Neutral Milk Hotel originated in Ruston, Louisiana , in the late 1980s as a home recording project of musician Jeff Mangum . Initially using the name Milk, Mangum made the recordings while in high school. Early Milk recordings, such as Invent Yourself a Shortcake and Beauty , were shared between Mangum and his friends Robert Schneider , Bill Doss , and Will Cullen Hart . The four friends branded these homemade cassette tapes with an imaginary record label , Elephant 6 , which eventually grew into a loose musical collective . When Mangum learned of another band called Milk, he changed the name of the project to Neutral Milk Hotel, based on a name Hart suggested. According to Doss, the name is a non sequitur influenced by the Dada movement, and it does not have meaning.
Neutral Milk Hotel originated in Ruston, Louisiana , in the late
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