The Ultra-Mega Flaming Lips Post, Part 2

OK, so yesterday we left off with "Transmissions From the Satellite Heart", a great album and a career high point. ....so what would they do after that?  Well, the next release was 1995's critically acclaimed "Clouds Taste Metallic". I don't know, it's OK, not a real favorite of mine, perhaps the weirdness-for -weirdness' sake bit had gotten a small bit stale, I don't know...but this is a decent disc as well, how can it NOT be with titles like "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles" or "The Guy Who Got a Headache and Saved the World".......not a bad disc, but in light of what was next to come....

OK. In 1997 the Lips released "Zaireeka"..... suffice to say this is one UNIQUE recording, there has NEVER been ANYTHING like it, or close....."Zaireeka" is four discs WHICH ARE DESIGNED TO BE PLAYED ON FOUR SEPARATE STEREOS AT THE SAME TIME..... thusly, the listener "becomes the engineer", so to speak, being able to "mix" the sound however he/she chooses. Believe it or not, back in 97 or 98, we actually DID THIS, I wonder how very FEW people have done so......it's actually an incredible sonic experience, if you are equipped to do so (try a handful of boomboxes), this is perhaps one of the most unique and rewarding listening experiences ever committed to plastic .....the "album" itself, is so-so, but the four disc experience has NEVER been replicated, I guarantee....I would LOVE to hear from someone who actually goes to all the trouble to listen to "Zarieeka" the way it was "intended' to be heard, it's an experience unmatched in recorded history no joke

Next up was 1999's "The Soft Bulletin"......tuning down the amps a bit for a more layered, "technical' sound, lots of synths, the usual spaced out lyrics, and, basically, one of the better albums of 1999, making most year-end lists.....this is also a fine album.....is it REALLY the same crew that gave us, say, "Transmissions From the Satellite Heart"? Yep, but give these guys points for CONTINUALLY trying to change and update things, rather than recording the same album 10 times in 15 years as some do, just to appease the masses and keep the paychecks rolling in.

So, what NEXT? Well how about 2002's fine "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots", believe it or not yet another masterpiece, this one another out-there conceptual affair, but the psychedelic tinges and totally unique sounds/lyrics make this another must-hear....honest to God it is criminal how much underappreciated music these boyos have turned out.

Let's wrap up Part 2 with 2006's "At War With the Mystics", returning to a bit more of a traditional guitar-rock sound, and  collection of politically themed songs that I assume are supposed to fit some concept, but, as you know, these concepts generally go WAY over my head and I simply listen to the album, if I like it, then I like it, and, yep, I like this one as well.

There is more to come from the Lips tomorrow......their very cool cover/collaboration of "Dark Side of the Moon" will be put up tomorrow, as will their more recent releases and some rarities,etc......has there (really) been a more under appreciated American rock band than this one? maybe so, but I can't think of whom right off hand.....a very innovative, original, and listenable band, that so relatively few are down with, I hope I am able to expose them to at least one or two people who may discover their greatness.

CLOUDS TASTE METALLIC-01 The Abandoned Hospital Ship/02 Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles/03 Placebo Headwound/04 This Here Giraffe/05 Brainville/06 Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World/07 When You Smile/08 Kim's Watermelon Gun/09 They Punctured My Yolk/10 Lightning Strikes the Postman/11 Christmas at the Zoo/12 Evil Will Prevail/13 Bad Days (Aurally Excited Version)

ZAIREEKA DISCS 1 to 4 ALL FOUR DISCS HAVE THE SAME TRACK LIST-01 Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand/02 Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)/03 Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair/04 A Machine in India/05 The Train Runs Over the Camel But Is Derailed by the Gnat/06 How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)/07 March of the Rotten Vegetables/08 The Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now

THE SOFT BULLETIN-01 Race For the Prize (Mokran Remix)/02 A Spoonful Weighs a Ton/03 The Spark That Bled ("The Softest Bullet Ever Shot")/04 The Spiderbite Song/05 Buggin (Morkan Remix)/06 What Is the Light? ("An Untested Hypothesis Suggesting That the Chemical [In Our Brains] by Which We Are Able to Experience the Sensation of Being in Love Is the Same Chemical That Caused the "Big Bang" That Was the Birth of the Accelerating Universe")/07 The Observer/08 Waitin' For a Superman (Is It Gettin' Heavy?)/09 Suddenly Everything Has Changed ("Death Anxiety Caused by Moments of Boredom")/10  The Gash  ("Battle Hymn for the Wounded Mathematician")/11 Feeling Yourself Disintegrate/12 Sleeping on the Roof (excerpt from "Should We Keep the Severed Head Awake??")/13 Race for the Prize ("Sacrifice of the New Scientists")/14 Waiting For a Superman (Mokran Remix)

YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS-01 Fight Test/02 One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21/03 Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1/04 Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 2/05 In the Morning of the Magicians/06 Ego Tripping At the Gates of Hell/07 Are You a Hypnotist/08 It's Summertime/09 Do You Realize?/10 Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)

AT WAR WITH THE MYSTICS-01 The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)/02 Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber)/03  The Sound of Failure / It's Dark... Is It Always This Dark??/04  My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (The Inner Life as Blazing Shield of Defiance and Optimism as Celestial Spear of Action)/05 Vein of Stars/06   The Wizard Turns On... The Giant Silver Flashlight and Puts on His Werewolf Moccasins/07  It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big.....I Am So Small....Do I Stand a Chance?/08 Mr. Ambulance Driver/09 Haven't Got a Clue/10 The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)/11 Pompeii am Götterdämmerung/12 Goin' On......

What do ya think of this stuff so far? .......another day or two of more Flaming Lips coming your way!