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The Flaming Lips are Go Manifesto

Anybody catch The Flaming Lips on CBS's Late Late Show last night, playing their single "Do You Realize?" (from their current album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots")? How about the same song being featured in a new Hewlett-Packard TV commercial? Anybody see one of these who's never heard The Lips before? If so, what did you think?

IMO The Lips are, bar none, the finest rock band - artistically speaking - in the world right now, and the only currently-active group or artist still in their prime (and maybe just entering it their case) whose best work I would classify as being up there near the cream of the all-time greats. And it's funny to think that they came out of Oklahoma City, of all places, over fifteen years ago as a charmingly amatuerish and noisily raw poppish hardcore band with a humorous streak, and have steadily evolved (what other band or artist in the field can you name who has put out ten albums, each one a clear advancement beyond the last?) into the sublimely tuneful and powerfully lyrical art-pop group they are today, seamlessly mixing equal parts experimentalism and classicism in a sound that's uniquely original and yet timeless in its sheer creativity.

They are lauded around the globe as The Best Band In The World by the international rock press (surpassing even Radiohead I think), yet when they're not touring with Beck as they are now, I can still see them play in a reasonably-sized club gig in their own country. Maybe this will be changing now, I don't know, but if they do finally move up the rock food chain, they will have deserved it long ago (their only semi-hit came back in '93 with the hilarious "She Don't Use Jelly").

To me, it's The Flaming Lips, not Nirvana or The Smashing Pumpkins, who in the end truly represent the possibility for the ultimate triumph to be secretly carried out on behalf of America's seminal underground 'indie-rock' explosion of the 80's. Nirvana signaled the movement's artistic death at the same time that it hailed its commercial breakthrough, while The Lips - there before Nirvana, still here (and growing) after - continue as the genuine surviving spawn and blossoming link to Rock's continuum (now reduced as it is to the desicated thread of an art form whose golden age was in twilight even long prior to today's utter [and utterly disgusting] industry/market squelching or co-opting of any remaining original artisitc impulse that kids raised on MTV and video games can possibly muster) of dynamic creative expressionism that exploded for the second time in the 60's and then again (and for the last time, but mostly underground) a decade later.

Whereas Nirvana exuded the youthful (even if realistic) rage of nihilism, and the frustration of (and eventual defeat by) unavoidable compromise, The Pumpkins the fascination of mere narcissism, and bands like Pearl Jam the comforts of conventional arena-rock (oops, better make that 'alt-rock' nowadays) career-mongering, The Flaming Lips have quietly metamorphosed from their earlier ironist and obscurist leanings into an encouraging exultation of optimism and celebration of universiality not seen at this level since the early days of U2, but without the preachiness, humorlessness, or social-commentary pomposity. In fact, the bands whose unfulfilled larger-market promise I see The Lips as potentially inheriting more successfully than they could manage in their time - and with more artistic integrity than the grunge cohort - are the original casualties of indie-rock's doomed flirtation with the big-time, bands such as Sonic Youth, The Replacements, Husker Du, and Dinosaur Jr.

Can I get a witness from any members who are fans? I know that perhaps not many audiophools have this kind of taste in music (and none of The Lips' recordings are audiophilic aurally), but anybody who loves the legacy Rock at its best has given us as a truly modern art form and has a yearning for the adventurous and the expressive, could definitely do worse than to bend an ear to this most accomplished yet promising group of middle-aged bubbling-unders we have on Earth today. For the curious uninitiated, good places to start are either their present release mentioned at the top, their previous album (and breakthrough record, sound- and approach-wise) "The Soft Bulletin", or for those with a good tolerance for guitar-noise, 1995's great "Clouds Taste Metallic".
zaikesman
sean
6,231 posts
 
I've only heard a bit of the "Lips" but have liked what i have heard. Does anyone know of a good source to find their stuff on vinyl that will not cost $25 ??? From what i've heard, this is the kind of stuff that will sound MUCH better on vinyl than on CD. Sean
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zaikesman OP
3,017 posts
 
Sean, the only stuff I have is on CD, but you could check out www.flaminglips.com for more info. If you like, mail me and I can burn you a little comp disk so you can see if you'd be interested in hearing or buying more.

I find it interesting that Phild and Kthomas both think "Bulletin" is too samey-sounding compared to "Yoshimi" - I thought TSB was a bit all over the map and disjointed as an album (although the alternate remixes included don't help the flow), whereas YBTPR sounds more streamlined and of a piece to me (if slightly less distinctive). I initially found TSB incredibly exciting when I first heard it at the time it was released, but YBTPR disappointed me straight out of the box, then grew on me steadily over a couple of weeks, until it finally hit me like a ton of bricks. Both marvelously high-quality pieces of (hard) work, both indispensable.
phasecorrect's avatar
phasecorrect
2,013 posts
 
Well...hate to sound like an old fart...but I have been a Lips fan since my college days in the mid 80's...in Fargo,ND no less...and every since I heard "Jesus shootin' Heroin" I have been hooked...I still think their best consistent LP is "Oh my Gawd"...lets just say..."chemical" experimentation probably had something to do with it...if your a fan of deep garage psychedelic...it is alot of twisted fun...also...if you enjoy this type of sound...check out LOOP...an English band from roughly the same period...out of print...and more straight forward gargage 60s/70s retro...but plenty of cool guitar solos...great headphone band...start with "Fade Out"...cheers
zaikesman OP
3,017 posts
 
Phasecorrect, I'm even a little older and fartier than you, and one of the main things about The Lips that impresses me so greatly is that they *have* managed to change so much, yet continue to take their work to new highs, over such a sustained period. Yeah, they'll never sound 'like that' again if you're a fan of their early days, but neither did The Beatles. From what I've been able to glean from a few band interviews, I think that even the founding members themselves are more than a little amazed at how far they've come. I like to think I know the genuine article when I hear it, and in The Lips case, I'm forced to pay attention as with no other band I know of today.

There are very few instances over the years where an artist or band with an established level of career excellence expands its sound to the degree that The Lips managed with "The Soft Bulletin" - records like The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds", Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?", or The Talking Heads' "Remain in Light" come to mind - and reach an even greater level of artistic achievement than before, and even fewer still that have then gone on to successfully capitalize on that achievement with their next record to the extent that I believe The Lips have with "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots".

I'm not saying that The Lips are better or more important than any of the artists I mentioned above, of course; just that when it comes to even striving for, much less actually grasping, that sort of an accomplishment today, they're about the only game in town - and the fact that such a thing can be done at all at this late date just blows me away. I admit that maybe if it were 20 or 30 years ago, they wouldn't seem so special to me, and that a big part of my assessment of their songwriting and record-making quality has a lot to do with the prolonged lack of new exposure to anything its equal (I'm a guy who believes that rock as an art form during its golden age basically finished dying by about the time that the CD and MTV began their ascent [not uncoincidentally]), but given the landscape today, can you really blame me for wanting go overboard when the opportunity presents itself?

As Wayne sings: "'Cause it's gettin' heavy/Well, I thought it was already as heavy as can be/Tell everybody waitin' for Superman/That they should try to hold on best they can/He hasn't dropped them forgot them or anything/It's just too heavy for Superman to lift". The Flaming Lips are trying, and they're succeeding against all odds if you ask me. :-)
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Zaikesman I am going to give you an alternative viewpoint on what little I've heard of The Flaming Lips-I don't like them.
I heard all of The Soft Bulletin and found it vastly overrated.
The new one what I've heard so far just makes me laugh-it sounds like Styx circa Mr Roboto.
The Lips that I've heard are well overblown in production,highly derivative and oddly represent (at present) a musical form that critics used to despise-to me they are in vogue and "the band of the moment" but I do wonder how well their present record will stand the test of time.
They are a bit more "out there" in comparison to some of their contempories who are highly rated but I neither see the discipline nor cohesion in their work that justifies the plaudits.
I appreciate your argument for them but as a guy who buys and checks out a lot of music they don't do it for me and frankly do not deserve to be compared (on any level)with some of the artists you mention.
Just my 50p worth.
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