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Flaming Lips

131east23

131east23

...near Frank's Pizza!
I'm really just getting into this band. I've got a couple of their cd's from the library and the rest are on their way, including DSOTM. So far I'm really impressed with their ability to create textures, layers and juxtapose heavy lyrics with "lighter pop" sounds. I found this performance on youtube and really loved it, the Lips covering the Who...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDvddyaeTQ0&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL77D40B3583B43E9E

What do you think of the Flaming Lips?
 
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I love them. Seeing them live outdoors in 2004 was one of my best show experiences. It was raining, in California, by the Queen Mary and somehow it just worked. It's really something...they have a very, well, odd show. White suits, blood, furry animal costumes, a hundred giant beach balls being passed around, he gets in a bubble and walks over the crowd in it. Peaches (singer/performance artist) showed up and they did War Pigs. It was just fantastic.

I like their more song-like/melodic stuff. Didn't care of the DSOTM disc, or much of their recent output. Well, I take that back. I HATED Embryonic until I dated a stoner last year. I learned to understand it.

They're capable of doing almost anything, and pulling it off. From serious and incredibly moving to outright stupidity. And even when they fail, I appreciate them trying it, because they go all-in.
 
@ War With the Mystics

is a great recording,my favorite of which I have heard. Also like The Soft Bulletin too. :music:
 
Love the FLips and your description of them is a good one. If you dig them, you may also like a band called Mercury Rev, perhaps even more experimental and "indie" than the Lips are. Pretty savage stuff. Real good. :yes: Anyway, I managed to score one of the limited colored vinyl box sets from the Flaming Lips web site last record store day...

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Embryonic is sort of difficult to get into....but it is a fun listen after a while. The version of Money on DSOTM is cool. I would recommend At War With The Mystics and one of the early ones called Clouds Taste Metallic. I want to get Zaireeka, which is a a single cd of songs but has to be played on 4 cds simultaneously on 4 separate stereo sound systems all being syncronized...it is basically a 16 track presentations of 8 songs I believe. I have three stereo systems in my room all i need to do is add a boombox and I am set. The album was intentionally designed to go out of sync as you play the cds no matter how well you sychronize the start of the 4 cd players so that no two listening sessions are the same....what a cool idea.
 
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agree, FL awesome. always felt like Soft Bulletin was like the soundtrack to an unmade Sci Fi movie, from its optimistic opening, about dueling scientists (Race for the Prize), complications (Suddenly Everything has Changed) to some disaster (The Gash), to somber thoughtfulness (Feeling Yourself Disintegrate) back to hope.
'Disintegrate' is a beautiful, wonderful song.
'Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon' is a great, great instrumental.
 
Love the Lips. Seen them twice and both times they were amazing.

My favorites are Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and At War With the Mystics. Please don't ask me to pick a favorite -- each has moments of astounding beauty. And I have all of them in 5.1.

I have not yet warmed up to Embryonic, but I think I really just need to spend time with it in order to get it.
 
I love the Flaming Lips. "Clouds Taste Metallic" is my favourite LP of theirs. One of the best shows I've seen was the Lips at the Town Pump in Vancouver during the "Clouds Taste Metallic" tour.

The Fearless Freaks is a great DVD documentary about the Lips.
 
Saw them back in '92 (Lollapalooza side stage?) and '93 (Bar-B-Que-Mitzvah tour opening for Stone Temple Pilots and The Butthole Surfers).

Really dig Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi is cool as well.
 
Scroller said:
Love the FLips and your description of them is a good one. If you dig them, you may also like a band called Mercury Rev, perhaps even more experimental and "indie" than the Lips are. Pretty savage stuff. Real good. :yes: Anyway, I managed to score one of the limited colored vinyl box sets from the Flaming Lips web site last record store day...

DSCN3979.jpg

DSCN4000.jpg
Click to expand...

WOW, fantastic record covers
 
This thread made me dig out my old CD's and load them on my iPod. Listening to The Soft Bulletin right now, haven't listened to it in a long time, sounds great.
 
I have been listening to these cd's for weeks now and just don't get tired of them. I really love "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots". I also was really taken by the instrumental "Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon (Utopia Planetia)". The music conjures a great vast landscape. When I hear it I can't help but think that the Lips would be the perfect band to create a soundtrack for any movie based upon a Thomas Pynchon novel.

I have been listening to "Embryonic" for the last few days while driving to and from work and then came home tonight and listened to it on the big speakers. It's been a while since I have a heard a string of back to back songs like "Sagittarius Silver Announcement", "Worm Mountain", "Scorpio Sword", "The Impulse", "Silver Trembling Hands", and "Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast". This series of songs, comprising about the last third of the album, just really moves me. There are so many great layers of sound and so much going on. At times the music can be big and distorted and then other times it is absolutely melodic and beautiful. Reminds me of ethereal Hendrix, like "Third Stone From The Sun" or maybe Moby Grape, but with a real hard, at times grungy but lush techno bent to it. This is great stuff!

"The Soft Bulletin" is also wonderful. I dig their DSOTM; don't know if anybody else could do that: stay so close to the original yet give a completely different take on it.
 
Their accessibility probably peaked on Yoshimi and At War (both excellent albums) but I'd think that most of their fans would agree that the masterpiece was The Soft Bulletin.

All of their output through the 90's was pretty strong though. Transmissions and Clouds are superb as well.
 
Good thread. I've owned Embryonic for quite some time and have listened through it numerous times.

This thread got some gears turning and bought a copy of Yoshimi on vinyl off the bay yesterday. Cant wait until it arrives. Soft Bulletin on vinyl goes for a higher price than what I really want to pay unfortunately. Anywhere from $70 to $150.
 
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