Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel plays for Occupy Wall Street protesters last night.

​The Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park continues to be a magnet for celebrity musicians offering their support and serenading the occupiers with unamplified sets.

Last night, the performances bracketing the twice-daily General Assembly meeting came from dramatically different corners: the strident protest jams of Michael Franti, and the oblique introversion of Jeff Mangum.

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​The Portishead/All Tomorrow's Parties-curated festival I'll Be Your Mirror, taking place down the shore in Asbury Park from September 30 through October 2, has added a second performance by the no-longer-all-that-reclusive Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum to its itinerary, and is releasing new tickets to accommodate those people who might want to see it. The "Three-Day Sunday Jeff Mangum Pass," currently on sale for $269 plus fees, gets access to all three days of the festival and the Jeff Mangum performance taking place on Sunday. (Early-bird pass buyers have an in to Mangum's previously announced Friday show.) In addition, the weekend's lineup now includes sets by Marc Ribot, Colin Stetson, and Thinking Fellers Local Union 282; comedy performances by Hannibal Burress and Reggie Watts; and a DJ set by the dudes who run the probably self-explanatory music blog Awesome Tapes From Africa. The full lineup as it stands now is below.

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​The Daily Swarm got wind of an eBay auction for a pair of tickets to Elephant 6 cult hero Jeff Mangum's September 9 show at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, which predates his appearance at the Portishead-curated ATP in Asbury Park by about three weeks. The asking price for the chance to be one of "hundreds" watching the gig: $5,600. Plus shipping. (Aw, c'mon!) Now, granted, the listing has been up since March and nobody's bitten yet, so perhaps the Tampa-based concern "bestavailabletickets" might wind up making a bit less of a profit. But still!

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At 11 a.m., New Yorkers got their long awaited, announced in advance, ticketed-and-everything, first official Neutral Milk Hotel show (slated for October 29th) in a long, long time. And at 11:01 a.m., perhaps unsurprisingly, it was already over--if LCD Soundsystem can sell out Madison Square Garden in less than a second, then rest assured Jeff Mangum can manage to fill the much smaller capacity Town Hall in a minute or so. This time, people actually seemed to get tickets. But not many of them. And their elation was immediately drowned in the tears of their less lucky peers. Phish fans, what did you do before Twitter made every highly anticipated ticketing event such a heartrending circus of human pathos?:

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​Update: This is already sold out. Let the weeping begin. Just a friendly reminder that tickets for Neutral Milk Hotel guru Jeff Mangum's feverishly awaited solo show at Town Hall (happening October 29, which is an impossibly far-away date to conceive of right now, but those Pavement shows happened eventually, y'know) are on sale via Ticketmaster at 11 a.m.; rest assured, when this sells out in like 10 seconds, that he won't get all huffy on Twitter and announce four run-up shows at Terminal 5. (He is doing quite a few other shows, yes, but they're all at least somewhat out of town.) To whet your appetite/jog your memory, here he is doing "Engine," in the very sweater you see above. This show is going to be super awkward and probably fantastic.

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​The greatest indie-rock comeback story of all time (probably) (hopefully) continues apace: Neutral Milk Hotel deity Jeff Mangum has now announced a clutch of East Coast shows to complement his appearance at that crazy Asbury Park ATP event that I'm assuming is all sorts of sold out by now. The new slate includes shows in such deserving locales as Toronto, Boston, and, yes, New York City proper, via an October 29 date at Town Hall, which is a fantastic venue for him, a good mix of luxurious grandiosity and funereal hush. He'll be at the Loew's Theater in Jersey City a week later, too, and as you read this he's reading an email from the Pitchfork Festival people offering him, like, eight billion dollars to drop by this year. It's all happening. Per Pitchfork, here's the lineup:

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@atpfestival

Last year's All Tomorrow's Parties inexplicably only drew 2,300 people out of a 3000 capacity--mindboggling to us that anyone who actually likes music would miss such a beautifully orchestrated thing--but this year's Portishead/Jeff Mangum double-billed festival, from September 30 to October 2, 2011, is looking like it will sell-out overall. As of now, the Neutral Milk Hotel ascetic is only playing two shows that weekend: one on Friday, September 30 that requires a three-day pass for entry, and another completely separate show on Monday night, October 3. The latter option sold out almost immediately; the $269 former, which also includes the entire weekend's undoubtedly stellar programming, is almost gone.

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​Good lord. All Tomorrow's Parties is bringing their boutique full-immersion indie-rock weekend blowout to a new spot this year: Asbury Park, NJ. ATP's three-day I'll Be Your Mirror fest will be partially curated by Portishead (!) and headlined by none other than fuckin' Jeff Mangum (!!!!), last seen regaling a room full of lucky Bushwickians as part of a tentative comeback attempt he's apparently finally ready to begin in earnest. Show goes down September 30 and October 1-2; a three-day pass (necessary to get into the first of two Mangum shows, with the other one a separate ticket) runs you $249, with the usual ATP amenities -- comedy stage, mini film festival, Steve Albini poker room (well, probably, given that Shellac are among the few other confirmed bands), etc. etc. -- thrown in. This is frankly pretty incredible. Full release with payment/schedule info below: See you in Jersey. Sheesh.

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This is pretty much what it was like

​So Jeff Mangum played a bunch of Neutral Milk Hotel songs in a Bushwick loft on Saturday night, for a crowd of around 75 people, you not among them. The show was partly set up by Ba Da Bing Records guru Ben Goldberg, who has a lot of explaining to do, so we thought we'd reach out and (politely!) inquire about his guest-list machinations, why he tried to keep everyone from documenting it (only a partial success), and how life-altering an experience it was, exactly. Here are his thoughts/apologies.

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