Jeff Mangum is a singer/songwriter and musician best known as the front-man and guitarist of the indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel. In 1995, Mangum left Synthetic Flying Machine to focus on his own songwriting and spent a year living in Denver, writing and recording songs with his friend and producer Robert Schnieder. The result was the 1996 debut album, On Avery Island, which prompted Mangum and Schneider to add musicians to their lineup and officially form the band Neutral Milk Hotel. Critics and fans quickly took to the band's powerful songwriting and lyrics, but the sudden success of Neutral Milk Hotel caused Mangum to put the band on a hiatus in 1998, shortly after the release of its second album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. He kept away from the music scene in the years following the band's breakup, only playing a small number of acoustic shows, before he released an album of Bulgarian folk music titled Orange Twin Field Works: Volume I, in 2001. During the 2008 Holiday Surprise Tour held by Elephant 6, the record label co-founded by Mangum, he played the song "Engine" for several audiences, marking the first time he publicly played Neutral Milk material since 2001. Mangum continues to play live shows, including a set in New York City for protesters at Occupy Wall Street in 2011, often with other members of the Elephant 6 collective.
