I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Hit to Death in the Future Head (1992).

After a few years on an indie label, The Flaming Lips moved to the majors with this disc.  The experimentation is downplayed somewhat although that’s not to say there’s none.  One could see that some die hard fans would be disappointed in the move as the Lips limit the acid somewhat, but just judging by the cover (polka dotted toilet seat) and the title (what on earth does that mean?) it’s clear they haven’t sold out.

“Talkin’ Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants To Live Forever)” opens the disc with a fun deep bass voice singing, “Oooh wah wah” while Wayne ‘s normal voice sings one of their catchiest songs thus far.  “Hit Me Like You Did the First Time” is also a catchy number with a wildly distorted guitar riff opening.  “The Sun” is practically a mellow folk song, propelled by a smooth bass line.

“Felt Good to Burn” has a wobbly backwards feeling (so indeed, the experiments have not ended). “Gingerale Afternoon (The Astrology Of A Saturday)” sounds like a pretty typical  college radio hit song circa 1992 (although sightly underproduced).  Both of these tracks could easily have come from Beck.

“Halloween on the Barbary Coast” is probably the only song that tells you “you know you’ve still got shit for brains” that you don’t feel insulted by.  It’s a slow building beauty with a vaguely middle eastern feel and wonderful to sing along to.  On “The Magician Vs. The Headache,” the magician is another great acid power pop song.  The headache would be the twenty or so seconds of repetitive blasts at the end of the song.   “You Have To Be Joking (Autopsy Of The Devil’s Brain)” is another mellow ballad, despite the title. “Frogs” feels like a pretty normal song aside from the lyrics, until you get to the squalling guitar solo (all 2 bars of it).  “Hold Your Head” is a keyboard filled mellow song that sort of fades the album out.

So, even though these songs are a lot less aggressive and trippy than their previous records (or even than their titles would suggest), the Lips don’t just end the record pleasantly.  The final untitled track is 29 minutes of unchnaging thunder claps and nonsense and noise blasts echoing back and forth from speaker to speaker.  Take THAT major labels!

[READ: January 26, 2008] Dear New Girl or Whatever Your Name Is

According to the back of the book Lisa Wagner, the designer of this book, confiscated notes in various school districts around Los Angeles.  These notes, including the title’s inspiration were then given to various artists to use as the basis for pieces of art.

I misunderstood exactly what the book was supposed to be, as I thought it was going to be just a collection of the notes themselves, not artists’ reinerpretations of them.

So, as you open the book you get the handwritten note: “Dear new girl what ever the heck your name is I just want to tell you that your are hipocritical girl ever know” [sic].  Throughout the book there are other notes with equally inspired terms of abuse.

The pictures inside run the gamut from creepy and unsettling, to beautiful and surreal, to the downright bizarre.  Most incorporate some of the text in the letters, although not all do.

The only real problem with the book is that the artist list at the back of the book has several artists credited with the same pages.  Since I was unfamiliar with nearly everyone’s work in the book, I have no idea who actually created about thirty or so pictures.  The only artist that I recognized immediately was Marcel Dzama, whose work is quite unique.

The artists included are: Jim Drain, Christian and Rob Clayton, Jonathon Rosen, Marcel Dzama, Kevin Christy, Jason Holley, Leanne Shapton, Jacob McGraw-Mickelson, Leah Hayes, Leif Goldberg, Calef Brown, Joel Michael Smith, Martha Rich, Esther Pearl Watson, Paper Rad, Shelley Dick, Mark Miller, Misaki Kawai, Justin Wood, Gary Taxali, Rachell Sumpter, Mike Shaub, Taylor McKimens and Ashley Macomber.

I bought this copy used, as it’s out of print.  I’m not sure it would have been worth the full retail price (although I understand that full-color printing would be expensive).  There are several works that are quite cool, but it’s not the kind of thing I’d look at over and over.