INVENT YOURSELF A SHORTCAKE

'''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. Also, during the last minute or so of "Charlotte", the guitarist, presumably Jeff, strums a chord sequence that would later appear on the live-only song "(She Did a Lot of) Acid".

Contents

Track listing

External links

Track listing

#"Digestion Machine" – 6:05
#"Calypso Part One" – 3:17
#"My Dreamgirl Don't Exist" – 2:02
#"Calypso Part Two" – 1:30
#"Chocolate Coffin" – 3:33
#"Sinking Ship" – 4:33
#"Random Noise" – 1:50
#"Jaw Harp" – 1:35
#"A&E Melody" – 2:09
#"Prank Call" – 3:34
#"More Noise" – 2:00
#"Synthetic Flying Machine" – 1:37
#"Charlotte" – 4:05
#"Love You on a Tuesday" – 1:32
#"Spooky Sounds" – 1:57
#"Preacherman" – 3:42

External links

★ Neutral Milk Hotel discography