Tag Archives: Flaming Lips

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The Flaming Lips – Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell

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The Flaming Lips – Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (Warner Bros.)

People residing in lands far enough from the equator in either direction deal with a decidedly different day/night structure then we’re accustomed to. Due to the tilt of our sphere, people in these regions either see 24 hours of daylight or 24 hours of nighttime. That being said, someone listening to a Flaming Lips album might think the band chose to exist only during those periods of continuous sunshine, as, over time and even more so with The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Wayne Coyne and associates have consistently cornered the deep market of psychedelic, blissed-out indie popsters. Over the band’s lengthy discography, never before have they had as much popularity, praise, and artistic merit as they currently have.

2002’s Yoshimi caused a storm of publicity upon its release and later in the year on many critics’ year-end lists, highly-lauded for its approach to sentimental music, a farewell to a close friend deceased and a rumination on mortality. No less then four singles have been released from it, the latest, “Ego Tripping (at the Gates of Hell)”, finding the a-side backed by this supporting EP, which comes away with mixed results.

Four new tracks and three Yoshimi remixes appear here; the new tracks come off incredibly well and the remixes stand as basic EP filler. The new tracks are brighter and more expansive then most of Yoshimi and move the digital influence to the back of the mix in order to support a far more organic sound. “Sunship Balloons” and “Assassination of the Sun” sound like they could have come from The Soft Bulletin or even Clouds Taste Metallic, but are complimented a great deal better by Dave Fridmann’s much more evolved and advanced production. “A Change at Christmas” is a falling snowflake from the New York City sky, Coyne hoping that the world could behave just as beautifully as it does around the holidays. All in all, the new tracks provide much hope in a sonic landscape too often filled with negative sentiment.

The three remixes don’t come off as anything more than ordinary, “Do You Realize??” getting another remix treatment, this time from Jimmy Tamborello, the whiz behind Dntel and The Postal Service; whereas “Ego Tripping” gets two consecutive reworkings. All three settle on a cut up of the vocals placed over a drum’n’bass or used house loop with chiming bells thrown in for effect. They slow down the EP’s second half, but do their job as alternate takes competent enough to flesh out the running time of the release. They don’t block the power of the new material, which is all that fans of the band could ask for.

Coyne manages to keep an everlasting optimism despite the knowledge that things aren’t always perfect. The thing that makes The Flaming Lips so special, though, is that they realize that despite the fact that things are never perfect, Yoshimi does win from time to time, and that’s enough of an inspiration to get out of bed each morning and laugh.

Read the Glorious Noise review of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

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Johnny’s Musical Memories, 2002

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The Chinese lunar calendar declares 2003 will be the year of the goat. While this definitely portends danger for many musicians who are currently heroes or heroines in hearts of millions (Kelly Rowland should be very worried), let’s take a moment to look back on what the same calendar called the year of the black horse, 2002. Some musical highlights are described below. In the meantime, let’s all look forward to “American Idol 2”, “Joe Millionaire”, “Star Search: Live!”, “The Bachelorette”, and “Celebrity Mole: Hawaii”, which curiously features no actual celebrities. (Aside to Stephen Baldwin – It’s true. You’re not really a celebrity. Get a real job and leave us alone.)

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Beck’s Bipolar Brouhaha

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Beck with the Flaming Lips

Chicago Theater, October 18, 2002

Beck may be our generation’s greatest songwriter and best hope for sneaking good music into the mainstream culture of America. But his show Friday night at the Chicago Theater left a lot to be desired.

Now don’t think I’m one of these radio-come-latelies who only wanted to hear “Loser” and “Devil’s Haircut” (both of which he played along with his other hits, “Where It’s At,” “The New Pollution,” and “Jack-Ass”). I would have been happier if he dug deeper into his freaky catalog; as it was, he only played one song (Stereopathetic Soulmanure‘s “One Foot in the Grave”) from any of his early, independent releases.

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COOL CHANGE

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New material from The Flaming Lips

Johnny Loftus

Weirdness ensues. The Flaming Lips are back July 16th with Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, an album that’s better than a hundred others that will come out this year, if only for its title and cover art. The music itself is like intergalactic meringue, or a spaceship shaped like an enormous BLT. Because nothing is simple in The Flaming Lips’ world, yet the components used are the stuff of normalcy. The Flaming Lips: Comfort food for alien mystics.

Flaming Lips vocalist and principle songwriter Wayne Coyne is either famously eccentric or infamously nuts. But like his peers in Modest Mouse, Ween, Mercury Rev, and Grandaddy, he and his Lips cohorts fashion beauty from insanity. On the lilting, creaking, burbling Yoshimi, The Lips carve a story arc out of moon cheese, relying on the electric guitar to string together the album’s varying musical themes. It’s the kind of music that shifts on a breeze. “I thought there was a virtue in always being cool,” Wayne Coyne sings in “Fight Test.” “I don’t know where the sunbeams end and the starlight begins – it’s all a mystery.” Throughout, sunlit guitars (“Ego Tripping At the Gates of Hell,” “It’s Summertime”) are layered with heaping helpings of keyboards and effects; it’s as if Cornelius moved to Oklahoma City to gig with The Little River Band.

The music of The Flaming Lips has always possessed the doping effect of intense humidity. Even “She Don’t Use Jelly,” the zany, unlikely breakout hit from 1993’s Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, was swimming in its own florid atmospherics. That sound continued through the ambitious communal experiment of 1997’s 4-disc Zaireeka, and the opaque, fibrous pop of 1999’s Soft Bulletin. The great thing about this journey? The music has always been wonderful. Complicated, yes. Kooky? Definitely. But The Lips always keep at least one toe behind the line. Yoshimi‘s “One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21” begins with a phoned-in synth line that sounds like Mike Oldfield performing at a funeral and builds into an updated Pink Floyd verse, which is then joined by a shuffling beat that would almost be 2-step garage if it had a bit more bottom end. Oldfield finally claws and scratches his way back to the top of the mix, and is accompanied by the plucking of an acoustic guitar and a symphony of electronics that wouldn’t be out of place on a David Arkenstone record. But just when you’re sure they’re broadcasting live from the third ring of Saturn, The Flaming Lips present “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots P.1,” the tuneful, head-nodding pop dittie that abuts against the back end of “One More Robot.” Informed with the grinning quality of Gram Parson’s best work, the song reminds you that there are the spare parts of a rock and roll band inside this great space coaster.

A lot of what The Flaming Lips do wouldn’t be out of place on a Robert Wyatt album. Nevertheless, for over ten years, The Flaming Lips have recorded for Warner Brothers. It’s not as odd a fit as you might imagine. While it is home for the broad-based pap of Better Than Ezra and sworn GLONO enemy Sting, Warner Brothers’ roster also includes the sci-fi wasabi of Cibo Matto, the intellectual electronica of Stereolab, and Clem Snide’s achy breaky pop. This isn’t news; it’s just interesting to note how stylistically far enormous record labels like WB will range in their quest for the almighty dollar. The Flaming Lips seem to be conducting the Wilco method with their label. While they certainly aren’t rock stars, there’s no question that The Lips have a solid, if not rabid following, one that is guaranteed to clear a certain amount of receipts in tour revenue and album sales. And in what may be a sign both of burgeoning artist autonomy and the name of the music game in the 21st century, The Flaming Lips have been streaming the entirety of Yoshimi over their website for the past few weeks. Warner may not care if The Lips’ new material is released early; after all, the band isn’t required to help the label clear its third quarter earnings estimate. But it’s funny that Warner Brothers hasn’t asked The Flaming Lips to record “She STILL Don’t Use Jelly!”

In the meantime, take your protein pills and put your helmet on, because Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is on its way. And if you can’t wait like Glorious Noise can’t wait, listen to it as much as you want at www.flaminglips.com.

JTL