Cult US indie act Neutral Milk Hotel broke a 15 year silence this weekend with the first of their reunion shows, an 18-track set at St. Johns Church in Baltimore.
Neutral Milk Hotel are something of a paradox, renowned and revered for their obscurity and elusiveness, dotingly preserved in music history for their brief and unassuming career. Founded by Louisianan Jeff Magnum in the early 90’s, the band initially consisted of Magnum and anyone else present at the time of recording, an arrangement that would continue until 1996’s debut ‘On Avery Island’. It was not until shortly after the albums release that Scott Spillane, Jeremy Barnes and Julian Koster would join Magnum to form the fully fledged band as they are known today.
1998 saw the release of their sophomore album, ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’, a 40 minute folk-rock masterpiece which despite initial mixed reviews and modest sales, has since gone on to be recognised as one of the finest rock albums of the 90’s, and for more than a few, among the greatest albums of all time. The acute blend of Magnums raw, emotive vocals, lo-fi sound, and cryptic lyrical matter – the album is heavily inspired by the diary of Anne Frank – marked Neutral Milk Hotel out as a powerhouse of 90’s rock, and in the good-natured jibes of later audiences, a quadrumvirate of self-aware hipster subculture.
However, while ‘Aeroplane’ might have seemed like the start of a glorious reign, it turned quickly into a swansong, after Magnum disbanded the group in 1999, feeling discomfort and disillusionment with their sudden level of fame and its accompanying lifestyle.
In the ensuing gap, while ‘Aeroplane’ continued to shift volumes of vinyl, Magnum has performed live only occasionally, playing a brief set at a New Zealand pub and guest appearances on a handful of tours, as well as recording an one-track of Bulgarian folk entitled, ‘Orange Twin Field Works’ in 2001. The other members have continued to work in side-projects,
Back in April, the film of dust was blown off the bands website, and a reunion tour – with the full ‘Aeroplane’ line-up was announced. It is not yet clear what meaning ‘reunion’ will take in this instance – a third album would surely become one of the most anticipated events of the rock calendar – but after such a lengthy hiatus, the legions of NMH fans will be overjoyed just to see them together again.
Neutral Milk Hotel will play the following UK dates in 2014:
May 16th – Dublin Vicar Street
May 18th – Manchester Albert Hall
May 19th – Glasgow Barrowland
May 21st – London Roundhouse
Check out a slice of their magnum opus, the title track of ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ below:
