Are You A Hypnotist? - The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots - 2002

So the other day, my friend Corey asked me about The Flaming Lips. His taste tend to run a bit more to the dancey and electronica-y, so he wasn't quite familiar with why the Lips are held in such high regard. And these days, now that they've sort of ossified into...well if not quite a self-parody...a band that is fine with falling back on reliable tricks...which they never used to be.

But in telling the whole story to Corey, I remembered what a truly great yarn it is, and it reminded me of how visionary The Lips were. Formed in the mid 80's by a group of Oklahoma white trash who loved nothing more than dropping acid, playing sidelot football, and listening to punk rock, The Lips began as a noise rock band with little in the way of the bitter sweet melodicism or acid head philosophy that would characterize their later work.

By the early 90's they were starting to gel, their live shows were already the stuff of legend and lead singer Wayne Coyne was beginging to find his songwriting (and singing) voice. However, just as they were about to make the leap to the big leagues, their most (technically) talented member, guitar player Jonathan Donohue left the band to concentrate on Mercury Rev full time, also their drummer departed...this was inexplicably the best thing that could have happened to them.

They were replaced by Ronald Jones and Steven Drozd. Jones was one of the most unique guitar players of the 90's, with a style that is still quite unlike anyone else. His use of a slide in conjunction with an array of effects pedals gave him a rich gliding tone that sounded gigantic (and not nearly as bluesy as the slide would seem). His tone gave novelty hit "She Don't Use Jelly" it's bite, but for a real glimpse at what he was capable of check out "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles" from Clouds Taste Metalic. Jones would leave the band after two albums, never to be heard from again, unable to cope with the rock life style and his growing paranoia over his bandmate's drug use...

But Steven Drozd was the real story. Growing up in a family of musicians, Steven is a prodigy. Hardly limited to the drums, he would prove that he can play anything, and play it well. His reedy voice, while not quite interesting enough to hold down a lead spot, was useful in combination with his perfect pitch, in creating the choir of background voices The Lips would later become known for. In short, Steven enabled all of Wayne's wacky visions to be brought to full color and virtuoso-esque life. But...and this is a big but, Steven had a bitch of a smack problem, that would lead to the departure of Jones.

(incidentally, all of this can be discovered in the really quite excellent documentary Fearless Freaks...including an amazing scene where Steven describes how heroin has destroyed his life...his mouth tells the story seemingly unaware the entire time that his hands are cooking up a shot and injecting it)

With Steven at his side, Wayne's projects became more and more ambitious, including the infamous parkinglot symphony...where a parking lot full of cars played tapes of instrumental parts, turning them off and on as conducted by Mr. Coyne and Zaireeka the album that was meant to be played by playing four different CD's simultaneously.

Following Zaireeka, the band had several brushes with death...Steven's drug use was a daily reminder that he could die at any time, bassist Micheal Ivans was in a near fatal car crash, and most importantly, Wayne Coyne's father died. In the aftermath of these events The Soft Bulletin was born. An orchestral pop album of incredible sonic density and wonderful melody, it also featured serious ruminations on the nature of mortality, and the inevitability of death. It has been routinely voted by many publications and websites (and me) as one of the best albums of the 90's.

But it seems as if that is where The Lips have stopped. 2002's Yoshima, from which this decent, but not exceptional, track comes was more of the same. It managed to catch some of the magic of TSB, but still felt like a bit of a retread. Their most recent album promised a return to rock, but managed mostly to be noticed for it's dopey (if sincere) anti-Bush, anti-war lyrics. Hey, I hate the Neocons too, and have oppossed this war from the start...but seriously, these lyrics are just dumb.

I hope that a man as smart as Wayne Coyne and as talented as he and Drozd are together, can pull their way out of this creative slump...but I certainly won't be lining up for their new release in quite the same way.

Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon - The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - 2002

Even in an instrumental, The Flaming Lips manage to squeeze some acid damaged goofiness in by giving the song an absurd (and somewhat dirty sounding title).

A filler track on what may stand as the last good Lips album.

All We Have Is Now - The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots - 2002

For those that follow such things, the story behind The Soft Bulletin is pretty well known. For those that don't here is a short version: Wayne Coyne lead singer and cult leader behind The Lips experienced the death of his father in the late 90's. While this was going on his drummer, a musical savant who basically ended up playing most of the instruments on the album, was in the throes of one hell of a heroin habit. Coyne, in his acid head way, was struck by the profundity of human mortality and together with his smacked out genius put together an orchestral psych pop album that was one of the high points of the 90's.

However by 2002's Yoshimi album...this focus on themes of our short span on this earth and lush keyboard instrumentation was getting a little tired. There are good songs on Yoshimi, but this isn't really one of them. Though I am sort of amused by the DEEP TALKING VOICE on the chorus.

All By Ourselves - Sloan - Between The Bridges - 1999

I was living in Cincinnati in 1999, and if you need further evidence of why I have such ambivalent feelings about the place, absorb this fact. In 1999 the local independant weekly picked Sloan's Between the Bridges as the best album the year, with The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin as a #2.

Now don't get me wrong, Sloan can be a tremendously entertaining band and they can write a good hook...there are quite a few of them on this album, including this song. And The Flaming Lips have lost some of their cool through computer ads, endless hippy festival appearances and one really bad album. But seriously, don't forget what an amazing pop symphony TSB was at the time...and despite it's charms what an unremarkable power pop album Between the Bridges is.

Anyway...

After the Goldrush - The Flaming Lips - The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young - 1989

This song is probably a lot less surprising now than it was in 1989. We are now pretty aware of the fact that the Lips can be delicate and melodic, as well as messy with the sonics. Other than some gratuitous drum fills and a little dialed back noise guitar, this is pretty much a faithful cover with Wayne doing justice to the Neil's vocal style.

The Abandoned Hospital Ship - The Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic - 1995

Not that I would ever change much of anything about The Soft Bulletin, but I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Ronald Jones hadn't freaked out and quit the band. Take no credit away from Wayne's song writing or Steve Drozd prodigious talents, but no one quite plays a guitar like Jones...for better or worse.