Jeff Mangum

Infobox musical artist


Name = Jeff Mangum
|Img_capt =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Jefferson Nigh Mangum
Alias =
Born = birth date and age|1970|8|10
Origin = Ruston, Louisiana
Instrument = Guitar, Drums, Bass, Organ, Vocals, Floor tom
Years_active = 1989–2002
Label = Merge Records, Orange Twin Records
Associated_acts = Neutral Milk Hotel, Circulatory System, The Olivia Tremor Control, Synthetic Flying Machine, Cranberry Lifecycle, The Apples in Stereo, Major Organ and the Adding Machine

Jeff Mangum (born August 10, 1970) is the founder, lead vocalist, and driving force behind the band Neutral Milk Hotel and one of the cofounders of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Robert Schneider (of The Apples in Stereo), Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss (formerly of The Olivia Tremor Control and now comprising Circulatory System and The Sunshine Fix, respectively) and Mangum all attended Ruston High School in the late 1980s. The friends shared a passion for bands of the 1960s such as The Zombies, as well as an affinity for newer, noisier bands such as Sonic Youth and Minutemen. They reflected these influences in the tapes they recorded and shared with each other, forming the seeds of what would become the Elephant Six Collective.

With Neutral Milk Hotel

From the ashes of a band called Synthetic Flying Machine, Neutral Milk Hotel was born, with an original line-up of Will and Bill on guitar and bass and Jeff on drums. Around 1995 Jeff decided to leave Synthetic Flying Machine to focus on his own songs. A year of intensive songwriting (some of it accomplished, according to Jeff, while he was living in a haunted closet) in Denver, Colorado with Robert Schneider at his Pet Sounds Studio resulted in his debut album, "On Avery Island", released in 1996, which was mostly Rob and Jeff playing Jeff's songs with a few helpful friends. Jeff eventually expanded the line up of Neutral Milk Hotel and in 1998 released what many consider the band's (and indeed, the Elephant Six Collective's) defining album, "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea".

After Neutral Milk Hotel

The relative success of the album in addition to the pressures of being suddenly thrust into the spotlight took its toll on Mangum, who disbanded Neutral Milk Hotel in 1998 after a tour in support of their latest album. Mangum has kept out of the public eye since then (although not without fans speculating on his whereabouts), rarely if ever playing acoustic sets and concentrating more on his recorded sound and music collages.

In March 2001, Mangum and Julian Koster (also formerly of Neutral Milk Hotel) released an album under the name "Major Organ and the Adding Machine". Other involved players were Kevin Barnes from the band Of Montreal, Eric Harris and Will Cullen Hart of Olivia Tremor Control, and Elf Power's Andrew Rieger. [cite web|url=http://www.elephant6.com/bands/major.html |work=The Elephant Six Recording Company |title=Major Organ and the Adding Machine |accessdate=2007-04-17]

On February 4, 2001, Mangum and friends Laura Carter and Chris Knox played a gig—Mangum's first in two years—at the King's Arms in Auckland, New Zealand. Mangum reported during the show to have suffered a nervous breakdown, but also said that it was a wonderful thing to have happened to him, clearly indicating a turning point in his life, and perhaps his musical career. The band was billed as 'World of Wild Beards Incorporated', a throwaway pseudonym which Mangum varied to 'Walking Wall of Beards Incorporated', a supposedly fictional company in the early 1900s that marketed a sound device pleasing to beard and pubic hair causing it to "form walls and walk around", whilst addressing the audience between songs.

In the summer of 2001, he released a compilation of field recordings of Bulgarian folk music called "" followed by a live album on the Orange Twin label, "Live at Jittery Joe's". The set was recorded by filmmaker Lance Bangs in 1997 and was put out to combat the exorbitant sums that Neutral Milk Hotel live albums were selling for on eBay. The CD features a QuickTime movie of the concert performance, but Mangum is backlit and seen mostly in silhouette throughout the video. In 2005, "Live at Jittery Joe's" was released on LP by Isota Records.

Four years later, on August 2, 2005, Mangum joined The Olivia Tremor Control onstage at New York's Bowery Ballroom to sing vocals on their songs "I Have Been Floated" and "Shaving Spiders." Accounts say that he was softly weeping before later being pulled to the floor by Julian Koster and being dogpiled by the rest of the band. Again, on November 17 of the same year, he joined another former Elephant Six band, Elf Power, onstage at New York's Knitting Factory for the final chorus of only one song, "The Arrow Flies Close," leaving the stage immediately afterwards. In addition to these appearances he has also toured with Circulatory System as a drummer; he's been spotted at a handful of E6-related concerts in New York City, either in the audience or to sing backup vocals as he did with The Instruments on July 21, 2006 at Lower East Side's intimate venue Cake Shop.

Mangum appeared nine times on New Jersey's WFMU to play tape loops and other recordings in the fall of 2002. [cite web |url=http://wfmu.org/playlists/MU |title=Playlists and Archives for Jefferson |accessdate=2007-03-15 |publisher=WFMU]

On June 26, 2006, a post was made on Elephant 6's forum, "E6 Townhall", with the title of "news and fish and meaningful messages." The post suggested Mangum would make a return into the musical spotlight sometime within the year with a new release. Though the post caused some excitement (such as making the frontpage of Pitchfork), an email from Mangum himself denied writing the message. [cite web|url=http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/37148/Jeff_Mangum_Returns#37148 |work=Pitchfork Media |title=Update: Jeff Mangum Returns? |date=2006-06-28 |last=Phillips |first=Amy |accessdate=2007-03-15]

On September 19, 2006 it was announced that Mangum would contribute to The Apples in Stereo's new album "New Magnetic Wonder". Mangum is reported to be playing "drums, cow object, backing vocals, handclaps". [cite web| url=http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/38671/Jeff_Mangum_Guests_on_New_Apples_in_Stereo_LP |work=Pitchfork Media |date=2006-09-19 |first=Kati |last=Llewellyn |title=Jeff Mangum Guests on New Apples in Stereo LP]

He is married to Astra Taylor, best known for making the documentary film Žižek! about the Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek.

Discography

With The Olivia Tremor Control

*"California Demise" (Elephant 6 Records; 7"; 1994)

With Major Organ and the Adding Machine

*"Major Organ and the Adding Machine" (Orange Twin; 2001)

With Neutral Milk Hotel

See Neutral Milk Hotel discography.

As Jeff Mangum

* "" (Orange Twin; CD; 2001)
* "Live at Jittery Joe's" (Orange Twin; CD; 2001)

External links

* 33 1/3 series - [http://www.scrammagazine.com/scram-categories/scram-books/aeroplane Kim Cooper's book "Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea'"]
* Kevin Griffis, [http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2003-09-04/cover_news.html "Have you seen Jeff Mangum?"] , "Creative Loafing", September 4, 2003
*
* [http://www.discogs.com/artist/Jeff+Mangum Jeff Mangum discography] at Discogs
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7553885360273146591 Video of Halloween 1997 Performance]
* [http://www.gloriousnoise.com/articles/2008/jeff_mangum_married.php Jeff Mangum, Astra Taylor Married] , "Glorious Noise", January 9, 2008

References

Persondata
NAME=Mangum, Jeff
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Mangum, Jeffrey
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Musician and artist
DATE OF BIRTH=1970
PLACE OF BIRTH=Ruston, Louisiana, United States
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=