Neutral Uke Hotel

BELOVED INDIE BAND GETS UNIQUE TREATMENT

Neutral Milk Hotel

Golden Bloom ‘s Shawn Fogel‘s latest project is Neutral Uke Hotel. It’s exactly what you think it is, Neutral Milk Hotel music played entirely on the ukulele. To be more precise, Fogel has arranged Neutral Milk Hotel’s 1998 iconic album In The Aeroplane Over the Sea into a collection of classic contemporary indie pop songs that he plays in ukulele.

This interesting idea came after Fogel worked with producer Roger Greenawalt’s “Beatles Complete on Ukulele” project (a fave of JamBase’s Associate Editor Dennis Cook, just so ya know). Fogel explains, “After recording a version of The Beatles’ B-side ‘I’ll Get You’ with Roger at his Shabby Road Studios, I performed with Golden Bloom, Guster’s Ryan Miller, The Zambonis and Leah Siegel at the 2nd Annual Beatles Complete on Ukulele Festival held at Brooklyn Bowl this past December.” This pas March Fogel went to SXSW in Austin to play “The Beatles Complete on Ukulele Festival.” Fogel says, “Inspired by Greenawalt’s successful merging of one of the biggest bands in the world with one of the smallest instruments in the world, I decided to use the uke to tackle another major influence of indie musicians across the world: Neutral Milk Hotel.”

Fogel will be playing these nuggets on Friday, May 7 at Arts at the Armory in Somerville, MA.