Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel

Jeff Mangum is the founder and driving force behind what was the band Neutral Milk Hotel and one of the co-founders of the Elephant 6 Collective. Rob Schneider (of The Apples in Stereo), Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss (formerly of Olivia Tremor Control and now comprising Circulatory System and The Sunshine Fix, respectively) and Mangum all attended the same high school in Ruston, Louisiana in the late 1980’s. The friends shared a passion for bands of the 60’s such as The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and The Zombies, as well as an affinity for newer, noisier bands such as Sonic Youth and Minutemen. They reflected these influences in the tapes they recorded and shared with each other, forming the seeds of what would become the Elephant Six Collective. While Robert Schneider became the "popular" face of the collective with the eventual success of The Apples in Stereo, Mangum would ultimately release some of the collective’s most interesting and enduringly popular music.