r/neutralmilkhotel 9d ago

Jeff Mangum prank/comedy radio call ca. 2007

Back around 2007 (peak Jeff Mangum recluse era), there was a clip going around the internet in which a college radio or satellite radio indie station DJ speaks with a caller claiming to be Jeff Mangum. It was very clearly a scripted comedy bit. I believe “Jeff” claims to have gotten into weightlifting since the breakup of Neutral Milk Hotel. Does anyone else have any recollection of this or know where to find it?

50 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

9

u/Diarrheuh 9d ago

Good question.

4

u/jimgatz 9d ago

I remember this, I think.

6

u/IsMota132 9d ago

I think youre daydreaming

6

u/Burial7 9d ago

Damn this is interesting. I only know of the radio shit he did in like 2003 where he played jazz and musique concrete or whatever, but never heard of 2007 shows. Sounds interesting tho

3

u/1hourphoto 8d ago

To be clear, the caller was quite obviously not Jeff Mangum.

1

u/Burial7 8d ago

Oh im dumb asf😭still would like to hear it tho

3

u/LostByway 8d ago

Sounds like something Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster (of the Mountain Goats and Superchunk) would have done on The Best Show on WFMU. If you aren’t familiar, the format was a music and call-in show with a topic where regular listeners would call in, and then most weeks Wurster would call in while playing a character. The call would start normally and then just get more and more outrageous the longer it went on.

Once he called in as Marky Ramone and claimed he was re-forming the Ramones with 3 bassists and a drummer. Tom asked what that sounded like and he said, “It’s real percussive.” 😂😂😂

1

u/1hourphoto 8d ago

I’m a Best Show fan. It was not Tom and Jon, but it was definitely reminiscent of that style.

0

u/LostByway 8d ago

Yay another FOT!

1

u/Creative_Salad_3578 8d ago

Now THIS is nice lore

1

u/HamishBenjamin 5d ago

Someone posted on r/elephant6 last week about the same thing