neutral milk hotel
jeff mangum is one of my favorite songwriters... in the aeroplane over the sea by his band, neutral milk hotel, is one of my favorite records of all time... even just for the first two songs alone, the king of carrot flowers parts one two and three, that come blasting out of the speakers at you... the reason i came across this music was on sunday the 4th of february 2001, i went to the kings arms in auckland to see one of my other all-time heroes, chris knox, play with somebody i had never heard of before, mr jeff mangum... it was one of the best shows i have ever seen and at the end of the night chris and jeff played the john lennon song mother and it ended with jeff doing a handstand on chris' chest while he was lying on the floor in a hail of feedback... mindblowingly wonderous... even the poster for that show was great, and i just have to look at it to fill myself up with memories, music and also events from that time... that show was a turning point for me and it made me realise what sort of musician i wanted to be...