Jeff Mangum is an American musician best known for being the lyricist, vocalist and guitarist of the band Neutral Milk Hotel, as well as being one of the cofounders of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Born in Ruston, Louisiana, Mangum, along with the other founding members of the Elephant 6 including his sister Caroline Mangum, attended Ruston High School in the late 1980s. The friends shared a passion for psychedelic acts of the 1960s, most notably The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Syd Barrett, and The Velvet Underground, as well as an affinity for later alternative rock bands such as Sonic Youth and the Minutemen. They reflected these influences in the tapes they recorded and shared with each other, forming the seeds of what would become the Elephant 6 Collective. He is married to Astra Taylor, known for making the documentary film ?i?ek! about the Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj ?i?ek. 

October 24th, 1970 in Ruston (Age 53)