Sometimes you find out about something just a little too late, like a job posting that's already been filled or that there were cookies in the cafe all day long and your co-workers ate them all.
Or it's that Jeff Mangum from Neutral Milk Hotel played a highly unpublicized show for about 75 people at The Schoolhouse in Brooklyn last Saturday, and the only way you could've known about it was Twitter and hearsay. New Yorkers, are you kicking yourself yet? I live 9 hours away and I'm kicking myself, along with half of my friends who had In the Aeroplane Over the Sea in our queue for the record player last night so we could sing all the words.
Thankfully, Ric Leichtung recorded some of the songs from Jeff's second 2010 appearance and put them on a blog, International Tapes, to share with the world. Ben Goldberg, from Ba Da Bing Records, who set up the show, said the exclusivity was an integral part of the aesthetic they were organizing for:
I really can't say what this means in terms of future performances. This was a last minute show, done intentionally without buildup to let it be as simple and easy going as possible. It seems to have gone exactly like that. What I honestly feel like I saw tonight wasn't The Greatest Musician In The World Performing The Most Amazing Songs Ever, but rather a fantastic musician performing his wonderful songs. God, I have to say that is so much more gratifying than trying to look at it as a life altering event. I bet others who were there would agree with me.
Well, while Ben might be trying to play it down, I'm sure it would've been a life-altering event for some otherwise. Check out "Two-Headed Boy" above from the show for stream and below for download, and now, the setlist:
01. Oh Comely
02. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
03. Gardenhead
04. Engine
05. Ghost
06. King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1
07. Song Against Sex
08. Naomi
09. Two Headed Boy
10. Two Headed Boy Pt. 2
(via P4K & International Tapes)