(Inspiring People: Musicians) Conor Oberst + Jeff Mangum

I couldn't choose between Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst or Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum so I'm going to do both.

CONOR OBERST

To this day I remember (in order) the first five songs I heard by Bright Eyes

The first Take It Easy (Love Nothing)

the second Bowl of Oranges

third Lover I Don't Have To Love

fourth Easy Lucky Free

fifth A Song To Pass The Time

After that I just started buying albums and listened to every single song on itunes that I could find (I currently have 131 Bright Eyes songs). A short while after I found out that Conor Oberst has been in 7 other bands and has a solo album.

Those bands being:

Desaparecidos,

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

Norman Bailer

Commander Venus

The Magnetas

Park Ave

and Monsters of Folk

Conor is an extremely deep and profound musician. His voice is haunting, lovable, and so addicting.

Example #1

Example #2

Example #3

Example #4

Example #5

His lyrics are thoughtful and evocative

Example #1: 'Sometimes I worry that I've lost the plot. My twitching muscles tease my flippant thoughts. I never really dreamed of heaven much until we put him in the ground, but it's all I'm doing now. Listening for patterns in the sound of an endless static sea. But once the satellite's deceased It blows like garbage through the streets Of the night sky to infinity' - Easy/ Lucky/ Free

Example #2: 'I dreamt of a fever, one that would cure me of this cold winter set heart. With heat to melt these frozen tears, burned with reasons as to carry on into these twisted months I plunge without a light to follow, but I swear that I would follow anything. Just get me out of here.' - If Winter Ends

Example #3: 'There is a man holding a megaphone, so he must have been the voice of God. The bystanders claimed they saw angels flying up and down the block. Well, they must have been attached to wires. I saw one laying in the lawn with a broken arm, so I called 911. So that is one less founded opinion. One more cause for a dispute. So the street filled, like a basin, up with cameras and their crews and they washed away the rumors leaving just the concrete truth. It was a spectacle. No, no, I mean a miracle.' - From A Balance Beam

Example #4: Laura's asleep in my bed, as I'm leaving she wakes up and says "I dreamed you were carried away on the crest of a wave. Baby don't go away, come here". There's kids playing guns in the street and ones pointing his tree branch at me. So I put my hands up I say "enough is enough, if you walk away, I'll walk away" And he shot me dead. - Land Locked Blues

Example #5: We made love on the living room floor with the noise in the background of a televised war, and in the deafening pleasure I thought I heard someone say "If we walk away, they'll walk away". But greed is a bottomless pit, and our freedom's a joke, we're just taking a piss, and the whole world must watch the sad comic display. If you're still free start running away cause we're coming for you!

In my opinion he is the best lyricist still making music today.

JEFF MANGUM

When I was about -1 a band called Neutral Milk Hotel (not-so-interesting fact #1: Neutral Milk Hotel was mentioned in Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan and John Green!) released their very first EP and it was called Everything Is. To this day the title track of that EP is and will always be my favorite NMH song.

Jeff Mangum was to folk music as Albert Einstein was to physics. Sure he didn't discover it, and he definitely didn't create it, but he changed the way people thought about it. If you look at most semi-popular folk bands today (i.e. Band of Horses, Dawes, Death Cab For Cutie, Arcade Fire, Freelance Whales, The Decemberists, The Mountain Goats etc.) you can hear Neutral Milk Hotel.

Neutral Milk Hotel broke up in 1999 after releasing 7 demo cds 2 EPs and 2 Full Length Albums

Occasionally Jeff Mangum will play a show or two but most people don't find out about them until after he's performed. In mid February Jeff Mangum announced that he would be doing a small tour along the east coast in fall 2011 and soon (practically minutes) after every single show was completely sold out. (I was pissed.)

Postscript: you don't have to listen to every single song. That would take way too much time out of your day and I know we all have lives.......... but at least listen to the first 30 seconds of From A Balance Beam and Take It Easy (Love Nothing) by Bright Eyes and In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and The King of Carrot Flowers by Neutral Milk Hotel

Postpostscript: On saturday I found out that I might be going back to Germany this summer and I'm REALLY excited.

Postpostpostscript: I currently have Streptococcal Pharyngitis. FML