clouds taste metallic

The Flaming Lips prevailed with the psychedelic psychiatric explorations of this punctured pop placebo.   Following the success of 'Transmissions from the Satellite Heart' and their underground smash "She Don't Use Jelly", the band spent a year touring and making numerous television appearances.  For their next album the band reunited with producer Dave Fridmann in Oklahoma City.  The sessions featured  Wayne Coyne on vocals and guitar;   Steven Drozd on drums, piano, keyboards, guitar, vocals, and glockenspiel;  Michael Ivins on bass and vocals;  and  Ronald Jones on guitar and vocals.   

Coyne confesses:   "There's not really a certain direction to say we're heading from this to that. It's just a splattering of songs mixed up with crappy noises. We try to make each song, each record, its own thing. We've managed to avoid the flavor of the month so far...We don't have many boundaries. My songs are so simple--one verse, one chord. They don't get much simpler than that. It's fun turning that into something. We record noises, bugs, all sorts of things to keep it interesting over the years. We've always felt every record we've ever made would be our last one, and we kinda always expect to get a call telling us it's over. So far, no one has caught on ... It's fruity.  That's the word we use.  Some of it's damn fruity.  Weird kinda implies it's eerie or something; this is just plain fruity...Going into the studio for this new record, we really wondered, 'Are we just those chumps who do the jelly song?'  We know we can always do the Flaming Lips thing, we can go and play to a thousand people, we can always do that.  Really, that's fine by us.  A lot of bands can't do that.  So we really feel like we've got nothing to lose ... We literally make it up as we go.  There really isn't any preconceived idea of what kind of record we're going to do.  We just sort of go in and hopefully play things that excite us at the moment, and then by the time we're done with it, hope that it still excites us that we've made another record.  We don't have any preconceived idea of where the Flaming Lips are gonna go.  That must be where the audience comes in.  I hope that maybe they have an idea, and maybe they can tell us."


'Clouds Taste Metallic' charted at number sixteen on the US heatseekers album chart.   It was their last album recorded with Ronald Jones.  









http://www.flaminglips.com/








"Bad Days"




"Christmas at the Zoo"




"This Here Giraffe"






'Clouds Taste Metallic' 
full album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YGhPXE0FRw






0:00 - The Abandoned Hospital Ship
3:40 - Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles
7:10 - Placebo Headwound
10:47 - This Here Giraffe
14:33 - Brainville
17:46 - Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World
22:17 - When You Smile
25:30 - Kim's Watermelon Gun
28:52 - They Punctured My Yolk
33:13 - Lightning Strikes the Postman
36:05 - Christmas at the Zoo
39:16 - Evil Will Prevail
43:00 - Bad Days [Aurally Excited Version]

The Fearless Freaks
https://vimeo.com/40127788

The Fearless Freaks feat The Flaming Lips from JoLynn Garnes on Vimeo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxAgmGr9fRU






live February 24, 2015


8:13 The Abandoned Hospital Ship
15:37 Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles
27:19 Placebo Headwound
35:55 This Here Giraffe
41:52 Brainville
53:25 Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World
1:00:40 When You Smile
1:06:27 Kim's Watermelon Gun
1:12:26 They Punctured My Yolk
1:22:58 Lightning Strikes the Postman
1:30:25 Christmas at the Zoo
1:39:40 Evil Will Prevail
1:52:17 Bad Days
2:01:05 What is the Light?
2:05:25 The Observer
2:13:16 Vein of Stars

the soft bulletin

The Flaming Lips raced upwards to the vanguard with the emotional optimism of this psychedelic symphonic swoon.  The band had followed up their breakthrough   'Transmissions from the Satellite Heart' with the pop pet sounds of 'Clouds Taste Metallic' and the wildly experimental 'Zaireka' (with four disks that could be played separately or simultaneously).  Their next album combines both of those sensibilities into the most accessible work of their career.  'The Soft Bulletin' features Wayne Coyne on songwriting, vocals, guitar, and percussion;  Michael Ivins on bass guitar and vocals;  and Steven Drozd on songwriting, guitar, accompaniment harmony vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, drums, xylophone, glockenspiel, and unison tuned pedal steel guitar.  Dave Fridmann and the band did the production, mixing, and recording with additional production by Scott Booker and Peter Mokran, and mastering by Steve Hall.  

Coyne says 'The Soft Bulletin'  is "about love and death and the gap in between...We have arrived everywhere that we've gone by ambulance.  We've never come in a limousine. It's always been, we've just made it. They thought we were DOA, they threw us in the back anyway, we got there and at the last minute we've been revived.  It's really been a pathetically long time, and it's only been in the last six or seven years that any reasonable human being would've thought it an advantage to be with us. Any sensible person would've said, 'Listen to the music these guys make, look at them, this is not gonna work.' If we'd been driving around and had some accident where our equipment got stolen or something, we easily could've said, 'Gee, this really doesn't make any sense, why are we spending everything we have, all of our time, pursuing this silly goal?...A lot of people think it's gonna be a bunch of synthesisers all talking to each other or some insects we recorded in a field. But a lot of it has a lot of structure and melody and music stuff. We're not really interested in that Stockhausen approach that is interesting in concept but kind of boring to listen to. We want to do stuff that is exciting to listen to even if it's boring in concept. I hope we do a little bit of both...I fear that by the time we get to the year 2000 the music scene will sound like 1979.  Whose fault is it? It's our fault and your fault if we can't put in some idea that is unique to our time. Let's do something so we're not just revelling in how great our fucking record collection is. There is great urgency in there somewhere to not just be an accumulation of what we already know about music and culture.  I think it's sad, but it doesn't destroy the good around it. To me, depressing songs are like feeding the pigeons: you throw the breadcrumbs and they come round and then you can. shoot them. What depressing songs do is they get all the sad feelings and then destroy them and leave you feeling the sadness has been a little bit washed away. Sad songs just rock...Any time you go on about the big theme, the next thing in line is the big failure.  You tried to get on the top - too bad you didn't make it. But we have no fear of the big themes now. We want people to have heightened expectations. So often you go to concerts and you expect it to suck. Sometimes I think my standards at concerts are like my standards for watching TV: you expect it to be mediocre, and if it isn't you're pleasantly surprised...I think with us, I'm hoping that people have a heightened expectation, but don't actually know what to expect. And I'm glad to oblige, because really I've got nothing but ideas. I've got endless ideas."


'The Soft Bulletin' went to number thirty-nine in the UK and number twelve on the US heatseekers album chart.





http://www.flaminglips.com/





https://myspace.com/flaminglips/music/album/the-soft-bulletin-9789363




Side One
1. "Race for the Prize"    ("Sacrifice of the New Scientists")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs56ygZplQA



2. "A Spoonful Weighs a Ton"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVsyJtCsqeA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLgKgvSW5YE



3. "The Spark That Bled"   ("The Softest Bullet Ever Shot")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1GtKOnq5sk




4. "The Spiderbite Song"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzU6vinZwhc




Side Two
5. "Buggin'"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV-YJWWmp-M




6. "What Is the Light?"   ("An Untested Hypothesis Suggesting That the Chemical [In Our Brains] by Which We Are Able to Experience the Sensation of Being in Love Is the Same Chemical That Caused the "Big Bang" That Was the Birth of the Accelerating Universe")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekvbKPthh5Q



  
7. "The Observer"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkQ_3dV4utU





Side Three
8. "Waitin' for a Superman"     ("Is It Gettin' Heavy?")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0AOG7ciuJo




9. "Suddenly Everything Has Changed"   ("Death Anxiety Caused by Moments of Boredom")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPhR1atjoBg




10. "The Gash"  ("Battle Hymn for the Wounded Mathematician")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBIP1m2YuEg






Side Four
11. "Slow Motion"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_AHWBagi_o



12. "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate"  



13. "Sleeping on the Roof"  (excerpt from "Should We Keep the Severed Head Awake??")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR-bOAqslcY

transmissions from the satellite heart

The Flaming Lips changed their lineup and had their first taste of success with the chapped pop noise of this space rock vaseline communique.  After their major label debut 'Hit to Death in the Future Head', Nathan Roberts and Jonathan Donahue (to focus on Mercury Rev) left the band to be replaced by  Ronald Jones and Steven Drozd.  'Transmissions from the Satellite Heart' was produced by the Flaming Lips with Keith Cleversley and featured Wayne Coyne on guitar and vocals, Steven Drozd on drums and vocals, Michael Ivins on bass, and Ronald Jones on guitar.  

A year after its release, the album became a sensation when the single 'She Don't Use Jelly' was featured on 'Beavis and Butthead' on MTV.  Coyne recalls:      "When we recorded 'She Don’t Use Jelly', we knew we were making something special. Whatever the absurdness of it, you could understand that I’m talking about toast and Vaseline, and it had some kind of innocent little sexual thing that ran through the whole song. That was kind of cool for us because up until then all of our songs were so asexual. I think we felt that there was this sort of the Guns N’ Roses mentality to rock’n’roll, and we were something different. We really had a lot of area to explore that didn’t include a bunch of naked women – but here we felt like, 'Oh, what the fuck, let’s go for it.' When we would play it in front of a very hostile commercial audience that could not give a shit about us, they still responded to that song. People would come up later and say, 'I hated every song you did except when you sang about that Vaseline. I liked that one.'"

The buzz over the band led to other appearances on 'Beverly Hills, 90210'; 'the Late Show with David Letterman'; and 'Charmed'.   'Transmissions from the Satellite Heart' would eventually hit one hundred and eight on the US album chart and number one on the US top heatseekers chart.  






http://www.flaminglips.com/












"She Don't Use Jelly" became the band's biggest hit, going to number fifty-five on the US hot 100, twenty-five in Australia, and number nine on the US alternative chart.  Coyne says:    "We used to do these silly experiments: You drink out of a glass of water, then you spit into the water and drink it. There would be this disconnect of, 'Christ, I'm swallowing my own spit!' So I took that a little bit further. A lot of times people will use Vaseline on their lips because they don't have lip balm, but the idea of putting it on food and eating it repels them."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvfxKbpoxRE 





"Turn It On"   4:39
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eu50BBFG3k









"Be My Head"   3:15
http://vimeo.com/25168066 

The Flaming Lips - Be My Head from matt wissing on Vimeo.

'Transmissions from the Satellite Heart' 
full album:





All songs written by The Flaming Lips except where noted.

1. "Turn It On"   4:39
2. "Pilot Can at the Queer of God"   4:16
3. "Oh My Pregnant Head (Labia in the Sunlight)"   4:06
4. "She Don't Use Jelly"   3:40
5. "Chewin the Apple of Your Eye"   3:52
6. "Superhumans"   3:13
7. "Be My Head"   3:15
8. "Moth in the Incubator"   4:12
9. "★★★★★★★ (Plastic Jesus)" (Ed Rush, George Cromarty) 2:18
10. "When Yer Twenty Two"   3:34
11. "Slow•Nerve•Action"   5:55

yoshimi battles the pink robots

The Flaming Lips explored emotional engagement with experimental electronic exuberance on this playful concept album about evil machines and mysterious magical moments.  The trio recorded 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' at Tarbox Road Studios in Cassadaga, New York.  Wayne Coyne handled guitar, vocals, artwork, mixing, and production; Steven Drozd took on guitars, keyboards, electronics, drums, vocals, mixing, and production; and Michael Ivins worked bass guitar, keyboards, vocals, mixing, production, and additional engineering.  Scott Booker assisted with production; and Dave Fridmann contributed with production, mixing, programming, engineering, and mastering; Trent Bell and Andy Taub helped with additional tracking.  

Coyne describes the band's creative process:  "We purposely, at the very end, made that feel like a concept record by giving it the title 'Yoshimi', it has a song called 'Yoshimi' and 'Yoshimi Pt. 2,' and it has that picture on the cover that's obviously Yoshimi and a pink robot. So, we purposely said, 'Let's just not make this as abstract.' Definitely on those records we dropped what we used to do and said, 'We're just going to create ourselves, and we'll see if we're that band that's capable of this stuff.' That's just monumental...I do think, even when we made 'At War With the Mystics', we were not searching that far. We had so many things going on that we wanted to make rock music in a sense, and we liked this idea of being a radical, drugged-out, political freak-out band. But we didn't have some agenda of reinventing the wheel again. What's the point? We didn't want everybody not to know what we're doing. Now, as time has gone on, I feel like this idea that, whatever the band was during 'The Soft Bulletin' and during 'Yoshimi' and during 'At War With the Mystics', will all be a thing. Whatever we move onto next could be any of those things and not feel like, 'Hey! Where's the next phase?' and perhaps go into the unknown again or not. It's hard to say."

Yoshimi P-We from the Boredoms did vocalization and inspired the title character.  Coyne explains:  "There's the real world and then there's this fantastical world. This girl, the Yoshimi character, is dying of cancer. And these two guys are battling to come visit her in the hospital. And as one of the boyfriends envisions trying to save the girl, he enters this other dimension where Yoshimi is this Japanese warrior and the pink robots are an incarnation of her disease. It's almost like the disease has to win in order for her soul to survive. Or something like that."

'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' went to number sixty-two in Australia, fifty in the US, and thirteen in the UK.  It has been certified gold in all three countries.  Coyne admits: "I think in some ways, it is that sort of fairytale storybook format that we kind of set a lot of it in, You know, it’s meant to seem like these things that I'm in awe of, or these things that I think are wondrous things, I try to sing about them like I'm seeing them for the first time and maybe that enthusiasm and me being in awe will make the listener kind of feel like, 'gosh, you're right', that there is awe in that even though it's things that we could perceive everyday and I think it has more to do with the tone of my voice and the melodies we like to sing in, as opposed to me thinking that that’s a thing that I could actually present, because I think you get the music and my tone of voice, 'cause I'm not a very good singer, so it always gets a little bit quirky up there, it always sounds a little bit like Bobby Brady or something. So there's an element that does sound like children's music sung by Tiny Tim or something ridiculous like that...And I don't do it in a kind of unrealistic way. I try to be enthusiastic about these ideas and I think it shows, and especially, you know, music really is such a powerful format, people forget sometimes how music just does stuff to you that a story or anything else just can't do. Music really sets up a whole magical sort of atmosphere right there in your head almost instantaneously, you hear music and lyrics that go together and it just builds a little story. I know that music has that power, I mean, not necessarily our music, but all music has that potential. But I'm lucky that the tone of voice that I like to sing in evokes that in people, ’cause it could go the other way. Sometimes people could think I can't sing very good and it's annoying to some people, but I'm lucky that it resonates with some people instead of making them ill or something."











http://www.flaminglips.com/










'Do You Realize?' went to thirty-two in the UK.

Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face? 
Do you realize we're floating in space? 
Do you realize that happiness makes you cry? 
Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die? 
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes 
Let them know you realize that life goes fast 
It's hard to make the good things last 
You realize the sun don't go down 
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning 'round 
Do you realize, ohh? 

'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1' went to number eighteen in the UK.

Her name is Yoshimi 
She's a black belt in karate
Working for the city 
She has to discipline her body 
Cause she knows that it's demanding 
To defeat these evil machines 
I know she can beat them 
Oh Yoshimi
They don't believe me
But you won't let those
Robots defeat me
Oh Yoshimi
They don't believe me
But you won't let those
Robots eat me
Those evil natured robots 
They're programmed to destroy us 
She's gotta be strong to fight them 
So she's taking lots of vitamins 
'Cause she knows that it'd be tragic 
If those evil robots win 
I know
She can beat them 










'Fight Test' hit number twenty-eight in the UK. Coyne says:  "I know "Father and Son" and I knew there would be a little bit of comparison. "Fight Test" is not a reference necessarily to the ideas of "Father and Son", but definitely a reference to the cadence, the melody, and chord progression. I think it's such a great arrangement of chords and melody."  


I don't know where the sunbeams end
And that the starlights begin
It's all a mystery
Oh, to fight is to defend
If it's not now then tell me when would be the time
That you would stand up and be a man
For to lose I could accept
But to surrender I just wept
And regretted this moment, oh that I, I was the fool






Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)
won a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.










'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' 
full album:






1) 00:00  Fight Test
2) 04:14  One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21
3) 09:14  Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1
4) 13:46  Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 2
5) 16:58  In the Morning of the Magicians
6) 23:23  Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell
7) 27:47  Are You a Hypnotist??
8) 32:37  It's Summertime
9) 36:57  Do You Realize??
10)40:30  All We Have Is Now
11)41:23  Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)

at war with the mystics

The Flaming Lips turned up their amps and waxed symphonic to address internal and external struggles with this eclectic and complex reflection of our turbulent times. The music is beautiful and catchy at times but also challenging and experimental. Lyrically it addresses dark political themes and channels them through a personal perspective. The album takes you on a journey through rebellion, surrender, and perseverance that is moving and thought provoking.


Wayne Coyne reflects on the return to their freak rock roots: "I do think, even when we made 'At War With the Mystics', we were not searching that far. We had so many things going on that we wanted to make rock music in a sense, and we liked this idea of being a radical, drugged-out, political freak-out band. But we didn't have some agenda of reinventing the wheel again. What's the point? We didn't want everybody not to know what we're doing. Now, as time has gone on, I feel like this idea that, whatever the band was during 'The Soft Bulletin' and during 'Yoshimi' and during 'At War With the Mystics', will all be a thing. Whatever we move onto next could be any of those things and not feel like, “Hey! Where's the next phase?” and perhaps go into the unknown again or not. It's hard to say."

http://www.flaminglips.com/

http://flaminglips.warnerbrosrecords.com/

'The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song'

"It's a very dangerous thing to do exactly what you want

Because you cannot know yourself or what you'd really do

With all your power"

'Vein of Stars - The Firebird Suite'

"Who knows?

Maybe there isn't a vein of stars calling out my name"

'The Sound of Failure / It's Dark... Is It Always This Dark??'

"Standing there in the graveyard

While the moon sprays its fireworks in your hair

The sound of failure calls her name

She's decided to hear it out"

'Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung' describes the beginning of the end.

"Now we'll be forever holding hands

Lava and tephra will form our bed

Now the royal flames of Pompeii bless

All our senses..."

'At War With the Mystics'
full album:





All songs written and composed by The Flaming Lips. 


1. "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)"   4:51
2. "Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber)"   3:39
3. "The Sound of Failure / It's Dark... Is It Always This Dark??"   7:18
4. "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (The Inner Life as Blazing Shield of Defiance and Optimism as Celestial Spear of Action)"   4:48
5. "Vein of Stars"   4:15
6. "The Wizard Turns On... The Giant Silver Flashlight and Puts on His Werewolf Moccasins"   3:41
7. "It Overtakes Me / The Stars Are So Big... I Am So Small... Do I Stand a Chance?"   6:50
8. "Mr. Ambulance Driver"   4:21
9. "Haven't Got a Clue"   3:23
10. "The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)"   3:44
11. "Pompeii am Götterdämmerung"   4:22
12. "Goin' On"   3:39