Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips

That's a really stunning performance. Deserters Songs is still my favourite by a long way but I really rate See You On The Other Side a lot too. This decade hasn't been too great for them, All Is Dream I loved at the time but hasn't really aged too well. I can't remember much about The Secret Migration apart from Vermillion which is one of their finest songs. The last album is the best of the three it has some really stunning moments but kind of loses it's way at the end.

The Flaming Lips really pulled it back with the new album. At War With Mystics was a classic example of an album I just loved when I first got it but after a few months I realised the songs just weren't there and I only go back to a couple of songs now and then. Vein Of Stars in particular which has one of my favourite vocals Wayne has done and they're not really a band I love for the vocals.

But on a disk from Uncut magazine from that time there's a gorgeous version of "Holes", from the Jools Holland show---the guitar solo will break your heart.

You can't seriously mean that guitar solo -- I like Grasshopper's work a lot--and that's otherwise a fine performance--but that solo sounds like some kid learning the pentatonic scale.

The Flaming Lips really pulled it back with the new album. At War With Mystics was a classic example of an album I just loved when I first got it but after a few months I realised the songs just weren't there and I only go back to a couple of songs now and then. Vein Of Stars in particular which has one of my favourite vocals Wayne has done and they're not really a band I love for the vocals.

I sort of agree -- I think AWWTM works better as a piece than individually in some ways, which is a weird thing to say given that the record is a series of stylistic experiments. And yes, "Vein of Stars" is really something else.

I think with both of these bands, i fell in love with something early on that they progressively shed as they moved along. shed, or cloaked or mutated or evolved or whatever - whatever the word, over time i became less able to relate to their music.

this is less true of the flaming lips, as i very much enjoyed watching them grow as a band for most of the 90s, and only lost interest circa clouds taste metallic, when they finally leached the last traces of punk and rock aggression from their sound. on the other hand, i like embryonic a lot, so it may be that i'm coming back around...

with mercury rev my disengagement was a fairly straight line: i loved (and still love) yrself is steam, liked boces, and while i've enjoyed many songs since, i haven't really cared much for the albums that contained them. this isn't the band's fault, and i don't impugn the quality of their music - it's just a matter of their pursuing something that's less able to speak to me, personally.

live version of "holes" posted above is very moving, though not for the guitar solo

The part in "holes" that kills me is that vaguely submarine-sounding synth whoosh that comes in after the line "sink like polished stones." It's not that audible on the clip upthread, but on record.. chills down the spine every time.

ha, yeah that solo is bleak, love m rev (and that performance) tho

haha well I think it's a very evocative solo, if not technically anything special; its tone, in the song as played in that performance, is striking.

That solo isn't a patch on the late period Louis Armstrong-a-like flugelhorn(?) solo from the album version.

**B**O**C**E**S**

^^^yes