Invent Yourself a Shortcake

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Neutral Milk Hotel chronology
Invent Yourself a Shortcake

Studio album by Neutral Milk Hotel
Released	1991 (self-released by Jeff Mangum for himself and friends)
Genre	Indie Rock, Experimental
Length	45:31
Label	Elephant 6
	Invent Yourself a Shortcake (1991)	Beauty (1992)

Invent Yourself a Shortcake is an early demo tape by Neutral Milk Hotel, which, at this point, was merely the name under which Jeff Mangum released recordings he had made on his tape recorder. The tape was never intended for public consumption, instead hand-produced in a very small number to be passed among Mangum's friends. The quality of the recording is rather low, and several of the songs featured are simply audio experiments, such as "Random Noise", and "Spooky Sounds", and throughout there is odd conversation and sound collage. Indeed, as it is put on one Neutral Milk Hotel fansite, 'this is the embryonic NMH and it's not pretty' [1]. However, it features "Synthetic Flying Machine", an early version of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea's "King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 3", which also appears on the 7" compilation "The Amazing Phantom Third Channel", released on Cher Doll records; a primitive voice-manipulated version of "My Dreamgirl Don't Exist", which was played live by Mangum occasionally and contains elements that became part of Aeroplane's "Ghost" and "Communist Daughter"; and "Love You on a Tuesday", a rather wild early version of Hype City Soundtrack's "Tuesday Moon", which was eventually be added to the Orange Twin re-release of the Everything Is EP.