another one of those things where dewey does a song and i do one. i give him and he gives me. he writes and i write. i listen and he listens. i laugh and he laughs at me.
well. king of carrot flowers pts 2 and 3 have been given to me. kind of unfair that i dont get part 1, but its more interesting that way. so yeah neutral milk hotel. a good one. a great one. but we gotta know the backstory and define some terms.
elephant six collective-Athens Georgia (sort of, kinda ruston, lousiana though) but everybody says and thinks athens so i am too. Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples in Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control and a few others. Later, Of Montreal. most of their releases on Merge records (great bands go here).
stuff was good real good. especially nmh's in the aeroplane over the sea. (an album occasionally appearing in my desert island top 5) really is something etheral. jeff mangum is one of the best to come out of athens. only athens can make lo-fi like this.
so what is the album...concept album about the death of anne frank. spoken through her and also a traumatized observer who is losing his mind at the sight of her death (jeff mangum). (Refer to the album cover for a better explanation). scary yes i know, but all the people dont have to be all happy all the time. bob dylan sort of said that. and its fitting cause this album is him.
anyone who writes a lo-fi album is channelling dylan, because its just the only way to write a lo-fi album. just as any use of contrapuntals is channeling bach,etc etc. if you make the genre, you become the genre, and theres no escaping it. you are the genre.
what is dylan? dylan is the process, dylan is the creation of the of the sound and words (independent). depending on how you approach him, dylan is the being there, the coming here, the going there and the leaving now. when you read dylan (or if you're lazy you watch I'm Not There, the brilliant film that it is) you experience this. "no direction home?" there is, actually, its all of these things. and he tells you that. were all going different places, together, so to speak.
dylan never explains his songs publicly, we all know that. mangum never explained himself either. he made the album and disappeared. has sung on somelike 3 recorded tracks since 1998 and live only once. nobody even knows where he lives. but the album still sells great. go figure. it must be good then. saw a guy buying it last weekend even. certainly an important album. and will be as long as people keep buying records. kinda like the first velvet underground album. i of course urge people to buy records.