) defining album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
[edit] After Neutral Milk Hotel
The relative success of the album in addition to the pressures of being suddenly thrust into the spotlight took its toll on Mangum, who disbanded Neutral Milk Hotel in 1998 after a tour in support of their latest album. Jeff has kept out of the public eye since then (although not without intrusive fans speculating on his whereabouts), rarely if ever playing acoustic sets and concentrating more on his recorded sound and music collages. Most recently he released a compilation of field recordings of Bulgarian folk music called Orange Twin Field Works: Volume I in the summer of 2001, followed by a live album on the Orange Twin label, Live at Jittery Joe's. The set was recorded by filmmaker Lance Bangs in 1997 and was put out to combat the exorbitant sums that Neutral Milk Hotel live albums were selling for on eBay. The CD features a QuickTime movie of the concert performance, but Mangum is backlit and seen mostly in silhouette throughout the video.
On April 2, 2001, Mangum and friends Laura Carter and Chris Knox played a gig-Mangum's first in two years—at the King's Arms in Auckland, New Zealand. The band was billed as 'World of Wild Beards Incorporated', a throwaway pseudonym which Mangum varied to 'Walking Wall of Beards Incorporated' whilst addressing the audience between songs. Four years later, on August 2, 2005, Mangum joined Olivia Tremor Control onstage at New York's Bowery Ballroom to sing lead vocals on their songs "I Have Been Floated" and "Shaving Spiders." Accounts say that he was softly weeping before later being pulled to the floor by Julian Koster and being dogpiled by the rest of the band. Again, on November 17 of the same year, he joined another former Elephant Six band, Elf Power, onstage at New York's Knitting Factory for the final chorus of only one song, "The Arrow Flies Close," leaving the stage immediately afterwards. In addition to these appearances he has also toured with Circulatory System as a drummer and appears at most other E6 concerts in New York City, either in the audience or to sing backup vocals (as he did earlier this year with The Instruments).
On June 26, 2006, a post was made on Elephant 6's forum, "E6 Townhall", with the title of "news and fish and meaningful messages." The post suggested Mangum would make a return into the musical spotlight sometime within the year with a new release. Though the post caused some excitement (such as making the frontpage of Pitchfork), an email from Mangum himself denied writing the message. [1]
On September 19, 2006 it was announced that Mangum would contribute to The Apples in Stereo's new album New Magnetic Wonder. Mangum is reported to be playing "drums, cow object, backing vocals, handclaps". [1]
[edit] Discography
[edit] With The Olivia Tremor Control
- California Demise (Elephant 6 Records; 7"; 1994)
[edit] With Neutral Milk Hotel
See Neutral Milk Hotel discography.
[edit] As Jeff Mangum
- Orange Twin Field Works: Volume I (Orange Twin; CD; 2001)
- Live at Jittery Joe's (Orange Twin; CD; 2001)
[edit] External links
- Kevin Griffis, "Have you seen Jeff Mangum?", Creative Loafing, September 4, 2003
- Jeff Mangum at MusicBrainz
