The Flaming Lips...

The song you're talking about is "Five Stop Mother Superior Rain" offa In a Priest Driven Ambulance (With Silver Sunshine Stares), their last indie album and the first to clearly announce the sound they'd pursue throughout the early 90s. It's easily one of my top 10 favorite Flaming Lips tracks, though there really isn't a bad song on the album. Dunno whether or not it has an official video, but here's a tube w/ photo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukt212_j-w8

FWIW, the vibe & theme are pretty typical for the Lips, echoed in different forms in many of their songs, from the first album's "Godzilla Glick" to "Do You Realize" on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. If you particularly like "Five Stop", I'd say the albums to check out are Priest Driven Ambulance and the major label follow-up, Hit to Death In the Future Head. A couple tracks that I think of as roughly similar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTrlMiqNL4I
"chrome plated suicide", from telepathic surgery, the album before PDA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkivf7SUdiw
"you have to be joking", from hit do death

lol, make that "Godzilla Flick". for the hell of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH7Kh4wYZlM

(album version is better, but what you gonna do)

god i loved this band

Thanks Fozzy! Of these, I really dig "You've Got To Be Joking." Just listened to "Five Stop Mother Superior Rain" again back-to-back with Royal Trux's "Air" and the similarities are obvious (though likely coincidental). I should mention that I despise everything I've heard of this band from The Soft Bulletin on, but I'm really loving the supremely stoned psych folk vibes of these tracks. What else should I check out? Which is the album that has the most like this?

hey, glad you dug some of that. thing is, they've got a few basic approaches, one of them being the stoned & shattered psych folk you seem to like. starting out, they p much alternated between that and more punk-garagey psych rock, plus points in between and experiments out in various directions. as a result, it's easier to point to tracks than to albums. if you dig the crispy 70s psych vibes in general, then their first two albums, hear it is and especially oh my gawd!!!, are the most obvious place to start. after that, just work your way forward.

track suggestions that lean in psych folkwardly direction, most probably previewable on youtube:

hear it is (1986) - "with you", "jesus shootin' heroin", "she is death"
oh my gawd (1987) - "one million billionth of a millisecond on a sunday morning", "ode to c.c. part 2", "love yer brain"
telepathic surgery (1989) - "miracle on 42nd street", "the spontaneous combustion of john"
in a priest driven ambulance (1990) - "rainin' babies", "stand in line", "there you are"
hit to death in the future head (1992) - "you have to be joking" is about it, but it's a great album for lots of other reasons
transmissions from the satellite heart (1993) - "chewin' the apple of your eye", "plastic jesus" (i.e., the song from cool hand luke, awesome)

the last three represent the early days of the dave fridmann production era, and after transmissions, a great album that fridmann did not produce, they disappear down that dreary wormhole.

i'm a little confused why more people aren't talking about Heady Fwends. how do the ilxors feel about it?

The only thing I've heard from Heady Fwends is the version of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face with Erykah Badu which is quite incredible. I just saw the album is getting a proper release on June 26th, will probably wait till then to give it a full listen. I sadly couldn't afford to get the vinyl.

the Badu collab sounds like the last song that gets played in the universe. sort of like a "pop" (relatively) version of the Disintegration Loops

Yeah, I couldn't score one of the LPs (and don't want to encourage eBay cocks who bought 'em to flip on Record Store Day), and I also don't want to listen to stuff on crummy YouTube rips - looking forward to hearing the real deal!

are you guys part of the weird "it's disrespectful to the artist to download album leaks" clan? (even though the album has been sold publicly and you can easily buy it later?) there are obviously well-circulated rips of this if you want to hear it so badly, and i don't really see that as morally suspect...

I suppose so! I guess I need to hear the artist say some variation on "yeah, feel free, download our stuff" rather than establishing my own set of justifications. I'm not weird or judgmental or anything like that - knock yourself out; seriously - it's just how I'm doin' it, I guess. I also have weird OCDisms about fidelity and physicality.

I do download or listen to most things before I buy them now but sometimes I really miss going out and buying an album I haven't heard before and putting it on. Don't get me wrong I've wasted lots of money in the past buying weak albums I wish I could have listened to before but now and then I wait till an album comes out to hear it, especially if its something I'm really sure I'm going to like. I'm fairly sure I'm going to really enjoy this album.

i can understand that. i guess the internet has just made me impatient about hearing stuff i'm excited to hear. then again, if i hadn't listened to it, i wouldn't be going around spreading the good word to my friends and on twitter & ilx!

Yeah I have to admit I start off with the intention of waiting but I almost always cave in and find the download as soon as I see people talking about the album I'm interested in. I'm pretty sure I'll be back on this thread in a few days talking about having heard this album. Embryonic totally made me fall in love with this band again just as I was losing interesting in them. Didn't bother with Dark Side of the Moon but looking forward to this.

it's a "fun" and "zany" listen

another Snarkout Boy about, I see

u callin me snarky? i like the Flaming Lips record in a very unsnarky way. i think that it is good.

was referring to poster Walter Galt, who I haven't seen before

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snarkout_Boys_and_the_Avocado_of_Death

ahh, well done. my pop culture knowledge has failed me.

Yeah, the Badu collab is all I hoped for (which was pretty high, given 'Embryonic' is top two or three albums of the last decade for me, and 'Mamas Gun' is probably top 5). Some of the stuff already issued on the EPs remains very good. All of the other non-EP new stuff left me bored or worse. Really hope they don't go back to "zany"--'Embryonic' is so fantastic.

I really love Heady Fwends; the middle of the album has so many great sounds. I think some truly good tunes got overshadowed by the novelty of it all. I wish they'd release all the other stuff from the limited EPs.

"I was stuck near the food court, wasn’t able to cross the airport to get to my gate. Flight left without me, all because of Wayne Coyne."

http://www.thelostogle.com/2012/11/19/wayne-coyne-brings-grenade-to-okc-airport-tsa-shuts-down-airport-people-miss-flights-and-lose-money/

<img src="Http://www.saidthegramophone.com/images/theterror.png";>

welcome to 1995

http://Http%3A//www.saidthegramophone.com/images/theterror.png

http://www.saidthegramophone.com/images/theterror.png

Wow, straight out of 1990.

Cool cover. Maybe it's time to revisit these guys, don't think I've listened for three or four years at this point...

It just occured to me how much teal & orange these guys have done throughout their career.

reminds me of CD bargain bins

weird, but i think i ended up listening to this mix: http://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/one-off-zygotic-after-the-flaming-lips-embryonic-2009/ more than embryonic itself.

That's what I was thinking, sean. Is it the font?

The first thing that came to mind was Under Rug Swept.

Was pretty bored with these guys until Embryonic, which is probably one of the best things they've done since the 80s, and I got all excited again. But then that Heady Fwends thing made me kind of sick of them again. Pile on that the bullshit Wayne pulled with the Badu sisters and I'm not sure if I even care anymore.

I'm hoping they've saved all the good stuff from the past few years for this. I agree w post-Embryonic lapse in quality tho i do support them cos they seem to still have a tireless work ethic. I haven't even listened to that radio drama they did yet. Was that any good?

Cool album cover tho. Not too keen on the font...

I've been waiting for a font like that for 15 years.

I just hope they stay dark and Krauty, with no bunny suits or confetti. Not that I didn't love the boombox experiments-through-Yoshimi period at the time, but man, Embryonic is a big leap upward. . .

Hmm, pretty inscrutable:

http://twitter.yfrog.com/emz41viqsrkrvykvslojeysyz
http://twitter.yfrog.com/n6czohyqgjumljbkfbeexzezz
http://twitter.yfrog.com/b9i43luijytduyvxbwxyscwnz

But this track is on the album, and it was one of the best of the weirdly-released things they were doing over the last couple years (along with parts of the 24-hour track and a few others):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py6y_AHOcx0

This new record looks promising. I'm super happy that the band has gotten weird again. That whimsical happy Yoshimi phase was pretty hard to take.

Not sure why there is so much animosity towards the Heady Fwends project. I actually think it was one of the best records last year. Besides the Nick Cave track there isn't a real clunker in the bunch. The Lips were always a drug band. In the early days it seemed to be of the more "psychedelic" variety but both "Embryonic" and "Fwends" seem to emanate a "harder" vibe. And, font choices aside (does it really matter?) I sense this new record will be in the same vein as the last two. One can hope anyway.

I'm super happy that the band has gotten weird again.

did you miss embyronic?

I love Embryonic becuase it's weird. And distrurbing.

And they are putting out a Zaireeka vinyl remaster too. Which is even more insane than the CD version. I imagine four record players keep in sync w each other far less than four CD players.

Aw man i just heard the new single and it is wretched.

Cool video tho.

Oh ok it was written for a car ad.

VP of marketing at Hyundai, Steve Shannon, told Billboard, "The Flaming Lips are very much like Hyundai. They're a little offbeat. They've been around a long time and they continue to reinvent themselves."

I get this weird cockroach vibe from the Lips these days. Like, Wayne has it all figured out, and after the nuclear apocalypse, the Flaming Lips will be the only band standing.

ha a guy who managed a local record store when i was in college already thought they were cockroaches by soft bulletin. he couldn't believe the shitty noise band he saw opening for dino jr in like 1986 was now the college radio supertramp

Hah I brought a giant plastic cockroach to the first gig I saw them at ('99) and Wayne signed it.

The "Sun Blows Up Today" song, I sort of like the droney bits, but overall the production is just crap. How on Earth do you have Steven Drozd in your band and end up with drums that sound this lousy? That is unforgivable.

Don't think Drozd plays drums for the band anymore, hasn't for years.

I actually saw the strangest show in San Francisco featuring the Flaming Lips. It's was all about audience participation. I'm still not sure what the hell is it was, it seems to be called "Boom-Box Experiment #4"

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-flaming-lips/1998/bimbos-365-club-san-francisco-ca-73f81271.html

Wow, it's online. Haha I was at this thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coBvv2r1gQU

I think that was one of the precursors to Zaireeka, when they were playing around with the idea of orchestrating sounds from many sources.

Yeah, iirc, there was also one where Wayne had a bunch of people play tapes from their cars as they were dispersed around a parking garage.

I was not at the one that Bee OK references but I was at the one that j/v/c2.0 refers to. Can confirm it was wild.

also as an aside, I want to say that I often misjudge how good "Hit To Death" is, might be their best album when all is said and done.

I know this was covered in the Rolling Obituary thread, but thought worth bumping in their proper thread... been a really rough few days for this band.

First, Nell Smith, a young musician they collaborated on an album of Nick Cave covers with a few years back died at the age of 17, in a car accident. And Steven Drozd's 16 year-old daughter went missing on Saturday.

drozd's daughter has apparently been found!

Oh, that's great news! Hadn't seen that update!

wonderful news

Haven't listened to them for a while but have felt for them (for want of a better phrase) over the last couple of days.

Just heard what seemed to be a cover of “Do You Realize??”

Don’t think it was Willie Nelson.

Hmm. Quite a few covers of that

Might just have been a live radio version.

There’s a ton of those on Deluxe Yoshimi.

Which is 100 songs/7 hours long

Holy shit, it actually is.

The Suspicious Minds cover I just randomly flipped to on that is surpassingly good. I think I was expecting Wayne to barf all over it and, well, it turned out to be quite an affecting vocal and arrangement.

Anyway, looks like Mr. Drozd's out, so it's just Wayne and his minions:

https://pitchfork.com/news/the-flaming-lips-steven-drozd-says-hes-no-longer-in-band/

There was good Lips before Drozd was the primary musician, but they've been running on fumes for a while. The Terror was a great return to form, after that it's been just okay. They were my favorite band during Zaireeka/Soft Bulletin.

Can still picture him pounding the shit out of his little drum kit at the two shows I saw them at little Shank Hall in the mid 90s. Top ten all-time shows for me. Ronald Jones era Lips is my favorite.

I didn't get to see them that early, but I saw them a lot from Soft Bulletin on. There was a joy in watching him play the drums that was lost a little when they expanded and he switched to guitar/keyboards/whatever.

I feel like wayne has always needed someone more talented to point him in the right direction. Drozd/Jones/Donahue

I’m not sure who’s in the band now… i guess his nephew?.

This is all pretty strange but I hope Drozd is OK, given his history. Also, this comes only a year after his daughter vanished (but was thankfully found, right?).

Interview with Drozd about it all:

https://stereogum.com/2497927/its-strange-to-be-talking-about-the-flaming-lips-in-the-past-tense-an-interview-with-steven-drozd/interviews/qa

Also, what Michael Ivins does these days:

https://thelollybombs.bandcamp.com/music

Also in that interview a sort-of Ronald Jones update:

He made such remarkably bizarre sounds out of that guitar. I have no idea how he even did that.

DROZD: He was so unique. We just knew that there was no one in league with him. And we took that as a sign that it was time for us to change, so that’s what we did.

Are you guys still in touch with Ronald at all?

DROZD: No, he has been out of the public eye since the late ’90s. I think he lives at home, maybe? I’m not really sure. I think Wayne may be in touch with his brother? But I haven’t spoken to Ronald since the ’90s.

y'know what would be cool, is a Stephen, Kliph, Ronald album.
Or, more realistically, a Stephen and Kliph album.

It would be!

Delighted to learn via me sharing this interview that some insane person has put together a massive Lips playlist on YouTube covering the entirety (as much as is available) of the Jones era. Here's the full thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jQeO0jpGJA

And here was a recommend show: "1994-10-23 - The Blind Pig, Champaign, IL. A+ soundboard, plus they open with Under Pressure."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdxBPnrWgNI

i'm glad drozd got to tell his side but jeez that interview was twice as long as it should have been

6100 words!

re-affirmed wayne can write a great song but relegates the music aspect to the on-hires.

gen x dennis deyoung

I know that Wayne gets a bad wrap nowadays, but regarding this situation I do think about “The Spiderbite Song” and how Drozd’s struggles have been there for a long time, including lying and covering up his issues. I can see how Wayne would be over it.