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
The "advertising geeks" aka "Mr Suit" are the "punks" of yesteryear. As such, the ads that they come up with cater to those of their generation. We have become our parents and part of the establishment, whether we like it or not.

That is, at least YOU guys have : ) Sean
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Just checked out the recent "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" EP at the Tower listening station this evening...a handful of useless remixes of "Yoshimi..." songs (definitely not improvements), along with a handful of uninspired new tunes...could they be starting to hit the proverbial wall as far as their capacity to continually amaze?...
Zaikes,
You've got another Lips fan here. Any insight into their many colored vinyl releases, and if the sonics are good on those?
Just by chance, have you heard My Morning Jacket? Although a different kind of sound than recent Lips, to me it conveys a similar vibe. Their 2003 double LP It Still Moves grows on me more with every listen. Another underappreciated band from middle America...
Spencer
Sbank: I got and returned one of the "Yoshimi..." pic-disks, "Do You Realize??" b/w "Up Above the Daily Hum", because it was totally unplayable - distortion city.

I saw (taped, in fact) MMJ on TV, and regret to say did not dig it the way their advance press had led to me to hopefully expect. Not terrible or anything, but where was the Kinks/Beach Boys-inspired art-pop I had read about? Granted, it was just one tune, but sludgy guitar riffage has been done much better than that, and the hair-shaking...
Zaikes,
If it's Kinks/Beach Boys inspired stuff you're after, check out The Thrills. Available on domestic vinyl for around $10, too. That might be in my future.

Cheers, Spencer