Jeff Mangum (born October 24, 1970 in Ruston, Louisiana) is a 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. Mangum, along with the other founding members of the Elephant 6, attended Ruston High School in the late 1980s. The friends shared a passion for bands of the 1960s such as The Zombies, as well as an affinity for newer, noisier bands such as Sonic Youth and Minutemen.[citation needed] 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