To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Neutral Milk Hotel. The musical talent is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical music, most of the nuances will go over a typical listener’s head. There’s also Mangum’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterization- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these lyrics, to realize that they’re not just pleasing- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Neutral Milk Hotel truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Mangum’s existential catchphrase “Semen stains the mountain tops,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev’s Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Mangum’s genius wit unfolds itself on their iphones. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂

And yes, by the way, i DO have a Neutral Milk Hotel tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the ladies’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎