IN THE AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA

'''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea''' is the second and final album by American indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel, released in February 1998 in the US on Merge Records and in May 1998 in the UK on Blue Rose Records. The album's musical style combines vocalist Jeff Mangum's singing, acoustic guitar accompaniment, such as piano, musical saw, uilleann pipes, bow-played fuzz bass, wandering genie, accordion, banjo, flugelhorn, and other assorted brass instruments. The album is conceptually based on the redeeming beauty to be found in the life and death of Anne Frank, as well as similarly overwhelming tragedies.
The recording has become a cult classic in indie music circles, selling over 100,000 copies, according to Merge Records. Pitchfork Media ranked it the fourth-best album of the 1990s and awarded it a rare perfect rating of 10.0 upon re-release. Spin Magazine ranked it 97th best album released between 1985 and 2005.

Contents

Background

Neutral Milk Hotel, the band

Writing the album in Athens, Georgia

Recording

Track listing

Art direction

Cover art and album design

Flying Victrola

Liner notes

Personnel

Notes

References

Background

Neutral Milk Hotel, the band

In 1996, immediately after the release of the album ''On Avery Island'', "Neutral Milk Hotel" was still simply a solo-moniker of Jeff Mangum's. ''On Avery Island'' was written by Mangum, produced by Robert Schneider and performed by Mangum with the aid of Schneider and various Elephant 6 musicians. The beginnings of a functioning Neutral Milk Hotel band wouldn't form until after the release of ''On Avery Island'', when friend Julian Koster joined Mangum's project. Thus, Mangum, who had previously performed drums for Synthetic Flying Machine, effectively became Neutral Milk Hotel's frontman. Needing a drummer, the duo recruited Jeremy Barnes, who would drop out of DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois to join the band at Koster's apartment in New York City.^[1] A fourth member was found when Mangum met up with Scott Spillane in Austin, Texas. Mangum and Spillane knew each other during their earlier years in their hometown of Ruston, Louisiana. Spillane, living in his van working at a miserable job at a pizzeria, jumped at Mangum's offer to join the band in New York.^[2]
The newly-formed Neutral Milk Hotel would now base itself at two residences: Koster's apartment on Christopher Street in the West Village, and Koster's grandmother's home at 986 North 7th Street, between Nassau and Queens (affectionately referred to as "Grandma's House"). The time between the formation of the band and the recording of ''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'' was spent creatively; practicing together, recording demos, and learning their dynamics within the band.
Mangum performed lead vocals and guitar on the majority of the band's songs while Barnes provided percussion. Though Spillane was initially encouraged to play guitar, he soon took to playing brass instruments, reasoning that someone had to perform the brass elements found in the songs from ''On Avery Island'' when performing live. Spillane would later remark that Rick Benjamin's performances on the album had a huge impact on him: "[Benjamin] played horns on the first record, and if he hadn't done that then I never would have picked up a horn in a rock and roll setting, ever. No way."^[3]
Koster's instrument would vary, and he encouraged others to try the same. The four would often trade instruments while practicing; a habit that would eventually carry on through to their live performances.
The band would perform their debut gig on April 28, 1996 and tour the country through the summer, playing early versions of songs that would appear on ''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'' as well as songs from ''On Avery Island''. Mangum would also tour solo with The Olivia Tremor Control in October.

Writing the album in Athens, Georgia

After touring the country, the band relocated to Athens, Mangum and Koster to a house on 156 Grady Avenue. Also sharing the house were fellow musicians Robbie Cucchiaro, Laura Carter, and Bryan Poole. Mangum would spend his time writing the new album's material not with pen and paper, but by performing the new songs repeatedly, memorizing their patterns until desirable lyrics began to take shape.Cooper, Kim (2005). ''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 33⅓''. (New York) Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1690-X.
Writing continued through 1997 as the band performed locally in Athens, revealing some of the new material to fellow Elephant 6 members. The music was met with enormous support within the Elephant 6 community. Filmmaker Lance Bangs began following the band to gigs, filming concerts and sharing cassette tapes of shows to various members of the record industry (including Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and acclaimed music video director Spike Jonze).^[4] Mangum finished writing the new material in spring, save for "Holland, 1945" which was still unfinished. He recorded demos for the band members to listen to and practice in preparation for the upcoming recording sessions.

Recording

Recording for ''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'' began in a manner similar to the ''On Avery Island'' sessions. Mangum moved from Athens to Denver, Colorado to prepare the bulk of the album's material with producer Robert Schneider, this time at Schneider's newly-created Pet Sounds Studio at the home of Jim McIntyre.

Track listing

All songs written by Jeff Mangum and Scott Spillane, except where noted.
# "The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One" – 2:00
# "The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two & Three" (Jeremy Barnes, Julian Koster, Jeff Mangum, Scott Spillane) – 3:06
# "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" – 3:22
# "Two-Headed Boy" – 4:26
# "The Fool" (Spillane) – 1:53
# "Holland, 1945" – 3:12
# "Communist Daughter" – 1:57
# "Oh Comely" – 8:18
# "Ghost" – 4:08
# "Untitled" – 2:16
# "Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two" – 5:13

Art direction

Cover art and album design

The jacket art for the album was the result of a close collaboration between Jeff Mangum and Chris Bilheimer. The general album design reflects the taste of Mangum, who brought several images to Bilheimer as concept art. One particular piece Mangum showed to Chris was an old European postcard with an image of people bathing at a resort.^[5] The postcard would be a major influence on the album's front cover, which depicts people bathing in a large body of water, waving. The most immediately striking image on the cover, however, is a waving woman in a red dress with a drum in the place of a face.
In the CD version of the album, the front cover is printed on the back a single sheet of paper. On the back of this insert are a pair of similar rectangular images, one above the other, each with similar, bare landscapes with large clouds in the sky and two miniature silhouettes of a person at the bottom center of each picture. The top image contains the number "205/6" which is from Mangum's postcard.⁵ There is no track listing on the CD's cover or the actual CD, so buyers need to use an outside source to find out the song's titles.
The back cover of the album features an eleven-piece marching band, not including its short and stubby drum major. The band members are lined up in a such a way that on the right, the members have realistically proportioned legs, but as they move down to the left, their legs become longer and longer. The drummer on the far left with the longest legs is playing a drum similar to the one resting on the shoulders of the woman on the front cover, but with the official Elephant 6 Recording Co. logo on it. This logo was created by Will Cullen Hart.
The vinyl version of the album has the same cover image as the CD on the front, and the picture of the marching band on the back. Inside the sleeve is a piece of paper with a full track listing, and fragments of lyrics with Mangum's comments on the songs interspersed.
To replicate the aged, stained look of the postcard, Bilheimer scanned the back of it and used it as an undertone to most of the album's artwork, leaving in the dirt and grime to give it an authentically-aged feel.^[6]

Flying Victrola

Brian Dewan created two pieces of line art for the album, one called "Flying Victrola" and the other called "Magic Radio". The "Flying Victrola" image would be used as the frontside to a 9.5 by 9.5 inch lyrics insert. The image depicted a giant phonograph with airplane wings and tail protruding from its base. The phonograph is seen flying over a group of buildings below, many of which are spouting smog from chimneys. Hovering at the bottom of the image are the words "NEUTRAL", "MILK", and "HOTEL".
Dewan's second piece, "Magic Radio", would remain unused for the final album. The piece was a drawing of an old radio spilling out a variety of small images, including fish, an airplane, a spade, numerous music notes, a clock with wings, and a trumpeting angel.

Liner notes

The lyrics insert that accompanies the vinyl LP release contains selected lyrics from the songs in a long run-on sentence riddled with typographical errors. In addition, non-lyrical content is inserted at several important points. In place of the lyrics for part two of "King of Carrot Flowers," Mangum adds a personal clarification of his intentions for the song that reads: "a song for an old friend and a song for a new friend and now a song for jesus christ and since this seems to confuse people i'd like to simply say that i mean what i sing although the theme of endless endless on this album is not based on any religion but more in the belief that all things seem to contain a white light within them that i see as eternal". After the lyrics for part three, he adds "buzzzzz (f to c to f to c)," a reference to the noise and the chord progression at the end of the song.
After the lyrics to "Two-Headed Boy," some lyrics from the unreleased song "Oh Sister"—introduced at a July 4th, 1996 concert at Aquarius records as related to the song, "Oh Comely"—are inserted: "and oh sister now that we're grieving our fingers will falter our lungs will be leaking all over each other and without even speaking we'll know that it's over and smile and go greeting whatever comes next".
Then in the middle of the lyrics for "Holland, 1945," the letters "(h.p.)" are added after the words "your dark brother". Mangum has indicated that the "dark brother" is a reference to a friend's brother who committed suicide.^[7]
The last addition is the number, "(3)" directly after the word "spine" in the lyrics of the final song, "Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two".

Personnel

★ Jeff Mangum – guitar, vocals, organ, floortom, bowed fuzz bass, tapes, shortwave radio

★ Jeremy Barnes – drums, organ

★ Scott Spillane – trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, euphonium, horn arrangements

★ Julian Koster – singing saw, bowed banjo, accordion

★ Robert Schneider – home organ, air organ, fuzz bass, harmony vocal, one-note piano, horn arrangements

★ Laura Carter – zanzithophone

★ Rick Benjamin – trombone

★ Merisa Bissinger – saxophone, flugelhorn

★ Michelle Anderson – Uilleann pipes

★ Chris Bilheimer – art direction

★ Brian Dewan – illustrations

Notes

1. Cooper (2005). p. 29
2. Cooper (2005). p. 31
3. Cooper (2005). p. 34
4. Cooper (2005). p. 49
5. Cooper (2005). p. 81
6. Cooper (2005). p. 81
7. Carioli, Carly. "Mangum's opus, Neutral Milk Hotel's epic Aeroplane". ''The Boston Phoenix'', 05 March 1998. Retrieved on 02 September 2007.

References

★ Cooper, Kim (2005). ''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 33⅓''. (New York) Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1690-X.

★ DeRogatis, Jim (2003). ''Turn On Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock''. (Milwaukee) Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-634-05548-8.