Jon

At the end of Kim Cooper's 33 1/3 book about Neutral Milk Hotel's In an Aeroplane Over the Sea there is a quote from band member Julian Koster:

I think what Elephant 6 meant for us is very simple: there's something pure and infinite in you, that wants to come out of you, and can come out of no other person on the planet. That's what you've got to share, and that's as real and important as the fact that you're alive. We were able, at a really young age, to somehow protect each other so we could feel that. The world at large, careerism, money, magazines, your parents, the people at the rock club in your town, other kids, nothing is going to give you that message, necessarily. In fact, most things are going to lead you away from it, sadly, because humanity is really confused at the moment. But you wouldn't exist if the universe didn't need you. And any time I encounter something beautiful that came out of a human somewhere, that's them, that's their own soul. That's just pure, whatever its physicality is, if the person can play piano, if they can't play piano, if they're tone deaf, whatever it is, if it's pure, it hits you like a sledgehammer. It fills up your own soul, it makes you want to cry. It makes you glad you're alive, it lets you come out of you, and that's what we need: we desperately need you.

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I thought that was nice.

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Collins also mentions that the 8 minute song Oh Comely was played once in the recording session of In The Aeroplane Over the Sea and only once. Jeff Magnum, with his guitar, sat down, started what was meant to be a warm up- where he would only play the first verse- but then carried on for all 8 minutes and 18 seconds while the rest of the band stood amazed in the next room... and then they kept the take, and threw some overdubs (horns, backing vocals, a bit of percussion) on it and that was that.

Listen to this sledgehammer: