The Flaming Lips...

Mystics has some deep cuts I like a lot ("Cosmic Autumn Rebellion", "Pompeii", "Goin On") but some real dogs as well

Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung is my favorite off of Mystics. Meh record with like 3-4 killer songs.

For any people who disliked the Lips pop/whimsy trilogy of The Soft Bulletin/Yoshimi/Mystics give Embryonic and The Terror a try. Completely different atmosphere, sound and emotional palette, and my two favorite records by the band.

New one is quite good btw, and is a sonic turn from the last decade back into more of a bright instrumentation a la Yoshimi, but with much darker and introspective narrative to the lyrics. Definitely more autobiographical like their 90's records rather than the cosmic, fictional storytelling that came after.

Never liked the sound of their records from the 90's other than Clouds Taste Metallic. I don't get the nostalgia for that era. They weren't very good and felt like a middling indie band.

Yeah Embryonic was a big surprise to me at the time, I had p much written them off and then Embryonic felt like a bolt out of nowhere, the first time in forever that this band that constantly throws around words like "freak" & "weird" made a record that actually sounded weird and freaky. I've probably reached for that one more than any of their others over the last ten years.

I can't prove this, but I credit Kliph Scurlock for productively kicking their assess on that one.

and after he left (got sacked) they went on a long detour back to cutesy gimmickland for quite a while, so I suspect he really was a (the?) key ingredient there for a bit

With Wayne & Michael Ivins' extremely limited instrumental abilities, it seems like its always good for them to have someone else in the room who can actually play music along with Drozd (who otherwise afaict basically plays like 95% of whats on the records, right?)

Clouds Taste Metallic is wonderful but I'm well aware that it's at the top of my list because of nostalgic reasons. Embryonic and The Terror are excellent and likely my #2 and #3 favorites. This new one is right up there though. Still processing but so far its been exactly what I've wanted recently. A sad look at reality but also calming and melodic.

Never liked the sound of their records from the 90's other than Clouds Taste Metallic. I don't get the nostalgia for that era. They weren't very good and felt like a middling indie band.

― octobeard, Monday, September 14, 2020 11:21 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

offtm, a middling indie band couldn't produce "superhumans"

guitars big, hooks strong

I love the sound of those records. The Bonham drums rule.

Kliph has played drums on the last two or three Gruff Rhys albums if you want more of his drumming.

Always surprised Wayne hasn't gotten metoo'd yet

I actually like Steven's drumming best!

xpost - at the very least he should have gotten far more blowback for that Badu shit he pulled.

a friend of a friend was his assistant and it sounded like it was crazy

when they weren't busy he made her paint his house

Kliph made him out to be a real angry, volatile, even somewhat violent character, which is obviously impossible to verify, but that seems to line up with what I thought was hiding behind that Yoshimi-era goofiness.

Kliph only drummed on some of Embyonic, if I remember right. And he left afterwards. I know there was a lot going on, but he seemed really irritated with Wayne running around with Kesha and I assume the mid-life hedonism/crisis that Wayne was going through around that time. Wayne as a freaky workaholic was much better than Wayne the insufferable stoner.

He's also credited on The Terror but idk how credits/reality line up for them

there's interviews where he talks about the terror sessions, it seems pretty clear he played on it too.

It’s only been a week but I've already cooled considerably on this album.

All these TV specials on John Lennon in honor of what would have been his 80th birthday reminded me of the only time I saw the Flaming Lips, at Irving Plaza in NYC.
Wayne Coyne says, "this song is dedicated to everyone whose birthday it is today!!" and people in the audience get really excited, yelling that it's their birthday, or it's their friend Sarah's birthday, or their dog's birthday... And this one guy in the front row keeps shouting "it's John Lennon's birthday!! it's John Lennon's birthday" over and over. Wayne seems to be ignoring him at first, then finally he says (in a slightly annoyed tone)
"yeah yeah, i know, it's John Lennon's birthday. But he's dead, y'know?
Why should we celebrate his birthday when there are all these people whose birthday it is and they're here to enjoy it??"

idk about this guy, but thought that was cool.

Surprised by how much I like their new one. The only track I don’t really care for is “Brother Eye,” and even that’s listenable.

I like it with reservations. I enjoy the music, and Wayne's schtick doesn't bother me like it had been starting to. My main problem with the new one is that Wayne doesn't take a break often enough. As much as American Head gets compared to the Soft Bulletin, that album had a lot of long bad-ass instrumental sections.

I kept wanting Wayne to take a break with the new one. And sometimes he'll sing the same thing repeatedly, seemingly to fill up space, when singing it once would work much better. I need to listen to it more, maybe I'll get over these issues.

https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/flamings-lips-day-san-francisco-stern-grove-18299291.php

"We’re very grateful to embrace August 20 as The Flaming Lips Day in San Francisco," the band's frontman Wayne Coyne said in a statement. "We’ve had many shared moments in this city and we feel grateful to be a part of the creative and eclectic fabric of the San Francisco music scene that makes this city so special.”

While tickets cost nothing, this Sunday's show — that also includes a DJ set from Neon Indian aka Alan Palomo — is sold out. Some tickets will be released at random this week for those who registered at www.sterngrove.org.

Last great album was The Terror, which was their best since Soft Bulletin.

That one song off the latter is all over this film trailer I just watched.

No sorry, off Yoshimi. DO U SEE??

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.