This Music Moment- Flaming Lips (2002)

Recently, I was looking through a huge book of CDs that I bought when I had just begun listening to my own music in middle school, through high school and into my early 20s. It was full of random crap with a bunch of gems and all the while completely nostalgic. While I was flipping through it, random memories would pop up about these albums I was spending time to investigate deeply, and I spent a few hours trying to remember why the hell I had bought one album, or how much I missed and had forgotten about another. Very soon, I flipped to a page that had two Flaming Lips albums: 1999s The Soft Bulletin, and its follow-up, their 10th album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and I immediately remembered my first exposure to their contents.

My girlfriend, circa 2002, had bought me some concert tickets as a birthday present that summer of my senior year in high school. It sounded like a good show, though I was only somewhat familiar with the bands on the bill. There was some forgotten, neat opening band, The Flaming Lips, and Cake as the headliner. Sweet, I knew a couple of songs by Cake, but I was pretty apathetic about The Flaming Lips. I remembered that a friend in middle school had given me whatever album of theirs it was he was listening to, and it had their single at the time, She Don't Use Jelly. That track is just some silly pop in the style of grungy rock, and it was the only reference I could use to put a sound to the name. Basically, I was unprepared for the show that followed.

There was one thing in particular that blew me away about this show. I had recently seen Battle Royale with metaghost, and during the concert, the Lips had a huge movie screen behind them playing random video clips to go along with every song, and for a decent few they were playing scenes from Battle Royale to accompany their music. It was dark, violent film to go along with the mostly psychedelic electro pop music they were playing, but somehow it totally worked; the show was a complete visual and audio spectacle, with dudes in woodland creature costumes at the sides of the stage blowing up giant glitter filled balloons to pass into the audience, awesome crowd participation, and other high-profile hijinks. It was a seriously well done show, and it completely sold me on what these guys were doing.

Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin are pretty darned nice; they seemed to only play hits from both albums at the show, and it made for a wonderful concert. Link time: Race to the Prize is an awesome way to kick off Soft Bulletin; The Spark That Bled is a bit more moody and varied as the albums third track. Yoshimi is full of hits; Fight Test kicks things off proper; the title track rocks electro pop socks off, and its basically moot to mention that it also features the culturally-absorbed and now discarded Do You Realize, though it sure holds up well.

Track 2 is what I want to share though. I forgot just how awesome this song is (especially its bassline- yeah buddy) until I uploaded the albums to my computer and revisited it. It has a great blend of electronica, spaced out vocals and tight production. Not to mention that bass, again:



Awesome show; a big time Music Moment. One of those great carefree summertime memories brought back from revisiting old tunes.

yoshimi battles the pink robots

the soft bulletin

Olivia Tremor Control- Dusk at Cubist Castle (1996)

To me, Olivia Tremor Control, and the two albums they have put out, are a rare musical gem hidden from so many people that finding someone who knows about it and loves it (as most are wont to do) is just as rare a specimen as their musical output is. The only fault in their amazing pop music is that certain spans of the album devolve into exceedingly psychedelic experimental tracks, more noticeable on their 2nd album Black Foliage, but certainly undermining a fair amount of their overall work. But that is just hindsight speaking; the overall flow of both their albums fit in these extended outbursts between track upon track of solid, Beatles and Beach Boys- influenced pop rock that dominates anything else currently pursuing this style of music.

That very very small negative aside, Dusk at Cubist Castle is an album to rival the likes of Sgt. Peppers in catchy tunes combined with psychedelic experimentation. A majority of the album, most notably the first half, flows wonderfully with tune after tune of nostalgic, classic pop realization, with hints of the madness to come in the later sections. And even through those sections of experimentation, moments of vocal harmony and melodic dedication shine through to let you know something cohesive is certain to take center stage, as Gravity Car does at the very tail end of Cubist Castle. Tracks like Jumping Fences really stand out though, that particular song serving as track 3 in the amazing run of songs in the first half of the album. It is just so fucking catchy and direct (just as the rest of the songs in the first half are): no its, ands or buts about it, this track is solid pop gold. I mean, damn, check out those harmonies. They just dont stop:



dusk at cubist castle

Classic Summer Album Alert

This post is one solely for that feeling you used to get in high school, about the first week of june, when all of your classes were wrapping up and the finish line to summer was fast approaching and all you had on the horizon for the next 10 weeks was maybe a part time summer job, driving around to all kinds of places in your parents car with your newly acquired license, long days and late breakfasts, maybe a family vacation... the freedom and excitement you felt about having no one prescribe what you needed to be learning and discovering things for yourself, with all the best company.