Out of all of the doom and gloom circulating in the news as of late, a bright spot!

Beloved Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel infamy took the stage at last night's benefit for Chris Knox at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC performing for about 20 minutes. Some attendees armed with cell phones captured the moment {for listening not so much for viewing} for us all to enjoy vicariously.

A quick google search finds that tickets were $75 -- which is a steal considering the the benefit show also included performances by Yo La Tengo, Kyp Malone (of TV on the Radio), Portastatic, Claudia Gonson of the Magnetic Fields, Sharon Van Etten, and The Clean. So far it looks like over $40,000 has been raised to help New Zealand icon Chris Knox recover from a series of strokes he suffered last year.

Setlist (thanks to Consequence of Sound):

• Oh Comely
• A Baby for Pree
• Two Headed Boy Pt. 2
• In the Aeroplane over the Sea
• Engine

A lil more video action...

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Warning: This is an ecstatic early plug for the upcoming fan-dream book, Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label that Got Big and Stayed Small.

As Magnet magazine is quoted, "[Merge] might be responsible for more indie-rock classics than any other label in the past two decades." David Byrne considers their survival "kind of amazing these days." NPR asserts they're "one of the top independent labels in the world." In Our Noise author John Cook shows the letter that Glitterhouse sent to Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance (in Superchunk, of course, and who started the label) originally sent turning down European distribution (it's hilarious, considering what Merge would achieve); to the later days when Mac feels giddy and weird hanging out near Dr. Dre and Springsteen at Coachella.

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Merge has done it again! For their 20th anniversary, a part of the brilliant subscriber only compilation series SCORE, the Chapel Hill label (run by none other than members of my favorite indie rock band, Superchunk) is releasing a compilation of covers of Merge bands by a ton of non-Merge artists.

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Upon exiting the plane and turning on my phone, I had a message from my friend Kyle (of Hat Company fame) saying "Hey Keenan, it's Kyle, I just left the Elephant 6 showcase in Columbus. It was rad. I hung out with Jeff Mangum for about an hour and I have the myspace photos to prove it. Tell that to Three Imaginary Girls!".

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It's awesome band tribute season here in Seattle, and tonight (Wednesday June 18th) the Tractor Tavern is hosting a tribute to two revered bands.

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Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel) got married!

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Yesterday, some intrepid young YouTube user posted the trailer of the bound-to-be-beyond-bizarre Major Organ and the Adding Machine film, set to be released, you know, soon, or something.

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I've found TWO ultra-rare Neutral Milk Hotel mp3s, and an awesome YouTube video of one of Neutral Milk Hotel's last performances. And I love them all so much, I have to share.

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