Jeff Mangum Live at The Schoolhouse
I first heard about the show just hours beforehand via a text from a pretty good looking bro, who asked me for details about the “NMH thing”. I had no idea what this dude was talking about, so I went out with a different, equally good looking bro and got a sandwich at the bodega across the street, ignoring the text. Mid-sandwich, it clicked. Neutral Milk Hotel? At first I didn’t believe it was true. Seemed like a real Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist type of situation; my ultimate high school dream band is playing somewhere, at sometime in Brooklyn. Only it was Jeff Mangum I was chasing, not some band called “Where’s Fluffy?”.
After hours of texts, phone calls, and IMs in pursuit of entry, halfway through Mangum’s set I found myself running up the stairs to a loft on the third floor of a bushwick apartment building known as The Schoolhouse. The space is clean and spacious, large enough to fit about 200 people comfortably. Highly selective, the venue hosts about one show per month, most recently with Black Dice, Blues Control, McDonalds (Oxford Collapse side-project), and an Avey Tare DJ set. I felt fortunate to be one of the 100-or-so people to see Jeff Mangum play his intimate set last night, but it was also unfortunate that I got there after the opening band, Forma, who I’ll definitely catch at Tandem this Saturday December 11.
Hair a little longer and dressed in signature red flannel, Mangum played a 10 song set of Neutral Milk Hotel songs. The audience sat on the Schoolhouse’s hardwood floor cross-legged, quietly mouthing the words of Mangum’s lecture. Perched beside a music stand with a revolving cast of three acoustic guitars, he constantly traded instruments, sometimes in mid-song while sounding an entrancing, malismatic bleat. It was endearing to see Mangum go from having this powerful, raw, emotional presence while performing, and then between songs, change his composure and become meek and incredibly gracious for the opportunity to perform. It felt like this event was just as special to him as it was to his admirers.
My personal highlight, The Aeroplane Over The Sea finale “Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2″, concluded the night’s festivities. Mangum thanked the audience, and left the hand-built stage to walk among the crowd, who parted way for Jeff. People begin to talk a little softer or a little louder, depending on wether or not they want their words to be heard by the man while he continued to mingle, trying to find someone chill to hang with. Beyond his fuzz-folk demi-god status, at the end of the day Jeff Mangum is pretty much just a good looking bro rolling on.
Jeff Mangum – King of Carrot Flowers, Pts. 1-3
Jeff Mangum – Song Against Sex
You are the luckiest dude ever. Thank you for the recordings!
[...] http://www.internationaltapes.com/reviews/jeff-mangum-live-at-the-schoolhouse/ [...]
I can’t tell you how grateful i am for this. Thank you.
amazing
(via International Tapes)
thank you for letting me download this,
now i can dance
Do you know if there will be any other gigs? Damn I’d love to see him play.
[...] http://www.internationaltapes.com/reviews/jeff-mangum-live-at-the-schoolhouse/. [...]
Tour…Pitchfork…ATP…hmmmm?
[...] See the setlist below, consisting of ten NMH songs. Meanwhile, you can listen to recordings five of those songs and read about Ric Leichtung’s experience at International Tapes. [...]
[...] Jeff Mangum, the frontman of Neutral Milk Hotel, made a rare appearance playing a secret show in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Check out the audio by clicking here. [...]
chills – goosebumps – etc. thank you for sharing this.
[...] Schoolhouse (with audio) by Paul G. Hunt on December 6, 2010 · 0 Comments via internationaltapes.com Sharing is [...]
thank you so much for posting this. somehow he sounds even better than he did 12 years ago. it sounds like he’s been practicing!
[...] Now I know I have friends who would pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to have been in that crowd, who Magnum mingled with after his 10 song set list, but information about the event could hardly be found even hours after Magnum left the building. The audio from 5 of the 10 tracks is available here. [...]
i hope you haven’t betrayed a trust in posting this.
[...] Jeff Magnum, the elusive musician behind Neutral Milk Hotel, played a surprise show in Brooklyn on Saturday night. Even though this news is burning up the music blogs quicker than a Morrissey/Marr reunion – I wanted to post it here as well. You can read more about the show and download some mp3s at International Tapes. [...]
Most of the times blogs are the same but i think you can add some value. Cheers !
Seriously, though, thank you so much for putting these up for download. It really eases the pain for those of us who couldnt be there.
Saw NMH in Philly back in 99(?) and was on of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.
I feel so empty at having missed out on this. You, and the other people lucky enough to have seen Jeff at the SchoolHouse have indeed been blessed. Thanks for posting this.
[...] The 75-100 audience members reportedly sat on the floor as Mangum played 10 NMH classics. The blog International Tapes was in attendance and described the set thusly: Hair a little longer and dressed in signature red [...]
[...] disbandment of NMH in 1998. Appearing once in a blue moon to play and acoustic set here and there. International Tapes have a pretty good write-up on their experience of getting to the gig and being one of the luck few [...]
[...] Seeing the reclusive, mercurial Jeff Mangum in the flesh is akin to a Bigfoot sighting; being one of only 75 people to see the erstwhile Neutral Milk Hotel frontman perform an acoustic set these days is akin to winning some kind of indie-rock lottery. That’s what happened over the weekend, when the 4o-year-old Mangum — who seems as though he’s slowly coming back into the world after pulling his best Syd Barrett for more than a decade — played a bunch of NMH songs at the small Brooklyn performance loft the Schoolhouse. You can hear a bunch of the tunes and read a review of the evening’s performance right here. [...]
[...] “Naomi,” “Two-Headed Boy,” and “Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2″ at International Tapes, “bro.” Not sure what happened to the first part of the set, [...]
[...] Check out the setlist below and listen to five songs from the show at international tapes. [...]
[...] a Bushwick loft space called The Schoolhouse on Saturday night? If not, check out some audio clips here. [via The [...]
[...] Jeff Mangum’s Semi-Secret Show (via Stereogum) [...]
[...] Here is the setlist from the evening and stay tuned tomorrow for a Smiths reunion. Update: Listen to half the set at International Tapes. [...]
do you have the rest of the audio files?
would love to hear the first 5 tracks!
[...] set at the Schoolhouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn on Saturday. Audio of five of the songs is available here. Check out the setlist [...]
[...] at The Schoolhouse in Brooklyn. Mangum played 10 Neutral Milk Hotel songs, 5 of which you can hear here. You can check out the setlist below along with a comment from Ben Goldberg of Ba Da King [...]
[...] the weekend to a small crowd in Brooklyn. Now you can listen to the second half of the set over at International Tapes. Happy [...]
[...] Schoolhouse for an exclusive crowd of roughly one hundred fans. Hear five tracks from the gig here and check out the complete setlist [...]
Beautiful – thanks so much.
I love that this wild goose chase ended up with a reward at the end. LUCKY.
thank you.
[...] at The Schoolhouse to much fanfare and a crowd of around 100 people. We couldn’t make it but International Tapes was there and has select recordings of the show. Cuts performed include Neutral Milk classics [...]
“a pretty good looking bro” ? you’re a fucking retard. thanks for the tracks though.
Thanks for posting this. Was there and was one of the most unique shows I’ve ever seen. Brilliant.
[...] Show organizer Ben Goldberg, founder of Ba Da Bing Records, said, “This was a last minute show, done intentionally without buildup to let it be as simple and easy going as possible. It seems to have gone exactly like that. What I honestly feel like I saw tonight wasn’t The Greatest Musician In The World Performing The Most Amazing Songs Ever, but rather a fantastic musician performing his wonderful songs. God, I have to say that is so much more gratifying than trying to look at it as a life altering event.” Check out audio from the evening here. [...]
[...] Magnum has kept out of the public eye since breaking up Neutral Milk Hotel in 1998, and with the exception of a few guests appearances, the singer has refrained from releasing new material. Also, since breaking out the bad, Magnum has only performed publicly three times since 2001. Meaning that seeing Magnum live – let alone a Neutral Milk Hotel reunion show – in 2011 is about as likely as capturing a Unicorn, or successfully traveling back in time and interviewing JD Salinger. Still, it’s nice to know that Magnum’s voice still carries the same conviction it did ten years ago. The acoustic ten-song set consists mostly of tracks off of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea – including my personal favorite, “Two Headed Boy.” Stream the whole set at Stereogum. [...]
[...] playing gigs irregularly throughout the years but he has been playing quite a few shows recently. International Tapes was lucky enough to capture half of his set at Bushwick’s The Schoolhouse. The set was filled [...]
I was at a loft party in Brooklyn that night at which I saw a “gentleman” pee into an empty bottle of Makers Mark. I wish I was at this instead.
[...] the rest of Jeff Mangum’s secret Schoolhouse set at International Tapes. var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname="DOWNLOAD THIS NOW: Jeff Mangum, [...]
I have to admit that i sometimes get bored to read the whole thing but i think you can add some value. Grats !
I think I would have died. I hope the people who were actually there are fans who could have appreciated such a beautiful soul and such a beautiful moment in time.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
[...] shows“, disse para o público no meio de uma apresentação com 10 músicas. Felizmente, alguma boa alma gravou o show e botou para download. Louvado [...]
[...] show in a Brooklyn loft last Saturday—you can hear a fan recording of five of the songs over at bit.ly/hYAesY. [...]
[...] and the internet collapsed and eat itself. A few recordings of the show made their way online and International Tapes wrote a decent coverage of the gig and kindly made available some bootlegs. Look back here at some point for a treatise on Neutral Milk Hotel. This entry was posted in New [...]