The Flaming Lips...

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.

Drodz still drums a bit on the records. Embryonic has him and Kliph Scurlock pounding away together on some tracks. Sure there are clips of this.

Thought Heady Fwends was awful, a real backwards step after the pretty great Embryonic. Sun Blows Up Today is dreadful, but as it's a non-album track I'll let em off the hook for now. Really hope the new album is a good un...

Anyone listening to the new one? Weird album.

Wow, this really is weird album. I'm glad it's nothing like Sun Blows Up Today which sounded like a At War With Mystics outake. I think I'm going to need a lot more time with it just like Embryonic. It's such an understated album, really beautiful in places.

I don't think I'm going to be able to listen to it too often. It's very slow and dense and completely absent of their zany starry-eyed optimism. That's not a bad thing, but it just seems like one of those albums you can only listen to as a whole if you want to really enjoy it. And it's not a whole that I want to listen to lots.

It's very slow and dense and completely absent of their zany starry-eyed optimism.

WANT

Yeah, really, that only makes me more interested.

I like it. I think many of you will too.

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'm digging "Ashes in the Air" on Heady Fwends (the Bon Iver tune) quite a bit.

Do people think this is a "silly" record? Because I'm not hearing that based on the first three tracks.

I am curious also as to why so many folks disparage Heady Fwends. I find it fantastic nearly despite itself. One would think the very idea of a record like this is a terrible one but, I think they pull it off quite well. Can someone explain to me what they find so repellent about this? I'd love to know.

The tracks I heard seemed like repetitive jokes. I haven't listened to the whole LP, though. I never really wanted to because they didn't pick any musicians I'd really like to hear them collaborate with. I remember the Neon Indian track being particularly poor.

But I'll say I'm a big fan of bands that do these kinds of things. It seems like they really lifted themselves out of a rut after At War with the Mystics. They were coming close to being an inessential band that keeps making the same type of record. Embryonic was a nice kick in the ass and The Terror continues down that path...

This thread makes me sad. My boyhood hero Wayne Coyne is actually in real-life a total dickhead.

I've always thought he was a dick. I don't know why so many people thought othrwise.

Embryonic was a nice kick in the ass and The Terror continues down that path...

So glad to read this. Embryonic was my album of the year that year and, in my mind, possibly the best thing they've ever done. Definitely the best thing they've done since Priest Driven Ambulance. Anyway, waiting for a physical copy of the new one, but I'm pleased to hear that commercial song is NOT a indicator of this album.

It's sort of like the songs aren't even there-nothing catchy other than bum-bum-spssssh-bum-bum-bum-spsssssh-ahhhhhh-but i love the sound of this. Has that 2am-smoking-too-many-cigarettes feel. Lots of cool droning humming buzzing electronics, sounding at times like an Operating Room. The same feel Priest had, but with far more complex songs. After the Priest Driven Ambulance arrives, the Priest is joined by scientists (having finished racing for the prize). Sounds amazing! The future and the past all at once.

"You Lust" is almost Industrial Lite. Hospital Wave. Drums like breathing apparatus. Synth lines like an EKG.

Like "mbv" it sounds like something that has a lot of depth that will reward successive listens.

"Always There" has an awesome bass synth line.

Like this a lot and I couldn't get with Embryonic at all.

On first listen through. gggreeeaaatttt so far.

The Terror is so great, it's just getting better and better each time I play it. This is probably their fifth masterpiece now.

Wayne is heavily featured in the (pretty fucking hilarious) Virgin Mobile ad:

http://m.pitchfork.com/news/49880-watch-wayne-coyne-stars-in-extremely-weird-virgin-mobile-commercial/

Wishing I loved this, but so far only the first track really does it for me. The rest is a little too. . . placid? 'Embryonic' had the same darkness, but had a lot of sonic variety--and especially those evil beats, such that it's double-LP length really flies by. 'The Terror' really drags--which is a shame, considering they made 6-hour and 24-hour songs that were remarkably listenable, for what they were. Maybe my expectations are too high, whereas I had only negative expectations prior to 'Embryonic'. Take out a couple of the more barely-there tracks for a couple of the 2011 tracks (like "Is David Bowie Dying?" or "Drug Chart" (which is fairly minimal in its own right)) and I think it would be much improved. I also much prefer the original version of "Butterly (How Long It Takes to Die)"--I don't think the out-of-rhythm Gang of Four guitar adds anything, probably detracts from the excellently creepy atmosphere.

Actually, pulling it all out now, I think you could make a very similarly dark, but more sonically varied, LP out of the non-collaboration 2010-2011 tracks. That stuff got overshadowed by the (inferior) 'Heady Fwends' stuff--nothing on that outside of the Erykah Badu collab stands up. Kinda seems like they screwed themselves out of what would've been a great LP, via all the wacky-release shenanigans.

Feel like compiling one? I found it hard to keep track of everything that came out. Though i think 'Heady Fwends' and all the 'gimmicky' stuff is vastly underrated, I can't really see a full-length from what I've heard.

If "I found a star on the ground" isn't full-length, I don't know what is..

Apropos of being on an early Lips kick and nothing else:

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

Remembering when Michael had the best rock 'fro in the 80s and early 90's

Hah yes. I was walking around yesterday and "Jesus Shooting Heroin" got stuck in my head for some weird reason.

Still think "She is Death" and "Godzilla Flick" off the first record could both pretty much fit on any of their albums.

"Jesus Shooting Heroin" has been stuck in my head also, like ever since I first came across that album. Genuis song title/idea imho.

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.