#Flaming lips vein of stars skin
#Flaming lips vein of stars tv

Įven if you don’t buy that or don’t like the musical direction they’ve taken, I still think the assertion that it’s all part of the same shtick is incorrect. I definitely thought that Embryonic was about six or seven tracks too long (like most double-length records), but it was so unexpected and such a left turn that I was willing to overlook it. The first five tracks of Embryonic are as intense and experimental as the Lips have ever been on record. I was shocked, mainly because I had no idea it would work that well. Instead, when Embryonic dropped, they’d chosen to focus on what I thought was a tuneless “Haven’t Got a Clue” vibe. I liked the direction of “Free Radicals,” a sort of spaced-out Prince vibe, and hoped the Lips would go that direction.

Chief among them was “Haven’t Got a Clue,” which seemed like a tuneless mess to me. It led to some killer pop songs (“Yeah Yeah Yeah Song,” “Free Radicals,” the second half of “It Overtakes Me” that sounds almost directly lifted from Meddle-era Pink Floyd), but also some super-duper snoozers. And it’s only felt to me like they weren’t really pushing forward one time over those 15 years.Īt War with the Mystics was the first Flaming Lips album I’d ever heard that seemed like wheel-spinning it sounded like the band had learned some lessons from their previous two records and were just fucking around in the studio. Onstage, Wayne is the undisputed fearless leader, but in the studio, Drozd has been the force behind a lot of what they’ve been doing musically for the last 15 years. The latter, however, is the experimental band that has given us everything from the burnout vibrations of Zaireeka to the blissed-out space opera of Yoshimi, always pushing the pop envelope-and more importantly, always a band, or-at least writing-wise-as much Steven Drozd’s band as Wayne Coyne’s. Barnum-on-mushrooms show, space bubble, balloons, confetti, projections-the works. The former has for around 15 years now been this P.T. But I think it’s important to separate Wayne & the Lips from the Flaming Lips.

#Flaming lips vein of stars tv

I just think the context on which you focus is the stuff you’re seeing on TV and in the media-this persona Wayne & the Lips (which is kind of how the public face of the band seems to be of late) that, as you call them, Flaming Lips, Inc. One thing I think you’re right about is that context is needed when dealing with the Lips. Part of my responses are always playing up for anyone who might read them, but you’ve been far and away my favorite rock critic for so goddamned long now that I just hope you know that everything I say, critical or not, is out of deepest respect and admiration.

#Flaming lips vein of stars skin

( Ouch! I’m just keeding!)įirst off, I know you don’t have thin skin (with the kinds of reviews you write, I imagine it’s got to at least be pretty calloused over by now), but I just want to say that I enjoy it more when we disagree.

We may even have spent more time on this endeavor than the band spent honing any of these tunes. Whichever side you take, you’ve got to grant that by the end of all of this, I’ve done my damnedest to articulate the issues I have with the album-something a few skeptics said I failed to do the first time-while Brendan has done his best to defend and champion it. īrendan’s response to my initial review follows then comes my response to his response, and then his response to my response to his response.

You can read more of his ramblings on his new blog Waited A Light Year. He lives in Chicago with his fiancée Michelle. And because the Flaming Lips are that important, I thought it was worth expanding on our discussion and sharing it here.įor the record, here is Brendan’s official bio: Brendan Diamond is a musician, blogger, and former future rock critic whose insane love of psychedelic music led him to write a dissertation on the relationship between music and memory. Within an hour of me posting my review of The Terror last week, Brendan had responded in the comments section of this blog, and the back-and-forth we began there and on Twitter was revelatory because of two wildly divergent but equally passionate views on the latest from one of the most important bands of our generation.