News to Make You Smile

A heartwarming little news bit from Pitchfork that Jeff Magnum performed live this weekend in Brooklyn. Neutral Milk Hotel has long been a favorite of mine, and their work has had a profound and sweeping influence on a generation of artists. Take for instance Meursault's "One Day This Will All Be Fields," a track off their recent All Creatures Will Make Merry album. The song features a verse that, coupled with the starkly stripped guitar work and somber, dreary delivery, can mistaken for nothing if not a nod to Magnum and his former band's most well-known song: "And we will descend from the sky / and we will bury you alive." There are dozens of similar examples littered throughout the past decade. Magnum's reclusive habits in the wake of Neutral Milk Hotel's success are well documented, and his hiatus from recording and performing have only heightened the legend of his genius. Too see Magnum taking even the smallest of steps back into the public light is heartening, not only for his fans but for the man himself. Such news does indeed make me smile, and turn up "Holland, 1945" or "Two-Headed Boy" just a little louder. Hell, I almost titled this post "Jeff Magnum Performs in Brooklyn, Will Viti's Heart Skips Beat in Boston."