Sunday, December 13th, 2009
"In The Aeroplane Over The Sea"
Fanfarlo covers Neutral Milk Hotel
YouTubeSo this was supposed to be a selection perfectly timed with the Toronto debut of Fanfarlo at the El Mocambo this Tuesday, but instead, some dick in Portland had to go off and break into their tour van and steal frontman Simon Balthazar’s passport. Obviously this sucked for him, but also sucked for us here in Toronto and Montreal who’d been anxiously waiting for one of the band’s numerous North American jaunts this year to finally come up this way. Next time, they promise. Bah.
I’d even gone to the trouble of ripping the audio from the laptop session that featured the band pulling off a faithful and gorgeous cover of Neutral Milk Hotel’s classic “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”, which they’re eminently suited to do justice to. And while I could wait until we have a make-up date to air it – perhaps in the Spring as they’re confirmed to play SxSW – I am reminded of my own personal philosophy: to seize the day and live for the moment. Wait, that’s not my philosophy. My philosophy is, “cower like a turtle and hope it all blows over”. But I’ll post the song anyways.
The Neutral Milk Hotel remains closed for business both now and for the foreseeable future, but they’re not completely out of the news. Merge Records recently unearthed some live footage of a show in New York circa 1996 and Mangum makes a rare appearaance on a new tribute album to New Zealand musician Chris Knox, who suffered a stroke earlier this Summer. Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox is currently available digitally and will be released as a limited-edition 2-CD set on February 23 of next year.
MP3: Fanfarlo – “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”
Video: Fanfarlo – “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”
Video: Jeff Mangum – “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” (live)
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