On Avery Island

On Avery Island
Cover everywhere except UK.
Neutral Milk Hotel
Released	March 26, 1996
Recorded	February–May 1995 except "Marching Theme" which occurred in June 1994
Length	47:58
Label	Merge • NHM Records • Fire (UK only)
Producer	Robert Schneider
Previous	Everything Is
Next	In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Track Listing

1. Song Against Sex - 3:40
2. You've Passed - 2:53
3. Someone Is Waiting - 2:31
4. A Baby For Pree - 1:21
5. Marching Theme - 2:58
6. Where You'll Find Me Now - 4:04
7. Avery Island / April 1st - 1:48
8. Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone - 3:13
9. Three Peaches - 4:01
10. Naomi - 4:53
11. April 8th - 2:47
12. Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye - 13:49

Fire Release Bonus Tracks

13. Everything Is - 3:41
14. Snow Song Pt. 1 - 3:50

Original Cassette Tracks

1. Avery Island / April 1st - 1:48
2. Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone - 3:13
3. A Baby For Pree - 1:21
4. Marching Theme - 2:58
5. Song Against Sex - 3:40
6. Where You'll Find Me Now - 4:04
7. Three Peaches - 4:01
8. Naomi - 4:53
9. April 8th - 2:47
10. Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye - 13:49

    

    UK Cover.

Personnel

• Jeff Mangum - guitar, drums, vocals, bells, xylophone, air organ, keyboards, tapes, cover design
• Robert Schneider - air organs, home organs, fuzz bass, xylophone, horn arrangements
• Lisa Janssen - fuzz bass on tracks 2 and 8
• Steven Zhu - violin, flute, and backup vocals on tracks 3 and 8
• Kelsea Giannini - accordion and bells on tracks 4 and 8
• Rick Benjamin - trombone on tracks 1, 7, 8

Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye features Merisa Bissinger, Hilarie Sidney, Zachary DeMichele, Dane Terry, Lisa Janssen, Aaron Reedy, and Jeff Mangum performing various Indonesian instruments.

Thanks to: ruston louisiana, athens, nyc, san francisco and nancy o., jeff smith, the olivia tremor control, all apples, korena pang and her turtle town orchestra, ms. k., secret square, the marbles, mike owens, bret Lunsford, pat maley, 210 sunset, all clay bears ever kicked off stage, supreme dicks, mom and dad and sis and spots and 900 e. 1st street, los angeles and jill carnes, comely clark, signus in the haunted apartment, moca, sparta st #2, 3, and 5, beth s., two cecils, yvonne in boston, richard in Missouri, and as always mr. julian chocolate

Trivia

• First official album released under the name Neutral Milk Hotel.
• The UK version has a different cover, with artwork by Jill Carnes of Thimble Circus.
• "The album title references a public garden on the Louisiana Gulf Coast, where Jeff once told an interviewer, as a teen he had a spiritual experience involving an ancient statue of the Buddha."
• Quote from Jeff -

The album was recorded in Denver with Robert Schneider from The Apples In Stereo. Robert's a friend I met in second grade, we must have been about eight years old at the time. It was January in Denver, freezing cold and snowing all over. I moved into a friend's house and was living in a closet and it was cold, not only because of the weather but because it was a haunted house. The closet I was living in was haunted. The person that lived in the house kept having dreams of people having cocktail parties in my closet, there would always be these really beautiful women in really tacky fur coats drinking champagne and telling my friend that we should get the fuck out of their party because we were really pissing them off... So I lived in my closet and listened to a lot of John Coltrane and waited about a month to start recording. Robert and I would get stuck on something when we were recording and walk around and grab our heads and get really frustrated, go outside and have a cigarette and go to the store, and then we'd suddenly hit on something and we'd jump up and down and hug each other. The whole album just blurs in a beautiful way to me, like a dream, because I guess my whole life the past three years has been geared towards the end which is the album itself. It's sort of the culmination of the whole experience.