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Archive for the ‘The Flaming Lips’ Category

Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #6 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Colombia, Death, Egyptology, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Hospitals, Jim James, Math, Monkeys, Murder, My Morning Jacket, Parenting, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series, Violence on August 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Children of the Moon” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

Lately, Jim James has been going in a more mellow direction after the pretty heavy psychedelia of Circuital in 2011.  But this song stays in that heavy psychedelic vein with a big distorted guitar riff and distorted vocals from James (and Coyne, I assume).

It’s that weird mix of creepy and catchy that the Lips do so well.  You can clearly hear James on the lead vocals, but who knows who is contributing vocals to the rest (the oh oh ohs).  The guitar solo is all distorted and reversed–a noisy explosion of sound.

This song is barely four minutes and it’s followed by another noisy short one before the album segues back into quieter terrain.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #6

Katchoo was given coordinates to meet Stephanie.  The coordinates put her way off the grid in Colombia.  As she waits, a guy on a moped drives up and a monkey hops off and delivers a package (that’s pretty adorable, honestly).

Katchoo can only assume things are bad since Stephanie didn’t show.  She can’t imagine what is in the satchel (she hopes it’s not Francine’s head).

But no, it is a tube and in the tube is an ancient piece of papyrus–Cleopatra’s mathematical ideas. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #5 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Death, Egyptology, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Math, Murder, Parenting, Sci-fi, Tame Impala, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series, Violence on August 16, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Children of the Moon” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

I’m not exactly sure when Tame Impala became huge.  I actually didn’t even realize they were huge until this past summer when I saw them. I’d always just liked their modern psychedelia.  I gather they’ve been huge for a while.  But I don’t think they were huge in 2012 when this album came out.  So really, Tame Impala was just another cool indie rocker singing along with the Flaming Lips.

None of the songs on this album are particularly “poppy” what with all the distortion and noise on them.  But this song is certainly one of the catchiest.  The guitar melody (which is very Flaming Lips) is simple and instantly grabbing.  The vocals are high falsetto–which are probably Wayne and Kevin Parker together.

After a trippy middle instrumental, the song resumes with acoustic guitar an a nice sing along.  It feels like a solid combination of The Lips and Tame Impala.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #5

The island that Katchoo woke up on is called Bonbi, a private island in the Riviera.  The person waiting for her is Tambi.

Tambi proceeds to give Katchoo a history lesson about Cleopatra and the history of Base Phi Mathematics.

I don’t know that much about Cleopatra, so I’m going to assume that the history here is true.  I don’t know a thing about Base Phi Mathematics, so I don’t know whether Cleopatra knew anything about it. I’ll assume Moore did his research.

Anyhow, Base Phi Mathematics is also the foundation for he Alaskan Collider that exploded and caused all the trouble for Katchoo.  (Yup, I’m skimming the hard science). (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #4 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Death, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Murder, Parenting, Prefuse 73, Scotland, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series, Violence on August 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Supermoon Made Me Want to Pee” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

This is (almost) the shortest song on the album at just over 3 minutes. And it’s kind of a transitional song.

There’s not a lot to it.  It’s fast and propulsive with a never-ending bass rumble and vocals (singing the words “coming up”) going higher and higher in pitch which makes it all seem more intense.

After two minutes the song seems to peak, settling down in to gentle washes with swirling sounds floating around.  It segues nicely into the next song, “Children of the Moon.”

The collaboration on this song is with Prefuse 73.  Prefuse 73 is a producer known mostly for hip hop, but also other sound effects.  It’s hard to know exactly what he contributed, but I think the collaboration works well.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #4

This issue also feels like a transitional issue.

Issue 3 ended with Katchoo possibly chasing a guy who ran away.

But it also ended with her being very sick.

Those two facets combine right away as Katchoo tries to catch the man on foot but quickly succumbs to pneumonia.

This is some of Terry Moore’s most impressionistic drawing–even if the fields of Scotland’s Isle of Skye are beautifully rendered, the people are all in motion.

When Katchoo passes out in a field, a woman in a hat spies her and, upon seeing who she is, picks her up and brings her to a nearby cottage. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #3 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Drambuie, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, End of the World, Fears, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Parenting, Scotland, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Violence on August 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Helping the Retarded to Know God” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

After an intense dance song and a trippy synth song, why not follow it up with a (mostly) acoustic song with an incredibly offensive title?

Turns out this incredibly offensive title is actually the name of a (serious) book written in 1969 (you can see it and the rather amusing contemporary reviewed on Amazon).

I don’t think the lyrics address the book exactly (although I haven’t read it).  But with lyrics like

We can hear them laughing at us
Judging all the time
I wish I could be like you
You don’t pay them no mind

It’s hard to tell.

This song is sung by Wayne in his falsetto and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (the whole band or just the singer, I don’t know) singing along.

After a minute and a half some processed drum beats add some texture to the song which stays mostly quiet and pretty. The Lips can sure do pretty went they want.  There’s even birds tweeting.

After five and a half minutes, the song shifts gears to a repeated refrain of

And I am trying to know you.

The song is 7 minutes long, but it never drags, which is quite a compliment.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #3

Issue 2 ended with a literal cliffhanger–Katchoo hanging off the edge of a cliff.  She’s freezing. There are dogs above and even an eagle flying at her.  She’s in a bad way until a rope comes down.

It is from Jet and Earl.  Jet figured Katchoo might do something stupid so she went to the gated house and heard the screams.

Jet explains that the home owner is an asshole, but they may need him to get any information on Stephanie.  Katchoo has put up with assholes before and she pulls out a gun of her own.  After some threats back and forth (the guy was shooting rock salt as a warning and mostly wants to know who will pay for the fence that Katchoo drove through), Jet is able to calm things enough to learn that the man doesn’t know where Stephanie is.

But he provides a small clue–Scotland.  Stephanie loved Scotland. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #2 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Bon Iver, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Parenting, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series on August 13, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Ashes in the Air” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

The second song sounds a lot more like The Flaming Lips (latter period).  Starting out with spacey zaps and a super fast drum electric drums beat, the song is actually slow and trippy with interweaving heavily distorted synth lines.

Wayne sings lead (with his voice modified):

You and me we were both so fucked up
You’re fucked in a good way
I’m fucked up in a bad.

After the first verse, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon sings the echoing first lines in a highly processed almost unrecognizable voice.  This was before Bon Iver recorded his weirdo 22, A Million album so it’s safe to assume that either Wayne influenced Justin or Wayne allowed Justin to explore an arena he hadn’t before.

The song is catchy in that darkly sweet sounding style that The Lips create.  Despite the fact that the lyrics are quite dark:

We thought we could outrun them but they had robot dogs

So, yeah, The Flaming Lips in a nutshell.

It ends with those same spacey zaps fading out–a pretty solid Lips song.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #2

Issue 1 ended with Katchoo in a guy’s house.  Issue 2 opens with Katchoo hanging for dear life on the side of a mountain.

The story gives some background on the Parker Girls story.  Darcy Parker was the leader of a group of women–dangerous, deadly women who were selected for their beauty and their skills.  She mentored and paid for them and essentially owned them.  If they turned on her, they were killed with no mercy.

The woman from issue 1, Laura, whose real name was Stephanie was a Parker Girl.  She cut a deal with the Senate to revel the details of the Parker Girl operation.  Since Darcy was now dead, she assumed she could easily hide.  But Parker Girls don’t give up. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #1 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Biz Markee, End of the World, Fears, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Hour of the Time Majesty 12, Kesha, Parenting, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, The Stooges, Unfinished series on August 12, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

The first song is I believe made by Kesha (who wanted to collaborate with Wayne Coyne).  I understand it is a kind of update of The Stooges’ “1969.”  I’ll have to assume that’s true.

It starts with Kesha saying, “Coz I want my ass.  Shit.  Sorry.”  And then the stomping electronic dancey but chaotic beat starts up.  “2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)” features Kesha, Biz Markie & Hour of the Time Majesty 12.

It runs along with Kesha singing (incoherently) and Biz Markee chiming in (also incoherently).  I don’t really know what they’re saying, but it’s oddly catchy.

The middle has some psychedelic flutes and a relatively clean vocal line from Kesha.  She sings nicely and It feels like the end of the song–like its just going to fade out–but no, after a beat, the noisy dance part starts up again.  At four minutes, it’s a relatively short song on this album.  And it certainly sets the tone for what follows (which means who the hell knows what’s going to come next).

This song is so unlike The Flaming Lips, I’m not even sure what they contributed to it.  Lyrics? Music? Anything?  Who knows.  The unknown contributors are Hour of the Time Majesty 12 who are Spooki Tavi and Ashi Dala an experimental pop group who “create cartoon-like psychedelic fantasy in the dusty shimmer of east Hollywood.”  They have two albums out which I may have to investigate.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #1

I loved the Strangers in Paradise series.  Terry Moore’s art is amazing and the story was incredibly affecting.  I was really saddened when it ended in 2012.

Then in 2018 he announced that he was restarting the story–a 25th anniversary update!  Hence the XXV in the title.

I subscribed to the monthly publication issues but wanted to wait until the ten issue arc was completed before I started reading it.

Issue 1 begins with a man on a subway looking at his phone.  When he doors open, a kid grabs his phone, and takes off.  The phone gets tossed around until a woman who looks a lot like Katchoo takes out the sim card and throws the phone down.

The man calls his wife from work to say what happened.  His wife, Laura, asks about the woman who took out the sim card.  He describes Katchoo and Laura freaks out.  She kicks a hole in a wall, takes out a bug-out-bag and flees.  Shortly, Katchoo goes into the house and sees that Laura has left already. (more…)

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Pamela Lu–“Ambient Parking Lot” (Harper’s, January 2007)

Posted in Excerpt, Harper's, Huh?, Kelsey Lu, Music, Pamela Lu, Skrillex, The Flaming Lips, Theater on May 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KELSEY LU-“Rebel” (2019).

I saw that Kelsey Lu was playing NonCOMM this year.  I had never heard of her, but her record was getting some high praise.  Then as I was going through some older Harper’s things, I saw this story by Pamela Lu.  I quickly thought it might be the same person.  Then I double checked and of course they are different, they just have the same last name.

Kelsey Lu is a classically trained cellist and has become one of many classical performers who have migrated into the pop world.  She is certainly underplaying her chops on the record, going more for melody than virtuosity.

This piece opens with a pizzicato cello (looped I assume).  It is overlaid with a mournful melody before Kelsey sings in her quiet but affecting voice.

The song is just over three and a half minutes and it slowly builds with more and more organic sounds–strings and voices.  By the half way point, there’s echo and by the three minute mark, this quiet, almost chamber pop song has built into a full-sounding piece which just as quickly drops nearly all the music as two cellos fade the song to the end.

It’s an astonishingly pretty and subtle song to start an album that has production credits from Skrillex (on a different song).

[READ: April 24, 2019] “Ambient Parking Lot”

I started reading this excerpt and thought it might have had something to do withe The Flaming Lips’ Parking Lot Experiments:

During 1996 and 1997, The Flaming Lips ran a series of events known as “The Parking Lot Experiments”. The concept was inspired by an incident in Coyne’s youth, where he noticed that car radios in the parking lot at a concert were playing the same songs at the same time, Wayne Coyne created 40 cassette tapes to be played in synchronization. The band invited people to bring their cars to parking lots, where they would be given one of the tapes and then instructed when to start them. The music was “a strange, fluid 20 minute sound composition.”  [from Wikipedia]

I’ll assume there is some kernel of something, maybe, that inspired this, frankly, disappointing piece.

It begins by talking about the recording of “Ambient Parking #25.”

With just a little filtering, the empty landscape managed to express its industrially generated solipsism and came to overshadow even the engine gunning and trunk popping of SUVs.

The seven inch vinyl was released two weeks later on an indie label.

It was a huge success compared to attempts 1-24 and inspired them to make a full album. (more…)

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The Claypool Lennon Delirium: Free at Noon (World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, April 12, 2019)

Posted in Free at Noon, Geddy Lee, King Crimson, Les Claypool, Philadelphia, PA, Pink Floyd, Primus, Sean Lennon, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, The Flaming Lips, Uni, Voivod, White Denim, World Cafe Live on April 12, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 12, 2019] The Claypool Lennon Delirium

Nearly two years and a half years ago I saw The Claypool Lennon Delirium at the Fillmore.  Once again, this year they were playing the Fillmore.  But it was on a night that T. was doing a school play.  There is no way I would choose Les Claypool over my daughter, so I didn’t get tickets.  Then they moved her play to Thursday instead.  I could go!

But then WXPN announced that The Claypool Lennon Delirium would be doing a Free at Noon.  And that seemed like the best of both worlds–I’d get to see the band and it wouldn’t be a) at night or b) at the Fillmore (which was too big and crowded for me when I saw them).  I said I’d never do another Free at Noon because I basically had to take off four hours of work to do it, but for these guys it was a no-brainer and totally worth it.

And really, who doesn’t like to take off four hours of work. (more…)

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Amparo Davila–“It’s All Over Now” (Harper’s, October 2018)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Amparo Davila, Audrey Harris, Beck, Dungen, 공중도둑, Fears, Kishi Bashi, Matthew Gleeson, Mexico, Mid-Air Thief, Sexism, The Flaming Lips, Threats, Unreliable narrator, Viking's Choice on January 9, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:공중도둑 (MID-AIR THIEF)–“쇠사슬 (Ahhhh, These Chains!)” (2018).

At the end of every year publications and sites post year end lists.  I like to look at them to see if I missed any albums of significance.  But my favorite year end list comes from Lars Gottrich at NPR.  For the past ten years, Viking’s Choice has posted a list of obscure and often overlooked bands.  Gottrich also has one of the broadest tastes of anyone I know (myself included–he likes a lot of genres I don’t).  

Since I’m behind on my posts at the beginning of this year, I’m taking this opportunity to highlight the bands that he mentions on this year’s list.  I’m only listening to the one song unless I’m inspired to listen to more.

공중도둑 (Mid-Air Thief) is from Korea (obviously).  Beyond that, virtually nothing is known about him (Lars confirms that it is a he, even if many of the vocals are by Summer Soul–she is his guest singer).

Mid-Air Thief makes beautiful but weird, glitchy folk music.  Every time something really lovely seems to come along, there’s always some kind of twist to make it not what you think.  This, of course, keeps everything interesting and fun.  But despite that, the whole album is bright and cheerful.  There’s feelings of Dungen and Beck and even some Kishi Bashi.  There’s even a sense of the more psychedelic Flaming Lips songs (but without the over-loud low end).

It’s really great.

“쇠사슬,” which translates into the delightfully odd “Ahhhh, These Chains!” opens with a pretty, fast-picked guitar and delicate voices.  The song builds as electronic sounds are placed throughout adding tension but never overriding the pleasantness of the guitar and soft voices.  After a slight break into a “chorus” the song resumes almost doubled in sounds and power, but never losing that sweetness.

I love how the song seems like it’s going to end after around four minutes but it still has a bashing coda to show off before it finally ends at five minutes.

Bob Boilen has sent out a plea to Mid-Air Thief to do a Tiny Desk Concert, and boy I hope that happens.

Plus how great is Mid-Air Thief’s avatar (on the left).

[READ: January 6, 2019] “It’s All Over Now”

This story is about a young woman, living alone and fearful in a sketchy part of Mexico.

Tina Reyes is the single woman.  She boards a bus to visit her friend Rosa.  She hopes Rosa is all right–Rosa had looked tired last week. Tina thinks about Rosa with her husband and children and she grows rather sad and melancholy thinking about her own life and how she will never have anything like that.

Is her status a self-fulfilling prophecy or is she just sensible about the word around her?

As soon as she gets off the bus a man approaches her.  She is freaked out by his request:

Pardon me senorita, may I walk with you? (more…)

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Rodrigo Fresán–“Snatching Bodies” [The 2018 Short Story Advent Calendar #15] (2007) [translation 2018]

Posted in A Charlie Brown Christmas, Aliens, Argentina, Canadian Content, Cancer as plot device, Christmas Album, Death, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Hingston & Olsen, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Monsters, Rodrigo Fresán, Short Story, Spaceface, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Flaming Lips, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Invasion, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Will Vanderhyden on December 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SPACEFACE-Christmastime is Here (2018)

Spaceface is a project of one of the musicians from The Flaming Lips, Jake Ingalls.  I’m not sure which guy it is (I’ve seen them several times when he has played, but I can’t really tell all the dudes apart).  Spaceface has played a few shows near me but I have yet to be able to get to one.  I’m told their lives shows are amazing (especially given their budget).

They’ve released an album and a bunch of EPS and now they released this Christmas single.

This is a pretty trippy version of the song from A Charlie Brown Christmas.  It’s slow and with a decidedly Flaming Lips vibe (which makes sense).  There’s a second version on the bandcamp site which is all instrumental.

Depending on how much you like the fuzzed out and echoing (but not harsh) vocals, you can pick one or the other–the music is memorable either way.

[READ: December 2, 2018] “Snatching Bodies”

Once again, I have ordered The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my third time reading the Calendar (thanks S.).  I never knew about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh).  Here’s what they say this year

Fourth time’s the charm.

After a restful spring, rowdy summer, and pretty reasonable fall, we are officially back at it again with another deluxe box set of 24 individually bound short stories to get you into the yuletide spirit.

The fourth annual Short Story Advent Calendar might be our most ambitious yet, with a range of stories hailing from eight different countries and three different originating languages (don’t worry, we got the English versions). This year’s edition features a special diecut lid and textured case. We also set a new personal best for material that has never before appeared in print.

Want a copy?  Order one here.

Like last year I’m pairing each story with a holiday disc from our personal collection.  Although this weekend, I’m pairing them with recently released songs from bands I like.

This is a story that uses Invasion of the Body Snatchers as a central frame of reference.  Interestingly for me, I didn’t know that there was a version before the 1978 version that I know (although not well).  Fresán is referring  to the 1956 version which his narrator says he knows by heart, like Shakespeare.

The epigram even comes from the movie: At first glance, everything looked the same.  It wasn’t. (more…)

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