THE FLAMING LIPS

 

There are several bands squirming around in my head these days, all old ones. The nineteens, if not earlier. Out of laziness I was tempted by the idea of merging them all into a single post. But then I thought, what an asshole.

One of these bands is The Flaming Lips. Huge history there, I'm not even gonna touch it, mainly because I don't know most of it. What I knew about them until very recently was "She Don't Use Jelly", from the Batman Forever soundtrack, I think. Cute song, but nothing gasp-worthy, yes? They've done much, much better.

So anyway, I bumped into them again, after all these years. Long story short, they're fucking amazing. I've watched "U.F.O.s at the Zoo", the concert, and my god. Ok, there's this one point in the show where Wayne says that the Flaming Lips audience is the best audience in the world ever and he gives a couple of reasons. First reason was that the Lips fans, no matter how crazy they get during the concert, they never get harmful, you're safe with them. And second reason being that, if there ever happen to be sad people in the audience, people who have come to the show to forget some misfortune, some crisis in their lives, they can rest assured that the Lips fans create the sort of vibe that keeps you going and give you a reason to fall in love with Life all over again. Cool. And true. But I frowned: what about the Ween audience? And that's when it struck me: it's a fair comparison. I'm a die-hard Ween fan, but the Lips are as good as when it comes to live shows. Forget the balloons, the confetti, the spaceships and all that; although they do help, the real juice is the music itself and the relationship this band has with its fans. The attitude. It's fucking amazing. This is what music should do.

You are not allowed to miss this one. I repeat: U.F.O.s at the Zoo, The Flaming Lips.

And another thing. These people had the balls to cover Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" in its entirety. Not only that, they also brought Henry Rollins and Peaches to help with the vocals. If you had to pick two singers you would NOT EVER think of when Pink Floyd is mentioned, these two would be a fair choice, I think. And yet it works. It's a whole different album, and Floyd hardcore fans probably cringed and bled at the very idea, but it's a veiny one this one. It's like Sex Pistols doing a Portishead cover, you must be at least curious.

So here's three songs that I carefully picked at random:

The Flaming Lips - Free Radicals


The Flaming Lips - The sparrow looks up at the machine


...and with incredible shrieks by Peaches which would make Blixa quit drinking:

The Flaming Lips feat Peaches & Henry Rollins -The Great Gig In the Sky (Pink Floyd Cover)

The Sandman's mud

I miss Mark.

I dug up this cd, their Detroit Bootleg from 2000. Turns out, silly me, that it has two videos on it as well. So here you go, Mr. Sandman leaving his Mark on our eyelids and our souls:

Morphine - Saddest Song (live Montreux Jazz Festival 1995)


 
Morphine - Cure For Pain (live Montreux Jazz Festival 1995)


+ Can't wait for the "Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story" DVD to arrive.

INTELLIGENT D...IALOGUE

This is not a musical post, strictly speaking, but I'll bend it into shape somehow. This is an interview. And I love and admire both participants: Derren Brown and Tim Minchin. Derren interviews Tim, I don't know why, it doesn't matter, it could have easily been the other way around as well, but it's the way it is and it's fine. 

Alright, since these two guys are British (well, they both live in London, but Tim is Australian), people in the US might have some trouble placing them or caring. So, for those of you who don't already own and worship every little thing either of these guys ever did, a brief history:

Derren Brown - he's the cutest dementor out there. He'll play with your mind like it's plasticine and build beautiful and scary things out of it. He had started meekly, using just playing cards and usually a parrot on his shoulder. He's moved on, put the cards aside, immersed himself deeper into the murky dungeons of our psyche and then surfaced with amazing information about how fucked up, yet lovable, we really are. He's been called a mentalist, but he and I agree that that term is simply ridiculous. His live shows are amazing and his TV shows oscillate between weirdly funny and outright disturbing. People in real life tend to (or used to) avoid him because they think he's got demonic super-powers. They're idiots, he doesn't. He's actually quite shy. He's a taxidermy enthusiast and he also (fucking) paints. Oh, and he doesn't play the Messiah anywhere outside the US. 

He's a skeptic. 

Tim Minchin - don't be fooled by his Shirley Manson appearance, he sings better than her. He's what I would actually call a sit-down comedian, because his particular brand of comedy involves a piano. Also a very bright young man (he's my age, the fucker), therefore his shows are also, as are Derren's, not recommended to ignorant numskulls. He's been criticized (to say the least) for using the word "nigger" in a song, when in all actuality the song was against racism. He's not the first and won't be the last. He can look sheepish and shy right up until he opens his mouth and becomes lethal. I particularly like his bit about Tony the fish and how he got his legs, but there are too many other brilliant bits to mention. Ok, I'll mention "Storm" and "Angry (Feet)". 

Also a skeptic.

So there you go. Two smart and overall coherent men having a chat and a laugh. Too bad it's only in audio format. Had it been video, your screen would turn red (yeah, sorry Tim, I know, "only a ninja can sneak up on another ninja")

So here's the INTERVIEW. 

And this is a musical post because usually Tim plays piano, yeah?

Ok, here's a song, to make it right:

Tim Minchin - Prejudice (live)