from Billboard.com today...


Neutral Milk Hotel mastermind Jeff Mangum made his first live appearance in
years last night (Aug. 2) in New York, guesting with Olivia Tremor Control
during the first of two performances at New York's Bowery Ballroom. The
artist bounded on stage about an hour into the show to sing "I Have Been
Floated," from OTC's 1999 album "Black Foliage: Animation Music." Mangum
appeared to be wiping back tears and hugged OTC members at the song's end,
which was met with stunned, thunderous applause.

Decked out in a blue button down shirt and green ball cap, Mangum came on
stage again during a jubilant encore to handle lead vocals on "Shaving
Spiders." At its conclusion, he pulled OTC member Julian Koster to the floor
and was then jumped upon by other members.
In the late '90s, members of Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel
were frequent collaborators with each other under the umbrella of the
Athens, Ga.-based Elephant 6 collective.

But Mangum has rarely been heard from since the tour in support of Neutral
Milk Hotel's 1998 album "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea," a cult classic that
has come to be thought of as a touchstone of late '90s indie rock. The set
has sold more than 141,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen
SoundScan.

"Aeroplane" is due to be reissued by Domino Records in the U.K., although no
specific date has been confirmed. In addition, Fire Records is planning an
expanded reissue of Neutral Milk Hotel's 1996 debut, "On Avery Island," with
the band's approval.

As for Olivia Tremor Control, its ongoing tour is an outgrowth of a reunion
inspired by an appearance earlier this year at the All Tomorrow's Parties
festival in England. Co-frontman Bill Doss split from the group in 1999; he
then released two albums with the group the Sunshine Fix, while remaining
OTC members issued a project as Circulatory System.