104.3, broadcasting from Radio Free Elsewhere. Your glitch in the airwaves.
The Glitch WeeklyExtra
Neutral Milk Hotel
American indie rock band
Neutral Milk Hotel was an American band formed by Jeff Mangum in Ruston, Louisiana, in the late 1980s. They were active until 1998, and then from 2013 to 2015.
The band's music featured a deliberately low-quality sound, influenced by indie rock and psychedelic folk. Mangum wrote surreal and opaque lyrics that covered a wide range of topics, including love, spirituality, nostalgia, sex, and loneliness.
The band's recordings featured a variety of instruments, including non-traditional instruments like the singing saw and uilleann pipes.
Neutral Milk Hotel originated in Ruston, Louisiana, in the late 1980s as a home recording project of musician Jeff Mangum. Initially using the name Milk, Mangum made the recordings while in high school. Early Milk recordings, such as Invent Yourself a Shortcake and Beauty, were shared between Mangum and his friends Robert Schneider, Bill Doss, and Will Cullen Hart. The four friends branded these homemade cassette tapes with an imaginary record label, Elephant 6, which eventually grew into a loose musical collective. When Mangum learned of another band called Milk, he changed the name of the project to Neutral Milk Hotel, based on a name Hart suggested. According to Doss, the name is a non sequitur influenced by the Dada movement, and it...
When Neutral Milk Hotel disbanded in 1998, the subsequent cult following propelled them to a new level of stardom, and many fans and journalists now regard Neutral Milk Hotel as a seminal indie rock band. Much of Neutral Milk Hotel's legacy is derived from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, which reached sales of roughly 400,000 by 2013. Music outlets such as Pitchfork and Blender have ranked it as one of the greatest indie rock albums of all time, as well as one of the best albums of the 1990s. Richardson noted that In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has become ingrained in the indie rock canon, and consistently attracts new listeners. Chris Morgan of Uproxx wrote: "In short, people share a very deep passion for Neutral Milk Hotel's highly lauded...
"Holland, 1945" is a song by American indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel. It was released as the only single from the band's second and final studio album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998), through Merge Records.
The song was written by lead singer Jeff Mangum and produced by fellow Elephant 6 member Robert Schneider. The track was recorded in July 1997 at Pet Sounds Studio, based in Denver, Colorado.
Composition and lyrics
"Holland, 1945" is one of the album's louder, more upbeat songs, featuring overdriven and distorted guitars. The song showcases fuzz noise on all of the instruments, a quality created by producer Robert Schneider. "Holland, 1945" was one of the last songs Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum wrote for In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. It remained untitled until art director Chris Bilheimer asked Mangum what to title the song in the liner notes; when Mangum told him to use either "Holland" or "1945", Bilheimer suggested combining the two.
Releases
The original version of the track was released as the sixth track to the band's second and final studio album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, on February 10, 1998. The single version of "Holland, 1945" was released in October 1998 on the Blue Rose Record Company label. It was the second single released by the band, and was the band's last release before a decade-long hiatus and their subsequent reunion in 2011. Orange Twin Records released some un-numbered versions through its website. A rare promo CD was released on October 19, 1998.
Legacy
In 2010, Pitchfork included the song at number 7 on their list of the Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s.
"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" is a song by American indie rock group Neutral Milk Hotel, from their second and final studio album of the same name (1998), released through Merge Records. The track was recorded from July to September, 1997, at Pet Sounds Studio, based in Denver, Colorado.
The song was written by lead singer Jeff Mangum, and was produced by fellow Elephant 6 member Robert Schneider. Musically, the song is a psychedelic folk song with elements of indie rock, lo-fi, and noise pop.
Background and composition
Bandleader Jeff Mangum wrote the song almost instantaneously while staying in Athens, Georgia with fellow Elephant 6 musicians. The song was written soon after Mangum became romantically involved with Laura Carter. While sitting in the yard of their Athens home, Mangum suddenly announced, "I got a song in my head!" and ran inside the house to play the song for the first time.
Release and reception
The song was released as the third track to the band's second and final studio album of the same name on the 10th of February, 1998. In 2000, the song was re-released on the compilation album Songs for Summer. The song was critically praised upon its release. Consequence of Sound ranked it the 28th best song of all time in 2012. Reviewer Dan Caffrey writes, "For me, 'Aeroplane' glides along with an odd sense of ease. It's about how a brief moment of contentment can sometimes outshine a crippling tragedy in one's life." SportsAlcohol.com ranked the song the 89th best of the 1990s. WOXY listed it at No. 359 in its Top 500 Songs of All-Time in 2005. German magazine Musikexpress ranked "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" as the 141st greatest song...
