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

[Rex Broome <rexbroome@gmail.com>]

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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