Neutral Milk Hotel

[loosegravel]

After reading all the posts about "talentless talent" i started thinking about
"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel. The songs use simple cords, but sound amazing. The lyrics are honest and delivered in a way that I don?t hear very often. The recording style is better matched to the songwriting then any other record I've ever come across. The horns sound like they are being played by overzealous middle school band kids, but yet it all still works. What do people on this board think? and on a side note, anyone got any nerdy tidbits about the recording?

[syrupcore]

I love that record. music and sound. I think I'd love those songs no matter how they were recorded and I could love those sounds on many a song.

I think he was in tape op many whiles back. I never read it. I know of no tidbits but my acoustic guitar sounds mighty similar if I turn the preamps on my 4-track all the way up.

will

[jca83]

what i love is how the fuzz bass just washes over everything, giving it all this weird broken sound. and yeah, the vocals/lyricism are just outstanding.

[radmike]

I am curious to hear that album in mono. it sounds like to layered guitars would just disappear in mono. Yes that album is great and the first one was mostly done on a cassette four track. The vocal sounds on aeroplane album are tremendous as well. I would give anything for another NMH album.

[Lavahead]

I recently got one of their albums after hearing people talk about them on this board.

I've listened to it twice, not sure if it's the one you are talking about.

It hurt my ears...

[craigloom]

I'd have to say that this is one of my top all time favorite albums. Brilliant, IMHO. I'll take this over any glossy big money production or recognized music "talent". Magnum's songwriting is sorely missed these days.
Don't know much about how it was recorded. I don't have it front of me -- but off the top of my head, I'd guess that Rob Schnieder (of Apples in Stereo) recorded this like most of the other Elephant Six albums of the nineties. I remember reading that he uses an 8 track R2R (I'm sure there's a lot of folks on this board that have the low-down. Afterall, the 6ers are some of the notable pioneers of the TapeOp DIY credo. An influence too many.). Their album before this "On Avery Island" definitely utilizes that overdriven 4-track cassette recorder pre-amp sound a few times. It's pretty recognizable to anyone who's done this.

[super skoda]

All of their albums are awesome! Pound for pound some of the most exciting recordings I've ever heard. They actually inspired me to buy an accordion. Not that it did me any good.

[Rick Hunter]

Areoplane is one of my favorite albums of all time. I double dare anybody to say it sucks. The recording isn't "high-fi", but if it was it wouldnt be the same album.

[@?,*???&?]

Cool band. I produced a cover version of 'April 8' for Hazeldine that appeared on their "Orphans" disc. Tracked and mixed that album in 3 days. The disc was all cover songs.

[I'm Painting Again]

heres another thread on NMH :

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... milk+hotel

[SpaceCad]

I think Aeroplane is one of the best albums ever. Simply majestic. Everything about that album explains to me what I want to be as an artist. If I ever feel lost or off-track with what I am creating musically, I put on that album.

That said, my wife can't stand it. She won't even let me play it when she is in the apartment. Although, lately I've caught her singing "I love you Jesus Christ!"

Check out Pitchfork's website regarding a possible book on that album.

www.pitchforkmedia.com[/url]