Neutral Milk Hotel常常把自己描述为“法兹民谣”，他们作为Elephant 6厂牌最初的乐团，为这个以出品lo-fi的独立音乐之名的厂牌的发展做出了贡献。其实Elephant 6 严格来说是一个社团的性质，一些志趣相投的人在一起分享音乐，思想，和感觉，比如有the Apples (in stereo), the Olivia Tremor Control 和Secret Square这样的乐队。Neutral Milk Hotel基本上属于Jeff Mangum，他是来自洛杉矶Ruston小镇上的歌手和创作人。在高中的时候他就受到很多音乐人的影响，比如the Beatles，the Beach Boys，the Zombies，Pink Floyd和Sonic Youth等等，在那个时候他就已经开始学会模仿。1989年的时候，Neutral Milk Hotel作为一个三人噪音摇滚组合开始了自己的处女演出；neutral milk hotel终于找到自己方向和自己的乐手，并在之后录制了伟大的作品In The Aeroplane Over the Sea.
Biography by Jason Ankeny
The self-described "fuzz-folk" project Neutral Milk Hotel was one of the primary outgrowths of the Elephant 6 Recording Company collective, a coterie of like-minded, lo-fi indie groups — including the Apples (in stereo), the Olivia Tremor Control and Secret Square — who shared musicians, ideas, and sensibilities. While ranging in sound and concept from solo acoustic work to full band performances, Neutral Milk Hotel essentially remained the work of Jeff Mangum, a singer/songwriter from the remote town of Ruston, LA. Ruston was also home to Robert Schneider (later of the Apples), as well as William Cullen Hart and Bill Doss (who formed the Olivia Tremor Control); throughout high school, the aspiring musicians — all influenced by the likes of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Zombies, Pink Floyd, and Sonic Youth — exchanged home recordings and played in each other's bands.
Neutral Milk Hotel first took shape in 1989 as a noise rock trio that played its debut gig at a local laundromat; a year later, Mangum, Hart, and Doss moved to Athens, GA, to form the group Cranberry Life Cycle, which later became Synthetic Flying Machine (and ultimately the Olivia Tremor Control) after Mangum's departure. In 1993, he and Schneider relocated to Denver, CO, where Schneider soon founded the Apples (in stereo). Eventually, Mangum gravitated to New York and resumed recording under the Neutral Milk Hotel aegis. After a series of singles and privately released cassettes, including Invent Yourself a Shortcake, Beauty, and Hype City, Mangum travelled back to Denver to record the critically acclaimed 1996 album On Avery Island on Schneider's four-track machine; in the the spring of 1997 he again returned to Colorado to begin work on the follow-up, the brilliant In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
