I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (2003).

This was the second EP that came from the Yoshimi disc.  This disc contains four original tracks and three remixes.

I’m never entirely sure who these remixes are for.  I have a number of singles where there’s a 7 or 8 minute remix of a track.  And  I suppose they could be played on a dancefloor (it worked for Tori Amos after all) but really, few dance hall goers want to hear The Flaming Lips and few Lips fan are out boogeying it up (and for that matter, when you’re out boogeying it up, the Lips aren’t really want you want to hear anyhow (and really no one has been boogeying it up since 1976 anyhow)).  And, frankly it takes a pretty inspired remixer to do anything other than just sample a line from a song and put it on a fast 4/4 beat anyway.

So really, we’re here for the four originals.  And, as with the Fight Test EP, the songs retain that sense of Yoshimi through and through (even though these are new songs and not outtakes from the session).  “The Assassination of the Sun” and “Sunship Balloons” are two striking songs right out of the Yoshimi playbook.  “Assassination” is piano heavy and “Sunship” has a spoken word intro about love and space.

“I’m A Fly In A Sunbeam (Following The Funeral Procession Of A Stranger)” is an instrumental with a lengthy horn section (!).  It borders on a jazz piece but never loses it’s Lipsiness.  “A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn’t So)” is a spare track, although its Christmas message of happiness is always welcomed (and is a vast improvement over their “White Christmas”).

Many times EPs are just a way to tide you over until the next CD comes out.  But this one provides fans with a little more of that Yoshimi bliss before they move to a new sound on At War with the Mystics.

[READ: February 6, 2009] 5 People Who Died During Sex

This was another Christmas book from Sarah.  It is a collection of macabre lists.  Many of the lists also have a paragraph or two of explanation and/or context.

Some of the disgusting lists include:
10 Alternative Uses for Coca Cola [spermicide/windshield washer etc.]
10 Human Recipes [signs of cannibalism]
20 World Eating Records [12 slugs in 2 minutes]
10 Aphrodisiacs [lion testicles]
40 Syphilitics [J.S. Bach]
10 Presidential Pecadillos
10 Hollywood Suicide Shootings
10 Appalling  Pontiffs
10 Hemorrhoid Sufferers
Quotes from 20 Dead Atheists [Thomas Edison: “Religion is all bunk.”]

and much much more.

Interestingly, the Amazon reviewers point out a number of factual errors in the book.  Victor Hugo did not write the Three Musketeers, the 1972 Olympics were in Munich not Montreal.  And, the one I noticed was that he lists Jeff Buckley as a suicide, but I had that the official record is accidental death.  I was amazed to see how angry two people were about this in their reviews.

Although things like this do detract somewhat from the book, realistically, it’s just a fun book of lists, something enjoyable to read when you’ve got a few minutes, and not a source for history.

My main gripe is that in most lists there simply isn’t enough information given….  Usually one extra line would satisfy.  The food eating contests would do wonderfully with some context, and there are many lists in which a person is credited with doing something unusual and the explanation is given but you never find out if it worked or what happened to the person.

Closure, damnit, that’s what I need.  Oh, and some of the lists are not for the faint of heart!