The constant stream of home recording cassette tapes the group made would eventually lead to the formation of a musical collective known as Elephant 6. Early Milk recordings such as Invent Yourself a Shortcake and Beauty were circulated between Mangum and his friends Robert Schneider, Bill Doss, and Will Cullen Hart. The project was initially called Milk, and Mangum made the recordings in high school. Neutral Milk Hotel originated in Ruston, Louisiana, in the late 1980s, as one of the many home recording projects of musician Jeff Mangum.
Several music outlets such as Pitchfork and Blender called In the Aeroplane Over the Sea a landmark album for indie rock and one of the greatest albums of the 1990s. During the hiatus, Neutral Milk Hotel gained a cult following and the critical standing of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea rose tremendously. He did not want to continue touring and Neutral Milk Hotel went on hiatus shortly after. This had a negative effect on Mangum, whose mental health began to deteriorate. While on tour, the band's popularity grew through Internet exposure. Its 1998 release received mostly positive but not laudatory reviews. Mangum recruited musicians Julian Koster, Jeremy Barnes, and Scott Spillane for the band's second album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. In 1996, he worked with childhood friend Robert Schneider to record the album On Avery Island, which received modest reviews and sold around 5,000 copies. The song's exposure convinced him to record more music under this name. In 1994, he released the song " Everything Is" on Cher Doll Records. Neutral Milk Hotel began as one of Mangum's home recording projects. He and the other band members played a variety of instruments, including non-traditional rock instruments like the singing saw, uilleann pipes, and Digital Horn. Mangum wrote surreal and opaque lyrics that covered a wide range of topics, including love, spirituality, nostalgia, sex, and loneliness.
The band's music featured a deliberately low-quality sound, influenced by indie rock and psychedelic folk. They were active from 1989 to 1998, and again from 2013 to 2015. Neutral Milk Hotel was an American band formed in Ruston, Louisiana, by musician Jeff Mangum.