Flashback Friday: Julian Koster

Something had to be in the water when a few southern men and woman were drinking and screwing in a lake in the late 70s, because nothing explains why the folks of the enigmatic Elephant Six collective are so rich in original material. But, being that it’s really late on a Friday night, let us enjoy rather than analyze Julian Koster (how I wish his orbiting human circus came our way!). Koster, a multi-instrumentalist of Neutral Milk Hotel fame, has fronted Music Tapes, Chocolate U.S.A. and has been a “secret” member of Major Organ and the Adding Machine (don’t go download any of those by association unless you are fan of Don Van Vliet‘s most extreme figurative expressionism), is seen here with banjo and eye-crossing, Mangum-like falsetto in tow. Here is a house-event, solo performance of Music Tapes’ “Manifest Destiny” (from Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes):