The Ultra-Mega Flaming Lips post, part 1

This is a hard one to do, because, like, say Yo La Tengo, the Lips have such a HUGE volume of
material, both commercial and unofficial, that it's almost impossible to get a comprehensive selection of their stuff up..... on the other hand, they are SO WEIRD, and so innovative in many ways, and so unique, that I think that those who are unfamiliar with the band really need an introduction......

Well, this will probably take 3 to 4 days so if you just hate the Flaming Lips, take some time off.....if you LOVE them, I do have a few boots and EP's and stuff, so you might want to stick around for that.

So, the Lips go back aways, as we will see, and revel in weirdness, often with some very wonderful results.....hailing form Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the Lips are BASICALLY singer/guitarist/keyboardist Wayne Coyne, bassist Michael Ivins, drummer/multi-instrumentalist Steve Drozd (These are the longtime members, there have been many inermittent hangers-on, most recently guitarist/keyboardist Derrek Brown and keyboardist guitarist Jake Ingalls.....

So, our story begins around 1986 with their debut album, "Hear It Is", they had some singles/EP's prior that we will touch on later, but "Hear It Is" was the first that most of us (myself included) had heard of the band.....titles alone, such as "Jesus Shooting Heroin" and "Charlie Manson Blues" kind of set the stage for what is in store here, it's  good album of weird spacey pop-rock.

Turning up the amps (but NOT the weirdness) a small bit for 1987's "Oh My Gawd!....The Flaming Lips", this is one of the fine unknown albums of the 1980's......it's a shame the bogus term "alternative rock" hadn't been coined just yet, the Lips would have fit the niche perfectly. Quite a good album, for my money, highlighted by "One Million Billionth of a Millisecond on a Sunday Morning" and "Maximum Dream For Evel Kneivel" (God, I love a great song title, makes me long for the glory days of Love/Arthur Lee).

They topped themselves yet again with 1989's "Telepathic Surgery", with such great shit as "Drug
Machine" and "Hari-Krishna Stomp Wagon (Fuck Led Zeppelin)", Don't miss the highlight, the amazing, ultra-weird 23-min. "Hell's Angels Cracker Factory",words simply cannot do it justice. one of the weirdest tracks ever recorded

"In a Priest Driven Ambulance" was the band's itnroduction to the 1990's, a weird concept album dealing with Wayne Coyne's fascination with religion..... I'm not sure I follow the concept exactly, but this is their FOURTH good album in a row, "Unconsciously Screaming" stands out as the highlight for me at least, but as this IS a conceptual work, it DOES work best heard in it's entirety.

"Hit To Death in the Future Head", is, maybe for my money, their weakest work to date, although not horrendous or anything.....for some reason the version I have hear does NOT have the infamous "Hidden Bonus Track ", nearly a half hour of noise that would make a fan of "Metal Machine Music" ejaculate....

OK, we will wrap up part one here with a very significant LP, 1993's fine "Transmissions From the Satellite Heart".....one of the better albums of 1993, we were now well into the "alt-rock" era, so weirdness was appreciated, so much, in fact, that the Flaming Lips actually scored a fluke hit single with the magnificent "She Don't Use Jelly" (which actually attempts to find a way to rhyme the word "orange")....the rest of the album is just as great, "Turn It On", "Pilot Can at the Queer Of God", "Oh My Pregnant Head" and more, this is an essential album that is sometimes overlooked as simply the album from which "She Don't Use Jelly" comes.

OK, this is  great place to stop or today.....the Lips finally had a taste of fame with "She Don't Use Jelly", and "Transmissions" is a fine album to boot.......what would happen next, is these guys would actually get weirder, so check out tomorrow to see what the next era of Flaming Lips greatness would bring.......for today, I hope these six discs keep you busy, let me know (PLEASE) what you think of them, one of the USA's most underappreciated bands for my money.

HEAR IT IS-01 With You/02 Unplugged/03 Trains, Brains, and Rain/04 Jesus Shooting Heroin/05 Just Like Before/06 She Is Death/07 Charlie Manson Blues/08 Man From Pakistan/09 Godzilla Flick/10 Staring at the Sound/With You II/11 Summertime Blues

OH MY GAWD...THE FLAMING LIPS-01 Everything's Exploding/02 One Million Billionth of a
Millisecond on a Sunday Morning/03 Maximum Dream For Evel Kneivel/04 Can't Exist/05 Ode To CC part 1/06The Ceiling is Bendin'/07 Prescription; Love/08 Thanks To You/09 Can't Stop the Spring/10 Ode To CC Part II/11 Love Yer Brain

TELEPATHIC SURGERY-01 Drug Machine in Heaven/02 Right Now/03 Michael Time to Wake Up/04 Chrome Plated Suicide/05 Hari-Krishna Stomp Wagon (Fuck Led Zeppelin)/06 Miracle on 42nd Street/07 Fryin' Up/08 Hell's Angels Cracker Factory/09 UFO Story/10 Redneck School of Technology/11 Shaved Gorilla/12 The Spontaneous Combustion of John/13 The last Drop of Morning Dew/14 Begs and Achin'

IN A PRIEST DRIVEN AMBULANCE-01 Shine On Sweet Jesus (Jesus Song No. 5)/02 Unconciously Screamin'/03 Rainin' Babies/04 Take Meta Mars/05 Five Stop Mother Superior Rain/06 Stand In Line/07 God Walks Among Us Now: Jesus Song No. 6/08 There You Are: Jesus Song No. 7/09 Mountain Side/10 What a Wonderful World

HIT TO DEATH IN THE FUTURE HEAD-01 Talkin' Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants to Live Forever/02 Hit Me Like You Did the First Time/03 The Sun/04 Felt Good To Burn/05 Gingerale Afternoon (The Astrology of a Saturday)/06 Halloween on the Barbary Coasat/07 The Magician Vs the Headache/08 You Have to be Joking (Autopsy of the Devil's Brain)/09 Frogs/10 Hold Your Head

TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE SATELLITE HEART-01 Turn It On/02 Pilot Can at the Queer of God/03 Oh My Pregnant Head/04 She Don't Use Jelly/05 Chewin' the Apple of Your Eye/06 Superhumans/07 Be My Head/08 Moth in the Incubator/09 Plastic Jesus/10 When Yer Twenty Two/11 Slow Nerve Action

OK, got ambitious, this is a mega-mega post, the type of which I rarely do anymore.......I hope you enjoy it, I have a TON of Flaming Lips shit to share here, this group covers the early part of their career, but BELIEVE ME there is more total odd-ball shit to come..PLEASE, posts like this are a good bit of work, so if you sample the wares, at least be respectful enough to leave a comment, whether you wind up liking the albums or not. Thanks!