New Flaming Lips vs. Old Flaming Lips

[clifford_thornton]

OK, listening to a borrowed copy of "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," and yes, it is in its way a brilliant album. But to me, it's not the Flaming Lips. I was weaned on albums like "Oh My Gawd!!!", "In a Priest Driven Ambulance" and "Hear it Is," a noisier, spunkier, but still psyched out band. Granted, ideas change and people get older, and I liked their albums for Warner Bros. in the first half of the nineties as well ("Hit to Death" is a motherfucker), but they began losing me after "Clouds Taste Metallic". I just think of them as a youthfully exuberant, throw-shit-at-the-wall, unclassifiable (but punk) band.

What do y'all think? New or old? Both? Neither? I've been debating this a lot.

[Rooster_Ties]

Don't have a clue, but I thought I'd mention that I saw The Lips perform live at the college I went to, back around 1988. Didn't have any idea who they were back then, and the only thing I remember was that they did a really shitty cover of "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" (which was a huge hit at the time), and it pissed everybody off in the crowd - which I think was their plan.

[Brandon Burke]

Hit to Death in the Future Head is my fave by a longshot.

I have a hard time with the super early Restless stuff. (I believe we actually talked about this a bit on the phone last week.) I also like the newer ones but feel not at all compleled to buy them. Like you mentioned, I think they just grew up and decided maybe it would be a good idea to make music that girls might like too. At this point, I like them more in theory than in practice. If someone asked me if I liked them I would say "yes" without hesitiation. I have not listened to them on purpose, however, in years.

At the time it came out, Hit to Death was like nothing else out there. The only other record I put in that partucular category (not surprisingly) is Mercury Rev Boces. Now that is a strange record. Strange and beautiful........

BTW: I hear you re Clouds Taste Metallic. I drew a line in the sand shortly before that one came out. I was like "if they write another godamned song about (1) brains, (2) jesus, or (3) animals then I'm thowing in the towel for good." Needless to say, Clouds was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Edited February 20, 2004 by Brandon Burke

[Brandon Burke]

At this stage in my life, if I'm gonna listen to neo-pychedelic wierdo rock I much prefer Thinking Fellers Local Union 282 over the Lips. Thinking Fellers are/were completely unique. Especially Strangers from the Universe. My fave.....

EDIT: Oooohh! And the Animal Collective as well. Those guys are great! They have a fantastic and very refreshing new record coming out in the spring.

Edited February 20, 2004 by Brandon Burke

[clifford_thornton]

Too bad I dumped my TFUL records about five years ago. Held onto the Lips, though. I hear you re: Mercury Rev; I guess it's no coincidence that Dave Fridman (rather than, say, Don Friedman) produced some of the Lips' records.

I still say they were one of the greatest -- and most fucked-up -- cover bands in existence. I'd pay for a bootleg of them doing REM wrong any day: I bet it'd be fucking hilarious...

Heads were scratched 'round the world when they appeared on 90210 doing "She Don't Use Jelly," one of the first of their tunes to make me say, well, 'wait a goddam minute, this is asinine.'

Edited February 20, 2004 by clifford_thornton

[John B]

I love the Lips releases between Priest Driven Ambulance and Clouds Taste Metallic. The albums before and after all have moments I enjoy but none seem to hold together as well, for me, as the early 90's releases.

I saw the live a few times, once right before Ronald left and they went back to being a three-piece. It was one of the loudest shows I have ever seen. Ronald was playing lots of feedback and distortion (no real notes that I could discern) and he would regularly get into the area of pure white noise. I still thought it was a beautiful show.

Unconsciously Screaming....

[jazzypaul]

I saw them once, opening for Tool in 1994. It was a damn good show, they did quite a bit of improvising, and were genuinely good. Then tool came out all dark and gloomy and hating the audience. It was like day and night. I've been a fan ever since, but they do seem to have lost quite a bit of their uniqueness over the years.

Re: Mercury Rev...Yerself is Steam was a revelatory listen for me. Music has never been the same before or since. God Bless them and their fucked up covers of Lou Reed tunes...

[Brandon Burke]

Re: Mercury Rev...Yerself is Steam was a revelatory listen for me. Music has never been the same before or since. God Bless them and their fucked up covers of Lou Reed tunes...

You're right. Yerself is Steam was a great record but it sounded too much like a Flaming Lips side project for me. I like how Boces de-emphasized loud guitars. I've had enough of crazy loud guitars with fourteen different effects on them. If something's gonna be crazy and loud, I prefer it to be an acoustic instrument (or a hip hop beat). Contradiction? Of course.