Occupy Williamsburg AMIRITE?
October 4, 2011 8:12 PM Subscribe
While this is taking forever to load, I'll say here that I hope to god you're talking about the actual Jeff Magnum, from the Dead Boys, and not that Jeff Mangum, that guy from Neutral Milk Hotel who has the keening voice.
posted by koeselitz at 8:16 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by koeselitz at 8:16 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
This one seems to be working. But no Mangum at the moment...
posted by Corduroy at 8:18 PM on October 4, 2011
posted by Corduroy at 8:18 PM on October 4, 2011
Ack! I was so excited I just hit post without double checking!
posted by stratastar at 8:19 PM on October 4, 2011
posted by stratastar at 8:19 PM on October 4, 2011
Anyway, here's some Jeff Magnum that really suits the situation fine, I think.
posted by koeselitz at 8:19 PM on October 4, 2011
posted by koeselitz at 8:19 PM on October 4, 2011
I'm pretty sure Neutral Milk Hotel Jeff left in his time machine two years ago to take Anne Frank on a Caribbean vacation.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 8:19 PM on October 4, 2011 [6 favorites]
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 8:19 PM on October 4, 2011 [6 favorites]
I only regret that I have but one favorite to give for that title.
If anything will Cause those fat cats to cave, this will.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:21 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
If anything will Cause those fat cats to cave, this will.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:21 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
While this is taking forever to load, I'll say here that I hope to god you're talking about the actual Jeff Magnum, from the Dead Boys, and not that Jeff Mangum, that guy from Neutral Milk Hotel who has the keening voice.
It could be Magnum, but only if he's covering Neutral Milk Hotel songs.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 8:21 PM on October 4, 2011
It could be Magnum, but only if he's covering Neutral Milk Hotel songs.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 8:21 PM on October 4, 2011
This is what happens when your servers are made of pulleys and weights that catches signals that sound in the dark
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:22 PM on October 4, 2011 [14 favorites]
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:22 PM on October 4, 2011 [14 favorites]
MANGUM
posted by unknowncommand at 8:23 PM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by unknowncommand at 8:23 PM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
All of you turn in your indie cards for spelling his name wrong.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 8:25 PM on October 4, 2011 [7 favorites]
posted by Threeway Handshake at 8:25 PM on October 4, 2011 [7 favorites]
SWOON.
posted by rabbitbookworm at 8:30 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by rabbitbookworm at 8:30 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
It really is all you could wish for. Sorry for borking the FPP guys.
posted by stratastar at 8:31 PM on October 4, 2011
posted by stratastar at 8:31 PM on October 4, 2011
I am seeing him at the end of the month here in the Hudson Valley. I am very, very excited.
Anyone else going? MeMail me and we'll meet up!
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:35 PM on October 4, 2011
Anyone else going? MeMail me and we'll meet up!
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:35 PM on October 4, 2011
Mod note: Updated the post text to Mangum, as you were.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:44 PM on October 4, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 8:44 PM on October 4, 2011
Alternative synchronous livestream feed..
There are paddy wagons standing by at Occupy Seattle right now!
posted by twoleftfeet at 9:01 PM on October 4, 2011
There are paddy wagons standing by at Occupy Seattle right now!
posted by twoleftfeet at 9:01 PM on October 4, 2011
I missed him in Baltimore because he was sold out, and I can't make the NYC shows because of deadlines. I'm just glad he's performing again. I'm pretty sure that serenading her with Mangum's version of "I Love How You Love Me" is what convinced my wife to marry me.
posted by KGMoney at 9:02 PM on October 4, 2011
posted by KGMoney at 9:02 PM on October 4, 2011
I caught "Oh Comely" on the livestream and am now watching the entire set-- I didn't think it was possible to love Mangum more than I did as a teenager, but I think I do now. You can tell that he really just wanted to give some support to the protesters in the best way he could, and for this particular demographic, you really can't do better than a surprise acoustic Neutral Milk Hotel set. You can hear the protesters let go of some of their tension as they sing along, and by the time he start King of Carrot Flowers Part 1, they're all laughing and clapping and smiling. I think I have something in my eye.
posted by oinopaponton at 9:10 PM on October 4, 2011 [8 favorites]
posted by oinopaponton at 9:10 PM on October 4, 2011 [8 favorites]
Oh my god I am dying of happy right now. This is so awesome.
posted by naoko at 9:34 PM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by naoko at 9:34 PM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
That pigeons and planes link would not close no matter what I did and locked up my whole machine. People may wish to try another link rather than that one.
posted by winna at 9:37 PM on October 4, 2011
posted by winna at 9:37 PM on October 4, 2011
I got a little bit emotional when Jeff told everyone to sing along if they knew the words. Maybe it was just me reading into it, but I have a recording of him at the Schoolhouse and when the crowd moves in with one voice to sing along to King of Carrot Flowers he sounded a little taken aback at the strength of the response. It's nice to hear his voice mingled with people who clearly love and respect his work so much. I'm glad he's healed over the time.
Neutral Milk Hotel's work is one of the things in my life that make me glad to have been alive to have experienced it. Since there's only like ten things on that list, it's really important to me.
Thanks for alerting us to this, stratastar.
posted by winna at 9:57 PM on October 4, 2011 [8 favorites]
Neutral Milk Hotel's work is one of the things in my life that make me glad to have been alive to have experienced it. Since there's only like ten things on that list, it's really important to me.
Thanks for alerting us to this, stratastar.
posted by winna at 9:57 PM on October 4, 2011 [8 favorites]
holy shit.
posted by kaibutsu at 10:11 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by kaibutsu at 10:11 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
Thanks for this; it's really incredible. Also, thanks to Corduroy for providing a link that works. The original pretty much crashed my browser dead(frozen fox). Not sure why pages have to be so damn large these days, especially when my technology is so small.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 10:19 PM on October 4, 2011
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 10:19 PM on October 4, 2011
wow. I miss New York.
posted by Shit Parade at 10:30 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Shit Parade at 10:30 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
I know there's a lot of hate for neutral milk hotel in some quarters around here, but really, for some of us, this is like if JD Salinger came out undead from under his rock and decided to support the disaffected in a struggle against those institutions that perpetrate banality upon every single one of our phony lives. Or if Dylan had retired somewhere shortly after Freewheeling, retreating to some unknown fortress of solitude, and then showed up to play a protest one day. Except that NMH isn't really protest music; it's music that for me is about letting go and feeling fully the world without holding back any of the weirdness that may entail, just slurp it all in in such a way that even the painful bits are joyous and explosive. It's a kind of protest, though; it's a protest that we're going to live lives on fire in spite of economic circumstances, in spite of the collapse of the American system of government.
I learned to play the Song Against Sex on my uke somewhere shortly after hearing it first in 2004 or so, and can still belt out the whole damned thing without a second thought. I started tearing up when he broke into it as the second song. Here's the middle verse:
"All the deli markets and the flower stands
All the pretty girls and the burning men
Hanging out on the hooks next to window displays
So I took out my tongue twice removed from my face
Across the bridge, across the mountain
Threw a nickel in the fountain
To save my soul from all these troubled times
And all the drugs that I don't take ain't got the guts to soothe my mind
I'm always sober
Always aching
Always headed towards mass suicide
Occult figurines of gas station attendants
Attending to their jobs
And a nice drive through the country finds a nice cliff to drop off
Oh when life just gets so grating
All the grittiness of life
But don't take those pills your boyfriend gave you
You're too wonderful to die."
posted by kaibutsu at 10:36 PM on October 4, 2011 [19 favorites]
I learned to play the Song Against Sex on my uke somewhere shortly after hearing it first in 2004 or so, and can still belt out the whole damned thing without a second thought. I started tearing up when he broke into it as the second song. Here's the middle verse:
"All the deli markets and the flower stands
All the pretty girls and the burning men
Hanging out on the hooks next to window displays
So I took out my tongue twice removed from my face
Across the bridge, across the mountain
Threw a nickel in the fountain
To save my soul from all these troubled times
And all the drugs that I don't take ain't got the guts to soothe my mind
I'm always sober
Always aching
Always headed towards mass suicide
Occult figurines of gas station attendants
Attending to their jobs
And a nice drive through the country finds a nice cliff to drop off
Oh when life just gets so grating
All the grittiness of life
But don't take those pills your boyfriend gave you
You're too wonderful to die."
posted by kaibutsu at 10:36 PM on October 4, 2011 [19 favorites]
#occupythatsweater.
posted by Corduroy at 10:43 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Corduroy at 10:43 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
I know there's a lot of hate for neutral milk hotel in some quarters around here, but really, for some of us, this is like if JD Salinger came out undead from under his rock and decided to support the disaffected in a struggle against those institutions that perpetrate banality upon every single one of our phony lives. Or if Dylan had retired somewhere shortly after Freewheeling, retreating to some unknown fortress of solitude, and then showed up to play a protest one day. Except that NMH isn't really protest music; it's music that for me is about letting go and feeling fully the world without holding back any of the weirdness that may entail, just slurp it all in in such a way that even the painful bits are joyous and explosive. It's a kind of protest, though; it's a protest that we're going to live lives on fire in spite of economic circumstances, in spite of the collapse of the American system of government.
Yeah I sorta have an old fashioned conception of artistic genius and when guys like Dylan and Against Me! have renounced politics I'm not sure I like the idea of this strange bard, in love with the ghost of a dead girl and beholden to strange machines and mortality, coming out in protest of something as temporal as mortality.
"And one day we will die and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea. Until then we are young let us count every beautiful thing we can see".
I mean I love Jeff so much but I don't want him manning the barricades. I want him mystical, uncorrupted by the world of things and flesh and money.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 10:47 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
I still have MeFi to thank for introducing me to NMH all those years ago.
That year turned out to be literally the worst, most trying one of my life. Two breakups w/the same girlfriend, losing the job I held for almost 4 years, crippling debt and credit score shot to shit as a result, and my mother dying towards the end of that year.
But "In The Aeroplane Over the Sea" was the last song I got to listen to with my mom and she loved it. So, watching him perform it tonight in the midst of a fighting public, against the odds, with such passion...
..ah damnit. Quit slicing onions in here, people!
posted by revmitcz at 10:50 PM on October 4, 2011 [10 favorites]
That year turned out to be literally the worst, most trying one of my life. Two breakups w/the same girlfriend, losing the job I held for almost 4 years, crippling debt and credit score shot to shit as a result, and my mother dying towards the end of that year.
But "In The Aeroplane Over the Sea" was the last song I got to listen to with my mom and she loved it. So, watching him perform it tonight in the midst of a fighting public, against the odds, with such passion...
..ah damnit. Quit slicing onions in here, people!
posted by revmitcz at 10:50 PM on October 4, 2011 [10 favorites]
Yeah I sorta have an old fashioned conception of artistic genius and when guys like Dylan and Against Me! have renounced politics I'm not sure I like the idea of this strange bard, in love with the ghost of a dead girl and beholden to strange machines and mortality, coming out in protest of something as temporal as mortality.
"And one day we will die and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea. Until then we are young let us count every beautiful thing we can see".
I mean I love Jeff so much but I don't want him manning the barricades. I want him mystical, uncorrupted by the world of things and flesh and money.
And I do.
And Dylan is a sellout plagiarizer, so there's that.
And standing in the streets playing to people isn't "politics". It is life. His life and our life and as expressed in your quotes of his words your life too. This is life. Get involved.
posted by GregorWill at 10:59 PM on October 4, 2011 [4 favorites]
"And one day we will die and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea. Until then we are young let us count every beautiful thing we can see".
I mean I love Jeff so much but I don't want him manning the barricades. I want him mystical, uncorrupted by the world of things and flesh and money.
And I do.
And Dylan is a sellout plagiarizer, so there's that.
And standing in the streets playing to people isn't "politics". It is life. His life and our life and as expressed in your quotes of his words your life too. This is life. Get involved.
posted by GregorWill at 10:59 PM on October 4, 2011 [4 favorites]
And standing in the streets playing to people isn't "politics". It is life. His life and our life and as expressed in your quotes of his words your life too. This is life. Get involved.
But it's life in a limited sense, life bound by time. 'At this moment, we are doing this thing for this set of political statements, and we have something to say about this moment and this administration'.
Poets only masters should be Death, and Sex if they're exhausted of Death. True poets should think on Eternity, on the Nothingness that awaits us all, on the strange visions in their head.
And yeah I'm a Springsteen fan, and this sort of thing is part of his energy and his power, but that's music as Religion and Church. Mangum's religious, but again he's a mystic. He shouldn't be another hipster signifier for kids posting George Carlin quotes and trying to be meaningful. He should be above and beyond it all - beyond sex, beyond life.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 11:02 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
But it's life in a limited sense, life bound by time. 'At this moment, we are doing this thing for this set of political statements, and we have something to say about this moment and this administration'.
Poets only masters should be Death, and Sex if they're exhausted of Death. True poets should think on Eternity, on the Nothingness that awaits us all, on the strange visions in their head.
And yeah I'm a Springsteen fan, and this sort of thing is part of his energy and his power, but that's music as Religion and Church. Mangum's religious, but again he's a mystic. He shouldn't be another hipster signifier for kids posting George Carlin quotes and trying to be meaningful. He should be above and beyond it all - beyond sex, beyond life.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 11:02 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
@kaibutsu - That was extremely well written. "Song Against Sex" has always been my favorite NMH song, partly because I heard it before I heard Aeroplane Over The Sea, but mainly because it is just an incredible combination of music and lyrics.
posted by haley_joel_osteen at 11:31 PM on October 4, 2011
posted by haley_joel_osteen at 11:31 PM on October 4, 2011
Man, LiB, you've got a lot on the ball, but you are going to be so embarrassed about these posts some day. I love NMH to death, but the thing you're missing is that the Occupy Wall St. isn't a hipster signifier but is in fact something even more beautiful and revolutionary and life-affirming than even In The Aeroplane Over the Sea. This includes the Carlin quotes.
Basically, this isn't Jeff Mangum sullying himself with political involvement, this is Jeff Mangum paying tribute to something much bigger than him. It's pretty cool.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:33 PM on October 4, 2011 [4 favorites]
Basically, this isn't Jeff Mangum sullying himself with political involvement, this is Jeff Mangum paying tribute to something much bigger than him. It's pretty cool.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:33 PM on October 4, 2011 [4 favorites]
Man, LiB, you've got a lot on the ball, but you are going to be so embarrassed about these posts some day. I love NMH to death, but the thing you're missing is that the Occupy Wall St. isn't a hipster signifier but is in fact something even more beautiful and revolutionary and life-affirming than even In The Aeroplane Over the Sea. This includes the Carlin quotes.
Do we remember the political struggles that informed the Bible, or do we remember the parables and the Song of Songs?
Do we remember Byron fighting for Greek independence or his poetry?
Do we remember Homer, or the general he wrote about?
Politics is temporal. Poetry is not.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 11:35 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
Do we remember the political struggles that informed the Bible, or do we remember the parables and the Song of Songs?
Do we remember Byron fighting for Greek independence or his poetry?
Do we remember Homer, or the general he wrote about?
Politics is temporal. Poetry is not.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 11:35 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
Where ever the people gather their shadows shouldn't be far behind.
Poetry is immortal, but funny how Homer speaks of war.
posted by Shit Parade at 11:38 PM on October 4, 2011
Poetry is immortal, but funny how Homer speaks of war.
posted by Shit Parade at 11:38 PM on October 4, 2011
This protest will change nothing.
I once attended a student protest so I could see a free Whitlams concert. That's the sort of decent but middlebrow artist who should be playing this sort of thing.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 11:42 PM on October 4, 2011
I once attended a student protest so I could see a free Whitlams concert. That's the sort of decent but middlebrow artist who should be playing this sort of thing.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 11:42 PM on October 4, 2011
Do we remember Byron fighting for Greek independence or his poetry?
uh, I think we remember both, it doesn't have to be an either/or enterprise. As a species we can be kind of cool that way.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 11:48 PM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
uh, I think we remember both, it doesn't have to be an either/or enterprise. As a species we can be kind of cool that way.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 11:48 PM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
Politics is temporal. Poetry is not.
Politics is temporal in the same way that poems and stories are temporal: Characters may change, plot lines or styles may change, but the underlying stories and emotions are the same. We are connected to all the political events in the past through both shared history and through common struggles. We may not remember the specifics of the political struggles of the past, but they are hardly more "temporal" than poetry.
Consider: Why would the political struggle of the Israelites in Egypt against have such an impact on African American culture millennia later? Because their struggle against Pharaoh was the same struggle, with different characters. If you sing a Negro spiritual without connecting with the politics, you aren't understanding the poetry. Politics and poetry are both intimately connected to what makes us human: our values, our struggles, and all the trivialities that lay above and below. Neither is more "temporal" than the other.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 12:15 AM on October 5, 2011 [7 favorites]
Politics is temporal in the same way that poems and stories are temporal: Characters may change, plot lines or styles may change, but the underlying stories and emotions are the same. We are connected to all the political events in the past through both shared history and through common struggles. We may not remember the specifics of the political struggles of the past, but they are hardly more "temporal" than poetry.
Consider: Why would the political struggle of the Israelites in Egypt against have such an impact on African American culture millennia later? Because their struggle against Pharaoh was the same struggle, with different characters. If you sing a Negro spiritual without connecting with the politics, you aren't understanding the poetry. Politics and poetry are both intimately connected to what makes us human: our values, our struggles, and all the trivialities that lay above and below. Neither is more "temporal" than the other.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 12:15 AM on October 5, 2011 [7 favorites]
I mean I love Jeff so much but I don't want him manning the barricades. I want him mystical, uncorrupted by the world of things and flesh and money.
Seriously. Who cares what you want? The man is operating in accord with his inner directives. Get the f*** out of his way.
posted by philip-random at 12:25 AM on October 5, 2011 [9 favorites]
Seriously. Who cares what you want? The man is operating in accord with his inner directives. Get the f*** out of his way.
posted by philip-random at 12:25 AM on October 5, 2011 [9 favorites]
LIB: I wouldn't dare to speculate what led Jeff Mangum to his self-imposed exiled, but this attitude that he is somehow a magical otherworldly being instead of a human who writes magical otherworldly music cannot have helped. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has famously got a lot of hurting people through the darkness, and I would count myself among them. But I would never try to touch the hem of his sweater seeking healing or otherwise appoint him my own personal savior -- or less dramatically, expect him to live in some pure state merely to please my sense of narrative satisfaction. He's a man. And apparently, he's one who has chosen to engage with the world by offering comfort and cheer to a bunch of (mostly) young people who are trying with a refreshing lack of cynicism to better a cruel world. Good for him, good for them, and good for me and anyone else sharing such a beautiful moment.
posted by melissa may at 12:26 AM on October 5, 2011 [16 favorites]
posted by melissa may at 12:26 AM on October 5, 2011 [16 favorites]
I'm not really into "indie" but I'm into raw and from the heart, and [this is good]. Damn good.
posted by loquacious at 1:22 AM on October 5, 2011
posted by loquacious at 1:22 AM on October 5, 2011
I missed him in Baltimore because he was sold out
JEFF NEVER SOLD OUT.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:31 AM on October 5, 2011 [4 favorites]
JEFF NEVER SOLD OUT.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:31 AM on October 5, 2011 [4 favorites]
/start rant
JESUS H. FUCKING CHRIST, LIVESTREAM ADMINS. Could your web designers be any more fucking stupid!? Oh, I've got an idea! Let's dynamically load EVERY FUCKING VIDEO on EVERY FUCKING PAGE. Yeah, like that won't bring our servers to their fucking knees and make everyone's browser come to a crashing halt like a retarded kid suddenly asked to perform multivariate calculus by a hundred different people at he same fucking time. IDIOTS. I wish I knew where you lived so I could kick each and every motherfucking last one of you in the shins, you shit-coding UI "developers" (note sarcasm quotes because I hold your coding skills with such outright contempt).
Put ONE video on a page. Cache snapshots of the other streams in static images. And keep all the jQuery nonsense and dynamically-loaded javascript off the fucking page. Because there's simply no reason for it to be there. ARGH. Do you fuckers even HAVE a QA department? Are they running 6-core, 12 GB of RAM beast machines to simulate their "real world" testing? If so, can you please kick them in the shins for me? And then kick yourselves in the shins one more time just for good measure because you SUCK? Thanks.
/end rant
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:50 AM on October 5, 2011 [5 favorites]
JESUS H. FUCKING CHRIST, LIVESTREAM ADMINS. Could your web designers be any more fucking stupid!? Oh, I've got an idea! Let's dynamically load EVERY FUCKING VIDEO on EVERY FUCKING PAGE. Yeah, like that won't bring our servers to their fucking knees and make everyone's browser come to a crashing halt like a retarded kid suddenly asked to perform multivariate calculus by a hundred different people at he same fucking time. IDIOTS. I wish I knew where you lived so I could kick each and every motherfucking last one of you in the shins, you shit-coding UI "developers" (note sarcasm quotes because I hold your coding skills with such outright contempt).
Put ONE video on a page. Cache snapshots of the other streams in static images. And keep all the jQuery nonsense and dynamically-loaded javascript off the fucking page. Because there's simply no reason for it to be there. ARGH. Do you fuckers even HAVE a QA department? Are they running 6-core, 12 GB of RAM beast machines to simulate their "real world" testing? If so, can you please kick them in the shins for me? And then kick yourselves in the shins one more time just for good measure because you SUCK? Thanks.
/end rant
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:50 AM on October 5, 2011 [5 favorites]
BREAKING NEWS STOP ARTIST IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT HIM TO BE STOP NEWS AT ELEVEN
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:59 AM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:59 AM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
"Politics is temporal. Poetry is not."
Ugh. I have no interest in either your poetry or your politics.
Speak for yourself.
posted by bardic at 2:06 AM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
Ugh. I have no interest in either your poetry or your politics.
Speak for yourself.
posted by bardic at 2:06 AM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
I had the extreme good fortune of meeting Jeff Mangum at a potluck after a Circulatory System concert once. He was a bit shy at first but opened up eventually. He made some very witty comments. He didn't eat much. He mentioned he was reading a book about dadaism. He asked for recommendations on places to stay in the area. He acted like a pretty normal guy, really! He's not some kind of mystic demigod poet destined to live in a cave and meditate on eternity for the rest of his days or whatever. To expect this from him is unfair. I like your posts LiB, but I think you're way off base on this one. Sure he makes brilliant music, but he is allowed to have other things in his life too. I know that if people asked of me what you're asking of him, I'd be pretty freaked out.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 2:33 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 2:33 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
After coming of age during the Bush presidency, experiencing the disillusionment of having my naive, idealistic view of Obama tempered by reality, and then graduating into chronic underemployment I became extremely cynical and could not possibly imagine society changing for the better. Then the Arab Spring happened, and I watched live as tens of thousands of people my age on the other side of the globe rose up against seemingly impossible odds. Today I watched (nearly) live as one of my musical heroes humbly serenaded protesters on the other side of my own country, and I felt another layer of that cynicism peel away. Certainly large scale societal change doesn't come easily and is still pretty hard for me to envision, but 2011 so far has shown me that I'm not alone in this shit, and that embracing defeatism is not the only option even when it feels like the entire system is stacked against what I believe in. Major props to Jeff Mangum for doing this; it was the last thing I expected, but after a crappy week exactly what I needed.
posted by Dr. Christ at 2:45 AM on October 5, 2011 [8 favorites]
posted by Dr. Christ at 2:45 AM on October 5, 2011 [8 favorites]
Anyone have a recording of this? I should dearly like like to see it.
posted by artaxerxes at 3:13 AM on October 5, 2011
posted by artaxerxes at 3:13 AM on October 5, 2011
I wish I could get it to load.
I went to his concert in September in Cambridge MA. Freaking amazing. If you want to see some recent live stuff (and granted, not at a political event) look for that on youtube. There are quite a few videos.
posted by miss tea at 3:30 AM on October 5, 2011
I went to his concert in September in Cambridge MA. Freaking amazing. If you want to see some recent live stuff (and granted, not at a political event) look for that on youtube. There are quite a few videos.
posted by miss tea at 3:30 AM on October 5, 2011
Ahhhhhhhhhghhhhhhhhh
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhh
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Waaaaaaaaaaaaahh
First time in my life I feel shitty about not being an activist
Ahhhhhhhhhhhgg
posted by nathancaswell at 5:03 AM on October 5, 2011
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhh
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Waaaaaaaaaaaaahh
First time in my life I feel shitty about not being an activist
Ahhhhhhhhhhhgg
posted by nathancaswell at 5:03 AM on October 5, 2011
Ps corduroys link has the recording
posted by nathancaswell at 5:04 AM on October 5, 2011
posted by nathancaswell at 5:04 AM on October 5, 2011
Those who are mocking this as a silly hipster outing really are not paying attention.
Transit workers join the protest today,
posted by spitbull at 5:24 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
Transit workers join the protest today,
posted by spitbull at 5:24 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
Oh Comely was an awesome song to end on. I wish I could forget NMH ever existed, go back in time to last night and have that be my introduction to them, just see a small crowd gathered around a guy with a guitar that slowly grew, sit down and wonder who is this guy, hear the crowd know every lyric and sing every horn part and slowly start to realize I was witnessing something extremely rare and magical, have it end with Oh Comely, then rush to a store and buy the records and stay up all night drinking red wine an listening to them again and again. That is what I wish.
posted by nathancaswell at 5:41 AM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by nathancaswell at 5:41 AM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
He hasn't been in exile, but cool news.
1 youtube video of mangum on wallst
posted by mrgrimm at 6:18 AM on October 5, 2011
1 youtube video of mangum on wallst
posted by mrgrimm at 6:18 AM on October 5, 2011
Also, Jeff Mangum is April from Parks & Recreation's favorite singer. Most of his fans are over 40. He's an odd choice for hipster signifier.
posted by mrgrimm at 6:20 AM on October 5, 2011
posted by mrgrimm at 6:20 AM on October 5, 2011
"Politics is temporal. Poetry is not."
Ugh. I have no interest in either your poetry or your politics.
Speak for yourself.
Almost every artist that matters (meaning, whose work lasts beyond the moment) has a deeply political core; politics might not motivate audiences for art in the same way, but politics are often what motivates artists, whether you can see the signs of it or not (skilled artists put their political theory into practice through their art, rather than just talking about them). So, for example, Dylan may claim to eschew politics (don't know how true that claim actually is), but the artists Dylan admittedly patterned himself after (Guthrie, Seeger, etc.) couldn't have been more deeply concerned with political issues.
IMO, art and politics cannot and should not be separated; the separation of art and politics is unnatural. Historically, the two have been closely interrelated: art is the most powerful political tool of the masses. That's why Plato feared it and would have strictly controlled it in his fascist Republic.
Also, "Know all your enemies. We know who our enemies are." sounds like a statement of political conviction, to me.
posted by saulgoodman at 6:29 AM on October 5, 2011 [4 favorites]
Ugh. I have no interest in either your poetry or your politics.
Speak for yourself.
Almost every artist that matters (meaning, whose work lasts beyond the moment) has a deeply political core; politics might not motivate audiences for art in the same way, but politics are often what motivates artists, whether you can see the signs of it or not (skilled artists put their political theory into practice through their art, rather than just talking about them). So, for example, Dylan may claim to eschew politics (don't know how true that claim actually is), but the artists Dylan admittedly patterned himself after (Guthrie, Seeger, etc.) couldn't have been more deeply concerned with political issues.
IMO, art and politics cannot and should not be separated; the separation of art and politics is unnatural. Historically, the two have been closely interrelated: art is the most powerful political tool of the masses. That's why Plato feared it and would have strictly controlled it in his fascist Republic.
Also, "Know all your enemies. We know who our enemies are." sounds like a statement of political conviction, to me.
posted by saulgoodman at 6:29 AM on October 5, 2011 [4 favorites]
Wish I could watch this now, but it will have to wait until I get home. Thanks for the post!
posted by saulgoodman at 6:29 AM on October 5, 2011
posted by saulgoodman at 6:29 AM on October 5, 2011
I would hazard the guess that most of Mangum's fans are between 30 and 40, not over 40. Since Aeroplane came out in 98.
posted by nathancaswell at 7:03 AM on October 5, 2011
posted by nathancaswell at 7:03 AM on October 5, 2011
* My innate cynicism is having a hard time coping with this
I AM THE 99%
posted by rusty at 7:05 AM on October 5, 2011
I AM THE 99%
posted by rusty at 7:05 AM on October 5, 2011
http://www.theawl.com/2011/10/jeff-mangum-occupy-wall-street
posted by artaxerxes at 7:05 AM on October 5, 2011
posted by artaxerxes at 7:05 AM on October 5, 2011
http://www.theawl.com/2011/10/jeff-mangum-occupy-wall-street
posted by mecran01 at 7:44 AM on October 5, 2011
posted by mecran01 at 7:44 AM on October 5, 2011
I would hazard the guess that most of Mangum's fans are between 30 and 40
Somebody hasn't been to /mu/
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:50 AM on October 5, 2011
Somebody hasn't been to /mu/
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:50 AM on October 5, 2011
Listening now; it's adorable that they are choosing the songs by consensus.
posted by yarrow at 8:06 AM on October 5, 2011
posted by yarrow at 8:06 AM on October 5, 2011
http://www.theawl.com/2011/10/jeff-mangum-occupy-wall-street
fwiw, all the awl has is the same YouTube video I linked above. /webtrafficsnark
Also, I love that the livestream page is entitled "Jeff Magnumon globalrevolution".
FYI. "Mangum plays Town Hall at the end of the month, and tickets are going for $200 a piece (minimum) on StubHub."
Hrm.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:39 AM on October 5, 2011
fwiw, all the awl has is the same YouTube video I linked above. /webtrafficsnark
Also, I love that the livestream page is entitled "Jeff Magnumon globalrevolution".
FYI. "Mangum plays Town Hall at the end of the month, and tickets are going for $200 a piece (minimum) on StubHub."
Hrm.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:39 AM on October 5, 2011
Early Bob Dylan was political and personal and poetic and deeply moving. Hard to believe it's a 21-year-old kid singing those songs. And that's what we remember about Bob Dylan, and what his enduring legacy will be.
posted by Mister_A at 8:45 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Mister_A at 8:45 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
YouTube user jesuisgalactique has about 21 minutes of video, which probably covers most of it. (1, 2, 3).
Good choices by the crowd, imo (though how could you go wrong?)
posted by mrgrimm at 8:50 AM on October 5, 2011
Good choices by the crowd, imo (though how could you go wrong?)
posted by mrgrimm at 8:50 AM on October 5, 2011
Wanted to nth the understanding that art is not separate from politics. If it were, Hitler would not have burned all those subversive paintings, and China would not be locking up artists still today, and library books would not still be threatened by banning here in the States. Art has caused riots. Art has led to executions. You can't get more political than that.
posted by emjaybee at 9:05 AM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 9:05 AM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
He's an odd choice for hipster signifier.
Why? It's not like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea fell off the face of the earth after 1998-- Neutral Milk Hotel has been a cult band since then. I'm 25 and definitely had an extended NMH phase in high school, as did all of my hipster friends. And we all FREAKED OUT on Facebook last night when we found out about this.
posted by oinopaponton at 9:17 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
Why? It's not like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea fell off the face of the earth after 1998-- Neutral Milk Hotel has been a cult band since then. I'm 25 and definitely had an extended NMH phase in high school, as did all of my hipster friends. And we all FREAKED OUT on Facebook last night when we found out about this.
posted by oinopaponton at 9:17 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
"I only know three chords, my friend. Haven't you noticed?"
:D
Well, now we know what he was doing from 1998-2008: waiting for the revolution. He seems downright giddy.
You can hear the protesters let go of some of their tension as they sing along, and by the time he start King of Carrot Flowers Part 1, they're all laughing and clapping and smiling. I think I have something in my eye.
For me, it was Two-Headed Boy, Part II. Such a beautiful song, especially when the whole crowd sings along (although one dude close to the mic in the youtube versions is really off key...)
In my dreams, you're alive and you're crying
As your mouth moves in mine, soft and sweet
Rings of flowers round your eyes and I love you
For the rest of your life when you're reeeeeeeeeeady
(KOCF1 and Oh Comely were a great ending, but no Tuesday Moon?! That's one of my favorites, and I thought it would be obvious. I guess it's more of a rocker than an acoustic song, but still. Tuesday night, right?)
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Thanks. If I could +100, I would.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:18 AM on October 5, 2011
:D
Well, now we know what he was doing from 1998-2008: waiting for the revolution. He seems downright giddy.
You can hear the protesters let go of some of their tension as they sing along, and by the time he start King of Carrot Flowers Part 1, they're all laughing and clapping and smiling. I think I have something in my eye.
For me, it was Two-Headed Boy, Part II. Such a beautiful song, especially when the whole crowd sings along (although one dude close to the mic in the youtube versions is really off key...)
In my dreams, you're alive and you're crying
As your mouth moves in mine, soft and sweet
Rings of flowers round your eyes and I love you
For the rest of your life when you're reeeeeeeeeeady
(KOCF1 and Oh Comely were a great ending, but no Tuesday Moon?! That's one of my favorites, and I thought it would be obvious. I guess it's more of a rocker than an acoustic song, but still. Tuesday night, right?)
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Thanks. If I could +100, I would.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:18 AM on October 5, 2011
I would hazard the guess that most of Mangum's fans are between 30 and 40, not over 40. Since Aeroplane came out in 98.
Well, I'm over 50 and thus too sophisticated and mature to call myself a fan(atic) of anything ... but I'd be lying if I didn't single out Aeroplane Over The Sea as pretty much the only new rock-based album of the past fifteen years that I continue to listen to from beginning to end, because it's all of a piece emotionally (and thematically apparently), and dense and complex in all the right ways (nothing more dense and complex than a human soul revealing itself in raw, beautiful musical form).
Good on, the guy for stepping up, singing a few of his songs.
Never Retract - Never Retreat - Never Apologize - Get The Job Done And Let Them Howl!
posted by philip-random at 9:43 AM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
Well, I'm over 50 and thus too sophisticated and mature to call myself a fan(atic) of anything ... but I'd be lying if I didn't single out Aeroplane Over The Sea as pretty much the only new rock-based album of the past fifteen years that I continue to listen to from beginning to end, because it's all of a piece emotionally (and thematically apparently), and dense and complex in all the right ways (nothing more dense and complex than a human soul revealing itself in raw, beautiful musical form).
Good on, the guy for stepping up, singing a few of his songs.
Never Retract - Never Retreat - Never Apologize - Get The Job Done And Let Them Howl!
posted by philip-random at 9:43 AM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
And that's what we remember about Bob Dylan, and what his enduring legacy will be.
Really, I always thought Bob Dylan was coolest right at the beginning of his FUCK YOU phase, when he was just starting to go electric and pissing crowds off and getting booed off stage. Just epically badass and still writing the best songs in the world. Much more memorable than him hanging out with Joan Baez and stuff.
posted by nathancaswell at 2:00 PM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
Really, I always thought Bob Dylan was coolest right at the beginning of his FUCK YOU phase, when he was just starting to go electric and pissing crowds off and getting booed off stage. Just epically badass and still writing the best songs in the world. Much more memorable than him hanging out with Joan Baez and stuff.
posted by nathancaswell at 2:00 PM on October 5, 2011 [2 favorites]
Really, I always thought Bob Dylan was coolest right at the beginning of his FUCK YOU phase, when he was just starting to go electric and pissing crowds off and getting booed off stage. Just epically badass and still writing the best songs in the world. Much more memorable than him hanging out with Joan Baez and stuff.
And then he was amazing with the surrealistic poetry of Desolation Row and Highway 61, and the divorce album Blood on the Tracks... Blowing in the Wind was a horrible song, and if that was all he was remembered for he'd just be a relic.
I go to lots of poetry nights, and the political poetry always makes me cringes. 'The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face' will endure long after we've forgotten Hattie Carroll and Nixon.
Also, "Know all your enemies. We know who our enemies are." sounds like a statement of political conviction, to me.
But it can also be a personal statement - know who your personal enemies are (everybody).
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 3:41 PM on October 5, 2011
Also, "Know all your enemies. We know who our enemies are." sounds like a statement of political conviction, to me.
Though I guess since he was singing about Anne Frank, it could simply be 'Nazis'.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 3:41 PM on October 5, 2011
Though I guess since he was singing about Anne Frank, it could simply be 'Nazis'.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 3:41 PM on October 5, 2011
Blowing in the Wind was a horrible song
Please elaborate.
I think it speaks eloquently of a young man coming to terms with the fact that he'll never figure out the craziness, cruelty and complexity of the world. Good enough for Johnny Cash, good enough for me.
posted by philip-random at 7:31 PM on October 5, 2011
Please elaborate.
I think it speaks eloquently of a young man coming to terms with the fact that he'll never figure out the craziness, cruelty and complexity of the world. Good enough for Johnny Cash, good enough for me.
posted by philip-random at 7:31 PM on October 5, 2011
Blowing in the Wind was a horrible song
Please elaborate.
It's vague, for one. If you're going to listen to a protest song then a fierce one like Masters of War or a specific one like Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol is preferable. It's not vague in a poetic sense. Its vague in a faux-deep, stoner philosophy sense, with none of the razor sharp surrealistic imagery of later Dylan or, indeed, Jeff Mangum.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:38 PM on October 5, 2011
Please elaborate.
It's vague, for one. If you're going to listen to a protest song then a fierce one like Masters of War or a specific one like Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol is preferable. It's not vague in a poetic sense. Its vague in a faux-deep, stoner philosophy sense, with none of the razor sharp surrealistic imagery of later Dylan or, indeed, Jeff Mangum.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:38 PM on October 5, 2011
Question: does anyone one have any idea where I can buy NMH albums directly knowing the money will go to the band? I've been listening to my discs for more than 10 years and would love to throw whatever meager cash their way again.
The elephant 6 page store says "coming soon."
posted by stratastar at 8:21 PM on October 5, 2011
The elephant 6 page store says "coming soon."
posted by stratastar at 8:21 PM on October 5, 2011
Though I guess since he was singing about Anne Frank, it could simply be 'Nazis'.
Uh, yeah. What, the Nazis aren't a political movement that's closely tied to a whole bunch of related political movements that, in many cases, are still around today?
That is politics, man! There's nothing more fundamentally political than opposition to the ugly aspects of human nature that the Nazis embodied in their time, but that still persist today!
Those reports of the end of history a few years ago were greatly exaggerated.
After WWII, a lot of escaping Nazi soldiers tried to burrow in deep in South America and there were concerted efforts to seize control of oil production mechanisms. The surviving Nazis in Europe and the US didn't all just simultaneously give up their entire agenda and weltanschauung at the end of WWII. We just stopped fighting them, while they kept adapting their ideas into new, more socially acceptable forms.
posted by saulgoodman at 7:45 AM on October 6, 2011
Uh, yeah. What, the Nazis aren't a political movement that's closely tied to a whole bunch of related political movements that, in many cases, are still around today?
That is politics, man! There's nothing more fundamentally political than opposition to the ugly aspects of human nature that the Nazis embodied in their time, but that still persist today!
Those reports of the end of history a few years ago were greatly exaggerated.
After WWII, a lot of escaping Nazi soldiers tried to burrow in deep in South America and there were concerted efforts to seize control of oil production mechanisms. The surviving Nazis in Europe and the US didn't all just simultaneously give up their entire agenda and weltanschauung at the end of WWII. We just stopped fighting them, while they kept adapting their ideas into new, more socially acceptable forms.
posted by saulgoodman at 7:45 AM on October 6, 2011
Question: does anyone one have any idea where I can buy NMH albums directly knowing the money will go to the band? I've been listening to my discs for more than 10 years and would love to throw whatever meager cash their way again.
More than meager cash is required.
Someone more cynical than even I am might suggest this recent performance was a promo for the upcoming (tour and) fancy $88 box-set re-releases ($108 total after U.S. shipping ($122 for Canada; $136 for Europe - but don't worry. A whopping $1 from each sale (0.7-0.9%!) goes to Children of the Blue Sky.))
I really wish they'd sell the EPs and 7"s separately, b/c those I would purchase, regardless of gouging. I have the LPs already and don't care about gatefold sleeves or posters.
The good news is that all the unreleased songs will be "pay what you want" downloads, and he's already streaming some of them.
Plus, he has a bitching podcast.
... and to bring it all full circle, Occupy Wall St. was launched (at least initially and partially) buy Adbusters, who promotes Buy Nothing Day, which is November 25 (my daughter's birthday, which makes participation even more challenging), three days after the NMH box-set release.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:41 AM on October 6, 2011
More than meager cash is required.
Someone more cynical than even I am might suggest this recent performance was a promo for the upcoming (tour and) fancy $88 box-set re-releases ($108 total after U.S. shipping ($122 for Canada; $136 for Europe - but don't worry. A whopping $1 from each sale (0.7-0.9%!) goes to Children of the Blue Sky.))
I really wish they'd sell the EPs and 7"s separately, b/c those I would purchase, regardless of gouging. I have the LPs already and don't care about gatefold sleeves or posters.
The good news is that all the unreleased songs will be "pay what you want" downloads, and he's already streaming some of them.
Plus, he has a bitching podcast.
... and to bring it all full circle, Occupy Wall St. was launched (at least initially and partially) buy Adbusters, who promotes Buy Nothing Day, which is November 25 (my daughter's birthday, which makes participation even more challenging), three days after the NMH box-set release.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:41 AM on October 6, 2011
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posted by Corduroy at 8:15 PM on October 4, 2011