After several years of disappointment,I was feeling doubtful about the newFlaming Lips album in 2017, the strangelytitled Oczy Mlody. But there are certainartists or bands to which I feel an almost insane level of loyalty. The Flaming Lips isone of those. It turned out, I was pleasantlysurprised. If Embryonic and The Terror werenearly unlistenable, uncomfortableContinue reading “#701: F is for The Flaming Lips (17, 20)”
Tag Archives: The Flaming Lips
#699: F is for The Flaming Lips (08, 09, 10, 12, 16)
I have not seen it in full, but judging only from short clipsI have seen, the first film written by, starred in, with a soundtrack composed byThe Flaming Lips, a thing called ChristmasOn Mars, was an utterly terrible film.Some folks will disagree, claim that it is a classic cult film on par with Eraserhead. TheContinue reading “#699: F is for The Flaming Lips (08, 09, 10, 12, 16)”
#698: F is for The Flaming Lips (95, 99, 02, 06)
In the catalog of musical artists whomake you wonder if there’s somethingwrong with your stereo, sit The Flaming Lips, the band about which I have written mostoften on the blog, and, behind Elbow, aremy favorite band of the 21st century. The Flaming Lips make their debut, actually, in the late 80’s, make music for nearlyContinue reading “#698: F is for The Flaming Lips (95, 99, 02, 06)”
#517: A Few Notes to Superheroes
Don’t quit your day job. It’s good of you, to look after us. But sometimesI wonder if our villainsare so outsized becauseyou are grown so massivewith your flying and yourweb-making and all your fancy gadgets andan armored black suit. Which came first? It strikes me that therewere no Jokers or Penguinsor Luthors or Goblinsuntil youContinue reading “#517: A Few Notes to Superheroes”
#455: Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello . . .
Day Seventeen of Sonnetpalooza finds me writing a poem about music, a thing I do from time to time, as music, it turns out, is one of the central concerns of my life–listening, making, recording, performing. Hardly a day goes by when I am not doing one of those four things at some point orContinue reading “#455: Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello . . .”
Love Letter to The Flaming Lips on the Eve of “Oczy Mlody”
Dear Flaming Lips, I love you guys. Your music changed my life. Or, maybe this is more accurate: I discovered your music when my life was changing and it became a kind of soundtrack for those wild years. It was both heady and silly and cathartic, and private too, because no one else I knewContinue reading “Love Letter to The Flaming Lips on the Eve of “Oczy Mlody””
#217: Poem on the 26th of the Month of April
My head is empty of poems; instead it’s full of Shakespeare, trying to hold on to my lines even though the run is over. I found myself running some of them today for no other reason than to see if I could do it. My mind is full of The Flaming Lips because I’ve been listening toContinue reading “#217: Poem on the 26th of the Month of April”
Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XI, Letter F
What follows is a continuing exploration of all the music in my cd collection for which the artist or the band name begins with the letter F. Let’s begin with this. F this. Fishbone and The Flaming Lips, Ben Folds Five, bookends or markers for my 1990’s, perhaps the three most influential and inspiring bands forContinue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XI, Letter F”