How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Tiny Cooper calls me and, real quiet and fast, he blurts out, "Neutral Milk Hotel is supposedly playing a reunion show at the Hideout and it's totally not advertised and no one even knows about it and holy s***, Grayson, holy s***!"
"Holy s***!" I shout. One thing you can say for Tiny: whenever something awesome happens, Tiny is always the first to hear.
Now, I am not generally given over to excitement, but Neutral Milk Hotel sort of changed my life. They released this absolutely fantastic album called In the Aeroplane Over the Sea in 1998 and haven't been heard from since, purportedly because their lead singer lives in a cave in New Zealand. But anyway, he's a genius. (1.31-33)
Will is pretty into Neutral Milk Hotel (which, by the way, is totally a real band and Will's is a totally legit response to said real band). Their music really means something special to him. He's also sort of bummed because they created all these amazing songs and then just stopped. Will wants more and this surprise concert is just the thing.
Quote #2
Chicago is brackish lake water and soot and sweat and grease and I love it, and I love this song, and Tiny's saying I love this song, and he's got the visor down so he can muss up his hair a little more expertly. That gets me to thinking that Neutral Milk Hotel is going to see me just as surely as I'm going to see them, so I give myself a once-over in the rearview. My face seems too square and my eyes too big, like I'm perpetually surprised, but there's nothing wrong with me that I can fix. (1.38)
This is pretty adorable because Will has this whole I'm-going-to-make-eye-contact-with-my-favorite-band moment. This just goes to show how big a deal these guys are to him and how major this concert is going to be.
Quote #3
These four guys come out onstage, and while they don't bear a striking resemblance to the members of Neutral Milk Hotel, I tell myself that, whatever, I've only seen pictures on the web. But then they start playing. I'm not quite sure how to describe this band's music, except to say that it sounds like a hundred thousand weasels being dropped into a boiling ocean. And then the guy starts singing:
She used to love me, yeah
But now she hates
She used to screw me, bro
But now she dates
Other guys
Other guysBarring a prefrontal lobotomy, there's absolutely no way that the lead singer of Neutral Milk Hotel would ever think, let alone write, let alone sing, such lyrics. And then I realize: I have waited outside in the cold gray-lit car-exhausted frigidity and caused the possible broken bones in Gary's hand to hear a band that is, manifestly, not Neutral Milk Hotel. And although he is nowhere amid the crowd of hushed and stunned NMH fans surrounding me, I immediately shout, "Damn you, Tiny Cooper!" (1.54-56)
Total bummer. Ashland Avenue is no Neutral Milk Hotel. Will is totally convinced of his band's superiority and also pretty annoyed with Tiny, who brought him on this crazy adventure only to let him down. Yet again.